Finished the main colour blocks of the first of the landscape inspired canvases which has the long working title of STAGE DIRECTION: THE DEAD RISE AND DANCE THE CANCAN.

Started painting in another of these canvases.  This one has the even longer title of LONG TITLE: THE RELATIONSHIP OF PREDATOR TO PREY - SHORT TITLE: OUCH!

I am still working on both of the new canvases.  Partially repainting the first and continuing to paint in the main colour areas of the second.

My typical serious works would be painted and viewed at relatively close quarters as they were built from carefully measured spaces and structures.  Conventional compositional rules would not apply.  However, these more recent works can be viewed from farther away and I may need to take this into account - and then again I may not!

I spent two or three hours of this Sunday morning painting before going out into the garden.  Working on the larger of the two canvases.  Painting in relatively large areas of colour.

A day out with my wife so no work except for a few pages of ideas for "Meditative Portraits" scribbled out during odd moments.

I am still working on the large canvases.  Still painting in the main colour areas.

Another day out with June.  I did manage a brief visit to the National Gallery but no work done except the usual string of ideas coming into my head all day.

Finished off all the main colour areas of the largest two canvases.

I repainted the bottom section of WING: ION LANDSCAPE.  I have made all the circles shades of blue which creates a bigger impact and brings the work closer to the long series of oil pastels I did between 1977 and 1978.

Painted in the main colour areas of a small sequential work: One of three I am currently working on.  It is nice to be able to experiment with colour after the constraints imposed by the long series of recent landscapes.

I woke up this morning with ideas in my head for sculpture: metal structures draped in various ways with strips of fabric. 

For brief spells during my career I would write down ideas for sculpture and multidisciplinary art forms on a continuous basis. I did literally hundreds of pages when I was first exploring ways of adopting a scientific approach to creativity in the Seventies and a lot when running the IONIST ART GROUP in the Eighties.  Some of the latter were published in the ION EXCHANGE newsletter.

I primed a panel for a very abbreviated landscape: Single intersecting horizontal and vertical strips!  I didn't do anything else as I spent the day in the garden.

Repainted part of one of the smaller "new" landscapes, now called SILVER AMALGAM.  The second of the series is now called FERTILISATION OF THE IMMORTAL EGG.

Painted in the main colour areas of the second small sequential work.

Pencilled in the main structure of the abbreviated landscape called CONDENSED LANDSCAPE.
 

Painted in the main colour areas of the third small sequential work and painted the perimeter margin of all three works.

Still working on intial lines of CONDENSED LANDSCAPE.

I plan to compile a Directory of my later (1980's) multidisciplinary ideas and if possible reproduce all the early (1970's) note book pages.

I also want to remake a hard copy version of the all the Ion Exchanges.

Working on all four of the new landscape inspired works plus the three small sequential panels.  Continually swapping between all the works as ideas come into my head.

I am experimenting in terms of colour combinations and ways of presenting information.

Again working on a large number of paintings at the same time.  I painted all the morning and briefly in the evening but unfortunately I had to go out in the afternoon.

The landscape based works provide structures which direct and hold symbols and "sub-symbol" marks.  I use colour to differentiate between different types of mark and implicit meaning.

Like yesterday I am working on a number of works simultaneously and like yesterday the afternoon was disrupted because of other committments.

During the latter part of the day I returned to working on the small "Wood Format" landscapes.  Filling in the structures with symbols and diagrams, spontaneously derived from the scenery of Wiltshire.

Another disrupted day but I almost finished one of the small serial landscapes - now called LANDSCAPE IN A WOOD.  I filled in the basic structures with symbols/diagrams derived from quick landscape sketches for other works.

I returned to some of the as yet unpainted pseudo-landscapes, adding further details to the drawing stage.

I have now finished  LANDSCAPE IN A WOOD.  It is quite a spartan work but this is how it was planned.

I started adding the symbols to another serial landscape - the working title is simply WOOD!

I also did the drawing in of the reduced landscape I started some days ago - this has the fairly obvious, working title: CONDENSED LANDSCAPE.  The shapes are derived from a face and a hand and provided very spontaneous variations representing landscape profiles.  There is no profound concepts lurking behind the imagery other than the examination of my inventive capability.

Carried on filling in the symbols of WOOD.  There are three series of blocks which recede into the picture.

I also did more work on one of the large canvases.  Mainly by adding symbols in predefined areas in the lower portion of the painting.  The theme of the work is the cycles of creation and destruction in a landscape.

