Abstraction

Well, what do you think of my first abstract painting. Alright , I know its only semi abstract, but for me that's a huge jump. I've been Mr Realist for so long it seems forever. I have been so tired of late with the stuff I've been doing and I desperately wanted to do something totally different. Ok I know you can see that they are flowers but at least I haven't spent days trying to get them exactly right. Unfortunately I don't think the photo does the painting justice so will try to get a better snap.

After doing this one I tried my hand at something totally abstract which I have to admit I am fairly pleased with. As soon as I manage to take a decent photo, ( I have to be the worlds worst with a camera) I will post it.

Commission Finished

I know I posted this picture recently, but this is the final version. Its oil on canvas and measures 120cm x 90 cm approx. The lady that commissioned the work arrived last Thursday, and as usual I was a bag of nerves, in case it wasn't exactly what she wanted. It was a great relief when she smiled and said she loved it !

After working on quite large pieces I find it nice to go to the other extreme for a while and work small. With this in mind I have been painting more geese and chickens on 12 x 18 cm canvas boards, I've been working on three together and they are nearly finished so will post them here soon.

Images untitled, Oil on canvas board, 5x7 inches unframed.

Images for sale: €50 plus pp

Contact : phildavis@iol.ie

http://www.phildavisart.com

Spent the whole day in the studio on Sunday, the plan being to finish the commission! needless to say got diverted and decided to try my hand at a daily painting the results of which are the two images shown. I took loads of photos the previous week end in a small farmyard in Co Clare, there were ducks, geese and chickens everywhere, with a few feral pigeons thrown in, as well as a good complement of semi wild cats that amazingly seemed to ignore all the birds.

Can't think of titles so any suggestions

welcome.

Sold a painting yesterday, hurray! Maybe the recession is not so bad, mind you its the first sale since before Christmas, its hard to judge the effects really as January and February are always bad months for sales, in my opinion.

Our wonderful government are making noises about doing away with the artists tax exemption as another means of solving our ever increasing deficits, just when I thought I was finished with all that.!

Work in progress as yet untitled.

Nearly finished the commission I got before Christmas. Thought I had loads of time but all of a sudden it's March 1st and it has to be finished by mid March. Anyway , only have a few tweaks to do and I think its done. I don't really like commissions, though it would be harder to turn down the money.It's much easier to just paint, and if someone likes your work enough to buy it...great! but with a commission you are never quite sure what the customer wants.

Still in my studio...the receiver hasn't decided to evict us, as yet. Hopefully someone will buy the business, (anyone out there want a readymade business going cheap?).

Lovely sunny morning this a.m., maybe Spring is coming, though just saw the forecast on Sky and its supposed to get colder ...again. Shouldn't moan really, don't get that much cold down in the deep south of Ireland. be nice to see some sun and feel a bit of heat though, it might take everbodies mind of recession. Getting kinda fed up with the constant bad news, though I feel for the people losing their jobs, so glad I got out of business when I did.sick of hearing the politicians telling us we must all suffer because we all had it so good in the past, I think the vast majority of working people didn't make any fortunes and they certainly aren't responsible for the mess we are in, wouldn't it be nice to hear a politician admit they messed up!

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.

"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 !

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!

"Paris Boulevard" Watercolour on Arches paper. 28x38cm

Original for sale €300

Limited edition giclee prints available €60

Enquiries to phildavis@iol.ie or www.artofphildavis.com

With our world rapidly running into recession , how is this affecting sales for the many artists out there that do not command prices in the tens of thousands. Given that all art purchases would be seen as "top end" , is the worldwide art community turning into real starving artists or are they keeping their heads above water? It would be interesting to hear opinions.

Home is the hunter

"Home is the hunter" Pen and watercolour on Arches paper. 28cm x 38cm

Original for sale unframed @ €200.00

Limited editin giclee prints available mounted @ €60.00

Enquiries please to phildavis@iol.ie or http://www.artofphildavis.com/

With a gale force 9 blowing and not a fishing boat out around the coast I thought I would post a picture of calmer times. This painting is based on my Son-in -law and his boat "Spes Firma" after they had returned from a trip 30 miles off shore with a good catch of Hake, Pollack and Ling.

