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"