Monthly Archives: March 2021

Fail By Numbers

….the original idea was to take the 50 year old oil paints left over after I replaced their paint by numbers palette with acrylics and revitalise them with linseed oil as suggested on the box, then smash them with the mallet whilst counting loudly, to create an abstract “piant by numbers” pattern….

….we (me & Spencer) didn’t factor in the robustness of the 70s plastic vials that the paint has been stored in all these years….

…we retired to the living room to listen to vintage Italian film music and talk shit in lieu of being “creative” for the afternoon….

…my dreams of being able to repurpose the evil fluids have been returned to the planning department for adjustment…

5 Comments

Sketchy XVI

…this page….further musings on the “Raise Zealandia” idea and some plans for the library day bed….

…that page…back to the real work at hand….

….mmmm…sketchy….

8 Comments

Ok Ok

…you’re right…it IS time I showed you some of the big secret project….after all I finished it last year…

…only to get bogged down by an over ambitious framing “option” that involved gluing a multitude of pieces of badly cut ply wood into a herringbone pattern….

..then filling in the gaps and cutting the whole shebang in to strips…

….then (the bit that isn’t getting done in the near future)…..(if ever!) shaping/sanding them and bunging them onto the finished art works….

…I haven’t looked at these pieces since January….

…these are the first two in a series of ten….

…they are 46cm by 46cm in their socks…

…ready?….

…right…

…ahem…

…without further ado, I’m proud present part one of the big secret project – revealed….

….(sure you’re ready?)….

…some stills…

…there are 10 pieces in the group…

…three more pairs and two stand alones….

…stay tuned.

2 Comments

As I Was Wandering Off To Bed

…I looked out the bedroom window and noticed….

…only stumble across stick insects every once and awhile…

…I know they’re abundant in Dunedin, but they look like sticks….

…so….y’know….

….haven’t seen a brown one in forever….

4 Comments

Sketchy XVI

….some “haven’t quite made it to paintbook yet” ideas….

…sidetracked is a state of….

…ooo…what’s that!….

2 Comments

Without Preamble

….a holiday project started in January….

…a few finishing touches at home….

…aaaaand we’re done….

…on the box….

…on the “canvas”….

…on the box….

…on the “canvas”….

…on the box….

…on the “canvas”….

…on the box….

…on the “canvas”….

…there…..pretty sure I had a similar set when I was young, but never completed it because – gluggy oil paints….

….much easier to wait till they turn up in a thrift shop and just add octopus to suit….

…was mildly unsettled every time someone expressed disappointment that I just festooned other peoples work with a bloody great cephalopod instead of painstakingly rendering the bloody annoying things myself….

…then these came up on the local auction sight….

…mint in box with 40+ year old super gluggy oil paints….

…thought that it would be a wise/wonderful idea to replace said glug with the acrylic test pots that I favour….until I worked out how much having a near as damn matching set to aid my endeavour would cost…

…so made do with what I already had for the most part….

…might octopi when the nausea subsides…..

…but as I have now achieved my childhood dream of finishing not one, but four pain by numbers paintings, it appears that my life is now complete….

10 Comments

Sketchy XIV

…(…”Wednesday” removed to reduce international time difference anxiety…)…

…the “Zealandia” in question is the submerged continent that New Zealand is the top of …not the native bird sanctuary in Wellington…

… the idea has it’s roots in that marvellous H.P. Lovecraft tale “The Call Of Cthulhu”…

…the well-spring of all things tentacly…

…(like I’d suggest burning down a bird sanctuary!)…

…dig deeper below….

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealandia

https://www.visitzealandia.com/

3 Comments