For the last year or so I have found myself drawn away, more and more from large canvas and oils to smaller paintings in watercolour .Having never considered myself a watercolourist, I am reasonably happy with my efforts, though I realise a lot of improvement can be made. It is a huge advantage these days to be able to go online and view hundreds of other artists and their techniques, and I think that all those artists who post demo's and works in progress show a real a real generosity of spirit in their willingness to share their talent with others. With this is mind, this year I would like to try and share my limited talent and intend posting WIP's and demos from time to time.My biggest problem is that I get so engrossed in my work that I forget to take the photos and end up with a photo of the start and one of the finished painting.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all that stumble upon this blog,
I hope you find it interesting, or at least like looking at the pictures. This one is a Red Pelargonum, I think , which I believe is of the geranium family. I was attracted to the deep red against the complimentary green, its painted on black Canford paper with coloured pencils.
What is it about New Year that we start soul searching, I have spent the last few days trying to decide what direction my art should take, for the last 20 years or so I have flitted from one medium to another, one subject type to another.....when I look at some of the incredible art on line it would seem that other artists stick to one genre (is that the right word) and spend years trying to perfect it, is this the way to go?You would have thought that at nearly 60 years of age I would have had this sorted by now! Anyway I suppose it will work itself out in the end.
Having had a Christmas break from running my art classes, I am in the process of restarting them next week. I always restart with a sense of trepidation, but this very quickly wears off when I see the enthusiasm of my students, many of whom are becoming really good artists.

Happy Christmas

Courting on the cliffs

While I am on the bird theme thought I'd show a painting I did in spring of this year. While walking the cliffs at home saw these two peregrines displaying to each other, am pleased to say that they eventually got it together and produced at least
one offspring (I only saw the one). sorry for the quality of
image!

Sketchbooks

Here are a couple of pages from my sketch books, I spent a long time sketching the wagtail in the field and then worked them up when i got home with some coloured pencil. The stonechat was done fairly quickly with a black indelible pen, something I now use alot to sketch with because it forces you to be bold as you can't rub out. These are examples of successful sketches , I would'nt have room or the time to post all the unsuccessful pages!

Foxy Lady

I was inspired by another artist Karen on UKCPS to try this one after seeing her picture of a vixen on her blog http://wildaboutart.blogspot.com/ . Its coloured pencil on black Canford paper and it's one of the few paintings I have finished using CP. I have to say that while I love the overall effect it can become quite tedious building up the colour and I am always comparing the time taken to what I could achieve with paint , however I am reasonably happy with this although I have changed it around the mouth after receiving some very helpful critiques on UKCPS, I must re scan it and show the improvements.

While I am writing this blog, I am watching through my window at the bird feeders I have in the trees opposite and it occured to me that maybe I should try to encourage more people to feed their garden birds, it does'nt cost a fortune and is a huge assistance to small birds during the cold winter months when it can be hard for them to find enough food, also it can give hours of free entertainment.

Directions???????????

As another New Year fast approaches I once again start to agonize over which direction my art should take....big landscapes in oil, small watercolours of birds and all things nature, flowers in acrylic...watercolour, coloured pencil ? I move from one to the other like a nomad in the desert, never quite reaching my destination! For many years I have had the idea of painting the birds I have seen in my village and surrounds and maybe producing a book, given that I live in one of the best birding spots in Ireland and so far would have seen over 250 species in the area, this could prove to be a mammoth task so the faster I start the better.

I am at the moment painting a display board depicting the "Birds of Ballycotton" which will be displayed at the entrance to the village, and the painting here was the cover of the last Cork Bird Report and depicts a pair of Little Egret.

Bird sketches.

