OMG This actually like totally means something?

I can't seem to leave the funnelly theme alone. Not because the theme generates attractive images because they are butt ugly but because the symbolism so neatly portrays the human condition. It's like an exam crib or a mnemonic device for remembering the bones of the wrist. After memorising the image an alien could sit down and write an essay on what it's like to be human. This one has eyes and mouths torn from Heat and Hello magazine and pasted directly onto the canvas. Okay, the images are also slightly creepy; the creepiness is intended to suggest the feelings of alienation concomitant with a sudden awareness of the human condition. I need to get out more. I'll tackle the above design when I've finished the one below.

That's oil pastel on the page and not food. This canvas was intended to take me over the Xmas period but didn't. I celebrated the birth of Christ by making and ingesting enough food to choke a horse. Through a haze of food induced delirium I seem to remember watching a film about giant spiders and then becoming lost in the surrounding countryside in an attempt to walk off the delirium. Rather glad it's all over actually. 

New painting up - the Thespian

The last in a series of paintings exploring the human condition otherwise called the 'weird funnely ones that I don't like much'. http://www.markpeatfield.co.uk/portfolio/page7/index.html
Not actually about my brother David in Hong-Kong who is an actor but rather a reflection on Prospero's final speech and the famous 'As you like it' speech.

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. (IV.i.148–158)

and: All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts.

Shakespeare really was the dog's bollocks.

Harris Museum open exhibition

A photo of me standing by one of my submissions. This is the least creepy photo; I don't photograph well. I look like I'm having trouble standing. In another picture I look like a politician canvassing for votes. My paintings did not cause the paradigm shifting stir I'd hoped for but then the lighting was really unkind. And the positioning of my canvases was all wrong. And other stuff. Note to self. Bigger, brighter and more challenging. Just received new canvases so onward ho tomorrow.

Romeo & Juliet - new painting up!

The only reaction I have had to this painting so far is, "good colours" which is a lot like saying "nice notes" to a composer. The painting depicts love and lust and passion and is actually quite risqué albeit in a neo-surrealist nihilistic pop-art way. I blush when I look at it. Two things of note today. I've run out of canvases and I've submitted two pieces to the Harris Institute Open Day.


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Location:New Hall Lane,Preston,United Kingdom

More spoilers

In answer to several questions: yes, the spinning disk and trumpets function a bit like a phonograph. I was going to do another painting along similar lines but I am rapidly losing interest in the symbolism. Maybe there is something to be said for being cryptic.


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Location:Walker Place,Preston,United Kingdom

Adam and Eve - Spoiler warning!

New painting up.
 http://www.markpeatfield.co.uk/portfolio/page7/index.html
Adam & Eve or 'After the fall'.
As promised a quick explanation (but no tinsel) as I do not like be needlessly cryptic. The sphere contains a field of alert awareness for we are what we are aware of. Freely substitute 'Being', 'Buddah nature', 'Christ nature', 'Consciousness' the Kingdom of God or, my favourite, 'foetal awareness' for the term alert awareness. The spinning disc is Mind, a source of largely unproductive and mostly random thoughts - the source of Buddha's suffering. I've read somewhere that the mind generates many thousands of thoughts a day. As conscious entities we watch and hear (lens and small trumpet) what it produces and assume, erroneously, that we are responsible and in control of what is generated. A subset of these thoughts are 'Me' or ego thoughts. Much of what emerges from the eye-trumpet is from the Mind (ego driven drivel). Reality is accessible to the sphere only after coming in from the eye-trumpet. The lens can momentarily raise itself to look above the disc but the lens is heavy and the non-stop thoughts are too compelling - especially if they are 'Me' or ego thoughts.   Before the fall the lens would have effortless roamed the sky to be lost and found in the moment (Tolle's Now). But now it is so difficult. What is more fascinating than what I think and feel and my life story? Nothing, absolutely nothing which is why we are all, for the most part, psychotic.
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Very different

The next painting is going to be very different and will be based on the following sketch.



It's about as bleak as I can get but looks comical. There may even be bright colours. Looks like nonsense imagery but is actually a carefully considered symbol for the human condition. Expressive symbolism? I don't like being cryptic for the sake of it so I may even annotate it. Hell, as it's coming up to Xmas, I might even put tinsel on it.


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Location:Winery Lane,Walton-le-Dale,United Kingdom

New painting up - a Preston morning. Recent paintings

It's on the experimental side. It does what I wanted it to do but that doesn't mean anyone is going to want it on their walls. Tricky chap Art. Winter comes to Preston earlier than anywhere else (on the planet!) Decent light is now a valuable resource. I get maybe two hours every alternate day. It's like living in Mordor sometimes.
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I forsake the iphone for the ipad - to be sung to the tune of..

I've just noticed that none of the previous links I've posted work. So much for the iphone app. Let's try the ipad and then work up through the Apple ecosystem until it works. First a test link.

Recent paintings!

That should take you to my website. If it doesn't I shall sob brokenly over my half finished cappuccino and share my sorrow with the woman who owns this cafe. I'm starting another Prestonian, surreal landscape. I might even include some little figures. Imagine a Goth and trippy Lowry. Sent from my iPad.

Location:New Hall Lane,Preston,United Kingdom

Two new paintings up - #subdued

As promised a still life in sombre, joyless colours following a rubbish week .
http://www.markpeatfield.co.uk/portfolio/page7/index.html
Also a bleak and oppressive landscape. A sort of abstraction of the Prestonian (!) landscape. Dramatic sunrises, gas rings, chimneys, characterless tenements. I'm beginning to dream these things. Oh God, I know what's happening. I'm metamorphosing into a 'local artist'. Maybe I should get a badge or maybe a hat.


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Location:Winery Lane,Walton-le-Dale,United Kingdom

Productivity in the midst of wretchedness.

Be still my beating heart, two new paintings planned. A still life and landscape. I'll do the still life first. You probably can't make it out from this photo but there is much confusion about what colours go where. I have very little idea what colours to use and for me this is an interesting state of affairs. I know I don't want bright and cheerful colours because I do not feel bright and cheerful. The truth be known I felt rather wretched this week. Now I think about it last week wasn't great either. The colours are probably going to be subdued, sombre and cold. My sulky disposition has chosen my palette for me. Painting is never difficult, just go with your gut.





This blog writing is a lot easier than I thought it would be. The important thing is to do it in a cafe with a nice cup of coffee. There is nothing more calculated to dry up the writing juices than sitting back in the flat in front of the computer with the intention of writing a blog. It needs to be impromptu. This means I sacrifice things like quality
and professionalism but at least I write something even if it does have a certain rambling quality. I also dictate to Siri which, as you can imagine, makes me immensely popular in quiet cafes.
I sketched out an idea for the landscape. I then transported to sketch onto some canvas. The design changed radically. Not sure what to do, I'll sleep on it.

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Location:New Hall Lane,Preston,United Kingdom

A space themed painting up.

The new painting is called 'Prospecting on Titan'. http://www.markpeatfield.co.uk/portfolio/page13/index.html
If that doesn't make real men clench their jaws and look skyward then I don't know what does. I've placed it in a new  'Space' part of the portfolio. I like the emerald ghostly form of Saturn hanging in the ultramarine sky (Titan's atmosphere is mainly nitrogen so it might even have a weather system). The rocket and the astronauts are an imposition in a serene and tranquil landscape. But maybe they are quiet, noble and civilised - like interplanetary monks. I learn't one important thing from painting this. I have little patience for detail. My broad and frenzied brush strokes are not suitable for the tranquil majesty of space and it will be a little while before I do another of these.

New painting! And test of blog to email functionality! FUN!

Near Centenary Mill

Not really the bleak industrial landscape I'd planned. I think I must be warming to Preston as there is something of the magical here. It's the strangest thing. I'd carefully planned the composition and colours. The colours were going to be very similar to Melancholy 2, a sort of nauseating medley of greens and yellows as if an underwater scene. The finished product has both the composition and colours I'd wanted yet the feeling is entirely different. What happened to bleak industrial dehumanisation and alienation? I'd be quite happy to wander around this landscape and take in the crisp night air.

This painting replaces Zen apples in the Recent Paintings section which means it's available for £30 inc. p & p. while Zen apples in now in Summer where it is now £40.00
For those who are thinking of the 'lucky dip' where you order the next painting for £20 it's going to be some sort of retro space scene - a special for my Father.

This is my first attempt to have a blog sent out via twitter, facebook and email. I have no idea what it will look like. I might have to make the next one prettier. I'm trying to streamline and automate. The idea is that I paint, I publish, I paint. Not that I paint, I spend days figuring techie stuff out, I forget to eat and sleep, I publish, I leave the flat in disgust, I paint.

