Vincent Keeling's Art Blog

"This is a new painting of a pink rose called "Into the Mystic". And yes, I am robbing that from a song title. I had a completely different name picked out yesterday, but it just sounded off this morning. Then I randomly stuck on some Van Morrison tunes while writing, and eureka! As for the painting itself you'll see that I've temporarily abandoned my white roses and gone very pink with this one. I have to confess it was something of a challenge at the beginning endeavouring to mix up convincing shades of purple, pink and red and everything in...

Hi all,  I hope all is well with everyone out there. Ok, another couple of paintings to share today. The first is a little portrait of Paul Newman, who I've  painted three or four times in the past. And he was actually one of the first portraits I tackled when I began painting famous faces all those years ago. Kind of fitting then, that as I start winding down my portrait work, he makes a final appearance; Coming full circle so to speak.   As for Paul Newman himself, what I say, except that I'm a huge fan. I can't think...

The next painting is by an artist far from being under appreciated and little known, is almost universally hailed as one of the all time greats. Of course, we’re talking about one and only Michelangelo. An ongoing preoccupations of mine over recent years has been the study of anatomy, to try to gain an understanding of how the mechanics of the human body, all the underlying muscles, bones and tendons work their magic to bring us to life; All this with a view to being able to work more freely from imagination.Few if any artists embodied this epic knowledge of the...

I hope the world is treating you well out there. I'm just going to tell you about one painting today, and it's a pretty big one I've been talking about releasing for ages. The first thing to say is that it's another in my Creation Series of rose paintings, and I have to admit that this one was a long time in the making. And part of the reason for this delay was I was trying something new. You see in the past I have tended to keep the backgrounds on these large roses quite nondescript, very much in the background, so...

I couldn’t leave paint Christy Moore out when I began painting my Irish Portraits; He’s been such a presence in Irish life and music, for as long as I can remember. As a kid and teenager I always remember him popping up on The Late Late Show with a new albums and performances, and songs like The Voyage and Ride on, were just part of the Irish radio’s DNA. But in truth it was much later that I really started to appreciate Christy's music on a deeper level. Here are a few of my thoughts on the man and songs that...