Five Big New Paintings

Two videos were made today for two sets of work. I’ll write about the other video in another post but this one was for my most recently painted large paintings. These are the largest ones I can find affordable couriers for in the UK, so nothing bigger can be sold online. It seems that a parcel with any diameter over a meter is the cut off point between affordable and astronomical.

Five of the big oil paintings I did the other week were dry this morning, and the weather was ideal for video and photography in my front and back gardens, so that’s how I spent the day today. 30 x 24 inch oil on canvas, photographed, videoed and split between my two online shops. Here they are, all waiting their turn:

Tomorrow I’ll start on the fifteen or so half done ones of the same size that are now ready for their second layer. Both shops now have well over a hundred listings each. Whichever type of artwork sells best will have more added. Recently these big oil on canvas paintings and the small A5 size oil pastel drawings have been the most popular, so plenty more are on the way. I think big oil pastel drawings like the PATTAYA COLLABS we did in Thailand would be popular. I’ll get some of those done in the coming days.

I won’t be at Billy’s studio next week, so have an extra day to work on building inventory. It’s been about a month since I’ve been to Chatham, where Billy and I paint together. I’ll hopefully be back there soon, but this break’s come at a perfect time as I move all my efforts from THE CAMDEN MARKET FREE ART MAN to e-commerce.

I never realised how much work’s involved in building and running an online shop. It’s satisfying work though. Watching all these interviews with self-made billionaires is a free and easy PhD at anyone’s fingertips. Today’s lesson: either properly tidy up my work areas or give up. The main studio room is almost clear enough for me to have both my music recording and oil painting equipment out at the same time. To be able to record a song, then go straight to picking up a paint brush will be a dream come true. I hate to think how many hours I’ve wasted over the years, transitioning the studio every time I want to do a different activity. One of the main things I want set up in Thailand’s a big open plan room where painting, printmaking, music recording and computing each have their own corner, with a bed in the middle. Everything immediately to hand, all of the time. The complete BLACK IVORY experience.

The T-shirt I’m wearing in today’s video once belonged to @ronthroop Ron Throop. I can’t remember how and why it transferred from him to me, but it’s a good constant reminder of BLACK IVORY’s peak week so far. Check out the film that resulted from his time in the UK. It’s a classic, and a reminder of how important it is to record such events and whatever conscious thoughts are behind them.