An announcement...

Today, I made a decision regarding my painting and where I'm heading with it. I've been thinking about it for a couple of weeks, and decided to go ahead with it today. I announced it on Facebook, where most of my art appears. Here's what I said, barely an hour ago.

I'm not taking any new commissions for paintings as from now. I will honour all my outstanding works and get them done for everyone, but I am not working to order anymore. I want to enjoy painting again, choosing what I want to do and I am sick to death of people messing me about, stalling, indecisive, and unreasonable expectations.
It was always in my own spare time, and I gave up a lot of that s

pare time this year because people always want things yesterday.

I don't have that time anymore. Any time I use for painting now will be for myself. My paintings will always be for sale, but I'll be picking what the subject will be in future. As from next year, I'll be working my way, and when I choose. It was never about money, because that's not what motivated me. It was about trying to please people, and I can't commit myself enough to doing that any longer. This is not me getting on my high horse, or rating myself highly, as I am fully aware of my skill level, it's just that it's so hard for me to do when it's not something that's full time.

I want to be able to concentrate on the scores of projects that I have put to one side, and so I've chose to abandon the one off commissions to allow me that little bit of time back so I can work on the new stuff. The last few weeks have convinced me it's time to start working for myself, and working to my strengths.

There's only a handful of clients I've had in the past that I'd be happy to work with again, and I'm sure you all know who you are. In fact, what has made me come to this decision has nothing to do with those friends of mine here that I have been dealing with for years. I thank all of you for your support and your past custom, and I know that some of you will be interested in what's coming in the near future.

I'm entering a new phase, direct sales, exhibitions and proper marketing. I really hope that I'll still have your continued and wonderful support. Trust me, it's for the best :-)

Now, this isn't meant to sound pretentious or anything like that, I'd just had a lot of messing about with my time and some of the expectations were nigh on an insult. 

As I have mentioned before, time really is a valuable commodity to me, and time is something that I have to really plan out. Doing 8 or 9 hour shifts of a weekend to get someone's painting of a dog done in time was never going to be fun. Choosing my own subjects means I can use my time better, I have no deadlines, no-one to please and nothing to stop me painting Joe Montana for the fiftieth time. 

It's more exciting for me. As it's never been about money, I've lost nothing. If I sell a couple of paintings along the way, great. If not, I'll finally be able to build up that portfolio. I might have an exhibition. I might produce a run of prints. I've never been able to do that because my production has always been dictated by the commissions I've undertook. I've always had to rush. I don't want to rush anymore. I don't want to shortchange anyone anymore. I want to paint or draw different things that I never had time for. I've got a lot more painting in me yet, and I want the next chapter to be the best. 

I think this might be the best decision I've made regarding my art in a long time. In fact, I know it is.

Random Irritations

Some random irritations I've noticed recently (mostly here on the internet but also in general conversation).

The saying 'going forward', as in, 'This is our plan, going forward'. It's cropping up everywhere, and is very much in as 'business speak'. Going forward, I hope this starts going backward. 

Apparently, some of the most irritating things on Facebook are based on people's photo sharing habits. Instagram photos are the biggest gripe; possibly we have had more than enough lomo styled photos lately. 

Baby photos rank highly as well. Not quite so sure about this one, as baby photos aren't particularly offensive. For me, there are far worse things to see on my newsfeed.

'Posed' photos are next. Mostly, we do pose for a photo - but this relates to such obviously posed photos, usually taken in front of the bathroom mirror or 'ladies room' out and about, and usually involve the taker staring at their phone rather than the mirror or whatever. The 'duckface' pose is a classic example here.

Holiday photos. Again, not too bad, as long as they're interesting and show where the person is. A half human/half lobster on a sunbed in Benidorm is not quite so.

Food photos. 32% of Facebook pet photo hates are pictures of a plate of food according to  the poll. Absolutely, some of the meals that I've seen posted have looked absolutely gross. Even if I see a favourite of mine, it never looks so nice when it's someone elses. How long before we see videoclips of same people actually eating their food? Can't wait for that!

One of my personal hates is 'vaguebooking'. Let me demonstrate with these examples of status updates.

'Sometimes I wonder why I bother'

'Some people need to get a life'

'Yeah, karma.'

