Chocolate Cake Oil on Board 4.5ins x 6ins.

This is a painting of the chocolate cake I had for my birthday on the 2nd of January. It's been in my studio for a while so I thought it was about time I scanned it and put it up on my Blog. I didn't make the cake myself I bought it in Tesco. It was a very nice cake though, and the first slice fuelled the creative process. :)

This painting is so far also available as a greetings card and a bag on Zazzle.com, I shall probably add a few more products as well, though so far I've been too much of an art snob to make them into mouse mats, maybe I should paint some cheese, now that's an idea.

Clementine Sements. Oil on Board 4.5ins x 6ins.

Well I have only just stated doing some more painting I hadn't done any since just after Christmas. Actually I did this painting over Christmas so it's been in my studio for some time waiting for me to get back into the paintings and carry on with my blog.

Actually the main reason I haven't been doing so much painting lately is I have decided to change my strategy a bit and have been busy with another project. One reason I started this daily painting blog was to also sell my daily paintings on eBay. Unfortunately this didn't really take off. So given I was just wasting money on listing fees and given it can be difficult to get a realisitic price for paintings on eBay in any case. I thought there had to be a better way.

So instead of listing my original paintings on eBay I now scan them and make them into various products on Cafepress and Zazzle :) Actually I found the new Zazzle site good because unlike Cafepress they offer you a free shop and don't restrict the number of designs per product so basically you can make products from everything. So amongst other things I have made all these new products with designs based on many of my daily paintings
http://www.zazzle.com/artberry/search/painting

Slice of Bread 4.5ins x 6ins oil on board

Haven't been doing quite so many paintings of late due to doing other things like designing T-shirts. However I did this painting of a slice of bread over Christmas. Actually I suppose it's quite an odd thing for me to paint just a simple slice of bread at a time, which for most of us, is a time of excess and indulgence, kind of makes one realise there are people less fortunate and maybe that's the true message of Christmas and why I painted it.

Clementines 4.5ins x 6ins Oil on Board

I was going to call this painting Clementine 03 but since it's a painting of more than one, a herd, flock or gaggle of clementines perhaps, or maybe a collegiate or college of clementines. I may as well call it Clementines. :)

Clementine (02) 4.5ins x 6ins Oil on Board

This is a painting of a peeled Clementine. I put it on some green sugar paper when I originally photographed it and I think this makes a nice colour contrast with the orange.

I thought this was an interesting fact about Clementines which although they have been available in Europe for many years were only recently introduced into the US since 1997 according to Wikipedia which might also provide a clue as to why the bees are dying.

"Clementines lose their desirable seedless characteristic when bees cross-pollinate them with other fruit. In early 2006 large growers such as Paramount Citrus in California threatened to sue local bee keepers for their bees' trespass into Clementine crop land."

So there you have it could a gang of demented psycho Californian Clementine growers be killing the bees? Who knows? But if people will go to the lengths of attempting to sue Bee keepers for allowing their bees to wander onto there land it is clear that some farmers regard bees as a pest and could very well be killing them. So rather than chemtrails the explanation for the bee problem could be far more mundane. Well it's a thought.

Clementine (01) 4.5ins x 6ins Oil on Board

I bought some Clementines . Of course Clementines are associated with Christmas so I suppose this must because they are in season, and Wikipedia says they are sometimes called the Christmas Orange because they are available from November to January.

Auger Shell 4.5ins x 6ins Oil on Board

I found a couple of shells I had once used as ornaments in the bottom of an old suitcase in the bottom of a cupboard in my bedroom. This according to my research on the Internet is an Auger Shell or Terebridae which is a kind of carnivorous sea mollusc/snail that lives on the bottom of the sea, particularly around coasts and hides in the sand where it lays in wait to kill other poor unsuspecting sea creatures mostly worms with a poisonous barb. Well I'm glad to say it wasn't laying in wait for me in the bottom of my suitcase. I thought this shell would make a nice painting. :)

Apples and Pears Oil on Board 4.5ins x 6ins.

