#281 Spoon of Coffee

Because of wrestling with the kitchen these past few weeks/months/years I have had the coffee maker in my studio, which means it smells of coffee instead of linseed oil, which is a nice change. So, I saw the coffee tin and thought I would add to the paintings of dust. The blue pigment, earth and the ash from the other nights hot coal all sit nicely together as paintings of dusty materials. Oil on gesso 16cm x12cm.

#280 Naan Bread

Heat of a different kind this evening. After a long hard day breaking rocks...I mean... kitchen fitting there is nothing better than a takeaway to ease your aching muscles and relax the mind. It also helps you relaise that a rag might help with tightening up tricky 't' junction compression fittings! The painting is a tear from my peshwari naan, I nearly painted some masalla sauce but thought it might look a little like.. well.. um.. use your imagination! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#279 Hot Coal

Having no working kitchen we have been living on a diet of takeaway salads and barbecue food for the last three weeks. Tonight we had a fantastic pork chop bbq'd with onions and apples served with cous cous and a sprout and spinach salad. It was so good I have painted one of the coals that cooked it, with a little help from Debbie I expect. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#278 Yellow Tomato

Phew! Just got todays painting done with an hour to spare before today becomes tomorrow. Many thanks to everyone who came to the private view this evening and to my fellow exhibitors, Ashley, Mark, Matt and Claire. I am bias but I think the show looks great and if you are in or around Cheltenham I heartily recomend a look! Summerfield Gallery, Pittville Studios open weekdays 9:30 to 4. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

oh, and I did get some new white paint, a tube of lovely Micheal Harding hand ground Titanium white no 1.

#277 Titanium White Paint

Titanium white paint has had an important place in my life over the last 277 days. All of the boards have been primed using it and all the backgrounds on all the paintings been painted with mostly Titanium. I am painting this today because, as you can see, it has run out! I have known it has been running out for some days now but keep forgetting to do anything about it. I hope this serves as a reminder! Oil on Gesso 16cm x12cm.
I would also like to invite you all to visit a group show that I am in at The Summerfield Gallery, Pittville Studios, University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham.

#276 Half a Runner Bean

I love objects like this, that without the title would be very hard to work out what you were looking at. I have spent some time today working out how and if I should title these when they are hung in a gallery out of context of this blog... Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#275 Tea Spoon

I have called this a tea spoon actually it is a bit smaller than a tea spoon. I don't think it has ever gone near tea either, I use it to spoon coffee into my coffee maker. So, probably have used it everyday for a while, unless I feel ill. I can't stand coffee when I dont feel well. Luckily I feel fine and have drunk my normal amount of coffee today. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#274 Clothes Peg

I wasn't sure why I painted this today then I realised; I am having washing machine withdrawal! It has now been over two weeks and it seems thats how many pairs of socks I have. I am now wearing interesting pairings that nearly match and will convince the passing observer. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#273 Tube of Glue

Well, what an exciting day the first cupboards are installed in the kitchen, the first bit of worktop (very complicated shape, I might add) is in and England won the ashes! The only problem is I reckon there is another weeks work in finishing the kitchen (with water, cookers and boring stuff like that) and I have to go back to work tomorrow....ah.

This tube of glue was the target of a mad rush around Cheltenham, at 6pm this evening, looking for somewhere open that might sell glue. I needed to stick the edging strip on the worktop before I installed it and I had no quick drying glue at all. I found this at the one stop shop on the ring road near Bences for those of you with local knowledge! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#272 Floor Offcuts

Finished the flooring today, just got to wait for the glue to dry so I have also been putting together cupboard units, oh what fun. One day I will book some serious amount of time off work to spend some time painting, reading, playing guitar or just doing absolutely nothing, instead of hardcore diying. One day... Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#271 Egg

Been tiling the kitchen floor all day today so, as for the last two weeks, all of the kitchen stuff is in the front room. I spotted this just next to the television as I was wondering what to paint today. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#270 Mini Cornish Pastie

Sometimes things are too big to paint on the size board I use for this project, so when I saw a mini version of a classic like the cornish pastie today I both had to have some for my lunch and for a painting. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#269 Three Buttons

I love getting little packets of things in the post from people. Thanks to Nicky for sending this little selection (among other things). When you have spent most of the day plastering and filling walls exciting objects are hard to come by so, I was very pleased to start the day of with these! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#268 Copper Pipes

Yes you guessed it, the plumbing has begun, this is from a little warm up bit of rejigging of some radiator pipes that were in the wrong place. By Debbie I hasten to add, plumbing gives me a headache. I painted these while the radiators were glugging as they were being refilled, one from the old system and a bit cut off the new. Both 8mm microbore. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.