NOT QUITE ART, BUT ANYWAY...

Here's another cover, design. It's amazing how quick and easy they are to do, using a very simple drawing program. Not quite art, I know, but it's my blog so I'll post what I like.

If anyone would like to read my short stories, please click on link number 3 in the column headed "Click here to to to" on the right hand side of this page.

NEW SHORT STORY

Winter, it seems, has arrived with a vengence, and I've been occupying myself writing short stories.

Here's a miniscule contribution to the growing - thank god - body of anti war literature.

Warning: You may find the language and the themes offensive.

MAN IN A BLACKSHIRT

The drawing is three fourths and a half of what constitutes painting. Jean-August-Dominique Ingres.

I think he's got a point. A really big one. So it's back to the drawing board.
Here's my latest portrait in pencil. I try to think about it as painting with a pencil. Great fun, really, when you get into it. Why not give it a go.
All you need is a sheet of paper and a pencil. And a face of course. If faces are in short supply, just look in the mirror.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME

Three Spanish painters. It took me a while to get this more or less right, as you can see from these preliminary exercises.

A LETTER FROM SAATCHI ONLINE

It's always nice to get a letter from Saatchi. Here's what it said: Dear Ray Johnstone, Your work featured in Art We Love This Week. I'm a creative consultant at Saatchi Online and I'm writing to let you know your piece " Woman in the Studio" is being featured in Art We Love This Week . 'Art We Love This Week' is collection of work we feature once a week that we find particularly interesting and worthy of a week of notoriety. Please feel free to share this news with your friends on twitter ... or look on our facebook to join in with conversation and postings with fellow artists ... Best, Molly Jo Shea

NEARLY AS OLD AS ME - TWO PAINTINGS OF SOWETO

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Trawling through an old file recently, I fount these two views of Soweto that I painted about 52 years ago. Nothing to do with painting in France, really, but here they are anyway.

DESIGN FOR A BOOK COVER

This my cover design for a collection of my short stories.
But beware, the copy says it all. What you see is what you'll get.
And as sure as a pound to a pinch of you know what, some people will have difficulty with both the style and the themes.
But I don't give a fig. I'd rather get a reaction from readers - even if they hate my writing - than be read with indifference.
So, if you decide to read any, please be sure to read the warnings.
Here is the link:
http://rays-books.blogspot.com/

THE SPANISH PAINTER

After several years of focussing on painting, I've negleted drawing, which is where I believe it all starts.
it's a great discipline and it teaches many basics, including control of the pencil.
So I've decided to do a series of portrait drawings. Here's the first.
The subject's a Spanish painter who lives nearby. I've painted him in the past, but he has such an amazing face that I decided to do another portrait, this time in pencil.

YOU TURN 60 ONLY ONCE EVERY LIFETIME

So, George is getting old. In fact, he's SIXTY today. Even if he's being trying to forget it. But we won't let him.
As you can see, George likes Guiness.
And, as he's made 60, Guiness must be good for him. Maybe if he drinks lots of it, he'll make a hundred.
Happy 60th birthday George.
(Can anyone guess who I'm talking about - if not, send me an email).

COOKING WITH LYNNE - THE LAST FEW DAYS

The above two pics show Lynne in the village of Vianne and Lynne with a souvenir watercolour of the Village of Vianne.
(This is the last photo taken on the last day. Come back for more photos at the same time, same place, next year)


Our last picnic in the shadow of the Chateau de Lavardens


Dinner at the Cafe St Hubert at Gazaupouy on our way back from Toulouse


Inside Les Jacobins in Toulouse


What the heck shall I do with this?



This is us on the medieval bridge just outside the dining room window at The Mill

AT THE NERVE CENTRE
Lynne Macmillan demonstrating how it all comes together in the kitchen.

GETTING OUR MINDS INTO GEAR
This is us preparing for lunch by taking in the view near the Abbaye de Flaran.
The menu consisted of:
game pate and salad, followed by grilled young wild boar, grilled stag, poor mans' potatoes and beans, and then apple tart with armagnac, and all washed down with coffee and armagnac.

