Rust Never Sleeps 7: Supreme.

'Supreme', oil on canvas, 16" x 20".

Rust Never Sleeps 5: H*3

H*3, oil on board, 18" x 24".

I know at least one person has been waiting for this, so here it finally is. More rust.

Another one from the rich seam of colour, font and rust at Eyemouth harbour. I've got three more canvasses roughed out and ready to go.

I added the diagonal shadow at a very late stage on this, and it suddenly made the whole painting make sense. It's difficult to give a sense of perspective and depth on what is obviously a flat surface, but the shadow just made it 'leap' somehow.

I was looking through some estate agency auction materials from the mid 1830s today - handbills, posters, lithographic prints, maps etc., which was a very exciting thing for a history and font nerd. I got some interesting ideas, not unconnected with the fishing boat work, which I'm quite excited about. Hopefully something will come of it. More rust first, though.

Fair to Moderate, and the Return of H*3.

Post St.Abbs Fair analysis.

It was the hardcore wool crowd, and it was quite quiet all day, but it did afford some interesting analysis of what went and what didn't. Again, the Catnip cards proved the most popular, and I took the long hours of idleness as opportunity to doodle out a couple of new ones. The new square canvasses got a lot of interest too, and the reproduction cards of them sold, so I think I'm right in believing that there's something to follow there.

Met and chatted with lots of interesting people, both stallholders and browsers, and got a couple of good leads for future fairs and possible collective exhibitions. And I paid for my half of the table and had a bit of cash in the pocket at the end of it.

Oh aye, and to those who passed through, laughed at the cards for free and didn't buy one, that's virtually shoplifting.

And thanks above all to Lyndsay, a.k.a. the Border Tart who staged a tactical Malteser run when the stallholders were flagging and said kind things about my work and is therefore a Good Person.

As a result, I'm following the hankering I had for rusty letters and cracking on again with another such study from Eyemouth harbour; H*3 is back up on the easel and awaiting the on-clagging of paint. Can't wait.

Quietly Pleased, Anyway

Rejoice, oil on board, 18" x 24".

An appropriate sort of title, as I got this accepted yesterday for the Open Exhibition at the Gymnasium gallery in Berwick. It's title of 'Open' is surely intended to be ironic as finding out about how to enter involves dropping hints with people who know people, picking up envelopes on park benches and finally meeting with a shadowy figure in a windy doorway who is initially cagey but eventually slips an email address, typewritten on a sheet of paper, into your hand and when you look up he has vanished.

Anyway, it's another picture of rust, a combination of a couple of boats in Eyemouth harbour. We had a day at Eyemouth a few weeks ago (the seal really is blind, I discovered. I sceptically thought it was just a ruse by the mackerel vendor) and I stocked up on some splendidly weathered letters and numbers. The 'Rejoice' was up on the slipway and I only had the normal lens on so I could only get a very cropped, pixellated image. I went back the next day with the telephoto lens, having decided to paint it, only the buggers had got there before me and it was pristine again: