The random world that is my life as a painter takes an unexpected turn today. I’m in the woods, my phone rings, it’s a collector of my work that I’ve never met. He asks for a pictorial inventory of my remaining landscape paintings. He likes, we discuss prices, he then says they are not for his collection but that of a CEO of a major international asset management corporation. Could be time for a bigger stove in my new studio. I’m keeping everything crossed.

Packs for a night riding dreaming of a toasty studio where paint can dry in winter.

Good stuff, hope it goes well !

Ace mrMcMoonter.
Normal day here, if waiting on hire places to MOT landrovers, collecting new kayaks and saying goodbye to 38 weegy kids is normal…

I drove my desk all day and had nothing random happen.

Nice bit of uplifting news for you though, mcmoonter.

Pretty normal day here. In visits this morning & my colleague & I did a full search of a prisoner who needed a wee but on dropping his boxers a ‘large package’ fell out of his nether regions. Off to the Seg he went & his visitor (a rather attractive lass with a little kid) was detained by our lot then arrested by the cops. Happy days.

Quoted the biggest job i’ve ever gone for, looking after a housing estate in Birmingham…

I got the job I thought I’d not be in with a shout for. Cycling tutor at a college for young people with learning disabilities(my field). It’s only 1 day a week to start as a supplement my other work, but its mine to develop across the colleges other sites(Sheffield, Wales, Darlington, Stourbridge and here in Cotswolds). I’m based in a beautiful valley 5 mins from home. It also means new bike time!

Not random but I’ve never had one like it and will never have another again – brought my wife and new baby daughter* home from the birthing centre today. Feel so fortunate, especially in light of recent threads (my heart goes out to those affected).

* The sweetest cutest little bundle of three day old joy.

I watched an entire season of a tv show that follows around firefighters in the US. For work, obviously.

As expected. Had a lie in, had some lunch, rode my bike. All good.

My day went ….

bored…loads of office stuff
bored…loads of office stuff
bored…loads of office stuff
bored…loads of office stuff

Nearly home time.

Ooh that’s interesting. Need some staff sharpish. Quick rush, bang bang, smash the door and down get inside.
Ooh look drugs. Ooh look guns.

Arrest everybody.

Back for tea and medals.
Home.
Hobgoblin. ahhhh.

Now. What’s for dinner?

Walked into work with a smile on my face, knowing that I had a free period for some planning, and it snowballed. Kids smiled at me, wanted to chat. Loads of them came in at break and lunch to sort out display boards. Three of the toughest kids in Yr 8 came in at lunch to make origami frogs (I kid ye not!) These three boys have reduced colleagues to tears in the past and we spent 40 minutes folding paper. I managed to get a double portion of fish for lunch, and ate it with my Headteacher who actually seemed interested in my recent school trip to Lesotho.

A good day, smiles all round.

And now a homemade curry and Skyfall. Excellent 🙂

I thought you were a professional woodchuck?

I had a dull, dull, dull day sat in hospital. 🙄

mcmoonter – this is indeed good news.
Today was finishing off some curtains for a new customer.
Taking some photos of my latest bags (little felt phone covers).
Walking to the village (all downhill) for provisions. Brrrr chilly out there.
Walking back from the village, with heavy bags uphill, with soft flakes of snow falling around, up the flight of locks, then home.

Bit boring really but I’m recovering from man flu atm so to do anything is a bonus.

Did the Luge run in Couchevel 1850 today, basically a big sledge run that drops over 1,000 ft in too short a space of time! Kids loved it, my wife is still giggling several hours later, definitely recommended!

Today was low key. But yesterday I taught 70 teenagers about the Clinical Pharmacology of drinking, smoking and sex, with practical demonstration of alcohol accumulation (but not contraception 😉 )

On a scale of one to ten….dromedary.

In a meeting, I get a phone call from my bosses PA.
I take the call, one of the directors wants me to call him urgently. Did you read that? URGENTLY.

So I leave the meeting, call him. URGENTLY!!!

What’s this urgent call for? Well he’s got an email from a spam company and when he clicked a link in the email (which he tells me he always does), he got a message telling him he’s been blocked and a security violation has been registered against his name.

A long pause from me….. I really, really want to say “and….?”, but I don’t.

He’s waiting for me to tell him something so I do.

“Don’t click links in emails you’re not expecting….”

Well that kicked him off. I’m probably in for a bollocking on Monday.

This is what I get for trying to keep people safe.

That sounds fookin ace McMoonter, good for you!

Indeed. How rude of me. Well done McMoonter. That would be awesome!

Kevevs – Member
That sounds fookin ace McMoonter, good for you!
POSTED 4 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

+1 Good work fella

Wonderful news for McMoonter and Chiefgroove guru and Tang!

Some background to my OP if you’ll indulge me for a minute.

Ten years ago I walked out on a nightmare ten year marriage. While I thought that was bad the following three years of litigation were off the scale. Part of my divorce settlement included my having to hand over half of the monetary value of my unsold work. Crazy as it sounds, it’s the law in Scotland. It was a significant amount.

The paintings I made at the time were full of the love I had in the landscape from which my ancestors came. A rugged timeless and atmospheric place. Where everything else in my life was in chaos, this changing and challenging subject brought me peace.

I felt they were among the best work I’d ever produced. To have it somehow tainted by the greed of my ex wife who was also an ‘artist’ made the violation feel a lot worse.

Over the last few years I’ve sold all but this last few pictures. They have all gone to good homes.