Get to the point. Don't beat about the bush, say what you're thinking. Don't think our curiosity is all that piqued, because it isn't. If everyone ignored vague status updates, the world would be a better place.

Away from Facebook now, although there are PLENTY more irritations I could add, and on to these hugely irritating things:

Captchas. Prove you are indeed human by trying to type in sometimes completely unreadable words. Does upper and lowercase apply? What is an xerrestt anyway? In fact what are any of these?

Whilst I can appreciate the usage of a captcha, the practice of them is sometimes infuriating and over the top, especially if your eyes aren't the best.

One last irritation. Completely unimaginative stock photos. They're everywhere, even if you don't notice them at first.

Have a good weekend!

Arcade artwork (Part 1 of an occasional series)

Back to blogging after a few days hiatus; I just haven't had the time to write! In between doing other stuff, fixing stuff and falling out of lofts, my blogging has been on pause...So here is a blog that is not a moan, but a bit of fun today. Moaning service will be resumed tomorrow, I assure you. 

Back in the 70's and 80's, arcade machine manufacturers would attract arcade operators with flyers to advertise and promote the profit making probability of their latest games. No internet back then to sell their wares. Of course,being the 70's and 80's, some of the designs from these ads really hark back to another time. Some are questionable in their quality, some are questionable in their sales plug. All feature big hair.

Here's a taster batch, and I'll post more at probably highly irregular intervals.

Back To The Future pinball, with possibly the worst looky likeys never to ride a DeLorean.

"I haven't had this much fun since root canal surgery last March."

Pepper II - this woman clearly has no idea what she is doing, or playing. In fact I have no idea what she's playing either.

Gold Wings! Top Gun! Rip Off!

Left picture - 'I hate you...' Right picture - 'I love you, Stargate.'

Not only is the chap on the right wearing a leathery C-3P0 based outfit, it's also back to front. No wonder he's facepalming.

This is NOT the Mr.Do I envisaged when I played this as a kid.

Whatz in a name?

Grumpy post today. One of the things the riles me no end these days is this.

Or this.

Or, indeed, this.

Yes, it's the 'replace a perfectly good letter or word with an alternative of equal or higher Scrabble value' grumble. These are just three examples of a craze that started at some point when some marketing genius thought there logo could be made more 'punchy' by completely changing the spelling. Toys R Us. With a backwards R? Are we in Moscow?
It is ARE, surely. Toys Are Us. Even that doesn't make a whole load of sense.

For years, Heinz (z accepted here), have made their famous baked beans. Kids love them, adults love them and have done, as beans, for years. SO WHY OH WHY did they change the name? From an article in the Telegraph back in 2008:

Heinz baked beans become Heinz Beanz

Ever since 1886 they have been sold as baked beans.

By Laura Clout

1:53PM BST 11 Jul 2008

Comment

But now Heinz has decided to remove the word "baked" from the name on the label because the full title was "a bit of a mouthful to pronounce".

The product will remain the same, as will the distinctive turquoise tin, but the beans will now be pictured on the pack and they will be called Heinz Beanz.

The new-look cans, which still include the famous "57 varieties" phrase, go on sale in August.

John Alderman, marketing manager for the firm said: "Heinz Beanz have been powering the nation for over a hundred years and to say thank you to our loyal fans, we have given this iconic product a 21st century makeover".

Heinz, which has previously been criticised for the salt content of its baked beans sauce, claims to have reduced the salt added to the product by 30 per cent over the last five years.

The back of the new tin will highlight the nutritional benefits of the beans, which are high in fibre and protein and low in fat and sugar.

Four years ago Heinz changed the can logo for the first time in 76 years, changing the "s" in Heinz Beans to a "z".

Oh, please. Spare me. Baked Beans was 'a bit of a mouthful to pronounce'? Yes, I know the 'Z' made appearances in the 60's, but, you know, that was the 60's. It might have been excusable then. But to mask this labeling travesty as a '21st Century makeover' is a poor cop-out. If anything was to set off supermarket rage in the tinned foods aisle, this is it. 

And so to my last example, the Bratz Kidz video game. Two offences right from the start. Third strike has to be that this is aimed at kidS of a mostly young age who need to be seeing and reading the correct words. This riles me more than anything. It's unnecessary. It doesn't make the product any more appealing. Unbelievable.