Finished the serial landcape entitled WOOD.

I then turned to adding symols to the third landscape entitled: LANDSCAPE IN TREES.  This work has three superposed series of blocks holding symbols which represent growth in a simple variation form.

Starting painting in CONDENSED LANDSCAPE although the light started to fade so I may have to repaint some of the passages. It starts to get dark early now so I will have to get a new low energy bulb for the light attached above my easel.  I have tried but do not like daylight bulbs so I use the low energy bulbs that give a pronounced white light.

Finished CONDENSED LANDSCAPE.  Other works are planned of this type: with a minimal approach to composition of simple blocks or strips holding symbols in large expanses of colour.  I am continuing to explore new colour arrangements.

Started to paint in A LANDSCAPE CALLED LEOPOLD.  One of the large canvas meditative works inspired by landscape.

I have rearranged my studio so I can stand up to paint for these works.  This means I can step away from the painting to view the effect.  Not important in my serious sequential work but increasinly important now.

Sunday: Woke up from a dream about a sculpture. This was a free standing work arranged like a shed with partially open sides and compartments in the roof to hold rows of hazel walking sticks.

I coined the term NONISM in the seventies to cover ideas written down for work I was unlikely to actually create: performance art, installations, large scale sculptures etc.  I am thinking now of producing a NONIST Directory.

Added more symbols to the last of the three serial landscapes.  There is one set left to do.

Continued painting in the canvas: A LANDSCAPE CALLED LEOPOLD.

A badly disrupted day but I managed to finish painting in the main colour areas of A LANDSCAPE CALLED LEOPOLD.  Two thirds of the canvas comprises of off-whites and pale browns and the remainder darker dirty greens and browns.  Symbols (and possibly figurative images) will occupy the corners of each space.

Tomorrow and, (hopefully!) to a lesser degree, Thursday are also going to be badly disrupted.  I may have to take down an exhibition on Friday; so all together, not a very productive week!

Finished LANDSCAPE IN TREES this afternoon.  No time to paint in the morning.

I need to do a series of works with a similar format to CONDENSED LANDSCAPE.

I worked on  A LANDSCAPE CALLED LEOPOLD and a new pseudo-landscape entitled: LANDSCAPE SUBTITLED: HOMICIDE AS SELF PORTRAIT.  The latter has black lines running down the canvas, one of which is an actual slit in the material.  Around the lines I am painting a geometricized landscape, elements of which can holds designs.

I also retouched part of CONDENSED LANDSCAPE.  Brightening the colours on the horizontal band.

Sunday, but did a bit of painting in the afternoon.  Working on a number of the new landscapes.

I took down my solo show in Marlborough today.  By the time I got home I only had a few hours to paint and continued painting in LANDSCAPE SUBTITLED: HOMICIDE AS SELF PORTRAIT.  For some inexplicable reason I keep changing my mind with this painting which is beginning to resemble a battlefield.  An appearance I am starting to nurture.

Still painting then repainting LANDSCAPE SUBTITLED: HOMICIDE AS SELF PORTRAIT.  The process has been so long winded that there has been little time for anything else.

I do however, have potential symbol seqences worked out for a number of the "landscapes" that I am currently working on.

Finished SILVER AMALGAM  by adding symbol variation sequences based on primeval symbols including spirals and crosses.  The main composition of the work superposes and contrasts a spiral shape with a receding line moving into the picture.  Within this are sub-structures derived from features in the initiating landscape.  The symbols are attached to these structures.

Finished FERTILISATION OF THE IMMORTAL EGG by adding various sets of symbols.  Some are basic shapes representing the forces of nature and others are evolving series representing humanity.  They progress in a cyclic sequence.

Spent the day working on one of the large pseudo-landscape canvases:  LONG TITLE: THE RELATIONSHIP OF PREDATOR TO PREY - SHORT TITLE: OUCH!  Adding symbols in a sparse progression from top to bottom.  The painting has a strange format: based on a landscape view, I accentuated the lines in the landscape and "bleached" out the colours to form a framework to which symbols can be attached.  The symbols explore the dynamics of a living landscape and evolve from very simple shapes.  There is a large degree of spontaneity in the creation of imagery.  A process I am no longer comfortable with.  There is also a large degree of spontaneity in the placing of the images - I am not happy about this either!

A very wet Sunday so I spent the afternoon painting.  However, most of the time was occupied with painting over what I had previously added!  There are no precisely defined points to attach imagery and, in this particular case, aesthetic considerations also apply. Consequently, progress is rather slow and troubled!

