I came back from work this evening to find a tantalising package from the US in my mail box. I carefully unwrapped the wrapping to find two pieces of brown cardboard sandwiched together. I opened them up to find…….this! Wow!!!!!

A sensational print of a ‘Blue Krampus’ from my friend Leonard Greco in Los Angeles. I’ve long been admiring Lenoard’s paintings and prints on his blog Boondocks Babylon but nothing could have prepared me for just how stunning this print was when it was before my eyes for real. The fiery energy, brilliant colour palette, superb execution and spectacular, unique vision that Leonard brings to all his work knocked my socks off when I opened the package.

I met Leonard online a couple of years ago through getting involved in the Artlog, the blog by our friend in common Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Meeting such lovely, talented people is all the proof I need of what a thoroughly marvellous thing the internet can be. Thank you. Leonard for your wonderful gift, I’m so touched, I love it.

It so happens me and Jan are planning a long holiday over to the South West US next May and June so, all being well, I’ll get to meet Leonard in person in 2015 which i’m so looking forward to!

i made a Christmas gift for a family member in Germany this weekend – I’m pretty sure this person doesn’t read Hedgecrows so I think I can share it on here without spoiling any surprises. It’s made from a rubbing of a plaque I saw in our neighborhood marking the site of the old Schöneberg town hall.

When I was younger I think brass rubbing was about the least rock’n’roll and most uncool thing you could possibly do, but as I’m now approaching middle age I think I’m allowed!

Winter Lane, Whitstable, acrylic on paper, 40cm x 50cm, 2011

As well as making several studies of the hedgerows along the Crab and Winkle Way in Whitsable after the cold, snowy winter of 2009/10 I also made a couple of more worked-up paintings including this one, which I think was the most successful. It’s a scene from the footpath that starts just behind Whitstable station, an unremarkable corner of the town, but under a blanket of snow, I liked how it was transformed into something altogether mode atmospheric, with chilly, gloomy depths under the trees.

It’s very different in style to the recent collage work and I wonder if I show paintings in different styles together they’ll look ok on the gallery wall and be convincing. I guess the jury in my head is still out on this one but it would be nice to show one or two of these pieces from the last two years as well as the new work. 

A great plant form to draw, I think there were almost always some teazles on the art table at school for sketching, along with some driftwood, dried sunflower heads, and the ubiquitous peppers and cabbages cut in half.

These pariticular teazles I found growing along the river Slea opposite my parent’s house. The pasture where they grow is called Lollycocks Field and was earmarked for a new car park until, thankfully, a local campaign and petition saved it and the field was bought by the Council for safeguarding as a nature reserve. You can follow a link with info. about the local area here. A team of local volunteers help to manage the site of which my Dad was an enthusiastic member. Lollycocks Field is directly in front of the family home and Dad used to enjoy regular walks around the river with his dog Lucy, and then latterly with his beloved grandchildren Poppy and Tom. They would go and feed the ducks, play Pooh-sticks and look out for the beautiful big trout that swam in the river.

Dad passed away almost exactly a year ago and a day doesn’t go by that we don’t miss him terribly. There is a tree he planted in the corner of the field that will be forever more ‘Dad’s tree’. This little unassuming town was actually a rather lovely place to grow up and when I go back home now to see Mum and the rest of the family I take a walk around the river and remember Dad.

Oh, and Mum and Dad’s house has the BEST chimney pots!

With the exhibition in Whitstable coming up I’ve been going over some old work I made when I lived in the town a few years ago, and shortly afterwords when I moved to Berlin.

The sea is what’s really captivating about living in the ‘Bubble of course, but when the summer crowds became too much or if I wanted a change of scene i would cycle up along the track which winds its way out of the town northwards, up into the hills and on into Blean Woods. Hard to believe that back in 1830 this little fishing town was at the cutting edge of engineering technology but the railway that was built here was only the third ever constructed and the first to regularly take passengers. The line is now gone, but the route is preserved and a good walking/cycling track follows the old railway between Whitstable and Canterbury.

These studies I made around the start of the C&W Way, just as it started to leave the outskirts of the town, running across some open fields, lined with hedgerows, before it climbed a steep slope into the woodlands. One of the winters I was in Whitstable was very cold indeed and I enjoyed making some images of the snow covered landscapes. I was experimenting with different styles then too, starting to semi-abstract the shapes of the hedges and landscape a bit. Good to dig them out again and see what I was up to back in 2011.