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.