This deliberate misspelling  appears everywhere now, and usually in ways that it just isn't needed or beneficial. We see it on TV shows, in the shops and on the interwebs. I can't truly understand what is gained from this. Is it more friendly? More 'down with the kids'? Not at all. 

Companies, it's not big and it's not clever. But you're not entirely to blame. As I write this, the truth dawned on me. Here's who's fault it all is...

Can you think of any good examples of this alphabet abuse? Let me know!

Can you draw this?..

Most requests I get for paintings, especially from people that might have used me before, are usually very considerate with their picture choice and requirements. and most of the paintings, I really enjoy putting together for these people. Sometimes however, you come across people who don't realise that it can be very hard working from a picture supplied that is around the size of a postage stamp on a computer screen, or beat a hasty retreat when I give a quote for a painting.

The poor reference picture given I can usually get around to a certain extent (unless it's really small or bad quality), but it's very hard sometimes to get people to understand just how much work and cost to myself it involves in giving even a small-ish painting. 

The prices I quote don't usually take much of this into consideration, as I am not a professional, it's not my full time job and it really is just to make a bit of pocket money which more often than not I use to buy more art materials.

One thing that people don't realise sometimes is that I work a normal job, sometimes 6 nights a week. That leaves me, sometimes, barely one full day a week that I can work on people's paintings. Sometimes on that day off, I don't have the time or even the desire to work on a painting - which really means that it might be a gap of two weeks between painting sessions. 

Working nights, by the time I get up in the afternoon, painting is the last thing I have time to do, although sometimes I might put a couple of hours in here and there during the week, I do not have a studio space to dash off to and nor is my equipment permanently set up. 

As I stated at the beginning, most people know this and are perfectly happy to wait as long as it takes, 'just 'til it's done', and to them I am very grateful. 

I try to do the best I can, and I try to use the best materials I can reasonably afford. I like to work with good equipment as in art, cheap materials show in the final work. I have work from even 5 or 6 years ago which shows how your materials make a difference.

Some of the requests are funny too. (Not funny at the time, when you have to say No as politely as possible!) Here's a couple of genuine questions.

"Can you draw this person, but how they would look in 15 years time?"

"Can you draw this person, but change their head to this person?"

"Can you draw this place that I only have an overhead map of, but draw it as if you're on the ground?"

I think I might have even said yes to one of them, but sometimes all I can think is that I'm not a magician, just a normal bloke who happens to do a bit of painting now and then. Ask a professional or established artist the same questions and see what kind of a price you get. 

I love painting as I always say, but sometimes I do wonder if people understand just what a sacrifice I make of my own time and money to get the work done. One day, maybe I'll be able to do it full time, and then I can pick and choose as I want - a lot of it is my own fault as I can't say no, and nor do I like asking for money. Especially when friends ask, I wish  could do them all for nothing. But, sadly, it's impossible. 

Maybe I should start running itemised receipts to show just what goes into each piece.

Anyway, I had a painting to finish this week, and thankfully it didn't take all that long to do as most of the hard work had been done a weekend or so previously. Not my usual subject, portraits (I usually concentrate on sports), but at least the picture supplied was clear and the timescale workable.

See you tomorrow!

A night to remember...

Occasionally in life, an event occurs that stays with you for the rest of your life. Today, I'd like to talk about a personal such occasion that has fascinated and stayed with me since it happened - not a life changing event or such, but something I will never forget nonetheless. To do this, we have to transport ourselves way back in time, all the way to 1978.

At the time, I lived in Margate, a time I remember as being very happy, with long sunny days and what seemed like an idyllic childhood. (Of course, as you get older, you tend to only remember the best parts). But on the night of January 11th, an event occurred that for some reason had such a profound effect on even such a youngster, that I still frequently  recall it.

A huge storm battered the South East of Kent that night, and caused widespread damage over a large area. I have memories of the carpets in our house lifting up, windows rattling in an alarming way and lashing rains. We lived in Hatfeild Road, Westbrook and were literally just a few yards from the seafront. The damage to the seafront was all too evident the next day, as Margate's main beach was literally buried under the wreckage of it's longstanding jetty. Seeing the beach the next day was a sight I have never forgotten.

