My photos and calendars now available from redbubble

I missed the deadline...

...to the Cranleigh Art and Craft Society autumn exhibition? How careless of me! The entry form got 'filed' to the pile of paperwork to be sorted...and forgotten about! Can you just believe it!? And then coming back from Estonia, 2 weeks after the deadline, I found this piece of paper...OH NO!! As it's quite important show for me as I've always sold very well from there, I was really quite upset about missing out on this one...oh well, next time!
That's how we learn: the hard way!

New Paintings

I tend to work best under pressure...don't know why, but every time I find myself squeezed by time, my creativity sort of kicks in!
I needed 3 new works for the Association of Sussex Artists Exhibition...didn't have much time (as I tend to leave EVERYTHING to the last minute!!) only 2 weeks to be precise! I found a few unfinished paintings and decided to work on those, and see which ones come out best and submit those...(my usual practice tends to be- submit a form with a list of pictures: names, medium and price BEFORE I've even started painting them!) beneath are the three I ended up with:

Couch potato

This is my latest addition to the "Lomps" series

Exhibition results...

Well, I certainly didn't expect to sell 8 pictures, but that's exactly how many I sold. Great isn't it! Although people tend to go for the lower value items, but hey, it's better than nothing at all!
I am currently working on my next Lomps picture which should be ready in this week. I really love challenge, but sometimes it seems, to come up with the right idea, an awful lot of brain storming...BUT it's all gonna be worth it in the end! So I keep my eyes and ears peeled for any ideas from real life and people around me :o)

Rising mist

Just finished this painting today, it's coming up in Horsham Paintings Groups Spring Exhibition 14-16 May 2009

in Old Town Hall, Horsham
OPEN: 10-4.30 pm
(10-4pm on Sat.)

Rising mist
Originally uploaded by kerto.co.uk

New Picture

This is my latest Picture in series "Lomps".
As I said I am trying to get together about 10-20 in this series and see where I can take them from there...
Everybody always welcome to comment and suggest what other funny ideas I could put on paper!

Hey There on this Good Friday!

I've been finding myself lacking inspiration recently, I guess the recession is taking hold of me as well...
Quite often it is really difficult to fight off the thoughts of not selling as much as I should to 'stay alive'. Well it's not that bad really, but I don't know any artists in my community who this credit crunch hasn't hit hard! As people find they are cutting back more and more on buying luxury items, we just find ourselves on 'dry'...where do you go from here? Do you start a new business? Change everything you're doing already to make it work? Tough decisions!! But I guess the answer lies within us: just have to keep on doing what we do best and not give up! To have a goal and discipline ourselves to achieve what we need to achieve! Chin up and move forward! Avoid going backwards with everything you've got!

Already in March 2009!

How time flies!! I know you have noticed I am not very good at keeping up with this blogging business...but hey, I will get better (hopefully! LOL)
So what's happened at this end?
Had quite quiet few months as the economic downturn takes hold...but I have managed to finish a commission recently:


Also trying to develop my whimsical character "Lomps" further to create a series...here's the first one:


If you have any interesting ideas about the subjects and what I could make these characters do, please let me know :o)

PROBLEM

Just in case you are wondering why I haven't updated my website for a while...the old info is still up etc. well I can tell you now that no I haven't gone lazy etc. I simply can't get into my ftp server! I have contacted the guys up there but they don't seem to know where the problem is either. It's most frustrating not to be able to put relevant info on your site! But let's hope it's going to be sorted out soon...

Hi all,
Sorry for not blogging such a long time...honestly I have been too busy...apart from the fact that I noticed I am getting old! I forget to do things...happens to everybody, right!??? I am too young to be getting old LOL!
I have had very successful month, sold 23 paintings in October, which is best of all times...Now I need to catch up with updating the sold paintings catalogue, oh and talking of which it is going to be available to view online as well :o)
But over 300 paintings to list it will take a long time...