COOKING WITH LYNNE - WINE AND OTHER GOOD THINGS

Here we are with the produce stall we've opened at Mezin market.



And here we are being taught how to drink wine - something we didn't know very much about before we came to France.

COOKING WITH LYNNE - HARD YAKKA IN GASCONY

A NAME WORTH REMEMBERING WHATEVER YOUR AGE


ANOTHER PICNIC


HOW TO START THE DAY


PICNIC AT FOURCES


LUNCH AT LE VIEUX PRESSOIR


Two Lynnes and Three Musketeers

COOKING WITH LYNNE - DAYS 3 & 4

Here are some shots of the group hard at work on the U3A Cooking with Lynne course in sunny southwest France.
Here we are enjoying Lynne's first lesson in the garden at the Mill.
And here we are at the waterlily farm that supplied plants to the French impressionist Monet.
And, finally, here we are having dinner under les arcades at the small village of Montreal.
Watch this space for more pics of Aussie hard yakka in Europe.

COOKING WITH LYNNE - DAY 2

Day 2
This is a shot of the U3A Australians in front of the medieval bridge at Poedenas in SW France.
They're visiting Gascony on the Cooking with Lynne course.
We're on our way to Mezin market to buy the fresh produce and other goodies for this afternoon's lesson.
In between we'll have lunch at the Le Vieux Pressoire, taste some wine, follow Lynne cooking, try some more wine, have some wine with dinner and then it's off to bed for a good night's sleep so that we'll be well rested for tomorrow's wine tasting events.

U3A - LYNNE MACMILLAN'S COOKING TRIP TO FRANCE

Lynne's group arrived in Bordeaux mid afternoon after a few days in Paris.
This is a team shot in front of the medieval church of St Jean-Baptiste in Bazas. ( Two of the team have already disappeared into the church - I'll try to make sure they're in the next shot).
We're on our way to The Mill in Poudenas where they will be staying for a fortnight on the U3A Cooking with Lynne course.
Tomorrow we go to Mezin market to get what we need for the first lesson.
Watch this space.

THIS IS FELIX

AND THIS IS CAREY

They live in a small village in SW France.
Felix is a Spanish artist with an international reputation. This year alone, he has had exhibitions in Ireland, Spain and Italy. Still to come in 2011 is Bilbao and the Barnard Gallery in Cape Town.
They came to my exhibition above the Tourist Office and I took their photos.
This is the result.
Hope they like them.
You too can see them at the Tourist Office during business hours.

CHAMPAGNE COMMUNISTS OR CHARDONNAY SOCIALISTS?

Strange things happen on a summer's day, and here we are with Andrew and Sue and her new hip at a Communist Party lunch in the forest. Well, 'Prix libre' was a bit of a misnoma, perhaps because there was a donation tin. Here's the menu: Aperitifs, mises en bouche, melon, salad, steak and more salad, several desserts, as much wine as you could drink - rose or red from the nearby Chateau de Lisse - coffee, cherries in eau de vie and armagnac. And table service, no less. Standing to queue for food's a thing of the past apparently. Even Jacques Rapetti the local Comunist cadre who invited us had to admit that it's Communism au premiere classe.

SELF PORTRAIT - THE FINISHED ARTICLE

That's it. Job done. Jose with her self portrait.

SELF PORTRAIT - WORK IN PROGRESS

This is Jose working on a self portrait. Her course demands that she does a series of paintings of herself.
So she decided that she'd like to do one with me in my studio. And here it is after just a few hours work. Not quite finished, but I think she's done amazingly well, considering that she's not done that many self portraits. It's done from a photo using a very simple grid to scale up the image.
I'll post the final painting when it's finished.

