More Moral(e) Codes

BL 6" Gun Mk7
Acrylic and Japanese Size on canvas board

Detail

BL 6" 26cwt Howitzer MK1
Acrylic,oil,flourescent pen,tippex on canvas board

Where I work

A couple of shots of where I work. It's not a bad space but the size of my work will be restricted by the size of this space. I would like to  undertake bigger pieces but I'm not going to be able to do them here. I can work in my classroom when I have the time but that's not very often. I'm very envious of the artists who have the white-walled spaces with room enough to have several pieces of work on the wall at once.
Goldfish, etc will only grow in proportion to the size of their environment.....I know how they feel.

This is the main desk where the painting, etc gets done. Pretty cluttered. The painting is the beginnings of the British BL 6" gun. It goes along with the German Kanone piece.

Another view of the clutter

The other desk where the soldiers get made. Prototype versions of figures for 'Plastic Armies' are on the cutting mat.

I'm complaining about the clutter but I don't have to have 5 guitars! The book case I need but the two clothes horses draped in wet washing in the winter months I could do without! I'm very grateful for the laser printer and I'm sure I could declutter some of the other junk.



Some pictures from IWM Manchester

A highlight for me during our holiday in Manchester was a visit to Imperial War Museum North. Although it's nothing like the size of the IWM in London, it houses an extensive collection beginning at the Great War and continuing on to present day.
I was really pleased to find a British 13 pounder, the likes of which would have been manned by my ancestor who was in the Royal Horse Artillery and saw action at the famous artillery rear guard action of Mons at the start of the war. This particular gun fired the very first British shell of the war. These guns are still used whenever there's a 21 gun salute and on other state ceremonies. It's funny to see one of these again up close as the last time I was this close to one, I would have been about 11, at the Royal Tournament at Earls Court!

It was also really good from a reference point of view to find this great example of a German mortar.

Gott Mit Uns finally painted

I was grateful for the opportunity to get to paint this after doing a digital version and a marker version. I'm not sure if I would have got round to this if it hadn't been commissioned (thanks Julie and Henry!) It's always good to see paintings from a distance as it were when they're on screen. I've not added colour to the gold and silver leaf as I have before as I didn't want it to compete with the colourful background. The border lettering is in German again and is another phrase from Ephesians 6 which talks about taking the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.
The piece represents the idea that all sides in the Great War and other conflicts invoke the same god to ask for protection and victory over the other side. The Maxim guns are there to symbolise the craziness of the situation where the Germans, Russians, British and Americans were all killing each other with different versions of the same gun; the U.S Maxim developed by Hiram Maxim in the late 19th/early 20th century. We were all killing each other with the same weapons in a conflict justified and sanctioned by the same deity.

Gott Mit Uns
Acrylic, gold and silver leaf on canvas board