I have finished, after untypical delays, LONG TITLE: THE RELATIONSHIP OF PREDATOR TO PREY - SHORT TITLE: OUCH!  It is  (I hope!) a dynamic mix of precision and ambivalence.  Achieving this and the balance between symbols and composition was the hard part.  There are implicit themes but no initiating imagery.

I am now working on, and reasonably close to finishing,  STAGE DIRECTION: THE DEAD RISE AND DANCE THE CANCAN.  I had worked out various sequences of images but did not incorporate them into the work, prefering to slowly build up the imagery from simple beginnings.  These beginnings are small shapes attached to structures at the base of the work.

I have now completed STAGE DIRECTION: THE DEAD RISE AND DANCE THE CANCAN.  Although planned to be the more exacting in terms of the development of the imagery it has turned out somewhat looser than its predecessor.

Started painting in the background of another of the pseudo-landscape canvases.  The largest were the two completed and then there are four slightly smaller works using linen canvas.  All have long titles!  This one is entitled: AN IMPRESSIONABLE YOUNG BOY PONDERS THE EXISTENCE OF MONO CREATURES WHILE TRAPPED INSIDE THE WORLD'S FIRST TOOTHPASTE TELEPHONE.

I have finished the background of the canvas started yesterday and also completed the background of another; the last of the set.  This one is entitled: LANDSCAPE RESONANCES OR INSIDE EVERY THIN MAN IS A FAT ANIMAL. The latest titles are a facetious nod in the direction of Dali but are less helpful in terms of the themes in play or implicit imagery.

I have returned to using water soluble oil paint a it is pleasant to use and relatively cheap for the bigger canvases.

Added words, numbers and symbols to the work now entitled HOMICIDE AS SELF PORTRAIT.  I first used this title for a Wing work, now destroyed, painted in 1976.  The current painting is one of the new landscape canvases, although I have eliminated the landscape reference in the title.  This one stands out from all the others in the series because of its sombre colours.  It is a none too serious work, looking at various ways of destruction of landscape motifs with sub-references looking at man's consciousness as the product of what he sees around him rather than vice versa.

I have now completed all the symbols on HOMICIDE AS SELF PORTRAIT, although most have to be coloured in.

At the end of the day I started to restretch another batch of early Wing canvases so that I can use the reverse sides.

Started painting in the symbols of A LANDSCAPE CALLED LEOPOLD.  These are intricate symbols and small images representing the  cycles and interactions of consciousness and the environment.

Finished painting in all the symbols of A LANDSCAPE CALLED LEOPOLD.

I also started painting in figurative imagery in the colour blocks of AN IMPRESSIONABLE YOUNG BOY PONDERS THE EXISTENCE OF MONO CREATURES WHILE TRAPPED INSIDE THE WORLD'S FIRST TOOTHPASTE TELEPHONE.  They are surreal images portraying stylized landscapes in a variety of strange environments.

I worked again on A LANDSCAPE CALLED LEOPOLD.  I started filling in the symbols with colour and tweaking the background.

I finished painting in the images for AN IMPRESSIONABLE YOUNG BOY PONDERS THE EXISTENCE OF MONO CREATURES WHILE TRAPPED INSIDE THE WORLD'S FIRST TOOTHPASTE TELEPHONE.  They now have to be filled in with colour.

Finished filling in the symbols of A LANDSCAPE CALLED LEOPOLD.

I also stretched three new linen canvases.  I would have stretched a fourth but I discovered that the stretcher I was going to reuse was filled with diagrams, words and numbers and was entitled STUDY IN SPACE!  A rediscovered early work circa 1979.

I final varnished four oil paintings.

As it was a very wet Sunday the rest of the day was spent in probably useless activities.

Strip framed the two large "Landscape" canvases and reframed some smaller works.  Hung nine paintings in the Christmas Show at the Hearn & Scott Gallery. Four of which are recently finished works.

Made cradle for the fourth line canvas.

Only had time to do a few mintues work on the remaining two canvases in the current "Landscape" series.

Painted in the figurative images in AN IMPRESSIONABLE YOUNG BOY PONDERS THE EXISTENCE OF MONO CREATURES WHILE TRAPPED INSIDE THE WORLD'S FIRST TOOTHPASTE TELEPHONE. 

Stretched the remaining linen canvas.

Looked at but did not actually manage to get any work done on a landscape meditation started in 1998 - right at the beginning of the Meditative Landscapes.  This work is far more complex than the paintings that followed it with a superimposed series of strands and shapes onto which symbol sequences will be painted.

