The daily life of an artist...

2007-11-10T11:04:00.000Z

Saturday 10th November 11:00

Dear Diary,

Not much new - yesterday was an admin day!

However, I have just uploaded this...

http://www.hollandhicken.com/birth.htm

..have fun!

2007-11-09T11:30:00.000Z

Thusday 9th November 17:00

Dear Diary,

Wow! It's nearly been a whole year since I posted...
..wow!!!

And what a year it's been...
..up and down as ever!

There's so much news I don't really know where to start. So I guess I'll start with my latest project and fill in the missing bits as my blog runs on...

..my latest project is what I would call a "flagship" painting for an exhibition I'm preparing for in April of next year. The exhibition will be in a brand new gallery in Brooklyn NY of all places! it's going to be an oil painting of a beautiful tall and elegant angel (love 'em!) - this painting is going to be 9 feet tall! If it all goes well she will be quite an awe inspiring piece when she's finished...

..more later.

In the meantime this is my latest painting which I finished earlier in the week. By the way I seem to paint exclusively in oils now...

"Dreamweaver"

"Dreamweaver" is painted in a style I've spent all year working to perfect - if you were to look at my website's 2007 gallery you'll see what I mean - I've been on terrific adventure this year as far as my style and content has been concerned, painful and fun at the same time!

There's lot's more to tell too...

..there's news on publishing

..coming soon a book of my paintings and a collection of poetry

..a 15 artist global collaboration on one of my paintings

..the combined work of yours truly and a lovely artist Sevina Yates

..much more too!

Well that's enough for today - back to the "flagship"

-Have fun!

2006-11-16T17:02:00.000Z

Thusday 16th November 17:00

Dear Diary,

As I imagined I didn't get chance to do a great deal of painting today.....a few brush strokes this morning and that was all.

It turned out that some of the hi-fi that I was photographing today was actually hi-fi that I had designed (style-wise) so in a sense it was a very rewarding day for me nonetheless.

As far as I know I have pretty much a full day free on Friday - I shall certainly finish Midge's portrait and get pretty close to finishing Jennie's figure too...

Have fun!

2006-11-16T06:49:00.000Z

Thursday 16th November 06:45

Dear Diary,

Sorry, I have been neglecting you this week...

..it has been a "design week" - so not much I can say really.

However, I have been involved with a portrait swap in one of the forums that I subscribe to. The idea is that 20-30 artists pair up and paint each other, sending the finished painting/pastel/pencil or whatever to the recipient in time for christmas. All good fun too!

In amongst the design work I've managed to find a little time to start my two portraits...

..I'll hopefully finish those in the next day or so.

In the meantime today is devoted to photography. Unfortunately I'm not photographing beautiful women with a view to painting masterpieces - I'm photographing some hi-fi with a view to making some point of sale...

..ah well, it brings the bacon home!

Have fun,

Mark HH

2006-11-11T18:06:00.000Z

Saturday 11th November 18:00

Dear Diary,

I didn't write anything this morning and I'm not writing much now either...

..I'm cracking open the champagne - because the painting that nearly killed me is finished! And she's beautiful! It bears my signature and my daughter's too!

Good night!

2006-11-10T17:22:00.000Z

Friday 10th November 17:20

Dear Diary,

Today we took the "Mona Lisa" to school - for the grand unveiling. The head had called for a full school assembly and as you can see there were quite a lot of them! it was funny to think that each of the children I could see before me had taken painted some of the our painting. A few bits and pieces were said and then I was asked to stand up and unveil their painting...

..it was a such magical moment - lots of "gasps" and "whoops" - job done! I duly thanked them all - I wanted to say that it had been an honour and a pleasure to work with such talented artist's - but apparently I didn't say anything like that (not the best public speaker...) but I did get a thank you or two in there!

After the assembly the children's parents were welcomed in to see what all the fuss was about - I had a chat with a few of them - one said "My boy told me about this - he said he'd been painting with mud!"

On top of all that I made a determined effort to get some more of "The Veil" painted! I attacked it with a vengence today and got quite a bit done - I can't wait until this is finished...

