Last week was pretty hectic with the launch of ‘Street Scene Croydon’ at the wonderful Cafe Adagio. When the rush was over I sat down for a chat about the exhibition, life at Stanley Halls, future plans and inspirations with Janet Smith from the Croydon Radio Arts show. Here is the link.
I’ve been painting in the spare room at home for the past few years so I’m really excited to announce that in the New Year I will be taking a studio for the first time. It will be at Stanley Halls in South Norwood which is a great old building with a fabulous gallery and lots of creative energy going on. If you would like to visit me at the Halls please drop me a line first and I’ll be very happy to show you around.
I’ve had a change around of the paintings showing in the wonderful gallery at Stanley Halls in South Norwood. In particular the larger version of ‘Moon Over Stanley’ has gone home for a few months and will be on display alongside other new works such as ‘Climbing’ and ‘Morning People’.
The Halls are open on a slightly ad hoc basis for events so do keep an eye on their website to find out what is on. In particular the ‘Invention Festival’ of performances will be taking place at the halls on 12th/13th June. http://www.stanleyhalls.org.uk/invention-festival/
I will be back at Stanley Halls in their lovely Gallery on the 22nd November with loads of prints and paintings for anyone keen on buying some local art for their Christmas Stocking.
I’ve been doing lots of early morning walks and runs lately so it’s not too surprising that my latest paintings all seem to focus on early mornings. This on is called ‘A New Day’ and will be at Stanley Halls for the ‘Christmas Shopping Emporium’ this weekend and then at the Clocktower Cafe for December.
This is a new little painting of the moon over South Norwood Hill with a couple of lovers at the bus stop and a lot of people heading to Stanley Halls for an Event. It’s a scene that I first wanted to paint back in early September. We were driving home passed the Halls and pulled up in traffic to find ourselves stunned by a huge full moon shinning over the old tower and halls, it was great but getting the reference info has been a bit of a pain. My camera is useless at night so there has been lots of playing around working out the lighting and shadows. I hope to do a larger version some time soon although I might remove one of the cars….. they are never my favourite thing.
In the meantime I still have paintings up in the gallery at Stanley Halls and they will be open this Sat for a couple of free halloween themed films: Frankenweenie at 1pm and An American Warewoolf in London at 7pm. One of the things I like most about Stanley Halls is that the volunteers running it are trying really hard to make it work for the local community. http://stanleypeoplesinitiative.wordpress.com/2014/10/10/a-pillar-of-the-community/
The Stanley Halls Gallery was already looking great when I left an hour or so ago after hanging eight original paintings and two prints. Stanley Halls was originally designed and built by William Stanley who also founded the ‘Stanley Works’ of ‘Stanley knife’ fame. It is a grand public building in the true Victorian philanthropic style, built alongside the technical school it has a fine theatre, a well designed gallery with loads of diffuse natural light as well as meeting rooms. The whole space is being lovingly brought back into use by a very enthusiastic local community and it looks like going on to become an excellent addition to the local arts scene.
Tomorrows Open House tours should be really interesting and with the cafe running and art up in the gallery waiting for the tours to get started should be enjoyable too. Everything will be kicking off at 10am and the last tour will be at 4:45pm.
Here are some photos of the paintings going up.
