If you make Art, especially Gay themed art it can be frustrating. I began making large scale Gay themed art in response to all the straight themed Art you see everywhere. WHERE AM I ? fackin nowhere ! As if not being in any book, film, tv show , family celebration, religeon, song...bla bla wasn't enough, and having no role model anywhere at that time I felt it my duty as an isolated gay man to do something for people like me. I could paint well, I just needed to learn to compose a painting and find ways to tell a story. I learned how to meditate and find images to illustrate deep feelings I had which were 'resting ideas'. Eventually I learned composition, which took years. 

The trigger was my partner who died from Aids in '89. Five years after that I began to see a painting in my head, the idea stayed so I felt compelled to go with it. After making that painting I decided I would not paint anything I didn't want toever again. I've tried to do the same in life, I only like to work at a job where I can giggle, why not, work should be fun, as long as you get the work done. 

Selling work , well that's a good topic, how does that work, do you have to network your arse off, making mates with people you think you 'need'...no thanks. I don't follow trends and just do what I do. I find the concept of fashion in art a shallow joke, who sets that fashion, it doesn't show confidence if you jump on the back of a style which is not yours, which style will you adopt next year.

I did notice lines and blurs this year, abstract shapes, no character just fabric designs really, the art of masking tape shapes. I probably seem old fashioned ,my work usually takes time, months, there is usually a narrative, ideas that come from inside me ...usually. They are predominantly figurative and realistic. It's what I think I'm good at . The pic with this blog is a painting of my parents, not gay themed , though it probably is.

I've recently made a forest painting with lots of figures in it all about love, I entered it for two competitions, it was rejected in both instances. Competitions are expensive if they happen to centre in London, one of them cost me £500 in van hire etc, so my advice is make art small enough to carry on a train, you will be less of a pain to friends with driving licences, ha, thank you David, a good friend indeed and someone who drives like a safe maniac.

My next post will be about the forest.