..have fun! I'm now going to find a quiet corner and hiberbate for the winter.

2006-11-09T06:20:00.000Z

Thursday 9th November 06:15

Design work today...

..I have a couple of fun projects to take care of today and a photo-retouch for a client. But guess what we're working on tomorrow?

Yes! The Veil!!!!!!

I've been looking into European and international publishing recently and I have some very favourable responses - I'll be following those up to.

Have fun...

2006-11-08T12:33:00.000Z

Wednesday 8th November 12:30

We did it!!!!!!!

And this is what all the fuss was about...

..yesterday I went back to school!

The headmistress and I had set up a very special art project for the children - they were all going to help me paint a famous painting and that is exactly what we did! I set up at about 07:30 and the children started to come to me from 08:00 and throughout the day. In total over 200 people helped me yesterday to put this together...

..the best thing is that as we painted certain areas I then hid what we had done under a second loose canvas - the pupils and staff still don't know what they have painted yet - there is going to be a full school assembly later in the week where we will unveil it. the plan is that we will sell small limited edition prints to the children's parents to help raise money for school funds.

Quite by "chance" the press arrived at lunchtime. This was great for me as I hearded everyone, all but the press, Susie my helper and the headmistress out of the "studio" - we had a photoshoot and I got to see how things were progressing - you can imagine how relieved I was when I heard a few gasps and saw that it was working out!

It was one of the most stressful yet rewarding projects I have ever undertaken! And today I feel wonderful - and absolutely worn out!

Have fun!!!!

2006-11-07T05:33:00.000Z

Tuesday 7th November 05:30

..today's the day!

"The Spaldwick School Great Art Project!"

I have everything packed that I think the children and I might need to make a great painting. I will be setting up at the school at around 07:30 and in order to fit everyone in, some of the older children are painting at around 08:00...

..we hope to finish by around 15:30 - which is good news as my daughter (and participant) then has a birthday party to go to!

I should have some good and fun photographs to show you later today.

(only had a bout 1000 deborah's this morning...)

Have fun - I know I will!

2006-11-06T13:01:00.000Z

Monday 6th November 12:55

Oooops - I missed a day or two! And i have no picture for this thrilling installment either...

..I have however been working hard behind the scenes. In the morning (07:30) I'll be setting up at the school and we'll be painting for Britain! I will have some photographs of the event.

In the meantime "deborah" seems to have changed her attack slightly...not only am I getting a great deal of spam forwarded to her via an old e-mail address but now I'm getting a whole load more spam all coming from "deborah's" with different sirnames - god she's keen! I even went to the trouble of disabling the e-mail forwarding from the old .com and still they get forwarded - are the old hosts implicated in this?

Have fun - I'm just getting nervous!

2006-11-02T18:51:00.000Z

Thursday 2nd November 18:45

Dear Diary - still battling with the amazing "deborah" - this has turned into a crusade now...

..despite this I did some of the school painting - this was great fun for me. Not only did it show me that the project will actually "fly" I got to paint like a 5-8year old! Remember this is a painting made from square digital pixels and the more analogue overlap and randomness the better the finished painting will be! I'll try to post a pic in the morning...

..other news - a German publishing company got in touch with me today and it looks like we might be thinking along the same wavelength - perhaps we can do some business.

Finally for tonight - I didn't manage to paint any more of "The Veil" and there is a hectic weekend ahead - will I ever finish it?

Have a good night - more in the morning!

2006-11-02T05:21:00.000Z

Thursday 2nd November 05:15

Morning all...

I'm about to paint a little more of "The Veil" - I'm slowly getting through it!

Then I willl seal the painting for the school project - the last thing I want is for all the numbers to get rubbed off as the day progresses - imagine the flap that Susie and I would be in!

I have a design meeting at 09:30, which will take all of the morning, but when I return I should be able to paint some of the squares of the school project...

.."Deborah" sent me only 420 e-mails overnight - maybe she's getting bored with me!

Have fun!

