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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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.

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...

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!!!!