FINE ART EXTRAVAGANZA

Yes it's time again to update you all about upcoming shows and what I have been doing recently...

I have gone wild in mu studio and trying out all sorts of new techniques and stuff so there's a good reason to come and see what I've been up to:

Exhibition

As you might have read from my previous blog, I have been concentrating on painting misty landscapes recently, mainly because that's what I feel I ought to be doing...here is the first resulting painting
I hope to get it in the upcoming exhibition from 14-23 August by Association of Sussex Artists...it's not sure yet as I haven't exhibited with them before and apparently it goes through a panel who decides whether paintings are good enough to go public or not...so fingers crossed!
The venue of the exhibition: Millais School, Depot Rd., Horsham, RH13 5HR
It is open from 10.30-5 pm. Admission is free and plenty of free parking as well! So if you are anywhere in the area, do drop in as the standard of artworks exhibited is usually very high!
That's all for now, I will let you know whether I got in or not...very soon ;o)

Update...

Hi there, I suddenly thought I haven't written to you for a while again....I'll put it right for once :o)
Well as you read from my previous blog I had two weekends when my studio was open to the public. It went very well indeed, thanks for asking.
On Monday I thought I should start painting properly again after a while as I had to spend some time tidying up the studio...which too about 2 weeks!!! So here I am painting again, I was actually really inspired by HERAKUT, check it out, it's really worth viewing!
So there I am getting carried away, lost in time listening to some music and enjoying myself creating something challenging...started 4 new misty paintings today...I must say I REEEEEAAAALLLLY LOVE PAINTING MISTS! I wonder whether I get enough of it one day??? I hope not!
Well there are so many things I want to tell you about but it would take all evening trying to type it out...
Oh 1 more thing: I have next years poster calendar (A2) coming out soon, so if you wish to purchase it, keep your eyes open and keep visiting www.kertodesign.com, where all my artwork and much more is up for sale!

MY OPEN STUDIO

New website for 2 by 4 Artists...

I have finished designing this website recently, I haven't had a chance to put it up on my site yet, but here you can have a look at what I have been busy with recently...

http://www.2by4artists.org.uk/index.html

OK then,

Well I have had a hint that I dont post here often enough and it's absolutely correct, I should do it more often...But to be frank with you, I don't really like typing, but then there are many things in life we don't particularly enjoy but still do???
So what have I been up to then? As usual, anything and everything, I don't think I can ever "settle down" as such...I just have to "fiddle" with new things and subjects... As you might have noticed my latest 2 nude paintings, well that's not really my style, but I had this idea of painting these 2 for a while now, and I had a very specific style in mind as well and to be honest I was challenged whether I could execute it as I saw it in my head or not...? And when I finished them, I must admit they are pretty close to what I had in mind. Here are the links to see what I am talking about: http://flickr.com/photos/kerto/2536294367/
http://flickr.com/photos/kerto/2534322604/

I think that's it for now, oh no, the most important thing: we have open houses and studios coming first 2 weekends in July, so if you are in the area of Horsham, West Sussex, please drop in my studio as it will be open for a good "nose"... from 11-6 pm.
WELCOME!!!

Hectic times...

Well you can see I haven't had much of a chance to chat with you recently as I have been doing too many things to list them all here...
Something quite unusual happened yesterday, you know how the saying goes: Things happen in threes...well how about this then: I got 3 commissions all in one day! Now I am really busy trying to squeeze it all in. I actually really enjoy working under pressure, I tend to turn out more decent work if I know that I have to have it done by a certain date.
Oh and just in case you haven't been to my site on news page, my pictures are currently up in the Waterstone's bookstore window on Horsham high street for the whole month of April. So yes that's another reason i have been busy as I wanted to make sure I displayed some decent works there...as you can imagine, and I have also been in a process of getting some prints of them done professionally. They should get done during this week, fingers crossed! I got a few of my paintings scanned professionally...you know what!? I was totally amazed of the quality that this fine art scanner produced! Sooooo much detail on every little dot, it was just unbelievable!!! It was definitely worth doing as it only needs to be done once...So now if you are interested in buying some prints of mine, you'll know the quality will be superb.
Anyway, that's it for now, hope to catch up and tell you some more about how my commissions are coming on soon. Until next time,...what should I actually say here? ...I am always struggling with this last bit...Oh I know, something really good I came across today, quote of the day from Pablo Picasso: "Action is the foundational key to all success."