2006-11-01T16:48:00.000Z

Wednesday 1st November 16:45

One...three...two...two...four...twelve...nine...nine...nine...eight...
seven...four...four...six...seven...seven...eight...

..this is how most of the day went. I called out the numbers and Susie wrote them on the canvas. I had however forgetten to tell anyone (including myself) that I had upped the resolution. There were not the 3600 numbers that I had imagined - there were 5776!!!!

Imagine saying the numbers one to twelve that many times...the sounds become meaningless the figures that Susie was writing became meaningless - it really was the most mind-numbingly-boring thing I have ever done in my life...

..some people have coffee mornings - but I started to gigle as it sounded like we were having a "pi" morning - repeating the digits of pi for the fun of it!

..the best thing is it's done!

I now have to paint out 3000-4000 of the squares and leave enough for the children of the school to finish. That part will be the easy part!

Not much else to say really - apart from deborah at c21-design has sent me another 500 or 600 spam mails throughout the day - It wouldn't be so bad if i was interested in the share prices of "Toss-pot inc."

Design morning ahead and then some painting...

Have fun!

2006-11-01T08:07:00.000Z

Wednesday 1st November 08:00

Morning all...

..I started work at around 05:00 this morning - only to find I had about 800 un-deliverable e-mails purporting to be sent from a "deborah" from "C21-Design" (the name of my old design company) - does this ever happen to you?

Once I'd waded through that lot I began to paint some more of "The Veil" - we'll get there!

Today Susie and I are working on the school project. We have to number up 3600 squares, the numbers represent the shades of paint that the school children have to paint. How mind numbingly boring that might be - I have no idea, but I will let you know...

..anyway the school run calls - back soon!

2006-10-31T17:59:00.000Z

Tuesday 31st October 17:50

I had another meeting with the school today - just to tidy up loose ends, organise times..etc for the big painting...

..came home and layed up the board. The board has 3600 squares on it each one measuring 1cm - they all have to be numbered from 1 to 12 to show which shade has to be painted on that "pixel" - thankfully I have Susie coming to help me with this in the morning...

..I will then paint 1500 - 2000 of the squares and leave the rest for the children. I'll post more when I've done that.

I'm afraid "The Veil" didn't get a look in today - serves her right for being so dammned difficult!

Cheers...

2006-10-30T17:03:00.000Z

Monday 30th October 17:00

...well that was a hard day's painting! This veil is going to kill me!

I'll get a bit of a break from this painting after today. In the morning I have meeting with the school and then, back in the studio, I'll be putting the school's canvas together - as I have to mark it up in a "child-proof" manner that'll take me most of the rest of the day and most of the following. I'll post it here when it's done.

Then from Thursday I have some design work to do...

..catch you soon!

2006-10-30T06:37:00.000Z

Monday 30th October 06:30

Dear Diary...

..I had a very busy "family" weekend and a few graphic design meetings - I did manage to paint more of "The Veil from Hell" and when the light comes up I'll post a photograph of what I did (light was good and here she is)...

..today in the early dark hours I have been working out how to lay-up the canvas for the forthcoming school project. I have a second meeting with the school in the morning, just to tie up the loose ends.

Hopefully I'll be painting today - I can't wait for this one to be finished!!!!

Have a good Monday!

Mark HH

2006-10-27T15:36:00.000Z

Friday 27th October 16:30

Busy busy day! Dropped my daughter off at "Moma's" and got home just in time for my client's photo shoot...

..it was a "first shoot" and quite a laugh. We did some shots for her family and then we did some corporate shots that she'll use for her advertising.

There is a look and style (from both me and the model) that has crept in to the black and white shots and I simply can't put my finger on it - they somehow remind me of how I remember Virginia McKenna in born free...

I managed a little more painting but I'll save that for the next time I write.

Cheers and have fun weekends!

2006-10-26T15:11:00.000Z

Thursday 26th October 16:00

Half term is slowly grinding me down...

..and my dear daughter!