Thought I'd show another side to my art today. I started drawing and painting about 120 years ago, or so it seems, initially as a means of recording some of the birds I saw in my other obsession, birding, and twitching, which is not the same. Above is a bird called a Sharp Tailed Sandpiper, which is an asian wader that winters as far away as Australia, unfortunately it got lost when deciding to migrate and ended up on the beach in my village Ballycotton , in Ireland. This was only the 3rd record of this bird in Ireland. The bird below this is a Common Kingfisher, nothing terribly exciting about that, albeit a stunning little bird, except that I sketched it in Goa in India. In Ireland this bird is extremely

shy and hard to see, in fact I think I have only managed to sketch it twice in Ireland, but in India, apart from being very numerous, it is also very tame and confiding and allowed me plenty of time to draw, all the time diving for fish and coming back to the same perch.
The other two sketches were also done in India and are of a Black Capped Kingfisher and an Intermediate Egret.
Can anyone out there tell me how to move pictures easily on blogger as I always have enormous trouble getting them where I want them.

"Home is the Hunter" Pen and Watercolour on Arches Paper.
Original available unframed @ €200.00 post paid.
Limited edition giclee prints available mounted @ €60.00
Enquiries please to phildavis@iol.ie or www.artofphildavis.com

With a force 9 gale blowing at the moment , thought I'd show a picture of calmer times. this painting is based on my son-in- law and his fishing boat "Spes Firma" He had just returned from a trip around 30 miles off shore, with a fairly large catch of Hake, Pollack and Ling.

In the last year or so I have, more and more,been tempted away from large canvas and oils , to produce smaller paintings in pen and watercolour. Having never considered myself a watercolourist, I am reasonably happy with the results although I know there is much room for improvement. It is a huge advantage in this day and age to be able to go online and view other artists work and techniques and I think those people who post demonstrations and techniques show a real generosity of spirit. It is my aim this year to try and share my limited skills online and post the odd work in progress, my biggest problem is that I get so engrossed in the work that I forget to take the photos at different stages , so I usually end up with a photo of the start of the work and one of the finished painting.

Dog Rose

I keep going on the missing list, finding it much easier to paint than to blog. Anyway these are the first and second painting in my "Irish wild flowers " series. Dog Rose and Ground Ivy in watercolour. I'm reasonably pleased with them, would be nice to hear some comments, if anybody actually reads my blog.

Back at last......again

Been away for a long time, don't know why, just have'nt found the inspiration to post, find it much easier to paint than to write. I've been working steadily throughout the summer, that period of the year when we are supposed to have sun, at least all the rain forced me to work.
Gone back to watercolours after years dodging them and have to say I'm enjoying them and if I say so myself...I think with reasonable success.
Started teaching again this week, the first class since before the summer, was quite nervous at first but soon got back into the swing , just as well as from next week will be doing 5 classes a week.
I see on some of the art sites a big hooha over the winner of a big competition in the States, and once again the subject of using photos rears its head. While I think the important thing in this is actually having the skill to make a successful rendering of a photo, I do not think anyone should make a total copy and call it their own. I use photos all the time, my own, but would not have a problem using photos belonging to others, for inspiration.

Back again.

I have been missing for a while so thought it was about time I got back to this blog. I have'nt been idle mind you, I have been painting hard. A friend of mine gave me an old sepia photo of the harbour in my village, I guess it dates around the early 1900's. Anyway I thought I would paint it, don't usually work from anything but my own photo's or sketches, but I thought it would be a challenge. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the guy who gave me the photo bought the painting before it was even finished, which is the top painting, and then the coxswain of the lifeboat saw it and commissioned me to paint a similar painting to present to some RNLI big wig that was retiring! As if that was'nt good enough, I have a third person interested in another one, though I am not sure I want to do it again.

I'm still walking the cliffs every morning, it's been stunning the last couple of weeks, the weather has been good and there has been an explosion of plant life, I am struggling to identify all the new wild flowers that are coming up.I keep threatening to paint a series of Irish wild flowers but have'nt done so far.

Very busy with classes, I am currently running 5 a week, it's amazing how many people are interested in painting, and even more amazing how much talent is out there only waiting to be found and nurtured.