Painted in the structural blocks in the landscape I looked at yesterday.  This now has the title: LANDSCAPE THAT CAN DOUBLE AS AN OPERA SCORE.  It has a seemingly chaotic mix of blocks and strands which will contain information in various formats.  In the looseness of its construction it is a departure from previous works in this idiom.

Put the first coat of primer on the four recently stretched linen canvases.

Very over committed today so all I managed to do was put a second coat of primer on the four canvases.

I started working again on two paintings I initially began in 1998.  All the preliminary drawing and undercoats was done in acrylic so I decided to put on further coats of acrylic today but I think the translucency of the acrylic paint will make the works too dark. 

In the past I have mainly used Liquitex acrylic paints but recently I have been using Winsor & Newton Finity colours which are not comparable in quality.  I am also using Daler-Rowney System 3.  I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the latter.

As it was Sunday I only managed two or three hours work.  The rest of the day was spent in the garden or socialising.

Continued working on one of the two large acrylics (called THE ANNUNCIATION).  Filling the areas in with fairly simple blocks of colour.

I also did the background (in acrylic on Cotman paper) for 4 simple expressionistic work- these will use large symbols as the main elements in the composition.

Christmas shopping with my wife!  Only some notes for later works were completed. 

Some of the notes were for paintings which I can tackle in the short term if I wish - I have a lot of works in my head at the moment however.  Other ideas were for for installations and mechanical constructions  As they require electrical motors and other systems (car windscreens/wipers for example) they are unlikely to be realised unless I get more time and a bigger studio.

I managed about three hours painting today and then it was Christmas shopping again!  To make matters worse, I am committed for the remainder of the week so I doubt if I can do much more painting until Sunday at the earliest!

I have continued painting in the colour blocks of the THE ANNUNCIATION.

I have been using Winsor & Newton artists oil paints ever since I used up the box of Rowney Georgian Students oils bought for me as a present by my parents 30 years ago.  However, as an experiment, I have just bought some tubes of Old Holland oil paint (which has cold pressed linseed oil instead of refined).

I managed an hour or so of work in the evening and I have finished filling in the colour blocks of THE ANNUNCIATION.  Much over painting will be needed.

Spent the afternoon in my studio but do not have much to show for it.  I have started filling in the colour blocks of the second acrylic canvas which has the title: THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.  Like the ANNUNCIATION it is a geometric composition loosely based on an Old Master painting with some of the colour block sequences filled in with imaginary landscape elements. 

I have returned to doing a series of simple abstracts (with the name EVOCATIONS) in an A4 sketch book.  I am using various types of pencil and pastels.  The works consist of a circular shape suspended over a series of horizontal planes.  Not very original I know.

I finished painting in the main colour blocks of THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.  I will now have to start adding additional layers of paint and more intricate imagery.

I do wish I had at least a little promotional ability - when one considers how forward looking my work has been over the years and yet I do not get very far in terms of financial gain and publicity!

I got out some old panels which I primed years ago.  Two were chipboard, where I noticed that many of the wood chips were showing through the acrylic gesso, and two were cradled hardboard. On the chipboard panels I started drawing the basic structures for two very complex works which have the titles: MEDITATIVE PROCESS ART: PARADIGM ONE AND TWO respectively.  They signal a return to the seminal Ionist style of theme and development with a sequential series of block structures over a three part background which I explored from the early 1980's.

No work tomorrow as I am extremely over committed.

I spent most of the day drawing in (with acrylic paint) emblematic landscapes in the three King "Character" structures of THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

In the afternoon I started pencilling in the structures on the two large hardboard panels which have the working titles of ROMEO & JULIET: RESSURECTION ONE & TWO.

Continued working on THE ADORATION OF THE MAJI.  I added more paint effects in the background and introduced symbols and figurative imagery in the Joseph and Mary "Character" blocks.  I also finished painting in the landscape emblems in the Kings section.

I did a little more drawing in on ROMEO & JULIET: RESSURECTION ONE & TWO.   The main structures are derived from a very intricate composition which I completed towards the end of 1979 and destroyed (to use the reverse side of the panel which had the beginnings of another work on it).

No painting today as it was Saturday.  I have a new portrait commission which has to be completed by the end of the year.

I haven't done a lot of work today.  However, I continued with the drawing stage of ROMEO & JULIET: RESSURECTION ONE. 

