I’ve just created a Facebook page, which I have imaginatively titled ‘Art by Simon Birtall’.  I’m not absolutely certain how I’m going to use it to be quite honest but it seems to be the thing to do. And who am I to argue?

Those visitors wishing to keep up-to-date with news of exhibitions and the like might like to become ‘fans’ (in the broadest sense of the word) or leave (preferably nice) comments.

I have added a selection of images to the page and really should make an effort to keep it updated with fascinating news items and thought-provoking discussion. We shall see.

Visit ‘Art by Simon Birtall’ on Facebook…

An excellent new community website has recently launched at www.themeetingplacenorth.co.uk. ‘The Meeting Place North’ is an informative and fun online magazine based in Cheshire. It includes articles pertaining to Cheshire, Wirral and Greater Manchester including art, sports news, gardening advice, events listings and much more. Much of the information is provided by the community, who are encouraged to participate. Visit the website…

St Davids, Pembrokeshire

Hello. I’ve just uploaded a new painting to the website. It’s a small landscape painting of St Davids, Pembrokeshire in south Wales.

I’ve based the painting on a photograph I took on a brief working trip to St Davids in around 1993. I’m guessing the coastline won’t have changed too much since.

This is another painting in water-mixable oils, which I think I’m beginning to get the hang of. I’ve another 8 paintings on the go, in various stages of completion, which I’ll hopefully start to finish and upload in the next couple of months or so.

Morden Hall Park, London

Six of my paintings are currently on display at the Dot-Art offices in Queen Avenue, Liverpool in a group exhibition called ‘Approaches to Landscape’. The exhibition is due to run until 15th January 2010. Please visit www.Dot-Art.co.uk for details and directions.

My exhibited paintings (4 in oils and 2 in acrylics) include: Thornton Hough, Morden Hall Park (pictured) and St Michael’s Mount Harbour.

Ashton Park, West Kirby

Three of my paintings (Ashton Park, Birkenhead Priory, Birkenhead Park) are now on display in St George’s Hall, Liverpool in the ‘Building Merseyside‘ exhibition.

The exhibition, which runs to 3rd January 2010, is a collaborative venture between Dot-Art and St George’s Hall, and is an exploration of the architecture of the Merseyside area.

The exhibition is particularly strong on photography and includes some stunning photographs of the area by local photographers.

Two of my smaller paintings will be making an appearance at the Egerton House Christmas Fayre in Birkenhead this Friday (20th November ‘09) on the Dot-Art stand, alongside work by 11 other artists, mulled wine and canapes. A variety of arts and crafts will be on sale at prices from £25 to £150. The fayre runs from 12noon to 4pm. For more details please click here.

Paris, France

I recently completed 2 new paintings, both of which I have uploaded to my Fine Art ‘Buy Paintings’ section. They are paintings of Paris (pictured) and a sunset over the Dee Estuary.

They are the first 2 paintings I’ve completed using water-soluble oils. It’s been a learning experience for me but overall I’m very happy with the quality of the paints, though the drying times are significantly longer than those of alkyds, which I was using previously, so they are taking a lot longer to complete.

The painting of Paris is a lot more successful than the one of the sunset (to say the least), but I’ve learned a lot during the production of both. They’re both little ‘uns but after starting these I was confident enough to make a start on a series of bigger pieces, which I’ll hopefully complete over the next few months.

I have today uploaded a re-designed version of the website. It works in much the same way as it did previously but hopefully the new design is a little more interesting visually, and easier to browse.

I have cut down on the amount of artwork on show, and have done away with sub-sections in the fine art and illustration sections in favour of more concise galleries for each. All paintings for sale can be still be found on the Buy Paintings page.

Right, well here goes. Hopefully I’ve installed and set up this here Blogging software correctly and this is working. It hasn’t been easy let me tell you. This is the first blog of many/several/one-or-two which I plan to update on a regular/semi-regular/almost-never basis as and when I’ve something vaguely of interest to say/am drawing attention to website updates/promoting something/am terribly bored. Use of forward slashes should hopefully be kept to a minimum in future blogs.