I don't know if it's the fact that I'm constantly in demand or this is a genuinely difficult painting - it might just get re-named "The Veil from Hell!" On the other hand it's comming together rather nicely now and I know it will be one of the best if not the best I have painted.

I'm knocking down the studio now as I have a photo-shoot to do in the morning - the lovely Claire and her nails! Don't ask - if she gives me permission I'll post a few of the shots on my web-site and might put one on the blog too...

..in the meantime have fun!

2006-10-25T04:35:00.000Z

Wednedsay 25th October 05:30

More of the same...I will make my daughter another large area that she can paint today. Apart from that not much new.

Will post more later.

2006-10-24T12:00:00.000Z

Tuesday 24th October 12:55

Who's training who? In a few weeks time I'll have 175 school children my daughter's age and not much older helping me with my painting!

I didn't feel so guilty about painting today as my daughter got to help me - she did really well, I only had to do a little smoothing here and there - it was fun too! I worked on the top of the painting and Becky worked down below. When I sign this one I'll have Becky put a little "bb" next to my signature...

..now for clean-up and lunch!

More later...

2006-10-24T07:53:00.000Z

Tuesday 24th October 08:45

I'm not late - just busy...

..it was an 04:00 start to the day for me. Woke up, wide awake, leapt out of bed and got on with it! I think I'm making up for lost time yesterday. In the dark hours I find it impossible to paint any detail or complicated shading - so I painted a thigh and some background - simple stuff!

I want to get the dark background finished this morning - so that I can spend the whole afternoon with my daughter.

More later...

2006-10-23T16:18:00.000Z

Monday 23rd October 17:15

I think I've broken my blog - I don't think I can upload anymore pictures...

..well what do you know? The pictures i wanted to upload this morning have appeared here!

Ok - great!

As for the rest of the day - it was a bit hit'n'miss like the posting of the images! I really didn't get more than a few brush strokes done...

..well, slightly more than a few - an earful!

Catch you in the morning! (and I'll format the blog after inserting the images in future...)

2006-10-23T05:08:00.000Z

Monday 23rd October 06:00

The morning rush hour is about to descend on the Holland-Hicken household, where chaos reins for a short while...

..except today it will be for a little longer! Half term for my daughter...

I will try to get a little painting done when the light comes up (thank heavens for CBB's!) but more than likely I'll be stopping around lunch time today.

However I have a special painting project that I'm working on that requires quite a bit of computer work - thanks to the new "wireless" we've installed I might be able to work on the project and be with my daughter at the same time!

A little about the project...

..I have planned a special painting. It's not unique by any standards and the style has been used a zillion times before - but the execution and number of artists involved is! I've put together a painting of the "Mona Lisa" comprised of just over 2000 "pixels" or 1" squares on a canvas. On the 7th of November (by coincidence my daughter's birthday) I will be taking this canvas to my daughter's school...

(there should be a picture or two here - but I can't seem to upload today!)

..that, a hand full of brushes and 10 pots of pre mixed acrylic paints.

The plan is that during the course of one day all the children, staff, governors, dinner ladies, caretakers and even the school mascot "Teddy Robinson" will all file into the community room to paint 10 or so of the squares - at the same time my assistant and I will be hiding (with a second) canvas the previously painted squares...

..at the end of the day we should have a pretty good rendering of "Mona". I'll take it home tat night - tidy up the finger prints and spills and then it will be unveiled the following morning in a full school assembly - the theme of the assembly will be "Working together, look what we can achieve...etc"

We'll then have it photographed and a small mounted print will be made for the school to sell in the lead up to Christmas - the school does a lot of this sort of thing and has bought some fantastic kit for the kids - for instance my daughter who is just turning 5 uses a 60" projector lit touch screen to guide "virtual" characters through "counting rooms", "writing rooms" and all manner of other hi-tech learning...

..enough of that - I'll keep you informed!

Have fun - rush hour beckons...

2006-10-22T16:20:00.000Z

Sunday 22nd October 17:15

...what a gloomy day we've had in here today - the light was OK for painting this morning but this afternoon was dreadful. Nonetheless I got a good deal of work done this morning and family things this afternoon.

