Artwork
Welcome to the artwork section of my website!
Art is pretty much a big part of my being. Everything I do whether it be music, electronics, photography or anything else will always have an element of art in it.
Here, I will be showcasing some of my artwork of various mediums as I talk about my journey with art. This main artwork page branches off into other pages where I go into more details about certain paintings of mine.
If you’ve already seen this page and came here to see anything new I’ve posted, you can click here to skip to the ‘Art’ category of my blog, where I post about any new artwork I’ve created. It will be updated regularly.
My Art Background
Throughout the years, I’ve dabbed with a few art mediums. Watercolour, coloured pencils, even Deluxe Paint II on our Amiga 500 back then, which was a big part of my childhood.
From my perspective, or maybe It’s just my generation? It seems that every kid is bought those watercolour palettes at some point in their childhood.
You know the kind I mean! Those started me off into watercolour even though at the time I just saw them as “Ooo paints!”. I still have some of the simplistic and innocent paintings which I did in late childhood.
As initially mentioned, I started out with watercolour and of course everyone had a coloured pencil set, I used to mess about with mine and do simple little doodles like this. I remember this was back when I was obsessed with harps.
I don’t know why but naturally, without any thought to it, I always pictured myself in a blue dress with long hair. All my doodles of myself since childhood, were always like this, very specific but I’ve never known why.
Actually, even recently in two different oil paintings I did in 2013 with myself in them. Just naturally, I painted myself in a blue dress with long hair without thinking about it.
Click here for more information and details about this painting ‘Inner Journey’.
Click here for more information and details about this painting ‘Travelling Soul’.
This latter one, in the boat, is actually what I experienced and saw in a very vivid dream I had. Definitely feel there’s something deeper going on with the dress and the hair. This has only just occurred to me now whilst collecting and looking through my entire journey of artwork as a whole, as I put together this page.
Anyway, continuing on. When I started high school, you probably will have guessed that I loved the art lesson. Not so much the teachers mind you. Except for one, the head of the art department. He was nice but just talked too much. Which was a little annoying when you wanted to just get on with stuff. But he was definitely nicer than the other guy who we had before him.
That previous guy would just moan about every stupid little thing, bore you silly with his moaning and then start moaning again when you yawned.
He leant me a more mature watercolour set (The good guy that is, not the moany guy). Which I still have somewhere to this day. This little green tin of watercolours. Kinda forgot to give that one back in the midst of worrying about the final exams at the time, oops! Sorry sir, I still have it here.
I put them to good use though. However, you have to know the technique for watercolours and how to work with them, I clearly didn’t back then as you can see from these past paintings. I haven’t painted in watercolours since, so I’m figuring I still don’t know now.
As you can see I went way too thick with the watercolours. I still have all the paintings like this, which I did in my high school years. The latter painting is an amateur attempt to paint an antique wall hanging, that’s older than I am. My oldest brother also had a few attempts to draw this in his youth. I love the actual thing though and so happy it’s survived all these years.
Maybe I should attempt this again as an adult? With oil paints? I’ll see.
You can even see it in this old photo of my bedroom. It seems this wall hanging has followed me my entire life.
Anyway, I wanted to explore more and knowing the only shops you know as a teenager and the little pocket money you get. I went to a stationary shop of all places and ended up with ‘poster paints’. I’m still not sure to this day what exactly ‘poster paints’ are. All I know is they smell of school.
I didn’t do much with those other than mess around with them as I concentrated on my music creation and electronics at this stage. I clearly remember buying the “Memorex planet tapes” along with them, as well as the tropical Island mouse mat for my Amiga. I’m getting this feeling that Stationary Box was one of my favourite stores back in 1995.
Anyway snapping out of this daydream! I remember getting the poster paints simpley because the tiny bottles just looked cute. Like the ones at school but tiddlier. You know which ones I mean you fellow 80s kids 🙂
Art On The Amiga
Just like many of you I’m sure, I did a lot of work in childhood and early teens on the Amiga too, using Deluxe Paint. I’m not going to show all my Amiga artwork just yet as I feel it deserves a section of it’s own. Once I put that together, I will link it to this section and announce it in a blog post.
I still wanted to mention and include Amiga art and Deluxe Paint on this page as it was an outlet for me. And I know there are a few great pixel artists out there who use the Amiga. It is still a form of art 🙂
Not only in chldhood, but in recent years I have used Deluxe Paint for designing many things. Such as the user interface for the upcoming SIDBox 5 (Once the issues around it are sorted).
Some diagrams I’ve used in my videos in the past were deluxe paint animations, such as in the Spectrum toastrack restoration videos. Also the retro computing and vintage hifi set-up videos.
In my Amiga Genlock series of videos, I did some artwork which I’ve ended up using in my videos as well as this site itself. I mean how could I not get creative with Amiga and a Genlock.
You will notice the new Ms Mad Lemon logo which I’m using on my site and as the watermark for more recent videos. Of course done on the Amiga.
This is when I’m in the middle of designing the video cassette, which again I’ve used in my videos and also on my website. Specifically on the archive section of my blog.
