KEITH PROCTOR ..." ARTISTS BLOG "

Hi , I have just returned from The Original Art Shop in Preston where i met some really nice people as i did at Trentham , my trip to Castle Galleries in Chester and at Meadowhall last weekend was also very enjoyable, the response so far to the new prints is overwhelming , people can be so funny, i have had quite a laugh listening to some of the stories about kids in general and met some very interesting characters.
I brought home a little gift for Jack "Kerplunk" it was, but he didnt seem to interested in it and infact he hasnt even opened it up yet, i am hopeing he was just to tired as we all need a Kerplunk fix now and again "dont we" ?? !
I am at Bath and Exeter next weekend and am looking forward to that so pop along if you can , shown above is a recent oil painting entitled "Three Little Friends" which is one of the Originals sold at Chester last week .

KEITH PROCTOR ORIGINAL OIL AVAILABLE AT CHARITY AUCTION

This Original oil entitled "Custard Cream" study(2) will be Auctioned at the popular Lifespan Charity Art Auction which returns to the Biscuit Factory Newcastle upon Tyne for its fifth year, on Thursday 6th October 2011.  Featuring works from many acclaimed artists including Antony Gormley, Jack Vettriano, Allexander Millar, Viz, Beryl Cook and many other artists, both local and national, the evening is set to be fun, with fast and furious bidding under the hammer of Auctioneer, Jim Railton.  Lifespan is a small local charity which brings ease and support to people with serious and life-threatening illness, and to family members and friends who care for them.
Their caring work is carried out by a small, dedicated, permanent and very experienced team who are able to offer continuity and flexibility to meet the patient and their family and carers needs.
Please see http://www.lifespanteam.org.uk/home/ for more information.

KEITH PROCTOR ..." ARTISTS BLOG "

I have just returned from Birmingham where the new Autumn range of prints entitled "Making Memories" was released , one of the seven new prints is shown below "Theres something about you".  children take in more than we think , I like this picture because it shows the little boys quiet observation of what the little girl is doing as though he is trying to fathom her out, little does he know, he will spend the rest of his life trying to fathom them out and vice versa ! . The second picture shows Jack messing around as i was trying to photograph a recent oil painting, he was Six years old yesterday " Happy Birthday Jack ",  the third is a detail from a original painting of Ruby, there are a few that have been published of Ruby and two more of Lily and Grace due out at the end of October from Washington Green Fine Art Publishers.
I will be exhibiting at various Galleries from the end of this month so pop along and say hello if you can, here are the details of when and where they are.
Chester Castle Galleries Sat 17th Sept 12-3pm
Sheffield Castle Galleries Sun 18th Sept 1-4pm
Trentham Original Art Shop Sat 24th Sept 1-4pm
Preston Original Art Shop Sun 25th Sept 12-3pm
Bath Castle Galleries Sat 1st Oct 12-3pm
Bristol Castle Galleries Sat 2nd Oct 1-4pm .. ?
Newcastle Castle Galleries Sat 8th Oct 1-4pm
Glasgow Castle Galleries Sun 9th Oct 1-4pm
Yorkshire - Pocklington "Acorn Gallery" Sat 15th Oct 12-3pm
Essex "Chelmer Fine Art" Sun 16th Oct 1-4pm
Stratford Castle Galleries Sat 22nd Oct 1-4pm
Milton Keynes Castle Galleries Sun 23rd Oct 12:30-3:30pm
Kent Bluewater Castle Galleries Sat 29th Oct 1-4pm
York Castle Galleries Sat 5th Nov 1-4pm
Manchester Trafford Centre Castle Galleries Sun 6th Nov 2-5pm "Live Painting in Gallery"
Doncaster Limited 2 Art Sat 12th Nov 12-3pm
Wimbledon "Canvas Wimbledon" Sun 13th Nov 1-4pm
Norwich Castle Galleries Sun 20th Nov 12-3pm

KEITH PROCTOR ARTIST INTERVIEW / YOU TUBE VIDEO

Hi ,  The past few months have flown over, they say the years go by quicker the older you get, well i must be ancient as each day just blends into the next , I will be 50 years old in November (50) , i think i will spell it .... "FIFTY" , no it still hasn't sunk in , my wife Deb says i only look about 35 and i think she is spot on with her estimate, her eyebrows start to twitch when she is not telling the truth so i know that she is being honest as they didn't move at all. Jack is on top form at the moment, yesterday he engraved a picture of him self on to the passenger door of our car using a small piece of metal and proceeded to scratch the rest of it while he was on , i did remain calm and put it down to the fact he is only five and all kids have there moments of madness, i remember being about this age when  "early one morning" i woke before the rest of the family and went down stairs and found that my Dad had left a hammer on the dining room table ! , i soon went to work on my Mams prized collection of Elvis records , the "78"ones , i smashed every one , i then poked a nitting needle into the electric fire and nearly blew my self up , anyway, i forgive Jack, This time !!.  Washington Green have made a short video about me and my work, click HERE if you would like to watch it, from this September through to December i will be touring around the UK exhibiting at various Galleries every weekend , Washington Green fine art publishing are organising this and i will show the dates on this blog when i receive them .  Paintings shown above are "Soccer Star" ( print available) "Paws for thought" (print available) "The kids got talent", "Jack the lad", "Homeward bound" and "I miss you" .

