Monday, February 23, 2009

Autumn Leaves, coloured pencil on black Arches paper.

Since I last posted, the company I rent my studio from has gone from "examinership" to "receivership". Not really sure what this means or how it will affect me but hopefully somebody will decide to buy it from the bank and save us all from eviction. as a safeguard have decided to build a studio on to the house, so at least I will have somewhere to work and run my classes if it all goes pear shaped.

Last week got a call from a guy opening a new gallery, asking would I be interested in showing work there, ....would I what!!!!!!!.

Just back from a long week end with my art group. we rented a large house in what we thought was its own grounds surrounded by woodland, but it turned out to be a large house in a one horse, no ...half horse town, with a big garden and one tree. the town/village was depressing but luckily not far from the coast so at least we could derive some inspiration from that. However the food was brilliant and the wine flowed freely and all in all we had a great time although not much painting was done.

Have to set my mind on work this week as I have to finish a commission I got before Christmas, its nearly finished but I got a bit bogged down with it and had to leave it for a while. I don't like commissions, they always put me under pressure, so I don't know why I take them on.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

"What's in here?"
Pen & watercolour on arches paper
30x21cm unframed
Original for sale €200
Enquiries to phildavis@iol.ie or www.artofphildavis.com



Bloody cold again....sitting at the window watching the birds on the feeders....we think we have it tough!!!! There is a pair of magpies which seem to think they are Sparrowhawks, they keep trying to catch the smaller birds, so far without success, as far as I know.




Have been reading Katherine Tyrells blog and squidoo pages concerning marketing, the amount of information is amazing and incredibly useful, thank you Katherine, where do you find the time to do all this and paint? I have to admit that there is so much information there that I can't take it all in immediately and have to keep re-reading.Hopefully I will be able to put some of the info to good use.

I thought I would be recession proof now that I have retired from business, but unfortunately it may have caught up, the gallery in which I have my studio may go into liquidation within the next week or so. Being part of a larger business which has been in examinership for the last 3 months, time may finally be running out. An awful shame if it does as the set up is , I think, quite unique. The top floor of the building is a shop, cafe and gallery, while downstairs there are 8 studios rented to local artisans, also with wall space for a permanent display of paintings and prints. Maybe there is a white knight waiting in the wings !

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Winter blues

"Winter sun"
Pen & Watercolour on Arches paper
30x20 cm unframed
Original for sale €200
Contact phildavis@ioi.ie or www.artofphildavis.com

The winter drags on and for only the fourth time in 30 years we have had snow in Ballycotton, have to say I am not a fan, but I suppose it does make a change from the interminable rain. Its hard to heat the studio when it's so cold so its even harder to keep the enthusiasm for painting going,when its easier to sit at home in the warm. How do people manage in cold climates where they get snow every year, I would emigrate!
I was asked by the owner of the Ballymaloe shop to do some local scenes for prints, to sell in the shop and the above is one of them, hopefully they will go well, .....how commercial is that!