Charity Fundraising

I have recently participated in a Charity Auction to raise funds for Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital. This is one of my watercolour paintings that I donated, and a flurry of bidding activity towards the end resulted in nearly £820 being raised. My thanks are due to the generous bidders in support of this worthy cause.



I now need to buckle down and start painting ready for next years round of exhibitions. I also undertake commissions, so if you may be interested just give me a shout. No obligation or high pressure selling.

A New Miniature painting

I've just completed this miniature watercolour painting which will be one of my entries in a forthcoming exhibition. Life has been busy hence the lack of regular updates to this blog, something I hope to rectify shortly.

More paintings sold

Well since my last post when I mentioned the sale of a railway painting to the USA, I have sold three further paintings two acrylics and a watercolour at the 100th Anniversary Exhibition of the Portsmouth and Hampshire Art Society. I've also been busy photographing the abundant butterflies that seem to be around this year.

This is one of the paintings sold.



This is one of the butterflies, a Brimstone.



I need to update my website where of course you can find more of my paintings.

Another Seascape

This painting has been languishing on my board since it was initially stated as a demonstration piece at a local Art Society. I have now got round to finishing it, more in desperation ready for the exhibition. I have a purchaser for onbe of my railway paintings and that was going to be shown. Additionally I seem to have lost another painting, I can't find it anywhere, and have no record of it being sold, so it is a complete mystery. Absent minded artist seeks inspiration!

A new acrylic seascape painting

Well it's been a busy few weeks and sad to say I have rather neglected my posts on here. To atone for my failure in this respect, this is the latest acrylic seascape painting that I have just finished. I shall probably exhibit this in my main Summer exhibition at the beginning of August.

The next Stephen Spielberg

I've been playing with Windows Movie Maker and created a short video of a selection of some of my photographs, which I sell on Ebid which is a great site if you are looking for bargains as well. Although most people automatically think of eBay when buying online, there are alternatives and usually a lot friendlier with active communities which help keep the scammers at bay.

Whether I shall forge a new career as a movie producer I doubt it, anyway take a look and let me know what you think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iStRMtzRmE0 Well enough playing I have a new commissioned painting to get on with so time to get my brushes wet.

A hospital trip and a new painting

Following a visit to my doctor I was referred to the local hospital for the removal of a skin cancer. Unfortunately this was on my brush hand so a partially completed painting had to wait until a couple of days ago before it could be resumed. As with most things there is always a plus side and it has excused me from dishwashing duties for the time being.

This is the painting, of a Great Western Railway pannier tank locomotive running alongside the River Dart in Devon. This is from a photograph I took of the scene about twenty years ago.



I have the stitches removed from my hand next Thursday,and I'm hoping they will finish in time for me to go and photograph a Gresley A4 Pacific locomotive that will be running a steam special that day.

A new venture

It's been a little strange this week, not really sure where all the time has dissappeared, some of it has been spent creating my first video for YouTube which can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBxaIvNnCII Trying to find some music of the correct length took some searching.

Setting up the exhibition this afternoon. If you fancy a personal visit to see my art in the flesh, so to speak, then the venue is Portsmouth Cathedral and it runs daily from Saturday 26th July until Friday 8th August, you might even bump into the artist. There are plenty of other interesting things to see in Portsmouth so could be worth having a day out.

Busy Week

It has been a busy week, preparing and attending a Craft Show locally. Another of my Limited Edition prints now finding a new wall to hang on. You can see more of these low cost prints at Tazbar.com

I have also been painting some more miniatures, this being one of the countryside series

A new seascape miniature

This is one of a series of four miniature seascapes I'm painting ready to show in an art exhibition later next month. I usually sell most of them, however I have some miniatures available to purchase in my gallery at Tazbar

Exhibition success

Have started painting some miniature seascapes this week for a forthcoming exhibition. This is one of my watercolour paintings which was sold at exhibition this weekend, part of an event to raise funds for a charity to help deaf children.



It was nice to see Lewis Hamilton win the first Grand Prix, I sold the original acrylic painting of him winning his first race in Canada last year.



Prints of both these paintings are available, visit my website www.artyman.co.uk

A Warm Sunny Beach

Sitting here in England on a winters day, you might dream about somewhere warm, with azure seas lapping a sunlit beach. I have just completed this watercolour painting for a client in Ireland, though I have to say it's a shame that the budget didn't include the opportunity to do some on-site location sketches in Barbados.

All change at eBay

Well there seems to be a lot of upset artists as well as other people on eBay these days. The monopoly is massively increasing its Fees that it charges sellers, softened by a very small decrease, 10 cents! in the cost of listing, and discounts, if you can qualify! Overall it a huge increase in costs. Not only is this a blow to the small sellers, eBay will decide whether the seller's item gets seen on the site according to the star feedback rating system.

