Such a busy year

Have not updated for nearly a year. Just so busy and a bit of ill health. So some pictures I have been working on. Hopefully showing work at the Commemoration Hall, Huntingdon on 14th October.

BAM was great success!

Youngsters from Huntingdon and Godmanchester, along with students from Wertheim, Szentendre and Gubbio, three of our twinned towns in Germany, Hungary and Italy. Unfortunately students from Salon de Provence, France were unable to attend. The students gelled really well, they set about with gusto the painting of two murals, one at Huntingdon Commemoration Hall and the other at the skate park in Godmanchester. My wife Shirley and I painted the Salon de provence section of the murals with help from the students.

The students were in town for four days and engaged in an array of art related work shops. It was a very enjoyable weekend and helped us promte the values of twinning.

Watch this space!!!!

My brother-in-law Bobby's 80 birthday on 3rd May 2023.

What do you get for someone who doesn't need anything. He likes bowling so I did him a picture.

Monthly Art Market in the Commoration Hall in Huntingdon

Me surrounded with some of my work on display and for sale. I sold 7 paintings and 8 copies of my booklet 'Huntingdon Treasures' at the inaugaral event.

Yipee! Back travelling again.

Just got back from Rhodes Town, Greece. It was wonderful!

Pic a view from one of Rhodes lovely squares.

Huntingdon & Godmanchester Twinning Association have asked me to paint a picture for a presentation gift to Wertheim, our German Twin Town, to celebrate 40 years of twinning between our towns. See pic below:

Went to Croatia with some mates for a long weekend. What a beautiful place. On return had to do a picture of some of the architecture.

Went to see Mixing It Up exhibition at the Hayward Gallery earlier in the year. The exhibiiton was a canvas for 31 contemporary artist. Wow! it was colourful and dynamic. It inspired me to paint the following still lifes.

Me by my painting of the Commemoration Hall Huntingdon

The Hall, now a charity, has been completely refurbished by volunteers, headed up by Paul Sweeney, Chair of the Trustee Body. Anyone who has visited the hall before will not regonise the interior, especially the foyer. It all looks brilliant.

The foyer has been turned into a classy Coffee Cafe, with soft furnishings and a deep hued paint job. But most importantly it sells really good coffee. The Cafe is run by Jenny (full time) and a great bunch of helpers.

The main hall will be used for concerts, comedy clubs and a variety of other artistic  ventures. One big event is Arts Alive that runs through August until the end of October. Go to www.commhall.org for info of events.

Betty Edwards - Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

A brilliant birthday present from my great friends Liz & Brian.

Anyone who has an interest in drawing will get something from this book. Written in 1999 and after several updates Betty shows us, with great alacrity, how to improve our drawing skills. She develops her theory that the right side of the brain controls your left side thoughts and actions and vis-versa. She discusses the thesis in some depth, whilst reffering to specific scientidic research. She believes that drawing is as important as the 3Rs for the development of human skills.

She speaks of the importance of drawing what you SEE, the importance of drawing the SPACE, how drawing UPSIDE down helps and how to get into the DRAWING ZONE. It's a must for drawers of all levels.

The following are three of the drawings I have done since reading the book.

Degas 

Lowry

Rubens

The Huntingdon Commemoration Hall is reopening as an Arts Centre with Coffee House. The Coffee House is opening in late June and a three month period of art activities will take place from August through to the end of October.

I will be doing some work with the Hall, in the shape of drawing and painting sessions and hopefully displaying some of my work. The two pictures below are, one of the Hall which I hope will become a centre piece in the opening event and I hope the abstract will be shown at some point during the September/October period.

If you would like to know more contact paul_sweeney2002@yahoo.co.uk

Just for a change I drew the following three pictures as aspects from three Great Masters.

The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Johnannas Vermeer 1665

When Will You Marry? Paul Gauguin 1892

A Bar at the Folies-Bergere, Edouard Manet 1882

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During Covid lockdown I have created 125 pieces of art, drawings, paintings and carvings. I have for the first time had a bash at caricaturing. I had a book in my library for years explaining the basics of caracturing, but never tried it. So in for a penny in for a pound. I gave it a go. Some examples;

Hopefully you can recognise the faces. Mine is the last one!

I have also been doing a lot of pen and ink work, here are a couple of examples;

My eldest son Andrew has started a new venture of 'up-cycling' old cameras to lamps. Click AJBrowns for further details.

My latest piece of work during lockdown. We had to chop an olive tree down in our garden. The roots were getting too big and too close to the house. We really didn't want to do it, but had no choice. So I cut out a piece of the tree and made the piece. It stands 18 cm high.