Margate Jetty as it was, in it's heyday

Here's a brief history of the jetty, from the National Piers Society. 

According to Walvin's 'Beside the Seaside', claims for a landing jetty at Margate date back to 1800. In 1824, the Margate Pier Harbour Co. erected an 1100 foot wooden jetty called the 'Jarvis Landing Stage'. However, this was only accessible at low tides and needed regular repairs. On 4th November 1851, it was breached in two places by a storm. The Company commissioned a new 'jetty' (so called to distinguish it from Margate Pier Harbour wall) and work began in 1853 to the design of Eugenius Birch (his first pier).

It opened in 1855 (the first iron pier) but was not completed until 1857. In 1875/8, it was extended and a new octagonal pier-head and pavilion were added. On 24th November 1877, a drifting vessel caused £4,000 damage. Further additions were made in 1893 and 1900.In World War II, the jetty was used for troop and supply movements. Steamer services resumed after the War, ending in 1966.

The jetty closed in 1976 on safety grounds, and was virtually destroyed by a storm on 11th January 1978 that isolated the lifeboat station. 

Unfortunately, I don't think I ever ventured on to the jetty myself, as it was pretty much closed down from the time I moved to Margate. But this didn't prevent a real feeling of sadness as I saw it's shattered shell the next day. The pier had gone from the above, to this melancholy sight in a matter of hours. The lifeboat, still inside the boathouse, was stranded for two days before it was safe enough to be recovered.

Photograph courtesy of Paul Mellor

Margate's main sands were covered in wreckage, with people moving the large wooden beams and starting small fires all across the beach.

Photograph courtesy of Tony Withers

Photograph courtesy of Tony Withers

The above photographs are exactly how I remember the next day, and for a lot of people I think was probably quite a shock to wake up to. But the saddest part was what was left of the pier. The iconic lifeboat house, broken and twisted. The octagonal pavillion and boarding area sadly looking back, dismembered from it's well trodden walkways. Victorian architecture sprawled across the sand. The pier was 153 years old at the time, and it's life was ended overnight. 

The East Kent times issued a souvenir booklet showing photographs of some of the damage around Thanet. This is the cover, scanned in from my own copy.

 The pier wasn't the only victim to the vicious storm of course, much damage was caused all around the coastline, but to many the sight of the demolished pier was perhaps the most shocking. Of course, now there was the problem of a pier who's remains, which had been sitting on the sea bed for over 150 years, needed to be removed.
The actual buildings on the jetty extension and the upper part of the lifeboat house were burned (I think) quite shortly afterwards, but the structure and foundations still remained.
In the early 80's (again, I think!), demolition of the lifeboat launch slipway was attempted. 
Despite several attempts, the wreckage proved very difficult to budge. 

One of the attempts to demolish what was left of the lifeboat house with explosives. Photograph courtesy of Paul Mellor

The continued failed attempts to destroy the remains of the jetty made new as far afield as the United States. Here is an article from the Milwaukee Journal, March 1979:

Eventually, the lifeboat slipway was removed, but the main part of the wreck stayed stubbornly wedged for years afterwards, an unofficial landmark and a reminder of what once stood. It survived until 1998, when it was finally taken down for good. 

To most, I guess, it was nothing more than a decrepit old jetty and a blot on the seascape. But for me personally, it was a constant reminder all through my youth of one noisy, windy night in January 1978.

Many thanks to Tony Withers and Paul Mellor for the use of their fine photographs; I could have used so many more and it was hard to choose my favourites. Take a look at their photos on their Flickr pages:
Tony's page is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/claritoneve/
Paul's page is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1yearoffwork/

Besides more photos from the storm aftermath, there's lots of other great pictures on their pages.

Tomorrow, I'll be talking moaning about the joys of being an artist.

26 seasons and counting...

Roughly twenty six years ago, (that would have made me thirteen), I stumbled across a new sport being broadcast on my little 15" Radio Rentals TV one Sunday afternoon. That sport was American Football, and although only half watching at first, my curiosity was piqued to such a point that by the end of the broadcast I knew I'd found something that interested me and enthralled me, even if I didn't have a clue what was going on.