KEITH PROCTOR ORIGINAL PAINTING .. FLUMMOXED !

Hi .. I'm still at it ! .. I am quite happy in my new Studio and Gallery now the dust is starting to settle, i thought it was a nice large space that would take some filling but "you guessed it" i need more space all ready, the thing with gallery space is the walls are full and floor area is empty which is ideal for Jack to play with his toy cars as he soon discovered . This coming Saturday i will be appearing and exhibiting at BREEZE GALLERY, Peebles in Scotland from 2-5pm and i am really looking forward to that. Not to far from home ! so no trains for me !! Please Note :The Glasgow Exhibition has now been moved to this Autumn !!

KEITH PROCTOR ARTISTS BLOG

Its been a while "again", I have recently moved into a new studio its full of natural light and is taking some getting used to, my last studio ( the spare room at home ) had good natural light from the North with ( no direct sun light ) constant unchanging light it was great, i have even more light now, still North facing with natural roof lights as well, its just to good , the colours i use look different, all of a sudden i can really see the work and its a bit spooky , ill get used to it ! . When you think about it , the paintings are going to be viewed in doors with artificial lights so why bother painting them in natural light ? does it really matter ? .... I have recently started to add a little more colour to the paintings , I started using ( Blick ) oil paint from the states a few years ago, "radiant" colours, "wow" are they good, I will only use them now and again as i prefer to paint with a "very" limited  palette but its nice to change now and again. I have also painted a little girl on her own for the first time, as well as "Lily and Grace" who i normally paint, i have painted a picture of a little girl called Jennifer, her parents showed me some photos they had taken of her with her pink hat on and most of the photos i looked at were just  great , lots of attitude and  lots of Girl Power !. Jennifer is five the same age as Jack . I will be exhibiting at ARTISAN GALLERY Royal Exchange London on 24 Feb 5-8pm / ARTISAN GALLERY Kingston Upon Thames London 26 Feb 1-4pm / BREEZE GALLERY Scotland in April details to follow....  Here are some paintings i have completed recently including three new Limited Edition prints Small Talk, Summer Breeze and Told You So + "Living it up" and "Young at Heart"

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Its me again , been away a while!, hot footing it around the country showin off me pickies and lovin it too , I  met so many really "canny" people  , the most popular question i was asked is "will i continue to paint Jack and use him as my model as he grows up" , I gave people different answers to this question , probably because when I see something that's right for me, i will paint it and there are so many paintings still to do of him as a young child . The answer is yes I will but to what extent i don't know yet, I have a lots of photos of him when he was Three and Four years old so i can use them as reference material in the future as i do now.

I just know that every day i am as enthusiastic to get in the studio to paint these pictures as i was when i did the first one , I have been working on a new studio and move into it after Christmas , I cant wait for that , Thanks to those who came along to the shows for a chat  and to those who purchased Artwork too / Merry Christmas .

KEITH PROCTOR ART EXHIBITIONS 2010

I will be attending the following Exhibitions of my work :

11th Nov The Original Art shop Hanley Stoke on Trent 5-8pm
13th Nov The Acorn Gallery Pocklington, Yorkshire 12-3pm
27th Nov Castle Gallery, Bristol 3-6pm
11th Dec Canvas Wimbledon 3-6pm
12th Dec Castle Galleries, Windsor 2-4pm
18th Dec Castle Galleries, The Mailbox, Birmingham 1-4pm
19th Dec Castle Galleries, The Trafford Centre Manchester 1-5pm

                                                         Sky's The Limit oil on canvas

EXHIBITIONS

I will be at Westover Gallery Bournemouth from 6 - 8pm tomorrow 22 Oct  and then at Castle Galleries Telford from 12 - 3pm on Saturday 23 Oct ........ "sorry about this late announcement ! ... I have other Exhibitions before the year is out and will list them here soon.

KEITH PROCTOR ARTISTS BLOG

Shown here are two out of six NEW Limited Edition prints just released by Washington Green Fine Art Publishers, to see the rest click HERE if you do not wish to see the rest then click HERE for something completely different !

