Exotica

Another glass painting, this time on the thick bevelled glass of a Victorian cabinet door - one of the joys of reusing old stuff!

The evolution of poster style...

I love doing old style posters, from letterpress to way-out! Having played in a 60s garage band for a number of years, the 50s and 60s style posters were a great influence on my early work (and still are!).

Pinstriped hat...

Here's a helmet I striped for Flamesey - it's silver, white and red. The Maltese cross was already on there...

The Baron

Von Slick

Shark Soup

A topical one today in view of all the reports from Egypt! If you have a big enough pot, this is one solution, although they don't go quietly.

Board Tracker

This is one of the glass paintings I made for the Hot Rod Hayride art exhibition this year. It's painted on the back of the glass, with metalflake and gold leaf.

Fly Postin'

Here's some more posters - all made for The Chambers, a bar/restaurant in Folkestone.

And here's one that never happened... a ghostly apparition of a poster! I quite like the crosshatch effect  in the lettering - I might use that again one day.

Self promotion - the old way

I don't get the opportunity very often to paint the kind of signs I love - that is, proper old-school signwriting, block and shadow, decoration for the fun of it, etc. My mum kindly allowed me to fix this sign to her barn overlooking the Llangollen Canal - it's a very fitting place for this kind of sign.

I did it for fun really, and I've only ever had one person contact me from it (asking me to do some lining on his Velocette).  It's gold leaf and enamel on steel.

Rupert and Bodger

Two of my favourite illustrations which I did for my other blog, Mo' Taters. I don't get to update it as often as I'd like as I draw specially for it...

Big artist!

OK, so here's one of my weirder jobs. Make Tracey Emin's head, but make it BIG! The head was made for a project by Strange Cargo for the town of Margate, as a carnival costume.

I made the head in clay. It was then cast in plaster, and the head for the costume was made from papier maché, which I then painted. Weird but fun!

Motorcyclin'!

Here's a few little bike jobs - starting with one of my faves. Simo's 1931 HD VL bobber, I wrote the numberplate and striped it in gold - it's a great, workin' smokin' beast.

Lettering on Nathan Jaggard's great Sporty, built by Pete from Chops'n'Bobbers. The brief was to give it a subtle, industrial fire extinguisher look...

Another Sportster, this time Dern's - pinstriped tank and guards...

Simo's Bonnie, Dirty Bird, lettered and striped...
It's always good to have a mate who will let you doodle on his prized possessions!

Last one - a bit of striping on Simo's Triumph Trophy, after the extremely wet and treacherous journey to the dirt track at the Hot Rod Hayride one year!

Illustrated posters

Here's a few posters in a similar style... all made for Not the Same Old Blues Crap.

Mechanical tabby

A while ago I wrote and illustrated a children's book about a cat called Claude. It never got very far publishing-wise, but this is my favourite of the double-page spreads...

Crrrraaazy, Man, Crazy!

About a year ago I designed this card for great men's vintage shop Crazy Man Crazy, and wrote the sign for their shopfront...

If ya find yourself in the Crystal Palace area in need of a snappy suit or tropical tiki shirt, go pay 'em a visit!

Man's best friend...

Yesterday we delivered this panel to Steve at Brown and Carroll. It's going to hang in the reception of their new joinery works, a 60s factory building being restored to its former glory, resplendent with its floating cast concrete outdoor stairs and pampas grass planting. The factory is totally self-sufficient, using wood waste to heat the building and generate its own electricity. The office workers and wood workers all eat together in the cafeteria every day, and there are large windows down from the meeting rooms onto the workshop floor so clients can see their work being made.

Very inspiring stuff!

Black and White

These paintings are done on glass, painted on the reverse backwards. I love the depth you get in the black...

...and it's always good fun to turn it over and see what a mess I've made

That ain't rock'n'roll, that's jazz

Every now and then I do one of these paintings for fun - kind of Picasso-inspired Pink Panther-style jazz doodles. These are acrylic on canvas.

Dunno what the significance of the cat is... I just felt like it. One thing I do know though, he doesn't like jazz.

No.1 Fan

A few years ago I made this poster for a regular punk trash blues night we used to run in Folkestone. The Jim Jones Revue liked the design and it was made into a T shirt... and then today I got this by email. Apparently a Belgian fan loves them so much he's tattooed it onto his arm!

Sidewalk Sinner

Just got back from the Rhythm Riot weekend at Camber - had a great time, met up with friends old and new, and enjoyed the Pontins lifestyle! Here's the skate deck I painted during the weekend in the Skate & Surf Expo. There were some cool artists there, with pro skateboarding demos and great surfin' and hot roddin tunes being played all day - cheers to Neil from the VHRA for giving us his weekend

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion...

...are coming to London! Playing at Heaven in Charing Cross on 2 Dec - I haven't done any posters for them, but here's some I did for Jon Spencer's other bands Heavy Trash and Boss Hog.

Ah thhankayou very much....

This is a painting I did for John at The King's Head, a cool little bar in Kilburn, London. It is acrylic on canvas.

...and here it is in its place on the wall. I also designed the logo for the bar:

It's a smart little place, if you ever find yourself at a loose end in Kilburn, check it out!