* New Website Now Live *

This week I have been working on a new website and I'm glad to say it is now up and running so please check it out.....

www.scottcarruthers.co.uk

You can browse through the easy to use galleries to view my main catalogue of work and you can still read about the paintings in the shop section where further information can also be found.

There are the usual useful pages, including an insightful About Me page, contact forms and other info, as well as links to this blog and the Facebook Group.

Enjoy.

Sit and Wonder - (Vincent van Gogh)

"Sit and Wonder"

(30" x 30" Original, Acrylic on Canvas) Available at ScotlandArt

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter from the late 19th Century. Despite struggling to make any hint of a career from his art during his short lifetime, some of his paintings, particularly 'Sunflowers', are now amongst the world's best known and most expensive works of art.

Chairs are often used in art as representational objects. Van Gogh painted 2 different versions of his close friend Gauguins chair. The two paintings are thought to have been intended to represent the vastly contrasting temperaments and interests of the two artists.

The fact that the boy sitting in this chair looks a little bit like Van Gogh, wasn't intentional! :)

I do wonder what he might be thinking about though?

In The Studio

I thought I would post an image of myself in the studio working on my latest piece.

There is a slight change with this new painting as it is going to be completely in grayscale, like an old black and white film. Primarily becuase the painting is based on a film made in 1961 and is indeed in black and white!!

I'm quite excited about completing this piece as I am very interested to know how it will look with no colour involved. The film is also one of my favourites so I am desperate to do it justice and try to get some of the feeling of the story just right in the painting.

Blank Media Collective - Blankpages E-zine issue 9

This months E-zine from Blank Media Collective features 'Magic Window' on the front cover as well as a quick Q&A with myself on page 6 of the online magazine.

You can click on this link for quick access to the magazine;
'Blankpages' E-zine issue 9

It also includes the write up for 'Magic Window' as well as one of my personal favourites, 'The World is Yours' on page 5.

More about the Blank Media Collective arts organisation can also be found here on their website;
www.blankmediacollective.org

Many thanks to those at Blank Media for showing interest in my work, these things always help in giving me huge boosts and extra confidence in the paintings I create.

Money

(Detail from 'Money')

At what point I wonder, as a kid do you stop wanting a present for a birthday etc, and start demanding hard currency instead!?

There is nothing better than seeing a large box wrapped in all those fantastic colours and reading your name on it. Then tearing the paper with complete disregard to the care and attention it took to wrap up. Even if it is something you have asked for, the surprise is always nice.

And then you reach that age when these parcels of many colours become almost obsolete, and the shiny coinage takes preference.

However, I have found it goes full circle because the older you get, with the chance of ANY kind of currency coming your way being slim, just having something, anything, even the smallest of boxes is gratefully received!

(90cm x 70cm) SOLD

This original is available at The Westover Gallery in Bournemouth

A Little Teaser......

Here is a section from a new piece, just to give you a small taste of some future paintings:


Any Guesses as to what it could be about?

The Friendly Stranger

SOLD (90cm x 90cm)

I never had an imaginary friend when I was younger, but I know a lot of people did. My boy had one from the ages of around 3 to 5. His name was 'Cammy'. Cammy seemed to have disappeared during the last couple of years, but a few weeks ago I heard him get a mention once more. So he is still out there somewhere. Coupled with this, my work was recently commented on with suggestions of reminiscence to the animation of Raymond Briggs' story When The Wind Blows. With this I was reminded of another of Briggs’ stories that was also adapted into animation, The Snowman. Undoubtedly one of the most famous animations and certainly one of my favourites, it tells of a young boy who builds a snowman that comes to life overnight. Whether this is just his imagination is not really important, but to the boy, the friendly stranger is more than real.

This is a homage to the film that makes me smile and cry at the same time..... also to Cammy and other imaginary souls.

Kid For Today

SOLD (90cm x 70cm)

There is a myth that doing nothing is wasting time, when it's actually extremely productive and essential. During empty hours, kids explore the world at their own pace, develop their own unique set of interests and indulge in the sort of fantasy play that will help them figure out how to create their own happiness. When they are watching television, even if there is nothing particularly on, you just know they are sitting there lost in their own imagination. However, always the inquisitive, a kid will stop and stare at something that they feel is far more interesting!

What's The Story?

SOLD (90cm x 70cm)

Where have all the newspaper boys and girls gone? It’s not a familiar sight these days, either in the mornings or around tea time.

I remember in the early 80’s my older brother had four rounds on the go, one in the morning, two in the evening and one at the weekend…..all for about £5 a week!!....come to think of it, is it no wonder the Paperboys have called it a day. And what with getting up early morning in the more often that not freezing cold and/or wet weather!

Nothing can teach you more about the value of money than earning it for yourself, but sometimes maybe the effort being put in was worth more than the wage packet. Not that a little hard work never did anyone any harm. Perhaps the rise in pocket money has also seen less need to earn a little extra.

The thing is, becoming a paperboy or girl was a rite of passage for many children. Perhaps more than any other part-time job, it educated the young future worker about the importance of getting up in the morning, of punctuality and of steadfastness.

Personally, I was never one for any of that!

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Magic Window

(33cm x 43cm inc black frame)

So much of our British society is 'Americanised' these days and it has been getting ever the more so over the last couple of decades. Since the early 90's music, fashion, food and even language has been shaping our kids lives and one of the most noticeable instigators of this is from Children's television. Programmes made in the US flood the countless channels available in the form of dramas, teen sitcoms and cartoons. And the problem is what little British programmes that ARE made, are completely based around their US counterparts. What happened to all those British classics we loved and grew up with, Trumpton, Camberwick Green, Chorlton and the Wheelies, Rent A Ghost and even, dare I say it, Jackanory!? Why do we not have the friendly face and voice of a Brian Cant greeting us on our screens anymore? The magic window to our British childhood culture has gone and I would welcome back the days of the 'off air' transmission screen as a replacement anyday!

Slow This Bird Down (Commission)

SOLD (90cm x 70cm)

Our children seem to be growing up quicker all the time. Just think back to what you were doing and what you had at different stages of your childhood. I imagine it differs greatly.

Kids seem to get to a point where they just want to be older. Yet it will happen all too quickly and before they know it they will be forever chasing their youth.

I don’t want my kids to turn around in 30 years and say to me “I was so concerned about growing up faster; I wish there was a way I could of slowed it down.”

I’m sure there are ways of helping that. I think we should understand the need for an orderly progression through childhood. In the past there were important cultural “markers” that determined the ages at which certain behaviours and belongings were appropriate. Those markers seem to have disappeared, or they’ve certainly been moved downward.

At best, you’re only a kid for about 12 years, with another 70 taken up by adulthood. Surely someone in the beginning didn’t think that ratio through properly!

Sheep

"Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away

Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air

You better watch out, there may be dogs about

I've looked over Jordan and I have seen, things are not what they seem.

What do you get for pretending the danger's not real

Meek and obedient you follow the leader, down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel

What a surprise!

A look of terminal shock in your eyes

Now things are really what they seem

No, this is no bad dream."

(Painting inspired by the Pink Floyd song 'Sheep'. Words by Roger Waters)

Kid For Today (Commission)

SOLD (70cm x 60cm)