AMATEUR ARTWORK: 2002 to 2005
Please note that all paintings listed by Artist Codes 0000 to 0020 were painted prior to my turning professional. I started to number them in this way not in any particular order, then realized that if I was to be a professional, I needed to have a proper coding practice. So I decided after these 21 pictures that I would have four-digit Artist Codes, the first two digits representing the year, and the second two digits the order in which I either painted or sketched the artworks (not necessarily completing them at the time), i.e. “1023” was painted in 2010 and was number 23 of 23 paintings started during that year.
DONATED: 0011 Mounted Original Reworked Artwork September 2017
0011 Baby Bloom Cactus: Reworked picture September 2017
0011 Baby Bloom Cactus (var. unknown). Original as painted in 2005.
Botanical Illustration. Artist Code: 0011. Completed August 2005. REWORKED SEPTEMBER 2017 – pot added. Original Water colour. Unframed size 12” x 16”. Archival hand cut mount size 16″ x 20″. DONATED: Blue Smile Charity, December 2019
The “Mummy” of this “Baby” cactus stands about 24” high and is about 30 years old. I have given it to my lovely neighbour, Alan, because it was getting much too big for my office window ledge. The “Baby” in the painting was one of many babies which kept growing from the parent and which I periodically removed.
This baby was about half an inch tall when it was plucked from its Mother’s sustaining body and I decided to plant it in a little pot on its own. Suddenly, in July 2005 at the age of five and in the space of three days, this five-inch tall cactus burst into seven blooms, so of course I just had to get it onto paper.
The aroma from these flowers is quite striking and invades nostrils upon entering the studio. I worked on the painting solidly during the three days that the flowers were blooming and then as quickly as they had come; they went!
