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 .

Crackerjack

Oil on canvas

Attitude

24"x 20" oil on canvas

Is it a Bird

I was thinking of changing the title of this to "sweetheart" but then thought that I could paint the follow ups ! , "Is it a plane" and "no its Superman"

Jack is pretty much daydreaming here, he will spot something, like a tractor in the distance then kind of daydream it away, still looking at it even though its gone, I would'nt snap him out of it though.

Getting lost in our dreams has got to be good for us, not if your a airline pilot mind you! or even "worse" a Daydreaming Dentist !!

Take Away

Oil on linen 30"x 20"

Mmmm " chippy chips just taste better out in the cold.

"Yes" Love

Back to doing some large paintings of People in the streets.
The original title for this piece was "Yes" Love, "No" Love, I changed it because my wife "told" me to !!

20"x30" oil on linen.

Peekaboo

Cant think of a good title for this yet , if there is anyone out there, could you help with suggested titles for it , not to cute and must be short. Cheers

( sept 2009 ) Thanks for all the emails giving suggestions for a title, I ended up thinking of my own ! the painting is now called Peekaboo !

Down Dean Street

This painting is taken from a photo I took while walking up Dean Street on the banks of the Tyne In Newcastle , I will be going back to the same spot soon to catch the legs of the men and women( to paint ) on there nights out, I will have to watch my self though as people sometimes do not like to be photographed , especially when they have had a drink or two in the bigg market ! I could find myself "in" the Tyne, as well as Photographing it !

For Sir Bobby Robson

A original oil painting to be donated to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, framed 20"x 24" oil on linen.

I was quite shocked to here that the great man had passed away so soon after his appearence at the Trophy match held in aid of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation at St James Park on the 26th .

My wifes father ( Mel ) has just passed, also from Cancer, so I thought it would be good thing to do.

Adios Amigos

Body language starts early , kids have attitude and it shows .

At Monument Metro

Reflections at Monument Metro station

Newcastle upon tyne in the pouring rain .

No Fish Dad

Another of Jack, I take him fishing down to the river Tyne at corbridge, he uses the fishing as a excuse to paddle in the water, on this day he had caught no minnows and had just fallen in to a puddle so was quite down about all this.

16"x 12" Oil on Linen.

Bzzz

I have four sons, they have all been fascinated by creepy crawlies and terrified of Honey Bees !

12"x12" oil on linen

Hand in Hand

Original Oil on board 13"x13"