When I'm painting I reach a point - like "The Wall" for runners ...etc. It is a point where I am often overcome with "overwhelmingly-crushing-self-doubt" and it usually happens about 2/3rds the way through a piece. It is a dreadful time where I start to think to myself "..this is never gonna fly..." - Well, today I put into practice something which I think will help me through this...

..I painted the face first, in all it's beauty. Now, as I work through the rest of the painting I'll be able to refer to this little bit and know "everything's going to be OK!"

Dinner and parenthood calls! Half term too for my daughter - that means little bits of painting here and there - and lots of computer games!!!

Cheers - hope you have fun too!

2006-10-22T05:51:00.000Z

Sunday 22nd October 06:45 hrs...

..of mice and men!

My canvasses didn't arrive in the right order - so my pair of ballerinas will have to wait, I have one ballerina sitting before me and the other is still in limbo and as I want them to be a matching pair I have to paint them both at the same time.

However, I have sitting beside me "The Seventh Veil" all ready to go. A beautiful photograph taken by my friend Gabriele - and that is what I shall start today - the canvas is 1130mm x 730mm (51" x 29") - a good size, when finished the model will just look life sized! I'll be painting it all in black and white and then adding a mediteranean skin tone to it at the end...

..it will look pretty much like the photograph, apart from the fact I might just put a hint of "ski-slope" on her nose to make it slightly less "Roman"...

..I'll try to post tonight a photograph of how I've got on...

(did you notice that I didn't moan about the "blog's interface" today - I must be getting the hang of it...)

2006-10-21T06:35:00.000Z

Saturday 21st Oct 07:30 hrs.

I have been up for hours and feel like I've acheived nothing. It really has been a funny morning so far - I didn't get the chance to do anything towards my next painting - it's been e-mail after e-mail after e-mail (and now this cumbersome blog - I know I'll get used to it!)

I have a dear friend who I collaborate with - in fact I use a great deal of his work as source material for my paintings - his name is Gabriele Rigon and as far as I'm concerned - no other photographer in the world can consistently produce such stunning and beautiful work as Gabriele...

..we not only help each other out artwise but we try to look out for each other commercially as well.

I have been speaking to a publisher in the south of England who has printed some of Gabriele's work on box canvas with a view to selling the prints through some of his galleries - I have to quote from an e-mail I just had from him...

"..in fact one gallery has asked me to collect some SOR stock, they were reported to the police for putting them in the window, bit drastic I know but some people have a problem with a beautiful lady showing off her body..."

..it's a funny world.

I am starting some new work today, as I mention in my biography, when I'm mixing my paints up the whole studio starts to look like a chemistry lab - I'm just about to do just that- better hide my laptop...

..more later

2006-10-20T08:40:00.000Z

Well, first things first, welcome to my blog - I haven't blogged before and I'm pretty useless at keeping diaries - I am rather chatty though...

..so I guess my first day here is going to be used up setting the blog up! Why can't these things be more intuitive?

Having said that I finished this painting yesterday "Inquiète" and I'll be taking that to my local gallery for sale - they also have a few of my limited editions framed up which I will be collecting too...

Catch you later...

17:40 I knew that today was going to be a day at the computer and not weilding a paint brush! I had so much admin to do that it took over, that's the problem when I do paint - I am so focused that everything else slips, for instance I managed to get my car re-insured by a matter of just a few hours!

In the meantime I have a groan - the workings of theis blog are rubbish - so damned difficult to use - and I was a technologist for the last 15 years!

The best thing is the admin is now out of the way and my canvas is ready, sketched and primed for my next painting - I'll be up at 04:00 or so fo r a quick coffee and a smoke or two, I'll have my paints mixed by daylight and I'll get some work up on the blog..

cheers...(or is it cul8tr - that's why the site is so f11ck1ng 5h173 - 17'5 d3sgn1ged by k1d5 th47 74lk l1k3 th15 on their mobiles all the time!!!!!)

..see you in the morning