Oil Paints
In late teens when I started college. This was in the late 1990s. I volunteered at the local community centre just helping out with youth groups run there. Getting exposure to acrylics and oils when I was painting with some kids. Acrylics intrigued me as I liked the way they worked.
The moment oil paints were brought out, I just fell in love. Once I got the hang of the basics, It began. This was my first oil painting. It was from a random photo I found somewhere.
I started getting addicted after that and painted this, which was my second:
Despite painting like this with oils, I was still yet to learn how they worked. Certain things I was oblivious of, for example: This painting of the horses I did was on just standard sketch pad paper. Thick paper as it feels like card. But I didn’t think to prime it with gesso or anything like that. I still have this painting now and I can see on the other side the oil eating It’s way through the card.
I eventually learned how to prime and prepare before painting and other techniques. Most importantly I was having a lot of fun.
As you can see from this old-school photo, I was fully immersed into oil painting by this stage and couldn’t stop. I think this photo was from 2004 or around this time, I know I still had my Amiga 1200 tower at this point.
This takes me back, it’s our old home. My years in that house kinda feel dream-like, in the sense that the years just went so quickly in that place.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find this mountain lion painting anywhere in the attic when I last went up there. If I find it, I’ll scan it.
My goodness I still have those Creative Travelsound speakers somewhere, I must dig them out and use them. I remember being blown away by them, not expecting something that small to have sound like that. Of course speakers have come a long way since then.
Anyway..Enough geeking out about tech and back to art 🙂
The Dark Years
Just like my electronics and music creation stopped at this stage of my life, my art did also. It was around the time I sold my Amigas too. I don’t like talking too much about this period on my life so I’ll summarize.
There was no time when these particularly dark times in my life began. From the beginning the darkness fader was just being turned up a little each day, without me realising it, until It just got too dark.
I wasn’t in a good place. My creativity screeched to a halt. I downsized everything after that. I became more shy and quiet than I was previously, barely a presence.
Generally It seemed the more I was in solitude and left to my own devices, things seemed all right. The more I spent time around people, community, etc. The darker life felt.
This is why I’m extremely picky with friends these days as I’ve been burned more than once and mostly in insidious ways, which I thankfully notice straight away now. I will only befriend people who truly get me, who have some depth to them, who chime a similar set of notes as I do.
These days I am not naive like I was back in those times, where company I kept sometimes didn’t help and insidiously reinforced my negative mental state. The nicer and kinder you are to such people, the worse you’re treated. Hard fact.
For many years I merely existed. My soul was being trapped and suffocated by the confines of my own mind and body, which was merely reacting to the negative external stimuli. That passive, faded and internally troubled presence of mine was the comfortable norm for those around me.
My doodles started turning into this before I completely stopped doing them. As I couldn’t bear seeing the sort of things I created. The sketch below, which still to this day is not comfortable for me to see.
I don’t wish put this section on a downer, as things do indeed re-blossom later in life. However this was a part of my life and It cannot be dismissed. It’s the scars that make us stronger.
In order to see the light you need the shadows.
Art comes from the heart and soul, the part of our being that is beyond any technical knowledge of any sort. It isn’t just about pretty and happy pictures or technically correct work. I believe it’s mostly about deep expression, which words cannot even begin to describe.
I elaborate a little more about this stifled period of my life in my blog post “Shameless Self Promotion” In a different way. So I won’t go into any more detail about this here.
So let’s continue talking about art 🙂
There was indeed a pause in my creativity in those years in all aspects, music creation, painting and electronics. The only thing I started doing was photography and that must have been the lifeline that kept that little lantern in my soul lit.
Digital/Virtual Painting
Fast forward to 2012, I no longer had my oil paints or anything like that but I had a tablet which had a paint simulation program on it. Back when I started oils, I had dabbled with digital painting using the Corel Painter program and a wacom tablet. But I didn’t do much on it, I was too engrossed in physical mediums and oils were my thing. In 2012, all I did was get a paint brush stylus and created paintings on that tablet. It enabled me to once again, express.
It did feel like painting, but felt as if I was using another medium. It was more convenient that’s for sure.
The gamers among you will probably recognize the heavy inspiration from the Prince of Persia classic remake in the painting above. I fell in love with the design and decor in that game.
I started getting a taste for art again through merely doing it on the tablet with the stylus brush.
It was all done manually just like a painting, the only thing computer generated were the colours and paint simulation. Nothing in any of these digital paintings is auto generated or rendered, like textures, shapes etc. You still started with a blank page and had to create. With all the imperfections you’d do using physical mediums, so I would still class it as painting. Just without the drying times.
That harp from my past started sneaking back in also, I had forgotten about this digital painting I did. This harp reappears in my more recent work also.
Second Return Of The Oil Paints
I painted digitally for a few months, until that one time later in 2012 I just bought a very simple set of cheap oil paints just to mess around with, you know “Just to mess around with”…
Then it all began, one thing lead to another and came flooding back with a vengeance. This was the first major painting I did a couple of months later.
Click here for more information and details about this painting ‘Dunes’.
