Confession

i have an obsession with the eye. The images which follow occurred via experimentation with photoshop today. Oh well.
Something i noticed; was that the angle of my head shifted with the view of each set of eyes. Did this happen to you? Would you like me to treat a photograph of your eyes in this way? All i need is a recent photograph and ...

Recent Work

'Matilda', oil on canvas, 30x40 cm, November 2005. A portrait of my very cute niece which was a surprising pleasure to paint. In my experience it is a rarity to complete a painting without some form of extreme frustration during its execution. i only found myself screaming incoherent obscenities at my paintbrush once while painting this image. Both oils and portraits generally make me nervous, i guess as a result of my relative inexperience with both. Painting this portrait has given me a new confidence with the medium and the theme.
So i am open to private portrait commissions as of now. All i need is a recent photograph, an inordinate amount of time and an exorbitant amount of money, just leave a contact email in my comments.

Motivation

What is it that motivates you? Fame, fortune, faith, family or maybe its just a good fuck? Perhaps it is all of the above or you have never really given it any thought. i truely am curious to know what gets you out of bed in the morning (or whenever it is that you get out of bed), so please leave a comment if you have any thoughts on the topic.
i guess the reason i am curious is that i had a little trouble when i began contemplating my own motivation. At first i thought Coffee! Yeah Coffee - thats what motivates me, gimme some more Coffee, as black as my cold dark heart, NOW! This of course was too simple, although i would still say that it is the simple pleasures which drive me. Prompting an unexpected giggle at an inappropriate moment would be one of favourites.
i was hoping to come to a conclusion through the writing of this, but perhaps seven cups of coffee in the morning is too many and i've fried my brain. i shall have to return to this subject, but for now it is time for more...

Procrastination

We are all guilty of it, spending time on minor tasks while apparently more important tasks sit on the 'back-burner'. i'm sure many famous people have said things on the topic of procrastination, but i just cannot be bothered digging them up right now. A quick google search reveals a plethora of quick fixes and 'procrastination hacks' - many of you out there seem to see this effect of human behaviour as a negative thing.
'Conscious Clarity', Airbrushed Acrylic on Masonite, 1995. This painting began as a sketch in 1992, yet only took 1 month to paint - the rest was thinking time. Of course many other things were completed in that three years, two relationships, moved house four times, my first year of art school, that sort of thing. The point is that this painting would not be what it is without that period of procrastination, it needed it. The strange thing is, this is how i saw it in my minds eye in 1992.
Thus i do not believe procrastination is such a bad habit, knowing what to sit on is the tricky bit. So i really have no advice on how to kick your own procrastination habit, revel in it. Now go and re-organise your c.d. collection.

Self Portraits
There is obviously a narcissistic element to a self portrait, but lets face it - nobody else is going to love yourself. Besides which it is an aeons old tradition of artistic endeavour.
This image was taken with a Pentax K1000 in 1995 on colour film with commercial processing. i simply directed the camera toward the intersection of four bevelled mirrors - you know the kind your parents decided to unevenly plaster to a living room wall in the mid-eighties (tacky and they really do not make the room look any bigger). A student at the time, imagine my surprise when two months later i finally retrieve my photos from the cheapest mini-lab i could find and flicking through the mostly poor photography i come across this forgotten shot. Ten years later i still like it a lot, i still take pictures of myself taking pictures and it was this image which initiated that habit.
Learning the essentials of photography on the K1000 has proven invaluable for me over the years. Classed as a semi-automatic (having a light meter) it gave me complete conscious control over aperture, timing and focus - i miss that camera so much. It made me think. Shayne Rocks probably flogged it at Cash-Converters years ago, i hate that prick.