My new Photoshop tutorial (s)

I have been thinking about sharing some of my knowledge with others for some time now, and now I have finally come out with NR1 .
Enjoy!

Exhibition

After having made frames for my paintings i eventually got the pleasure of hanging them up...well I thought it was going to be a piece of cake....I couldn't have been more wrong! Previous exhibitions have been a lot easier to hang as the pictures have been so different, this time having 2 or 3 paintings which are slightly different style and colour scheme, it was really difficult to find place for them. Also I didn't want to leave too much empty space...oh you know what I mean...Anyway, it's all up now and you are most welcome to go and see it if you happen to be in the area: Horsham Library, from 9.February - 1.March
And if you can't make it, there will always be next one :o)
I have also listed the paintings on my business website: www.kertodesign.com/?q=search&subject=Original%20Art
So here we go, until next time, have a good day!

Happy New Year!

Hi all, Just wanted to wish you a very successful 2008!
I had a most wonderful chance to visit Paris (29.12.07-01.01.08).
I also went to Louvre, Notre Dame, Montmartre and other such like... I was most taken by old Dutch masters from 1600, especially Ostade paintings in Louvre, so much so that I took an awful lot of photos of his work, which you can see here:
www.flickr.com/photos/kerto
There are too many things I could tell you about the trip...especially about our big disappointment receiving new year without ANY fireworks at Eiffel tower...would you just believe it!? Once in a lifetime chance (was a big dream of mine for years...for some beculiar reason?) to see fireworks in Paris at Eiffel, and it didn't happen! Oh and you wouldn't believe the crowds trying to get away afterwards, all pushing and pulling, total chaos...we were nearly squashed to pancakes...happy to be alive to be honest, and it doesn't end there...wait for it.....to top the cake, my husband's wallet got stolen as well! So yes, definitely a very different new years eve! But all ended well as we received a phone call on 2.Jan. from Luxembourg, a man, who's son spotted a wollet under the car not far away from where we discovered it was stolen, phoned us and told he was going to post it back to UK! How good is that? And 2 days later it was here...Thank you Royal Mail for a quick delivery.
Until next time, have good day!

Eventually

Now then, from today you can buy my art straight from my own website, instead of wondering away to some other sites...
Yes I managed to get some time to finish it off at last.
It's all very secure as you'd expect using Paypal's services.
You can have a look here: http://www.kerto.co.uk/oilgallery.htm#oilgallery

Productive 3 days

Yes past 3 days I have finished 9 paintings believe it or not...they are all relatively small but the style is very different to my usual style...these are all going to be on display from 9.February - 1. March in Horsham Library, I named exhibition "Dreamscapes" as the majority of the pictures will be balancing in between real and unreal...
You can see my latest oil paintings here: http://www.kerto.co.uk/oilgallery.htm

What is your carbon footprint???

Find out here...

http://www.google.co.uk/carbonfootprint/index.html#utm_
source=en-emea-uk-ha-syn&utm_medium=ha&utm_campaign=syn&source=cfha

Grey day...

Today is once again too dark to paint...I was going to studio to finish a painting for 2 by 4 Christmas exhibition this weekend, but now I have to leave it there...
What happens when I paint in dark? When I see it next day, I will just have to go over again as colours I used in half dark are slightly wrong as the darker the weather, the less colour you see...

Created this blog today

yes I thought it would be nice to let everybody know what I have been up to recently...So here we go...This first one is a test really just to see how it all works...I must admit I have been thinking about it for a while now...so enjoy! :o)