From the highly edited highlight show that November night on Channel 4 onwards, I was totally hooked, and I still am today. 

Back then, coverage was minimal, but at least I could get a weekly fix and discover the sights and sounds of this complex yet fascinating game. 

I was drawn in by the colours, the speed and the physicality. 

The opening credits from Channel 4 in 1986

Almost immediately I began to learn all I could about NFL football, buying magazines, books and anything I could get my hands on so I could understand it better. As I learnt more, and saw more teams, I found myself completely immersed. 

Remember this kitchen appliance?

My favourite player from 1986, Joe Montana 

Aside from a couple of seasons where TV coverage was almost non existent, I have been just as enthusiastic every year since. I have ignored ribbing by friends and workmates about the length of time a game takes/players wearing excessive padding (to be fair, some of those 80's pads were HUGE (link), - and that was just the presenters) and all manner of little digs. But my love has been undiminished, and from September to February, my weekly ritual of game watching continues. Interesting to think though, how things were in 1986.

The average house price was £44,000

A gallon of petrol was £1.89 (or around 38p a litre)

A first class stamp was 18 pence

A Mars bar was 20p

A pint of milk was 25p

A... (Insert sound of needle sliding across a vinyl record here), OK, I'll stop.

'Gumball helmets' were all the rage at school!

Although these prices have been fairly consistent with inflation, to see them seems almost unthinkable. But I digress. As I sit here watching another week's NFL games, with the ability to watch them both on my television, my computer and my phone - all at the same time, I realise how far things move in such a relatively short space of time. 

From  one hour tape delayed highlight shows, to trying to tune my radio to the Armed Forces Radio in bed at 1am for a Monday night game, I've enjoyed every minute. And I love American Football as much as I did all of those 26 seasons ago...

Tomorrow, I'm going even further back in time, and the story of a rather stormy night...

A lazy Saturday...

Been running behind tonight as I had a stack of pictures that I had to scan in and some photos to edit for a future item, so as promised yesterday, this will be a shorter post. With no grumbling about anything.

We went for a walk this afternoon, and I snapped a couple of pictures; Autumn's definitely here.

All in all, a reasonably relaxing day today topped off by me sitting here listening to Tangerine Dream's Rubycon album while I write and catch up with some e-mails.

My daughter's just walked in with the Quality Street tin, so I'm off to mug her.

Until tomorrow, when I'm sure I'll have a grumble lined up...

The joys of working nights.

Having been working nights for a long time now, you would have thought that the body clock would be ticking along quite happily now, adjusted to the odd hours and even odder eating habits...or not.

Today featured interruptions, dog barking, getting up, dog crying, going back to bed, more dog barking and general thoughts of abandoning all attempts to sleep and just staying up. Some days are like that. Life carries on as normal because your's isn't. 

Here's my typical day's timeline, starting from when I leave for work at night.

9:40pm - leave for work to start at 10pm. The shift is 8 hours apart from the Sunday shift which starts at 1am Monday morning.

6:00am - finish work and go home (back by about 6:15.)

7:15am approx - into bed, and sleep.

2:30pm approx - get up.

Now, bear this in mind - I get up around half two, everyone's home by about 4pm from school etc and dinner's on. So my breakfast is dinner. In fact, in the week,I don't eat anything like a conventional breakfast. So I may get up and shortly afterwards be eating curry. Not normal at all.

From the time I get up, which is a whole 7 hours before I even leave for work, I have to do whatever most people do after a day at work, so my relaxing time comes before a full day's (night's) work. 

It's been suggested before now that I reverse this process, stay up in the morning, have dinner and treat the early morning as normal people treat their evenings. Then, go to bed late afternoon and get up fresh as a daisy and skip in to work after having a nice bowl of Coco-Pops.

Unfortunately, life is not like that - in my choice to work the unsociable hours (admittedly for the financial perks of those hours, and no early starts.), I can't disrupt everybody else's life. No-one in the house is going to want to get up to me cooking myself a curry, and nor are they going to be expected to tiptoe around the house for my benefit as I spend all afternoon and evening in bed. I'd never want that. 

The other problem comes at a weekend - you need to sleep Friday day after working all of Thursday night, but what happens when Friday night rolls around and you should go to bed to have a relatively normal Saturday and rest of the weekend? Often you lie there wide awake on the Friday night, leaving you tired all through Saturday. It's a vicious circle at times.

