#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.

#267 Sprig of Sage

This has nothing to do with building kitchens or plastering walls (todays job), but it has everything to do with cooking in kitchens when they are finished. It is also another of those overlooked products of the garden that I haven't painted yet, herbs. Herbadacious! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#266 Jam Doughnut

I am surprised to learn how important jam doughnuts are in the replacing of kitchens! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#265 Victoria Plum

Lots of talk about plums today, this will be my first of the year and am heartily looking forward it. It is also day #265 of this year long painting odessey so, 100 paintings left and 100 days for me to decide what I will do when its over!

Panic over on the injured finger, the throbbing has stopped and I can wield a brush with confidence again! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#264 Red Wire

Next in the series of kitchen refitting paintings is this bit of red wire. We had James, the electrician, in today re-wireing the kitchen, this bit was from the old wiring. We now have an empty kitchen, apart from the freezer, with a skeleton of wires and sockets spidering their way across the room, might keep it like that!
On a darker note I damaged the end of my right index finger whilst pulling up floorboards this morning. I didn't think it would much difference when painting but you would be surprised how often I change my grip on the brush and even more surprised how often that change of grip is right on the cut. I just hope it stops throbbing for tomorrows offering!

Have I gone on about my poorly, cut, bashed up finger enough yet? Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#263 Offcut of Hardboard

Oh my, kitchens are hard work! This is a little offcut from the back of one of the base units. Be warned anyone who intends buying an ikea kitchen, they have no gap behind them for pipes. I have had to cut a channel out for the gas pipe. Do the Swedish people not have pipes in their kitchens? I am glad they don't because this was a perfect object to paint today. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#262 Plaster

Plasters have been a big part of my day today, through the removal of wall tiles, which in some places were welded on and others held on with willpower alone. Either way when you miss them you scrape your knuckles across a very rough jaggedy wall. Hence plasters. If you are lucky tomorrow I will paint a used one! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#261 Red Wine Cork

It's not all kitchen demolishing you know, this is from last nights bottle of wine that will get finished tonight. But only after I have taken the last few tiles down. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#260 Chitted Potato

Clearing out the kitchen is always going to throw up some interesting finds, from a plastic masher and fish slice secreted underneath the cupboards to this accidentally chitted potato from the dark recesses of the built in cupboards. Lovely colours though, right more tile smashing! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#259 Grape Twig

All I have done today is smash off more tiles, see yesterdays painting, and I didn't want to paint another one! I have also eaten a lot of red grapes so many in fact there weren't any left to paint, so I painted the twig. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#258 Broken Tile

On the first day, we removed all the pots and pans and the like, took out two cupboardsand began to smash the wall tiles off, thankfully they come off nice and easily (comparatively easy anyway!). This is one of them, difficult to photograph for some reason, must be the subtle contrast in the painting and bad light in the studio! Apart from the beginning of the demolition we have sorted out the potential flooring. Bring on the new kitchen! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#257 Cheese Burger

I had a cheeky well known fast food takeaway lunch today and to atone for my poor choice in nutritious food intake I forced myself to paint it half way through! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#256 Strange Crochet Head

Not sure what else to say about this, Debbie started it, scared herself a little with how weird it looked and stopped. Since then it has been residing in a funny tub of crochet samples and things until I resurrected it this evening in a Dr Frankenstein manner. Except there wasn't any lightning. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#255 Pencil Rubber

I haven't painted any art materials for a while and this has been floating around my desk for a while, not sure why, I haven't made any drawings in the studio for ages. Oil on gesso 12cm x 16cm.

#254 Nectarine Half

Actually a little bit more than half because of the stone, and no it isn't from the allotment...I wish. Oil on gesso 12cm x 16cm.

#253 Beetroot Tail

I feel I should explain the obsession with fruit and veg that I have been expressing over the last few months. This is our first full year of being allotmenteers (the location is secret to keep away trophy hunters) so each crop is greeted with much glee and is usually the most exciting and pertinent object of that day to paint.

Keeping this blog and writing/painting about my day has thrown up some pictures that I would probably not have made if I hadn't set myself this challenge. Like this beetroot root, a fantastic shaped thing with an amazing colour.You would normally pick it up, say 'wow, that is a cool looking bit of beetroot root', then throw it in the compost. Or, you may do none of these things but, I have this fantastic outlet for those moments. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#252 Green Plum Tomato

This is one for anybody who has grown tomatoes. While tieing up the plants this morning at the allotment a whole branch fell off through a little bit of overexuberant restraining. They are all laid out on the kitchen window sill at the moment in the vain hope they will ripen, you can just see in my painting the very first signs of a bit of ripening in the slightly yellowing skin. Fingers crossed! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#251 Barrel Cactus Baby

This is one of many little cacti that have sprouted at the base of our (Debbies really) huge barrel cactus that must be nearly thirty years old. It has finally found a resting place that suits which, fortunately for me, is my studio windowsill! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.