Last of the Summer Whines

Whoooop!
School's back, the kids are slipping into that funk of despond we all remember after the golden holidays of summer. Come to think of it, so are my many teacher friends (Oli, Dan, Jess etc.) Oh dear. Its been a long six weeks for them, shared between parents, in which I have actually managed to paint one or two pieces, but of course I'm gripped by the pang of anxiety at letting my output slump to virtually nil. Like me, most parents out there will tell you that the summer hols are pretty complicated in terms of caring for young uns, work, vacations etc. On top of this, when you're a separated, lone parent it gets just crazy. Having said this, we've had a great time. I wont bore you with the details, but for my time with the boys it involved mountains, campervans, crabbing, Southampton, Skye, Wiltshire, a gate, a wedding attended and a wedding missed (sorry Marc and Joanne), the M6, waterparks and Oil Paints.

Crabbing excitement (no crustaceans were harmed in the making of this blog)

So....painting. Yay, well, a few brief days snatched with Hannah and the campervan led us to The Isle of Skye. Ahhhhh, even with the midges you cant knock my love for the Isle. The campervan is mega....and borrowed. Make no mistake, I cant afford one of these badboys just yet. Look....

If only you were mine :) (at Elgol)

Painting almost En Plein Air with my pochade box (or, in English, from the back of a van with a cigar box)

Hannah insisted I paint whenever we pulled up for the night somewhere. The fact we had a 5 litre keg of Loweswater Gold bitter and a bottle of Bowmore single malt whisky kind of made this more of a hit and miss rule. I did a few though..

As it happens, I left these in the van, as some-way of a payment for its kind use. The owners like them, phew! 

I'll be ramping up the online stuff as of today, posting the various paintings for sale (few as they are) that I've managed to paint these past six weeks. Also I'm participating in the twitter #paintseptember campaign. It's a painting a day, throughout September. Dear lord, May was tough, September will be tougher I'm sure, but its a great discipline for any artist. Check it out, my twitter name is @lonedadpainting and below are the two initial paintings. I somehow feel the theme of the upland areas of the UK will feature heavily.

Me. Day one.

Not me, day two. (Sutherland...Not Donald)

September brings new schools, new starts and a whole heap of paintings. If you don't hear from me, I'll be hiding under a mountain of paintings, or indeed a painting of mountains.