Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Thursday 23 February 2017

Portrait of the Artist



I’ve written about this particular artist, my late father,  before, in We All Shine On and A Boyhood Backyard amongst others. His sketches, paintings and illustrations are scattered throughout my other blogposts as well.

He was a founder member, and later President, of his local art society, a group of hobby artists who enjoyed getting together for talks, field trips and practical painting and sketching classes. In the first photo above he’s receiving an award of some sort from the mayor. The picture at the top right shows him with fellow members in a recruitment drive in town, and the third picture is of a field trip to a local park.


He’s concentrating very hard in the first picture above, to produce the painting below, based on a slide of one of his holidays to Spain. The other photos show him out on more sketching trips and chatting to fellow members of the group.


Dad wasn’t a brilliant artist, and human figures and animals were not his strong point, but I think the scene above has a naive charm about it. It shows a group of two Spanish ladies busy making, or mending, something lacy, whilst the other tow people are obviously there to offer advice or simply gossip.


I chose four of his paintings for the above Four Seasons collage, all of which are favourites of mine.


Join us this week at Sepia Saturday where our prompt image is an art class.

7 comments:

  1. This was a brilliant prompt for you, and I enjoyed reading the lovely tribute to your father. My favourite paintings were the series on the seasons.

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  2. You had the perfect response to the prompt here. I think your father's Spanish group is very good, as well as the seasonal paintings.

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  3. The ladies tatting -- that's great. And I'm drawn particularly to "Spring," with those lovely yellows and oranges!

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  4. You are so lucky to have such wonderful photos or your Dad doing something he so obviously loved doing. My Dad was very good at sketching and water colors. I have some of his paintings hanging in my home. But he never pursued his art as a hobby which is a shame. I suppose, however, when you have a family of four children with all their needs, it doesn't leave a lot of time for art. He was also a would-be writer, but never really pursued that either for the same reason, I guess. Fortunately I and my children have inherited his talent and we do very much enjoy it as a hobby!

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  5. Great artworks have their place in culture but I think it is the art and handcrafts made by the people we love that are truly the most meaningful treasures in life.

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  6. Well said Mike. I was going to say something similar but couldn't find the right words. I like the painting of Winter the best.

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