PORTRAIT OF CHE - GUERRILLERO HEROICO

Everyone knows this portrait. If not, pretend you do, because British Pop artist Sir Peter Blake called it one of the great icons of the twentieth century.
The image is based on a photograph of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda in 1960. It was later stylized by Jim Fitzpatrick.
The famous Andy Warhol Che Guevara based on Fitzpatrick's design wasn't by Warhol at all. It was produced by his assistant, Gerald Malanga, who passed the painting off as a Warhol when he was short of money. Warhol later 'authenticated' the work on the understanding that all the money involved would flow to him and not to Malange.
My version is for Jacques Rapetti who provides a free open air meal every year in honour of The Rights of Man - Fete de l'humanite.

PORTRAIT OF A HOUSE - II

This painting was done for a wedding present for Mat and Vicky to give to their good friends Baptiste Lucas and Julie Negre who live in a huge house in Frouzins which is near Toulouse.
Hope they like the prezzie.

PORTRAIT OF A HOUSE

This is the Darcy house in Mezin. Chris and Debby are from Wales, and they asked me to do a painting of their house in Mezin. It may look simple, but it was quite complicated and involved some 'cheating' with the perspective to get what they wanted. I was also keen to have the church St Jean-Baptiste to play a role in the composition, because you can see it from their back garden, albeit it not quite as prominently as I've painted it.
Anyway, they said they liked it and it's now in Wales being framed.

MORE FROM MADDIE

Maddie wanted to do a fashion drawing. So she found a photo she liked in a magazine, and I showed here how to scale it up using a very simple grid formula.
Here's what she did. First she drew a grid on the original. Then she drew a larger grid on a piece of watercolour paper.
Then, one by one, she transferred what she saw in each of the squares on the photograph, from the photograph onto the paper. (This allows the artist to see and draw very simple areas one at a time.)
Then she painted the image in watercolour.
Not bad for a first watercolour. What do you think?

Please click here to send me an email: Maddie's painting

MEET MADDY TRENEER

This is Maddy Treneer from Paris. It's her second holiday in Mézin. She's here with her parents, her brother and her grandmother.
This is a portrait she did of me. We worked together in my studio for an hour or so this morning. I think it's pretty good, considering it's the first portrait she's ever done.
Let me know what you think.

THE BULLS IN PAMPLONA

The festival of San Fermine is one of the great sights/experiences in the world. It's really just a long, drunken party that lasts ten days or so. Thousands and thousands of drunk or nearly drunk people, all dressed in white with red scarves, are up very early in the morning to cram the street of Pamplona. Then the bulls are let loose and some lunatics actually run with them as they charge around the old city.
Here we are on the balcony that Vicky arranged for us to watch from. (It's much safer up there and so far no bull has ever been known to get onto a balcony). Just opposite is the hotel where Hemingway stayed when he was watching the bulls run.
Plus a drawing I did of a church on the Camino de Sandiago.

JACQUES RAPETTI

Jacques Rapetti sells left-leaning literature outside the Tourist Office in Mezin every Sunday morning.
You can see from his T shirt what political party he supports.

CARY PHILIPPS

Cary and his wife Becky, and their daughters Taylor and Tess, have been to Mezin nine or ten times (we've actually lost count).
This almost makes them Mezinaise. This is a portrait of Cary. Hope he likes it.

MEXICAN EXTERIOR

This is Andrew busy with his painting based on a series of wonderfully graphic pics of crumbling walls and exteriors he took in Mexico. As you can see he's totally engrossed in his wall.
Not a bad effort for a first acrylic.
What do you think?

NINE TIMES VISITORS

Meet Cary, Becky, Taylor and Tess.
The photos were taken on their NINTH trip to La Petite Galerie - one after we had all painted at Fources, the other of Tess with a copy of a Picasso painting done in my studio.
They've been here so often that even the locals now think of them as Mézinais.

MY PORTRAIT

No, not a self portrait, and not even a portrait by me.
This is a portrait of me by Andrew.
Sue said rude things about it, but I think it's quite good.
Anyway we got together for an hour or so, and this is the result of Andrew's efforts.
And it gave us an excuse to flatten a bottle of wine afterwards.
Anyone (except Sue) is invited to comment.