Matt Dillon

No, not the 60's hero of that great TV Western 'Gunsmoke', but the name of this Tabby cat.

Matt Dillon belongs to .... correction ... a good friend of mine belongs to Matt Dillon. One day, Matt wandered up to my friends home and decided he liked it. We have no idea where he hung out before that and assume he may have been living rough in a semi-wild state. Whatever his past was, he soon adopted my friend and has made her home, his home. He has already shown the local hound who the boss is. When she was telling me the story a few weeks ago, I couldn't resist the urge to draw him and she kindly sent me a photo to work from.

Comparisons

If you've never trod the valley,
You can never see the heights,
If you've never walked in darkness,
You'll never see the light,
If you do not climb the hill ahead,
You can't look round the bend,
If you're never really lonely,
You'll never need a friend,
If you've never failed, and failed again,
You'll never try your best,
If you've never suffered sleeplessness,
You'll never know true rest,
If you've never stumbled through the clouds,
You'll never see the blue,
If you've never suffered grief or pain,
Real joy won't come to you,
For the one calls forth the other,
As onward we must go,
Don't ask me how I found this out,
Let me just say "I know".

Spring is here

What a wonderful time of the year. The deadness and drabness of winter is being pushed aside by the young fresh youthfulness of spring. Buds on shrubs and trees, bulbs throwing up their green shoots, many of them now adorned with flowers. I'm a great lover of Snowdrops and am blessed with many of them. They have been in flower since the beginning of January and still look good even now. Crocuses are flowering to bring the first colour into the garden. What joy!

In the SERPs

No, not State Earnings Related Pension Scheme for those of us in the UK but Search Engine Results PageS. As my previous post explained, I have made a new website. It is barely 3 weeks old but today I received my first visit from someone who found the site by doing a Google search. For those who don't know, getting a new site indexed and listed by the big search engines can be a very long process. To have had a result in just 3 weeks from conception is something I'm very, very happy with.

I've followed through on my idea to promote the painting of homes. I'm unsure whether to call it "Home Portraits" or "Architectural Portraits". The latter is a mouth full but does open up the service for offices and other non-residential buildings. I'm running with "Architectural" for now, but may well change it as the site develops. This photo is of my latest "Architectural Portrait".

Many of my paintings still have to be displayed on the new site. I'm currently trying to get the format, design, layouts right. Once it's all laid out and working I will start uploading my work by the bucketful.

A Moth to a Butterfly

Artists must all start as beginners and they must all end up as experienced (unless they quit along the way). Whether we like the art of an experienced artist has nothing to do with how long he or she has been painting. It is entirely to do with whether or not we like the image that has been produced. It occurs to me that there is no fixed line between the beginner and the experienced artist. One has been painting a short while and the other a long while ... but the point at which a beginner metamorphosises into someone with experience is vague and undefined.

Though I promote myself as a beginner, very recently I was approached through my web site by someone wishing to purchase one of my paintings. This has had a huge impact on me, so much so that I have realised I cannot call myself a beginner any longer. An artist with much still to learn maybe, but not a beginner.

To cement this notion I have decided to shed my 'beginner' coat and fly out into the big wide world as 'an artist'. This is a difficult transition for someone such as me who holds a low opinion of his own work, but it is a step I feel I must take at this time.

Accordingly, I have purchased a new domain to give me a platform from which to present my work to the viewing audience. Initially called "Art by JWJ", the domain name is www.JWJarts.com. Though I will display for sale a selection of my work, I am also keen to pursue one aspect of my painting that I especially enjoy ... painting buildings. So one of the first services I shall offer is that of painting peoples homes for them.

The new web site is nothing more than a holding page at the moment but I have a complete design, layout and features in my head just waiting to be coded. How long will it take for Google to find my new site? How long before a search for "watercolour of my home" finds my site at No.1? How long before I get my first enquiry, and my first sale? Who knows? Maybe those things will never happen but if I don't give it a go, I'll never know.

Year round flowers.

Throughout the last 12 months, as and when time has permitted I have taken photo's of some of the flowers in my garden. I've posted a selection to my web site on a page called "A Year in My Garden". I'm very pleased with some of the photo's but several are not as good as I would have liked. Still, they demonstrate very well the diverse range of garden plants and the main point that I was trying to make which is that it is not too difficult to ensure that there is a flower in bloom every day throughout the entire year.

Though my December shots are none existant except for the conifers, I have to tell you that the Mahonia shown in October and November remained in flower right through December and is only now loosing it's last remaining flowers.

A whole new year has begun with the faithful Snowdrops, but this year they were pushing through the soil in mid-December and the first of the flowers were beginning to show for Xmas. I intend to take lots more photo's this year and put the best of them on my web page. Here we go again .... can't wait. :-)

Support for Beginners

Regulars to my blog will be aware that my art forum runs a periodic Picture Puzzle. This is where a picture is sliced up into a dozen squares and a variety of artists are each given one to copy. The dozen newly painted segments are then reassembled to create a unique composite painting.

A while ago, one of my forum members attended a masterclass being run by Fiona Pearts and Terry Harrison. During that course, the member talked about our forum and what it is trying to do by way of encouraging beginners. As a consequence of that discussion, both Fiona and Terry kindly gave their permission for us to use any of their pictures as material for our various projects. Having a 'proper' painting to copy rather than the usual home-produced photograph lifts the puzzle to a new level.
We are all very grateful to Fiona and Terry for their generous permissions.

The current project uses a painting by Terry Harrison called "Winters Day" and is shown here. Come back often and watch it taking shape.