I spent some time today on notes for a series of sculptures under the generic title THE FIRING SQUAD which I may undertake for an exhibition I am having next summer.  They would continue, after a long gap, a series of works with the same name which I did for an Ionist Art group exhibition in 1990/1991.  The work was presented under the name Hendricks - one of two names I use for sculptures in radically different styles to my own.  Hendricks is a minimalist with particular interest in portraying temporal effects - either instantaneous events (as the above) or the passage of time.  The other  pseudonym was called Paul Whitty and mainly produces assemblages which represent scientific laws and principles.

I started work on the double portrait commission.  I made the initial drawing with charcoal and I will redefine this with paint before putting in a backround wash.

I also started painting in the landscape "character" elements of THE ADORATION OF THE MAJI.

I did the drawing stage of the main areas of a new "Theme & Variation" Portrait with the title: PORTRAIT OF AN UNKOWN PERSON.  Like the above commission I used charcoal initially and then reinforced the lines with thinned acrylic.

I did another in the EVOVATION Series in a cartridge paper pad using coloured pencil sticks.

I painted in the charcoal lines of the Double Portrait, taking the opportunity to make some changes to the drawing.

I painted in more of the landscape "character" elements of THE ADORATION OF THE MAJI.

I jotted down some ideas for a video piece which would be filmed over a protracted period and would examine "The old man in a young boy and the young boy in an old man"!

I finished (more or less!) THE ADORATION OF THE MAJI.  One of the dangers of acrylics is that they tempt the artists to continually add marks of paint!  However, I am reasonably happy with the work and I would like to explore further at some point the idea of "Landscape Characterisation" of people and events.

I put a raw sienna wash on the Double Portrait and then decided to touch up the two Horse Head pictures I completed at the beginning of the year.  The darker colours had sunk in so I emphasised some of the hair lines and shading with water soluble oils.  I also lightened the background.

I painted in the landscape background landscape for the Double Portrait.  I used thinned water soluble oil paints and loosely sketched in the details.

Painted in the main colour areas of PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN PERSON.

Carried on doing coloured pencil drawings of the EVOCATION series.

Painted in with thinned paint the clothing of the double portrait.  This will be refined at a later date.

I then returned to working on the preliminary drawing stage of ROMEO & JULIET: RESSURECTION TWO.

Painted in the faces and other features of the Double Portrait.  Again using thinner than normal paint.

After professing I was reasonably happy with THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI I have repainted large areas of it!

I repainted (again!) THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI in the morning.  Christmas shopping (again!) in the afternoon!!  I am now even more reasonably happy with the "finished" work.

I am still working on the drawing stage of the two ROMEO & JULIET: RESSURECTION paintings - continuing to define structures within which the symbols and images will be contained.

I then repainted parts of two paintings completed between ten and fifteen years ago: 
The first entitled TRANSMIGRATORY FEATURES, was one of a still continuing series of portraits with image variations based on facial features plus characterisation symbols and/or abstracted imagery.  I started to repaint the eyes today as they were originally too small. 
The second entitled THE PEACOCK'S TAIL, has strips of eye variations in an expressionistic background vaguely like a jungle.  I emphasised further this aspect of the picture today.

Christmas Day!  I managed half and hour of drawing before the festivities began.

I planned to do some work today, as the shop/gallery where I work part time is closed, but other things cropped up.  However I managed a little more of the ROMEO & JULIET: RESSURECTION drawing in.  Plus more EVOCATIONS.

I finished the intitial drawing stage of ROMEO & JULIET: RESSURECTION: ONE & TWO.  I was going to put a background wash down next but I may omit this stage.

Finished the alterations to TRANSMIGRATORY FEATURES and THE PEACOCK'S TAIL.

More EVOCATIONS.

Started touching up the detail in the DOUBLE PORTRAIT.  Mainly the background and clothing.

I also started added facial feature variations to PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN PERSON.

Added more detail to the DOUBLE PORTRAIT.  Mainly the faces.

I finished PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN PERSON.  The whole work consists of facial feature variations at different degrees from initiating image.  A horizontal band has immediately recognizable eye images while the background contains highly abstracted nose/mouth combinations.

I finished the DOUBLE PORTRAIT.

I also did the charcoal drawing stage for two works on canvas.  One is a landscape in the style I was working in at the beginning of 2002 entitled JUBILEE GARDENS.  It is on a much larger scale to the previous works. 

The other is a landscape based on a sequence of blocks similar to my Meditative Process Art works which I have produced from the early Eighties. This work is entitled OBSERVED LANDSCAPE.