EXHIBITION

Tomorrow Sat 25th Sept Exhibition and sale of original Jack The Lad paintings @ Castle Galleries in Newcastle upon Tyne , the new autumn range of limited edition prints will also be on display , I will be at the Gallery from 1pm till 4pm .... Hope to see you there . click this link to see the original paintings for sale tomorrow .

I LOVE TO BOOGIE

39"x16" ......  Artists (Painters) are always searching for that one painting, that special something that is always just out of reach, without shouting to loudly I would like to say that this painting is a special painting "for me", thats how I feel about it , I am very very happy with this. I painted two different versions of  it a few months ago and will paint it again , a happy child ! .... click this link and turn it up !!  I LOVE TO BOOGIE

BLUEGRASS

I am learning to play the Banjo, ohh yes ! me fingers are killing me , its something I always wanted to do, about ten years ago my wife bought me a mandolin for my birthday, thinking "maybe" that this was what I wanted , I did like the Mandolin and did try to play it but I gave up after a while , I am not going to give up this time , BLUEGRASS is the type of music I will be playing , I have already completed a lot of dance type paintings , one thing I have noticed for sure is the way peolple ( including little Jack ) move when listening to different types of music, there are obviously different types of dance but I am talking about the effects on us as we listen, people listening to classical music generally move there heads from side to side,  rock music its up and down, salsa is hips and bluegrass is fingers and feet, I am going to be painting a few more of these pictures .
This weekend I am going down to Birmingham as Washington Green Fine Art will be releasing some more of my paintings as Limited edition prints .

Shameless

Hi , late again with my post, everythings late this month, sometimes things move slowly even though you are putting what seems to be the same amount of effort into everything, I just cant get ahead, its been one big distraction after the other recently, not that i am moaning mind you !! / "hayfever"  (whos idea was that? )   is slowing me down at the moment , trying to paint while your head is exploding aint funny, the "heat" and a wasps nest in the wall right next to my easel and Jack prodding me with his fishing net and a giant weevil invasion thats lasting weeks and weeks , our kitchen is over run with Ants and our loft with mice, we cant close the door of the garage for swallows nesting in there and the dogs got a massive sheep tick on his eyelid, its like the whole house is under constant attack 24 / 7 .

I will keep going , I will not lift my head tomorrow, I will paint on for sure.

Day Trippers

Hello, its been a while since my last post , I have been very busy in the studio painting the images of Jack and am still enjoying painting them every day , I have so many ideas for these paintings and just want to paint them all at once but obviously I cant, I am going to take this weekend off , "have a break" , I have ordered a large skip to the house and am going to clean up the garage and garden, Jack is eager to help being only four it is fun to him , as it is to me actually , I think I need to get out more!!.
Washington Green have just published another four of my paintings, they are going very well and some have actually sold out from the Publishers which is brilliant, I am so pleased that people seem to like the work, The painting shown above "Day Trippers" is one of the new Limited Editions and the other two are paintings I have recently completed, the one with the spider is a detail from a recent painting called "D Ya Feel Lucky", I have completed quite a few different spider paintings recently, "I think its out of my system now!!The painting titled "Monkey Business" ( above ) is one of three Monkey Business paintings I have just completed, the next is "More Monkey Business" and then "To Much Monkey Business".

Well I am of to play in the garden with Jack "while the sun is out" !! / Bye for now.

KEITH PROCTOR

Things are getting back to normal now after the paintings hit the streets "so to speak", well kind of normal, I have paintied every day for most of my life but never the same subject so much, although most of the Jack The Lad paintings are quite similar in that they are painted with a very limited palette and are of the same subject I must say that they flow with ease when painting them, I am not blowing my own trumpet here but just want to get across how much I love to paint these pictures and that they are each and everyone a joy to paint and I cant wait to paint the next one, I have found since starting to paint them that I pick up on the things Jack and his little pals do and say a lot more than I used to, my eyes and ears are becoming more and more tuned in to whats happening around me, I am putting titles to movement, titles to body language, and I am more tuned in to the general things that people say, I am now constantly and unconsciously on the lookout for nice titles and ideas for the paintings, words and sayings that I here are written down straight away now as I have a memory like a sieve, I will be in the middle of a conversation with someone and then quickly run away to look for a pen uttering " Ooh thats a great title under my breath" and do often jump out of bed during the night to write things down, the titles "Evolution" and "Skew Whiff" are still written in pencil on our kitchen wall!
Here are three recent paintings "Help" / "Heaven Sent" and "Come here and say that"
The paintings shown here are sold for enquiries please contact Washington Green Fine Art.

