kimmings

It’s been a busy few weeks so expect a few more posts here soon.

In the meantime I’ve added yet more work to my website – go take a look…

So I’m going here tonight and really looking forward to meeting these guys.  I’ll post photos later.

I have recently updated my website – kimmings.co.uk – with 2010 available canvases for sale. I’ll be adding more over the coming weeks.

If you’ve seen artwork that isn’t available on the site, or would like to discuss a future commission (or would just like to off-load or vent) please contact me.

The Liar - 2010

Go take a look at the fantastic artwork of David Dipre, an artist (and music maker) “who believes in making things by instinct and not choice. For David, the activity of painting is about pushing past the limitations of ones imagination, to bring back the subject in an unforeseen way.”

He’s recently had one of his paintings at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

David Dipre - Portrait - 2010

It’s been a long time since I blogged about anything other than art. All work and no play makes Julian a dull boy.

So… I made a sausage casserole this afternoon – I felt like I needed some hearty comfort food. Usually we’d use a packet mix for the sauce but today I decided to make my own, which I much preferred. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 8x large sausages (I use Richmond’s Irish Recipe)
• I medium onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• handful of chopped mushrooms
• 1 tin baked beans
• 1/2 pint warm vegetable stock
• pinch of dried chili flakes
• pinch of thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• twist of salt & pepper

Brown the sausages in a frying pan, make sure they’re brown and crispy all over. Remove them from the pan and place on some kitchen towel. Add the onion and pepper to the pan you used to brown the sausages and cook gently for a few minutes then add the crushed garlic and cook for another minute. Make sure the onions don’t brown and you don’t want to burn the garlic. The onions should just ’soften’. Add the mushrooms and stir for 30 seconds or so, just long enough to coat them with oil then add the beans warm through for another minute. You don’t want the beans to cook or thicken, they’ll do that in the oven.

Add the chili flakes, paprika, thyme, salt & pepper and vegetable stock to a casserole dish and then add the cooked onions, peppers etc and mix in well. Add the browned sausages and cook in the oven at 180C for 1hr. I leave the casserole dish open so the sauce thickens nicely but it’s a good idea to check it every 20 minutes and give it a stir.

Serve with some long grain rice.

I haven’t sketchbooked in such a long time, not properly. I had an appointment this morning that made me a little later than usual for my train so while waiting at the station I got myself a coffee and sat down with my sketch book.

It was almost alien and, I’m not joking, I felt uncomfortable holding the pencil. I’m starting to realise (a little too late I think) that the frustration I’ve felt over recent weeks while painting is because I’m out of practice at the very basics.

There are I guess lots of excuses I could use, but that’s exactly what they are, excuses, not reasons.

I stopped taking my sketch book out with me, mainly out of frustration that I was unable to use it when I needed to jot things down during the day (due to the 9-5) which is usually when I get my inspiration, while I’m thinking of something else! Does anyone else have that same problem? I imagine so.

Sketching not only helps to clarify and build ideas, it also helps to release all the crap as well, all the ’stuff’ that builds up that I think would make a great image, until I get it down on paper.
Lesson learned – sketchbook everyday.

A possible new canvas to come soon. This popped into my head while waiting for the train this morning. Apparently someone decided to jump on front of a train in North Wales, causing a fair amount of dissruption.

Just an idea at this stage.

I know I’m way behind the times – we watched Wall-E at the weekend and I can’t believe I haven’t seen it up until now. It’s a great film and every detail was perfect. Like I said, way behind.

I’m going to have to make some time to watch it again on my own so I can soak up/absorb more. I’ll probably do what I used to do before I found myself getting side-tracked by life’s ‘little distractions’ and have my sketchbook handy. There was a time when I wouldn’t/couldn’t sit and watch a movie without my sketchbook. I found myself half way through Wall-E getting distracted because I wanted to remember parts for later, that’s how inspiring it was. The last time I felt like that was when I watched James And The Giant Peach.

I always turn a painting upside down to make sure it looks ok. It’s the best way for me to know if it’ll work.

Sometimes all you need is to spend 10 minutes on something to turn it around and put it back on track.

(photo is from my phone)