2013-4 69, Ashley Rd
In 2008 I bought a derelict industrial building in Bristol to convert for a studio. A few days after I bought it, the Lehman Bros bank collapse happened and I no longer knew if I would have the money to complete the conversion, with all the banks teetering on the brink and no savings deemed safe. Three years later I decided to go ahead with the conversion and rented a studio while the building work was done. I moved into the refurbished studio in April 2013. It still needed a lot of work so I did rather little artwork there in my first year while I whipped it into shape.
Since I had been at Art School I had wanted to start painting in oils again, but I was mindful about dire warnings we were given there about painting and sleeping in the same room where solvent based paints were used - a road to pre-senile dementia we were told. At last I now had a studio where I didn’t have to sleep, so I planned to start painting in oils again, after a 42 year break. I am having to learn to paint in oils all over again and miss some of the materials (like flake white) that I grew up with, but are no longer available. Meanwhile, I keep sketching from life to keep my hand in with drawing.