Lovely Day

Today was the day when I went along to the Gallery "for the first time" to meet people, and talk about the paintings and the inspirations behind them.
Jack and the girls from the paintings, (Lily and Grace), were there, so the three hours flew by, I shook lots of hands and signed lots of brochures, most of my family and friends turned up as well which was brilliant, "thanks" to them.
Jack was asked by a few people to sign his name along with mine and at first he refused, as he did when asked to have his photo taken, after a hour or so there was no stopping him, he had apparently "quietly" asked his mam if it was ok to write on dads pictures thinking (of course) that he would get into trouble for this as he would at home! anyway once he started, that was it, he was sitting signing one after the other and loving the attention, we think we will limit this sort of exposure as we are not to sure how it may affect him, if at all!, we will think about it, after all dad doesn't want his nose pushed out just yet!!.
The Gallery sold all of the "Jack The Lad" paintings on display as did the others, people just loved them, which is what its all about, Cheers to Anthony, Rachael, Beth and Sarah at the Gallery for their hard work. It was a lovely day.

JACK THE LAD PAINTINGS

I went to Castle Galleries in Newcastle this morning to have a look at the paintings now on display in the window and I was realy pleased with the way they have been presented they look just fine ( if I say so myself! ).
There are lots and lots of Galleries including "Castle Galleries" all over the UK having a KP day to launch the "Jack The Lad" paintings,it is next Saturday the 27th, I will be at Castle Galleries in Newcastle from 1 to 4pm so if your in town please call in.
The feed back I have received so far is "bloody marvelous", actually "bloody Marvelous" is a good title for a painting, dont  know if "bloody" is a swear word though, Comments welcome.
You can contact Castle Galleries in your area HERE.
The images shown above are "I have a dream" which has a story to tell!, "Jumpin Jack", "Bzzz" and "Its a man thing".

KEITH PROCTOR / JACK THE LAD "nearly there"

My first weekend at Birmingham was better than I could ever have imagined it to be,I met the staff from Washington Green, lots of people from Castle Galleries and of course the Artists.
All of the faces that I knew only from pictures were suddenly right in front of me, they made me feel very welcome indeed and I met some realy lovely genuine people, the comments I received over the two days were just fantastic and I will be on cloud nine for some time!,the images should be available from all Castle Galleries by the end of this month.
Jack tried to stay awake for me coming home but he fell asleep waiting, its good to be back home and back to the easel today.

Detail from a JACK THE LAD painting

Shown here is a detail from a recent painting, the detail that interests me is when a painting "viewed close up" resembles a ploughed field but from a distance looks very real. I think Artists who paint with a pallet knife such as Victor Bauer have mastered the ART of ploughed Field painting!
This is the weekend that my paintings along with other Artists work will be shown to the Trade by Washington Green Fine Art Publishing, so I am of to Birmingham on Saturday, to say I am looking forward to it is a understatement.
I will be meeting lots and lots of people for the first time who work in the Art trade and some of the people who make the art, cant wait.

Getting There

Hello again , I must apologise for the long delay in posting to this blog , something horrible had installed its self making it impossible to edit or post paintings.
I did not notice it until i tried to post a image around three weeks ago and its taken from then to now to get the problem sorted out , anyway hopefully its back to normal now.
I know January is nearly over but I must say "Happy New Year" to you, we have been snowed in over the holidays but to be honest it has not made much difference to my day to day existence as I have been working none stop on a new series of paintings to be published by Washington Green, the first of which will be released next month.
Although the paintings are not released yet the feed back so far is very positive indeed, Its been a long wait, I have been working for this event for many months now and will show some of the work here on the blog from late February.
The painting shown here is from last year "Getting There" I suppose there must be a little of how I feel at the moment in this piece but it depends on where "there" is !! The other is a recent Sketch of "Jack The Lad"

Glory Days

Oil on canvas 24"x 20"

I took a photo of these three girls running through the streets of Newcastle on their night out, i moved them around a little and changed the back ground, it was nice to paint.

Blue Moon

Oil on canvas 40"x16"

A large painting, i have painted this girl before and knew that i would "at some time" paint her in this setting, I enjoy these large single figure paintings.

Rubbernecking

Something different, I have been painting Jack The Lad quite a lot recently and want to remain fresh and keep the spark.

GOOD NEWS FOR JACK AND DAD

I am pleased to say that Washington Green Fine Art Publishing will be publishing my paintings very soon.

It is absolutely great to be published by Washington Green and to have my son Jack to share it with is real bonus, I could not ask for more.

Jack is obviously still to young to know whats going on, he knows he's dads model and loves that,

I am a little limited as to what I show on the blog now but will still be uploading work and information as it is published.

Ta Ta for now .