OPEN STUDIO May 2016

 The studio will be open on Saturdays in May, the dates being 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th
  Paintings and drawing all for sale, most in the region of £20 - £500, some are framed and ready for the wall, as above; and others such as work on paper and some canvases need framing.
 For more details contact me through the website, email, or phone.
 This is not part of any larger event, I am opening my studio to meet friends old and new raise some funds and clear some space. 

Sounds of 2015

A list of the music that has kept me going through 2015, in no particular order these tracks have, pushed, cajoled and nurtured me through a year in the studio and the Sunday afternoon vinyl sessions;
Fake Plastic Trees Radiohead
Dance me to the End of Love Leonard Cohen
a.k.a.i.d.i.o.t The Hives
I think i'll call it morning Gil Scott Heron
The Pan Piper Miles Davis
Budo Miles Davis
Intoxicated Man Serge Gainsbourg
World in a Jug Canned Heat
Where did you sleep last night Nirvana ( Unplugged in NY )
Doesn't make it Alright The Specials
Don't take your love from me  Coleman Hawkins
Scattered Black and Whites Elbow
Music for the Last Couple The Jam
The Party's Over Talk Talk
Nothingman (West Palm Beach ) Pearl Jam
Come with Us Chemical Brothers
When You call my name  The Skatalite
Looking for the heart of Saturday night Madeleine Peyroux
Looking for the heart of Saturday night Tom Waits
I knew the bride when she used to Rock and Roll Nick Lowe
Shipbuilding Elvis Costello
The number one song in Heaven Sparks (for Bella )
Birdman Ralph McTell
Everybody Dance Chic
Fire on The Bayou The Meters...

For Alex and Bella  and in memory of my cousin David Fowles    

Studio wall

It's strange what I choose to hang on the wall of the studio, in theory I don't want anything distracting me from what i'm working on, but on the other hand there are those blank walls crying out for something on them, and I have a large stock of paintings sitting in stacks, so here they are, there are two versions of the one on the left, and the other one hangs in our dining room. the framed image is from the valley of the rocks, in Lynmouth, from the time when I lived in Exmoor, and below is a study of a lump of flint ( which inspired the painting on the left ) 

A couple of studies from earlier this year

Some tree studies from earlier in the year,

Looking West towards Grovely Woods

This is the view of Grovely Woods from below the A36 , with the willows in the foreground, which gave Wilton its name, where the Wylye river flows, and the hill rises like a formidable bulwark. The Roman road runs straight ahead from this point of view at the crest of the hill, the Roman Rd from Old Sarum West climbs up the hill to the East of this view, descends into Wilton, and then climbs this hill again from the left of this depiction. To me this corresponds to the description of Wilton by Asser , with all the identifying aspects apparent. The Nadder river runs in the valley to the left of this picture, south of the hill.   

Wessex and Wilton

The woods above Wilton have many stories attached to them, and part of the reason that I have walked and cycled so much around these hills and tracks, is to gain a sense of this historic landscape, and my paintings and drawings, are part of this exploration 
 Without Wessex there would have been no England, and without Wilton there would have been no Wessex.
 In 871 the Vikings were hammering at the gateways of Wessex, the last Kingdom to succumb to the assault of the Northmen. There was an intense amount of activity in this year with battles named in Basing , Meretun, and Wilton. According to Cassells Battlefields of Britain and Ireland; Asser recorded that Wilton was on a hill south of the River Guilou ( or Wylye) and speculates that this might mean "The high ground between the Nadder and Wylye, along the continuation of the Roman road westwards from Old Sarum through Grovely Wood." all of this area is five minutes from where I live,and as I explore the paths and ancient earthworks, i think "A nation was lost and then forged here ", and I am thinking of the sacking of Wilton and the bargain which Alfred made , paying off the Vikings for long enough to repair his fortifications and eventually resist their advance. So though I am trying to record what I see before me , perhaps I am also hoping some sense of this significance is captured.
     

Into The Woods

A couple of paintings from sketches, I have been going up into the woods at Grovely, particularly atmospheric at this time of the year. I stood lost in sketching in the middle of the woods for about twenty minutes, then heard the cracking of twigs , and a large animal moving nearby, I never saw the creature, I assume it was a deer, but it brought me back into the moment, and sudden awareness of the smells and sounds of the forest .