It never rains but what it pours...

... eh lad..?... and the first dose of creative confusion and stickiness struck... a couple of days in the doldrums after the first state... and then feeling quite down... but with love and understanding from my darling Kay... and support and guidance from an old Italian Master... I may have found a way forward with the painting...

... still very early days... but I feel rather more human than I did at lunchtime today...

At last....

... beginning to feel a little more settled... begun work on the first [large] landscape...

... now off out to photograph the stormy sea...

Busy Boy...

Been working on all 3 daubs today while we await delivery of the new bookcases...

... also begun laying down the drawing for the first of the big paintings... images to follow in due course...

Trying... still...

While I study the first of the windfarm paintings I've started work on a second... stormier sky and sea this time...

... hopefully I can work on both simultaneously to help with the progress of each one...

Trying...

.... to get something moving while I wait for the 'tree' to dry... so I have made a start on the first seascape... the windfarm off-shore...

... just the first state... thus much studying to be done before making any more marks...

Gettin' There...

Now that I've got the lighting rigged properly I can see what I'm doing....

... just need to get my head and hand sorted out then maybe I can get somewhere with it...

A start...of sorts...

Started work possibly before my head, my eyes and my hand are in the correct state... but I needed to do something.... I don't have the correct materials yet... the lighting in the studio is not right yet and I am not yet used to the studio layout... but I needed to do something...

This is it... though a very rough first state only... I need to study it for a while to see if I should continue with it...

... it's taken from the bottom of the garden through the lilac tree to the veranda...

Excuse me while I adjourn to the veranda...

... for a cool drink and a cigar and to sit awhile contemplating the hills, the sea, the birds and the gentle breeze soughing through the lilac and maple branches at the bottom of the garden...

Maybe more constructive posts will follow when I can be bothered to give a damn about anything beyond this idyll.

Thank you, Kay, for making it all possible... XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Oh Joy Oh Rapture

Exchanged contracts on 'The Cottage' today and now preparing to move at the end of the month. The new blog will begin shortly thereafter.

The Last Post...

This will be the final message from The Towers..... and the reason is simple.... my removal from that London - den of iniquity and inequity, city of clamour, chaos, cacaphony and confusion... where the air is dirtier than a bag of dirt, where the young and vibrant thrive but where the old[er] and decrepit decay - is complete and not at all regretted.

I am now ensconced in temporary lodgings breathing calmer, cleaner air twixt sea and mountains, refreshed and restored to rude health and youthful vigour and awaiting completion of the purchase of our cottage sometime in the next month or so.

Without the Towers there can be no Tales and so it seems like the appropriate moment to bring this blog to an end...

You don't get rid of me that easily though.... when my darling Kay and I have settled into our new home and we have an interweb connection, a new blog will replace this one... until then, dear readers - if readers there be - toodle-pip. XXX