Click here for more information and details about this painting ‘Waterfall’.
Click here for more information and details on this painting ‘Behind The Screen’.
Click here for more information and details on this painting ‘The Inner Doves’
Click here for more information and details about this painting ‘Lollipop Lollipop’.
Click here for more information and details about this painting ‘The Burning Heart’.
DIY And Interior Decorating
The question is, would I go back to digital painting? I can safely say no. There is no desire at all to go digital. However, I have a certain respect for it still because It allowed me to express in the same ways in that period of my life when I needed it.
As you probably have noticed by this stage I was right back into painting, even when helping decorate my brother’s home. To this day I don’t think my brother knows these ‘works of art’ exist within his walls 🙂
I’m sorry but I just don’t like DIY, I find it mundane.
The Interior decorating part of it sure, I consider that creative and a form of art, I love that. I decorated my room like an Arabian palace at the time.
But DIY like what I did at my brother’s place, putting up shelves, filling in holes in walls, flat pack furniture, etc etc I find dull. There’s little to no creativity involved in it. So I find myself doing things like this:
There has been a few times I’ve visited him and smirked when remembering these. This latter one is in the kitchen above the cooker. If you squint and angle your head just right, you can still faintly see it very behind the top coat of the paint. :-))
Minecraft And Channel
Come 2014 and things start getting busier in other aspects of my life. I got into electronics once again in 2012 after abandoning it back in 2003. I started playing Minecraft with my niece and young cousin. I’m not normally into modern games, more into retro. However there’s something different about Minecraft, it’s got a creative element to it. Essentially it’s like virtual LEGO and you can get quite artistic with it. You just know I’m going to be all over that.
I started creating a beautiful world in Minecraft and to this day I step into it every now and then. I build a new part of it and create more areas within it. Perfect escapism. Not to mention I want to do some oil paints of scenes from my Minecraft world. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.
In 2015 I started my youtube channel also so a lot of my energy went into that. I started creating music again on the Amiga at this point. My oil painting unfortunately halted once again due to all this.
Return Of Artwork
Fast forward to 2023. After meeting Rich and moving cities. My life has changed completely with regards to location and starting over from a whole different area. One of the first things he wanted to take to our place, were my paintings.
I must admit my last birthday (2023) was quite an amazing surprise. First thing I see when I enter the room is this.
Birthdays have never been that big of a deal in my life but this one certainly was!
Even Neelix was in on the whole surprise plan by the looks of it.
Rich started putting together my new painting easel that day. Something tells me he and his parents really want me to get back into art again.
I feel so blessed and thankful!
Rich’s parents have been encouraging me to go with them to the art groups which they regularly go to. I’ve started going with them and really starting to get back into it all.
Above is what will be the art corner once we sort it out. We’re planning to invite Rich’s parents, his daughter and hopefully his sister around regularly, so that we can have family art groups.
Oil Pastels
Oil pastels I only started exploring in recent years and in all honesty, I was initially not that impressed when I first tried them back in 2014.
Some advice to those of you who who are curious about oil pastels. I know it’s tempting to get the cheapest nastiest ones because you wish to dip your toes into the medium. But please don’t. They will not blend well at all, they will feel like kids wax crayons and won’t do the medium justice at all. I decided to give oil pastels another go recently (2023) and still didn’t learn my lesson with £4 cheap pastels from ‘The Works’.
I had bought them the same day Rich’s dad was in surgery and we had gone into town with Rich’s mum so we could keep all our minds off it. In a way his situation was the drive behind the impulse of getting some oil pastels. Even though they were just cheap and nasty ones, I did however, push them to their limits and do the best I could with them. I painted him a get well card to take to the hospital later that day.
Despite being unsure of the medium, I bit the bullet and ordered myself a set of Paul Rubens oil pastels.
My art world opened out the moment I started messing around with these. I’ve been taking the oil pastels to the art groups and this is the first major oil pastel painting I’ve done.
Eventually I’d love to try oil sticks, which are basically oil paints in solid form. You use them as oil pastels but they are a huge step above.
Yeah, with those prices I’m going no where near them. I’m sticking to oil pastels. For the moment. I’m better off with oil paints as I can do so much with them, especially creating textures when using impasto.
Another painting I did in oil pastels at the art group. It’s that forest harp that’s coming back from the past. This was an experiment and I want to re-do this in oil paint.
Click here for more information and details about this painting ‘Forest Harp’.
I’m currently working on another oil pastel painting, which I will add as a blog post. I’ve specifically linked the art category of my blog here. I will be adding to that regularly so watch this space!
I’ll say that I’m open to trying out new mediums as I’m still curious about those I haven’t tried yet. After all we are always learning in life no matter what age we get to. It’s the best way to keep the heart open and the soul in a state of wonder.
Oil paints however, are my first love in art and always will be no matter what else I do. I first started painting with them in the 1990s. They enabled me to freely express myself more than any other medium I’ve tried. In fact it was my oil painting that eventually lead to my passion for photography so they hold that extra special place for me.
I did not intend to make this section this long! Thank you for reading up to this point and for being patent with me 🙂