Now I’m not the worlds biggest fan of abstract painting, never have been, but a couple of months ago I came across an abstract piece which blew me away – it was superb. I studied the thing long and hard and I still have no idea how it was physically painted and I’ve got to tell you, I’m in awe of the artist – and I know for a fact there’s no chance I could ever replicate it.
A variation on a theme.
I don’t consider myself an art tart and I reckin I’ve always had a fair degree of artistic integrity. I suppose it might help if I explain what an art tart is, or at least, what I consider one is.
It’s an artist who, having discovered an attractive and commercially viable style – not his own – sets about adding it to his portfolio. I know of an artist working not a million miles away from me, and pretty good they are too, who has done quite well from exploiting this policy – but it isn’t for me.
That said I thought I might try incorporating a degree of abstraction into my own work – and I’m loving it. It’s nowhere near as fast to execute as I imagined it would be, and despite the fact I’m using a palette knife as the primary tool I’m discovering almost every stroke is every bit as considered as it would be with a brush were I to be painting in my usual style, possibly even more so, and to be able to incorporate stylized ‘action’ and ‘movement’ into my work is simply a joy!
This is only a flirtation, I’ve no intention of abandoning my style of working, and I haven’t sold out totally – each painting has a figurative element, maybe a breaking wave or a seagull or something, to root it in the reality which typifies my work.
The first one hung in Billys on the Beach for just six days before it sold – not quite a record but close – the other two (which I’ve incorporated into this blog) have graced my lil gallery for the last ten days and they’re still there, but it’s early days. I think I’ll let the market decide if I’m going to continue with this – who knows, maybe the flirtation will become a full blown affair 
Both the paintings featured above are available from my gallery in Wittering Walk, East Wittering, and are featured on my Art for Sale page on this site.
Shock Horror! Billys on the Beach has been sold!
Sad news at the end of March this year – Billys on the Beach has sold. At the end of April it changed hands, and at the beginning of May, just a week after the painting mentioned above sold, I was asked to remove my paintings – “in the short term at least”. Well, the walls are still blank, the hooks are still in place, and James (the only one of the confederation of surfers who bought the place whose contact number I have) sadly isn’t responding to my messages (nothing new there, Chris the previous owner never did 
)
II guess nothing lasts forever, and change has gotta come, but it’s a bloody shame – historically I’ve sold an average of a painting a month from Billys. It put my work slap bang in front of my potential customers, the perfect showcase for that demographic, and it’ll be a fair wind indeed to blow them in numbers to the bottom of Wittering Walk – It looks as if this may cost me very dearly 
A thank you
As it looks as if an end to an era has come for me this is probably exactly the time to offer my heart felt thanks to everyone who has bought one of my paintings from Billys – and I’m delighted to say there have been quite a few of you over the years.
It sounds a little trite but I mean this quite sincerely – if the painting gives you half as much pleasure hanging on your wall as it gave me to paint I couldn’t ask for more.
I’d also like to thank Chris and his staff who went out of their way to make those sales happen, and the magic manager Brett who first took it apon himself to hang my work quite some years ago.
Thank you everyone, and God bless 🙂
SB
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