found this down behind the TV the other day. Well, it wasn’t quite like this, it was an attempt to repaint my original ‘extra width’ piece from about ten years ago as a larger piece in oils. It all went a bit wrong I thought but it was a large-ish canvas and it seemed a shame to bin it.

So the other week when I found it I did what your not supposed to, dug it out, sanded it off some and repainted over the oils with acrylics. I’m sure this isn’t great for the long term life of the painting and in places the brushwork is far too heavy. However I think it looks a lot better than it did, and its too good to put back down behind the desk/tv. So now what to do with it…

umber eleven in the series of occasional roadside photos.

A night taxi driving.

ot my normal style or technique of work, but I’d always wanted to try out using a graphics tablet.

I bought a very cheap Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet form Aldi, or maybe Lidl, some time ago. This shirt design gave me the excuse to have a play. I was quite pleased with the results, and it created far less mess over the garden, the carpet and the curtains than chucking paint at a canvas by hand like I normally do tend to. Anyway, have a look…

Three Counties MG are an MG based car club covering Staffordshire, Worcestshire and Shropshire run by enthusiasts to promote interest in MG cars throughout the Midlands area.

lot has been said on this in the past view days and if you do like the station and would like it to stay then this blog offers some great advice. There are also a wide range of eloquent, heartfelt letters being posted on the forfolkssake website.

Speaking personally its the only ‘music’ station I regularly listen to, well, okay, I do listen to Brumcast on Rhubarb Radio too but thats just the once a week, Several of the shows on 6 Music fulfill the two things I want from music radio. Presenters who are enthusiastic for what they do and music I’ve not heard before. Its been good to hear John Peels name mentioned so often within the pieces I’ve read about the station and I think it true that the station as a whole goes some way to replacing a lot of what he did for both new and old music.

When ever the license fee discussion comes up I think that both 6 Music and BBC 7 justify the cost to me. I can’t say much of the output on many of the other stations and certainly a large portion of the TV content does for me.

As I saw someone write on Twitter

John Peel would be spinning in his grave. Quite possibly at the wrong speed

This was a piece done all the way back in 1999, inspired by the James Ellroy novel ‘Suicide Hill’ Well, that and a youth raised on seeing square 80s US police cars and then being disappointed that the newer models lacked the same kind of style and uniqueness.

I thought I’d start posting a few older pieces on here, as its again now nine o’clock on another sunday night at the end of another week and I’ve made it through the whole weekend without starting the new painting I have all sketched out and ready to go. Its not that I’ve been slacking, just not enough hours in the week it seems. More artwork and maybe even new artwork to follow…

Oh, and the magic of Facebook has waned a bit for me, if you want to keep up with the continued occasional flow of amusing signage photographs then you’ll need to join me on twitter.

Thank you, that is all.

r the end of the world as some would have it.

After a week of that, and having some pictures in the local newspapers ‘Snow watch’ its back to busy busy busy. Got a few things on and working on some paintings, hope to update the gallery on here soon. Its been far too long. Then theres the shop page. Should really sort that out. What I really need is some kind of 168 hour weekend. Anyway, heres the snow watch pictures in a size where you can see them properly. May have overdone it with the filter on the first two.

The following quote did make me laugh

THESE beautiful pictures of Bromsgrove were taken by Chris Hathway and clearly show how beautiful the town looked during the wintry weather.

Its taken me three trips to the local park so far to find places that aren’t either over ridden with signage, full of street furniture that isn’t really suited to a park, it being ’street’ furniture, or thats a nice view ruined by one of the varied coloured dog poo bins which are placed in the most random manner posible, in fact, maybe a second post to follow.

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eally, its not a joke…

Does that even make sense? Okay, so this one does…

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umber ten in the series of near regular roadside photos.

This was taken with a TTV contraption, inspired to have a go by Pete Ashton’s pictures, and taken on a snowy winters morn outside the Bear’s Head in Brereton, Sandbach. I was checking the pubs name online, and it seems a lot of the pubs in the area are named after parts of a bears anatomy, The Bear’s Paw, The Black Bear Inn, The Beartown Tap, wonder why?

More updates soon. I’m just finishing off my second flu bug of the winter and I think two is quite enough for this year.

umber eight in the series of very occasional roadside photos. I suppose strictly this is an under the roadside photo as it was taken on floor one of the Arcadian Centre car park on Bromsgrove Street in Birmingham.