Roy Connelly

I spent this afternoon at Messum’s in Cork Street where Peter Brown NEAC gave a very entertaining talk on his life as a painter on the streets of London and Bath.

Having recently spent a day painting with Peter in London and watching his painting emerge from the blank canvas it was good to hear his thoughts on everything from coping with changing light to why he wont use a camera.

The talk coincided with the exhibition The Magic and Poetry of Everyday Life. A collection of paintings by New English Art Club artists from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to the present day.  This fine exhibition is well worth seeing and runs until the 3rd of July 2010.

The New English Art Club (NEAC) annual open exhibition opens on Friday 27th November.  I am pleased to once again have work in this prestigious show.  Early exhibitors in this exhibition include Claude Monet and Edgar Degas along with Walter Sickert, James McNeil Whistler, John Singer Sargent and Philip Wilson Steer.

Above: Stainforth Autumn Morning, oil on board, 4×10 inches.

If you can’t make along in person or want to make sure that special picture doesn’t get bought before you get there, most of the paintings in the exhibition can be seen and purchased online now. 

The hottest day of the year so far and I have just spent a very enjoyable afternoon at the studio of Bob Brown NEAC. Set in beautiful rolling English countryside beside a very paintable river, Bob has the perfect studio.  It was completely filled with an exhibition of his richly coloured landscapes.

 Ken Howard and Richard Pikesley, another two of my favourite painters, were also there, along with many other friends. Many thanks to Bob and Sue for their wonderful hospitality.

Afterwards I spent an hour painting painting the nearby river, one of Englands most beautiful chalk streams.  While I was painting a mayfly settled on my hand among the brushes. 

A quick sketch - 8 x 10 inches, oil on board

In 2008 one of my paintings was selected for the New English Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London.
Many of my favourite artists working today are members of the New English Art Club (NEAC), so I am very pleased to have exhibited with them for the last four years.