Down came the rain

"The Show Must Go On!"

oil on canvas

8 x 8 in. / 20 x 20 cm.

Open air jazz festivals are always going to be somewhat problematic in this country given our wayward weather. I remember trying to sketch a group of jazz aficionados huddling under umbrellas during a July thunderstorm, while I was holding an umbrella and my sketch book in one hand and drawing with the other. Not ideal! That moment is commemorated in this painting with the audience watching on under their umbrellas while the girl in the yellow dress tries to shelter the trumpeter and sax player under her umbrella.

A couple of the original moleskine sketches

Le Jazz

oil on canvas

8 x 8 in./ 20 x 20 cm.

Based on a series of sketches of the Dutch Swing College Band which I did a couple of years ago at a jazz festival. Using sketches of Marcel Hendriks on piano and Adrie Braat on double bass, to which I have added the singer in the red dress to suit my composition. I often work listening to Jazz, particularly a French internet radio station called Jazz Radio , "La Radio de tous les Jazz". Hence the title of the work, "Le Jazz"! Done just using a palette knife to stop me from fiddling with the detail.

Two of the original moleskine sketches

Note : the painting is not up on my web-site yet..

JP at the Jazz

Back in June I promised to publish some more sketches done on my Apple iPod Touch using the Jackson Pollock App.

During the Marlborough Jazz Festival in July I did dozens of sketches in more traditional media; pencil and brush pen, trying to capture the energy of the musicians and the excitement of their performances. Based on these sketches I have now created a series of images drawn with my forefinger on the touch sensitive screen of my iPod using the JP App.

The Jackson Pollock App simulates the drip painting technique of the eponymous abstract expressionist painter. There is no "undo" function so you can't correct any mistakes. You have to respond to marks already made just as Jackson Pollock did in real life. This makes for quick, gestural drawings, which encourage you to work quickly to capture the moment.

The colour options I opted for, echo I think, the spirit of jazz and the buzz of live performance. You can see a selection of these iPod sketches by clicking on my flickr image library site and judge for yourselves.