When I looked up the pictures again, I found in them the spirit of both the landscape and of myself.

It resonated.

CGG and Tang great news for you guys too.

Part of my divorce settlement included my having to hand over half of the monetary value of my unsold work. Crazy as it sounds, it’s the law in Scotland. It was a significant amount.

That’s ridiculous! What if you don’t sell them? And it’ll more likely just force you to sell them cheap because you’ve no money.

Really interesting stuff to me McMoonter. do you make a lot of money doing stuff like that then? I guess it’s all self-promotion and contacts n stuff. I’m very curious. Not that it’s about money or owt. But I know for a fact you can’t spend all day painting/illustrating without being able to pay the bills! I’ve just started Landscape painting a bit since a long lay off.I think It’s what I want to do with my spare time at least. For what it’s worth, I really like that painting!

Tang – that sounds such a great thing to do!

We looked at every avenue, I offered her half the paintings, she refused.

I knew at the time I’d sooner preserve my sanity than worry about the money, it took a while, but it was a eureka moment of blinding clarity when I saw it. The spirit in my painting prevailed. At the end of the day, that’s why I paint.

Good for you mcmoonter! Great news. Not really random but today we became homeowners again. Feels good to finally own something after 7 years. Well only 10% of it technically.

Is the potential buyer based in the north of Scotland by any chance?

Kevevs

It’s a lottery. I’ve been very fortunate. It’s been my sole income source since I left college.

Gallery representation is vital for collectors to have confidence in your work. Strangely even large corporate collectors would sooner trust in the galleries opinion than their own.

I was lucky in that my work was bought prolifically by a number of institutions which generated it’s own momentum.

The money side is really unimportant, though it helps buy the time and materials for your next painting.

Great news Mcmoonter, Hope you sell em all ( really like them 😀 )

I don’t mean to be nosey,but I am, so.. do you have another source of income? is mortgage paid? etc. You make a solid living making paintings like that? this is not a criticism at all. It’s just a question.

I totally understand this “The money side is really unimportant, though it helps buy the time and materials for your next painting.” To just wake up and just be buzzing for painting or drawing stuff is such a cool feeling I had almost forgotten. It must be great to be in that position! I wish you all the luck with this one mate I really do!..

I’ve never had a mortgage. I was lucky enough to have bought property in the right places at the right time with what I had in the bank, a family trait. My outgoings are modest.

I did make some serious money, but as I said above, most of it evaporated. Since then I have reappraised much of what inspires and defines me. I enjoy creative projects beyond painting, even random stuff, gardening, shed building and wood cutting. There’s creativity in it all.

Since then I have reappraised much of what inspires and defines me. This is the interesting bit to me. I’m probably going through this bit…

Small fry, but… Canadian family group with a potential undergraduate student came into the office. Conversation about courses, entry requirements, cost of living, all very standard, suddenly becomes a conversation about watt-boulton engines and the powering of the industrial revolution, which leads to the dad becoming massively enthused and waving his arms about and praising gaaaaaahd for giving the gift of inventiveness to the scots so we could save the world from the evil of slavery, hallelujah!

And then about international baccalaureate points.

Dear Mr. mcmoonter
I have seen your work is there any chance you could send a picture you perhaps don’t want anymore I would promise not to sell it… even post card size will do…

If its a yes please email me !

Thank you very much indeed.

I’ll push the boat out here and say perhaps you are wealthy enough to be able to afford to do this sort of stuff. You’re not relying on these paintings to pay the bills and electric really are you? It’s the sort of thing you can give 100% effort into if you so chose to do so? but maybe you’ll be ok if they don’t sell? yes, I am jealous!

I work on a mental health HDU. I love the random things my patients subject themselves and the staff to. It’s not your normal 9-5 I tell ya!

That’s some nice news mcmoonter. It’s crazy that your paintings were considered assets in that way for litigation but it must be good to have it rounded off nicely now.

My day yesterday was full of random.

First I escorted someone from a stay on a psychiatric ward across town to an agency to help them find their first ever paid work. Then I was supporting someone on a sound production course, running a radio show and last week I was filming him DJing at a big club night. In the evening I cycled back across town to assist someone else who was baking rock cakes to take to church on Sunday.

Finally I ended up at a final Edinburgh gig of a band who are moving down to London. They are leaving in less than two weeks, have dates lined up but nowhere to live as yet, just launching into it with admirable, characteristically chaotic enthusiasm. I bought a single which came in an A4 folder and included, among other things: original lyric scribblings and nice woodcut print, pictures of the Bilbao Guggenheim and a pointers toward studying ‘Architecture and Nihilism’.

All of the above illustrates an alternative path after graduating from art school (same one as McM but at a different time). Half of our support service are from an art background/education and many of us are working to fund art making (sadly, not so much myself, though I’m fired up again now).

Kunstler, I’ve done a whole series of random stuff other than solely painting since I left college, every experience colours your work. For me when I get back to the easel it gives everything more soul. Keep at it.

I just found out from the guy that called me in the woods, that the last painting he bought from me is now hanging in Manhattan. A wee corner of Orkney in the Big Apple, I’ll raise a glass of Highland Park to that!

Half of our support service are from an art background/education

Of the dozen or so people who dropped out my art school while I was there, half left to work in the psychiatric sector and the other half left to become psychiatric patients 🙂

Of the dozen or so people who dropped out my art school while I was there, half left to work in the psychiatric sector and the other half left to become psychiatric patients

Aye, it’s a thin line we tread.