It works like this, if you score below 4.6 then tough your listings will be at the bottom of the pile and not seen by the buyers, also if your rating is low you can't qualify for listing discounts. Now eBay says that a score of 4 is 'Good' thus guiding the buyers to select that out of possible 5 where 1 the lowest. So at a stroke they are skewing the system so it is unlikely they will have to give the sellers any discounts, and with their search system skewed pushing the low scorers out of sight. As an added bonus sellers can no longer leave a negative for the buyer that messes up or rips them off ( yes it does happen to some folk unfortunately ) I'm pleased to say that all my buyers when I was selling on ebay were excellent, and I had no problems.

No wonder so many people are unhappy, a lot of sellers and buyers are now deserting the place and going to alternatives sites like Tazbar and eBid so there will be less choice for buyers on eBay and they should now start looking for their bargains elsewhere.

I have been selling my art on both Tazbar and eBid for some time, and getting some great bargains as well, including a SatNav system on Tazbar that has been invaluable when I have been delivering paintings.

So check out these new auction sites, and see what bargains you can find, in the meantime, I must press on with a commission, and sort out some paintings for the next exhibition.

A new beginning

With the proposed changes at eBay, artists along with many sellers who are unhappy with the situation at the monopoly, are moving away to sell, and also buy at new alternative venues. Sadly eBay seems resolutely set on its move to a department store approach, where big retailers who have been recruited by eBay have destroyed the community feel, that was once the big attraction to both buyers and sellers.

I already shifted away from eBay to new locations 18 months ago, a move that I don't regret. Many others are now waking up to the fact that they are working for eBay rather than eBay helping them to work, with the never ending escalation of fees and their failure to deal with scammers. So you may want to check out Tazbar or eBid and get back some of the pleasure that you used to have buying online.

There is a seller boycott of Ebay from 18th -25th February, so if you were thinking of buying or selling there, why not support the sellers, and try out some of the alternatives. You can see a list of other auction sites Here

There is an exciting new art only venue due to be launched so check back later for more details.

Celebrating Christmas

It seems my artwork is in demand, other people have been asking to buy prints of  "Moonlight Anchorage" and I have therefore put this up on ebay together with some other prints Click Here to take a look. I may get the opportunity to put some more up, but what with the usual pandemonium for Christmas, and I still have presents to wrap! not much painting being done, as well as anything else.

I hope you all enjoy the celebrations and not forget the real reason for the season.

I've been watching the birds in the garden during the recent cold weather and got these shots of a couple of them. Perhaps this Robin is a refugee from a Christmas card.

This is a Goldfinch resplendent in his flashy plumage, I seem to be spending a small fortune on bird seed at the moment!

This week

I had a painful start to the week as I managed to shut my thumb in the car door, which has made holding a paintbrush a bit difficult this week. Sitting in the new conservatory having my lunch today watching the birds in the garden was very pleasant, and it would be easy to spend too much time relaxing.

I managed to take my beginners watercolour class on Wednesday, although there were a couple of absentees, something about a football match or some such thing on TV, can't possibly think why it was important!

I need to get started on some new artwork in preparation for next years round of exhibitions. So off to get some paint as I'm getting low on a couple of colours.

A Classic Landscape Garden

Since we had a day without the builders and the weather was nice I took the opportunity to visit the National Trust gardens at Stourhead, a stunning manmade landscape garden, these are a few of the photographs I took which will serve as reference material for some future paintings.

The saga continues

The new conservatory is progressing though I have to confess I shall be glad when the chaos is over. Been a busy week with preparations for the watercolour course that I am running. This caterpiller ws wandering across the path it is an Elephant Hawk Moth, at least it will be when it grows up, do caterpillers grow up not sure if metamorphosis can be called that. I wonder if he has finished munching in the garden?

Out of the Chaos

We are currently in a little bit of a mess at the moment as the new conservatory is being installed, still I suppose it will be a nice place to paint when it is all finished. The client came to collect his painting of Fausto Coppi at the weekend and was delighted, he said it was far better than he envisaged. Always nice to have really happy customers.

This painting of the great days of the 'J' class yachts is listed on Tazbar



So pop along and take a look, there are also plenty of other things to look at on Tazbar which is a refreshing alternative to eBay.

Another commission completed

I have just completed another commission for a client, to be a special birthday present, I can't post the image here yet, just in case it spoils the suprise, socheck out my website www.artyman.co.uk later on and look under commssions.

I now have to start another commission, this time a painting of Fausto Coppi, a renowned cyclist from the 1950's

On the domestic front the builders have now completed the brickwork for the new conservatory, it will be a nice replacement for the old wooden construction that I built many years ago, but the garden looks like a battlefield.