I have recently drawn a series of designs which I think would look good as a Stained Glass Window - What do you think?

Wow! I have just discovered George Barbier. French Artist/illistrator who specialised in Art Nouveau. Born in Nantes on 10th October 1882 and died in 1932. Much of his work was based on haute corture for the famous fashion houses of the time. I saw his work in a book I picked up in Oxfam for £2.50. It contained 40 full colour 'plates' of beautiful work. It inspired me into doing the following drawing:

Please go to NEWS page ???

I've been pretty busy during lockdown. The following is some of the stuff I have produced.

Our Conservatory, watercolour;

A walk in the Countryside, acrylic; 

Dusk 1 & 2, watercolour pen;

Eastern Promise, watercolour pen;

Digitally Enhanced Portraits

Angel, one of my granddaughters, has opened an esty page to sell her digitally enhanced pictures at very good prices. The money she raises it to help with her student costs at Leeds University where she is studying fine arts. Why not check out her work, example below.

Is coronavirus getting you down? If so have a look at My Flower Book I hope it cheers you up.

The inspiration for this subject was a visit to Kew Gardens and having a look at the traditional fauna paintings on display.

Sorry have been away for a long time and really need to update website. Hope to do it in the next couple of weeks, David

The Bridge Arts Festival. Along with my very good friend Liz Perrett we are organising The Bridge Arts Festival in Huntingdon & Godmanchester, Cambs on 6/7 April 2019.

Performance to visual arts will be on display. We hope to have international guests from our four twin towns contributing. We will also be yarnbombing the town centres.

If you live in the local area and are interested in taking part in the festival contact me at art@hgta.eu

Hi Folks, been busy and haven't had time to update, but here are some examples of my recent work.

Shirley,  my wife and life partner. She has never liked any picture I have painted of her, but at last she likes this one. 20' x 16' acrylic on canvass.

The Dancer, inspired by going to see the Flamenco in Seville. It was an awe inspiring trip.

Carving, a present for friends in Hungary who we are going to stay with for the next few days.

Black & White, a style I come back to every now and then. A house warming present for our neice.

I have just written and published a new book;

A LOVE AFFAIR WITH HUNGARY

It is about my wife Shirley and I and how we fell in love with Hungary and how we met our "adopted" daughter Sara.

It is a feel good story about a beautiful country and a wonderful people. It takes you on our journey around the country and tells of our experiences since first visiting the country in 2006 to comemmorate the 1956 People's Uprising against the Soviet Union.

You can order a copy of the book through this web site at a cost of £6 plus £2.50p postage.

Wow! I seem to have been away for a while!

Have been busy arranging next series of art lessons with Cambridgshire Libraries. The programme for the first round of lessons should soon be on display at Huntingdon Library.

One of my latest pieces of work. Canvas size 40 x 32 inches

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A quick update on stuff I have been doing. (28 October 2016)

HUNTINGDON LIBRARY TEACHING SESSIONS

Just started a new round of 6 teaching sessions at Huntingdon Library. The first session was about "Perspective". Sixteen participants. I think it went well. The next session in November will be "Still LIfe in Charcoal". The course is already fully booked.

TREES IN WINTER ONE OF MY LATEST PIECES OF WORK

This piece is actually two pictures that hang beside each other.

End of update

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Training Sessions

About time I updated. Have been doing some great work with Cambridgeshire Libraries and Arts Council East. I have run 20 different sessions on drawing and painting, including some Abstract Work. Really exciting! I hope to do some more work with them next year.

Huntingdon Library BFG

The Library are celebrating the work of Roald Dahl, which includes a session for children. I will be running the session, which asks the kids to draw there own Big Friendly Giant.

Some of my latest work

Abstract           Tree              Tree At Sunset           Szentendre Hungary

EBB & FLOW VIDEO

I have been collaborating with my very good friend Keith Bennett on a Music/Video. The video is now on You Tube. You can view it on https://youtu.be/azcLvM1OPu8

I wrote the music and painted the pictures. Keith orchestrated the music and made the video. Let us know what you think.

Still doing lots of work with Cambridgeshire Libraries. Teaching the over 50s basic drawing and painting techniques. It is great fun.

Below are a couple of my latest paintings

ARTS ALIVE

I am well into the Cambridgeshire Libraries "ARTS ALIVE" programme. I have over a dozen sessions in 6 local libraries over the next 3 months. The sessions are from 2 - 4 hours long and cover a variety of topics, including pencel, pen, acrylic and watercolour. I am having great fun teaching basic techniques of drawing and painting to the over 50s client group.

SHAKESPEARE AT HUNTINGDON LIBRARY