Affordable Art Fairs

There are two Affordable Art Fairs this month in London and I'm showing work in both, with Cornwall Contemporary gallery from Penzance, and Edgar Modern from Bath. These fairs should be well worth a visit - Battersea 20-23 Oct , and Hampstead 27-30 Oct , more details at www.affordableartfair.com

Cornwall Contemporary

My exhibition in Penzance is half way through now, so pop along over the next week and a half if you want to see it. Sarah at the gallery always gives a friendly welcome ,not like some galleries I've been in where the staff look a bit stern.Its been an unusual show so far in that two paintings have been especially popular; one of them is the St Ives to the mount which I could have sold six times by now ! Amazing really. The show is up on the Culture label website - www.cornwallcontemporary.culturelabel.com
Here are a few more paintings from the show..



Funfair, Marazion



Towards Penzance

Mounts bay

Harbour with lighthouse

St Ives to the mount

Cornwall Today ad

My friend Sean emailed me this newspaper cutting yesterday, saying 'is that you on the cover Al ?' . That is one of mine, but unfortunately I'm not on the cover , but on the ad for the arts section. Cornwall Today never have paintings on their covers - but why not ? I think this would look good, although I am a little biased. The painting is called 'surfer and hut, low sun' from my show last year at Cornwall Contemporary , and proceeds went to Surfers against Sewage.

And talking of covers - one of my paintings did make it to the cover of Inside Cornwall magazine in 2006. The painting was of a small bay on the Roseland. They did well to fit all the text in an already quite busy composition.

new exhibition catalogue

I have just recieved my new solo show catalogue ,'St Ives to Mounts Bay' at the Cornwall Contemporary gallery in Penzance. The show runs from 19th sept - 10 oct, with the private view on sunday 12 till 2. More details at http://www.cornwallcontemporary.com/ .
I thought this might be a nice opportunity to show all my solo catalogues since my first one in 2000. To me these represent 12 years hard work and around 350 paintings (!) ,most of which I am unlikely to see again.So these catalogues are a good record of what I've produced over the years.

2010

2009

2008

2008 Great Atlantic gallery Falmouth

2007 Great Atlantic gallery Falmouth

2006 Great Atlantic gallery Falmouth

2005 Great Atlantic gallery, St Just in Penwith




2004 ,Great Atlantic Mapworks gallery, St Just

2003 Great Atlantic Mapworks gallery

2003

2001 ,Great Atlantic Mapworks gallery.

2001

2000 Brian Sinfield , Burford, Cotswolds.

Aerial views

St Ives to the Mount


I have been painting some aerial views over the last few months for my next show in Penzance. I've been interested in land viewed from the air for many years but have only touched on it briefly in my painting up until now. Next year I hope to do a collaboration with Neil Pinkett of aerial views of Cornwall and London. Two of my favourite painters - Peter Lanyon and Richard Diebenkorn have strong allusions to aerial viewed landscapes in their work - even though Diebenkorn called his Alberquerque and Berkley paintings abstract , not landscape ; and Lanyon's paintings were from his experiences in a glider, and to me are more about the exhilaration of flying.
Some of my paintings reference local places and landmarks, and some , such as the 'harbour aerial view' series on paper are basically abstract paintings with allusions to aerial views.

Above Marazion

Harbour aerial view 1

and 2

These photos were taken last may when Neil Pinkett kindly invited me to share a helicopter trip over London with him, to get some real experience of flying low over the Thames and to get reference material for the show next year. Neil has already produced some aerial views over the Thames for his 'Bridge' show at Cornwall Contemporary

a young talent

My four year old daughter has a very hands on approach to art. After getting all slimy from playing with the mackeral - which she wants to keep as a 'pet' , she decided she had to do a life drawing. A pretty good effort I thought.

collectors' house USA

Like most artists I often wonder where my paintings end up. In who's house, where, and hung next to which other artists' work ? I'll never know for the majority of my paintings as galleries don't give me the buyers addresses, but here is the five storey town house of a couple from Philidephia, USA who have collected quite a few of my paintings over the last 11 years. My work can be seen in all of these photos. I am happy to be hung in this house . My daughter wants to live in this house ....and I don't blame her .

Beach paintings

On the beach, Carbis Bay. 100x100 cm.



Living at a summer holiday resort with a great beach has finally rubbed off on me, and I have felt compelled to work on some beach paintings. I have enjoyed painting the beach umberellas with their graphic patterns, and painting people under them has been a natural progression - although I am more well known for the absolute abscence of people in my paintings ! But the way I'm putting people in isn't like a portrait , they are just a human part of the landscape in my eyes. My long suffering partner Tracey has been roped in as a model - bless 'er - I haven't drawn from the figure since life classes six years ago.

Study for above painting

Beach from above, St Ives. 61x30 cm

St Ives. 25x25 cm.

Been down the allotments again....

Here are a couple more paintings from one of my ongoing painting obsessions at the moment - allotments. Must be something about the order and the chaos. I love everyone's homemade structures, echoing the protectiveness the growers have for their precious crops. Allotments are happy social places too; pride and enjoyment of growing food and eating it at the same time.

Top - Allotments, 30x30 cm. Above - Allotments near Phillack, 30x30 cm.

Drawing for Allotments near Phillack

A classic

This is one of my favourite books about an artist, the Horse's mouth ,written by Joyce Carey in 1944. It is about Gulley Jimson, an old, skint ,randy artist in post war London living in house boats and run down studios along the Thames. He's in the stage of an artist's life between early success and the late recognition that an artist too often gets after they die, but he always tries to make the most of a bad situation, including stealing paint from shops and sponging off his friends and a couple of millionaire collectors. Its a gritty, funny, but also quite sad story with some beautiful descriptions about how an obsessive artist's mind works.
It was made into a film too which has some good bits with Alec Guiness great as Gulley, but it has a bit of 50s slapstick which I guess was to bring it to the mass audience. As usual the book is better.

new gallery

Towards the beach , acrylic on board.

Pontoon no.3, acrylic on board.

Fishing boat, acrylic on board.

Harbour with yachts, mixed media on board.


I have just joined a gallery in Bath, a city which I have never been to before - beats me why, I was very impressed with it. The gallery is called Edgar Modern and it has some very good south - west artists, http://www.edgarmodern.com/Artist-Detail.cfm?ArtistsID=289