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Mark Peatfield

A guilty pleasure

This one is for my Dad. When young he was fan of Chesley Bonestell a very talented science fiction artist who, in no small way, helped initiate the space program. My Father was no mean draughtsman and inspired by Chesley drew many planetary landscapes and rockets and astronauts. These drawings were pretty good and, when young, I would leaf through them and would be, quite literally entranced by the other worldly scenes.
Now because it is no chore to paint retro space scenes - almost  a guilty pleasure, I'm going to do a series. I have at least one guaranteed buyer. I sketched out an idea below.  I would be pleased if I could capture even a trace of serenity and other-worldliness Chesley's landscapes give.

As soon as I've completed the industrial landscape I'm working on now I'm going to tackle this or something very like this. I can't wait. I'm tempted to put the rings of Saturn over Centenary Mill which will make it look damn stupid so I shall fight this temptation.

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Chinese brush painting and happy mistakes

I have recently started Chinese brush painting at the Lancashire University. The lecturer is a passionate Chinese man, a Professor at the Confucius Institute. He's passionate about Chinese art. The take home message last time was that we learn to work with what happens during the painting process. This means using very absorbent paper, loading up the brush with ink and applying to said paper with economical and confident strokes. This can mean loading up the Chinese calligraphy brush with ink and splattering it all over the paper. I may not have this entirely right but it seems that you can then make use of what has happened and impose some sort of order on it. The ink splats might look a bit like a fish in which case, add fins and a tail. Some more blots might resemble the distant mountain range in which case add trees our trees and possibly a more focused foreground. The following offering might look like faltering strokes of someone who has not mastered the use of the medium (his words, not mine) but thanks to this Chinese perspective I can say confidently that the back watery smudges are a  small mountain range and the forward blots are boats, a bridge and possibly a tower.

Its a tricky technique. His main criticism was that I went over the same area again and again. That hit me hard for that is exactly what I do. I responded with,' I do that because I did not get it right the first time - I'll keep doing it until I feel I've got that bit right'. He said nothing which spoke volumes.

I have taken on board that there is nothing to be ashamed of in making use of what happens during the painting process. You are one or should try be one with the Tao. What is unfolding is what is meant to unfold and what ever happens is okay (paraphrasing a little).  The Western way of thinking about this is in terms of happy accidents. I make frequent use of happy accidents though I am seldom happy at the time.

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Business picking up but failure to start painting

First sale in the Far East. That sounds so exotic. Printer, which has had no attention for a week, started acting up. Very much like a previous partner (not Val). I pretended nothing was wrong and went out for a walk. Came back and everything was fine. Again, disturbingly like my previous partner (not Val). A risky gambit maybe as I have also known someone who would have trashed the place if I'd walked out ( again, not Val). Generally then, it is always a good idea to leave something alone for a while. I am now thinking of the painting. Without thinking I have come up with at least three ways I can improve it. In fact, I've already completed it in my head. It looks awesome. Thank God I haven't started it yet. Tomorrow then.


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Location:Friargate,Preston,United Kingdom

A kitten and painting about industrial desolation

First things first, a really cute picture of the kitten. Get that out of the way and then on to








the serious stuff.






This is what I'm going to start painting tomorrow. It's another industrial one moody, dark and oppressive. If not for the gas ring it could somewhere else in time and space. I have decided to increase the sense of alienation by painting a sky that isn't blue or as I'm in Preston, isn't grey. I could lose the gas ring but I like the sombre elegance of the ellipse. I think maybe I will play around with greens and warm browns but that I'll sleep on that.

The more I paint the more I realise that I'm expressing myself. Maybe pretty obvious but I can be a slow learner. In place of another industrial landscape someone (not Val) wanted me to paint a marketplace. A market place full of the hustle and bustle of life. The idea had zero appeal but it was more than that. It's as if it was totally against my nature. Like cross country running or watching the antiques Roadshow. I shall sketch out the design on the canvas tomorrow at first light. I think I'll take a few pictures as I go, and document the progress. Actually that's probably a pretty good idea and I can use them as illustrations in my soon to appear Book on How to paint or How to be an Artist. Not necessarily the same thing.


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Location:New Hall Lane,Preston,United Kingdom

First ever real blog entry. And what does blog stand for?

I'm very new to blogging and the first few entries will have little interesting to say. I shall be saying the word 'testing' a lot because I'm really not sure what is supposed to happen when you publish or post or whatever. I shall also be posing the question,' what does blog stand for?' More specifically, what does the 'b' stand for?