Fed 2 Oil on Board 4.5ins x 6ins

This is another old Camera I bought on eBay, a Soviet Russian Fed 2 Camera from the late 50s early 1960s. Based of course on the Leica and looking just as cool in my opinion even though they were originally sold at a mere fraction of the price of a Leica but nevertheless an amazingly good camera. Well I thought it would make a nice subject for a painting. :)

Fallen London Plane Tree Leaf. Oil on Board 4.5ins x 6ins.

I found this leaf outside the Abbey National on Queen Street Cardiff. I thought it was an interesting shape, and also facinating because it hasn't changed colour yet. Actually I have often thought it odd that the leaves on the trees on Queens Street Cardiff don't actually change colour and fall off like one would expect of deciduous trees, but kind of stay green and gradually fall off over the entire course of the winter. I've often put that down to the fact that the Urban environment is usually a few degrees warmer, and I dare say the fact these trees often get bedecked with Christmas lights from like mid November to around February does help keep them cozy on those cold winter nights. Good will to all trees :)

However having done some research to find out what type of leaf this was I discovered it's the leaf of a London Plane tree and according to Wikipedia the London plane tree does have quite tough leaves and fallen leaves can take a year to break down. It also says this type of tree is "very tolerant of atmospheric pollution and root compaction, and for this reason it is a popular urban roadside tree" So that must be why the leaves last so well it's a special indestructible tree specially suited for the Urban environment. Actually these type of trees are found in many cities the World over so are very popular.

Mushrooms 03 Oil on Board 4.5ins x 6ins.

Mushrooms 02 Oil on Board 4.5ins x 6ins.

Mushrooms 01 Oil on Board 4.5ins x 6ins.

Well I said I was doing mushrooms last week and here they are :) Actually I did three paintings of mushrooms hence the title Mushrooms 01 I shall upload the other ones over the next few days. It was quite fun painting these lots of different shades of white and grey.

Eight Fruits. Oil on Board. 4.5ins x 6.5ins.

I thought these apples looked so nice all lined up in their box. The label (right) said "8 Fruits" So what better title for the painting. It also says they are Golden Delicious and come from Italy. I didn't used to like the Golden Delicious and probably wouldn't have bought these if I had been able to decipher the label in the shop, but actually these apples were quite nice and made a nice subject for a still-life.

Yellow Pepper 4.5ins x 6ins Oil on Board

This painting took me a little longer than usual. I wanted to capture the yellow in all it's glory. I found the only way to do that was to do an underpainting and do a couple of layers before I could get the yellow to sing. I think I got there in the end :)

Green Apples, 6 ins x 4.5ins Oil on board

This is a little still-life of some green apples which I did the other week. I quite like the storks on these apples, and the way they kind of stick out in different directions according to the way they were hanging on the tree.

Red, Yellow and Green Peppers 4.5ins x 6ins Oil on Board

I have been trying to paint more exotic fruits or vegetables but I had kind of forgotten peppers. Probably because I don't really consider them particularly exotic. In saying that there was a time when I was a child when they didn't seem to be readily available. Mind my parents were brought up in the war so probably didn't know what they were. Actually they do look interesting as fruits go. I often like some slices of peppers in my melted cheese and Salami toasted sandwiches. Makes it taste like Pizza. Yum :)

Vine Ripened Tomatos 6ins x 4.5ins Oil on board

I actually did this paint a couple of weeks ago now. However I have been busy scanning some of my older paintings as high resolution images and uploaded them to my Zazzle.com gallery so I haven't had so much opportunity to paint.

Pears. 4.5ins x 6ins, Oil on Board

I did this painting of pears last week, it took a little longer than I had expected. Actually it's surprising how challenging pears are to paint if you want to get all the detail of their texture in.

I don't buy pears very often, but one thing I did learn is they seem to taste best when they look like they are beginning to go over, so you can leave them a week before eating them at which point they go beautifully soft sweet and juicy and seem to have tons of flavour, whereas if you eat them too early they often seem not to have much taste. So one can afford to take a bit of extra time with a still-life painting and still enjoy the pear at it's best. :)

Call me the Love Apple. Oil on Board 6ins x 4.5ins

I bought these apples last week along with some vine ripened tomatoes. I thought the colours went together beautifully. Of course its very convenient tomatoes are also called love apples. This little Love Apple obviouly lives up to the name. :)

This painting is 6ins x 4.5ins and painted oil on board.