The night shift worker's drinking regime. And yes, that is my cup.

                    
On the plus side, when I do sleep in the day without incident, the quality of sleep is usually very good, and I do feel quite refreshed when I get up. It just scientifically isn't enough. Over the course of a week, a night shift worker can fall around 17 hours behind the average day worker in sleep gained.

The strange thing is, my body, after all this time, still shouts at me when I'm eating cheese rolls at two in the morning. It screams at me, 'This is not normal!', even now.

After a little research, all of this boils down to what's known as the circadian clock. Whilst there is no easy way to adapt yourself completely to night work, you obviously try to make the best of it. I've seen many people come and go on night shifts simply because they can't adjust their bodies to deal with such a switch in lifestyle. 

I wouldn't want to change the shift I work because I enjoy it as a whole, and have always been a little nocturnal, but it's also good to be aware of the issues that it brings with it.

I seem to have written more than I originally planned, so tomorrow I'll post something shorter, I promise.

The Angel Croft Hotel, Lichfield and Thursday thoughts.

A few months ago, on one of our lovely early evening family walks, we stopped and had a look at the gorgeous architecture of the long vacant Angel Croft Hotel. As we see so often in towns, a lovely building in a prime location is slowly decaying to dereliction, partly due to recession hampering refurbishment and vandalism.

The building is Grade II listed, dating back to 1750 with some excellent railing works and all round design. 

Looking at the building, it's a sorry state. Broken into countless times, and with water damage caused by stolen copper pipes, paint flaking and grounds overgrown, it's a sad sight indeed.

My wife asked if I would buy it for her (and only half jokingly it seemed), and if I could I would. If I had a lot of money in fact, there are many places I can think of that I'd buy and restore. Hopefully, the hotel will find a backer and be refurbished before it's too late.

From the back, it could look worse. Notice how many different sized windows there are! 

Peeping through the letterbox, the interior looks almost untouched, although most things have been taken now.

I'll try and get down there again this week to update on the condition of the building, a wet summer won't have helped and I fear it's probably going to look even worse.

In other, completely unrelated news, I was woken up today by my wife excitedly telling me that my favourite NFL team, the San Francisco 49ers, will be playing at Wembley Stadium next October, and that I *will* be going. That got my day off to an excellent start I can tell you. I've been following American Football for over 25 of my 39 years, and so I'm very excited as it's only the second time I will have seen my team in all that time, and the first time in a truly competitive, meaningful game. More on this in later posts.

Well, here goes...

Hmm. The awkward opening post. Here goes. I wanted to write a blog because so many things happen every day that we don't record or remember for posterity. I take photos when I go for a walk and stick them at the back of the hard drive. I do silly doodles and throw them away. I moan about the 75th coffee shop opening in town, but never share my misery. Things like that.

Reading some blogs this week about things that interest me made me think, why not just do your own? It seems people writing about things that are close to their heart or community can actually be made interesting for anyone with even only a fleeting interest. I spent 4 hours yesterday reading an entire archive of blogs about somewhere that I haven't lived for over 25 years, yet was enthralled and totally impressed by the quality of writing and love for the subject that the blogger had. 

I want to be like that, and so I bring you, dear reader, my attempt. 

First, a little about me.
I'm Dan, I'm 39 years of age and live in the beautiful and historic City of Lichfield. I am ridiculously happily married and have two beautiful, clever children. (Girls, obviously.)
I work in Lichfield (the day job) and I am an artist (the day job I'd like to have) at weekends.I guess I'll have to share some of my doodlings and noodlings as we go. I am terribly nostalgic, and love to pick up little bits and pieces from my youth, something else I'll share; you'll see what I mean as we go on. 
I am totally unashamed to admit I am a nerd about all types of things, and this I'm sure will come across in future posts. (I'm getting excited thinking about the crap I can post on here...) And that's about it. I'll let the blog show you just how uninteresting I am, but also how blissfully happy I am with it.

Thanks for reading this far!

Dan

P.S. I grew up in Margate and Ramsgate, and will be sharing some of my memories from there too, but the main content will be observations on Lichfield.