RABlack Art

SOUTHBANK CENTRE Royal Festival Hall Saturday 6th December 2025 7:30pm Stereolab

Two octopus-like characters united.

#abstractadvent2025

Day 6

3, by Rhodri Viney 4 track album

‘Rhodri Viney - 3’ is out now! Yes, the 2001 Welsh Music Awards nominee for Best Male Solo Act* is back with my third release of the year.

ratatosk.bandcamp.com/album/3

*I lost to David Gray.

Grey and Green pen drawing of a gramophone with an unexplained spoke pattern over the ‘mouth’

#AbstractAdvent2025

Day 5

Spectacular.

A silhouetted helicopter looks at itself in the mirror.

#AbstractAdvent2025

Day 4.

Proboscis Monkey face surrounded by a black square.

#abstractadvent2025

Day 3

A beaky creature with stripy legs and Mr Man shoes.

#AbstractAdvent2025

Day 2

Including my excellent friend M. Haiux.

This is going straight to the top of my list of photos I MUST paint.

I listened to this today. It’s very good and it made me want some series B blu rays.

Abstract Advent 2025 Day 1 An abstract shape inspired by a cocoon in a children’s book. I’ve made it into the space between a face and a giant quill-like pen.

#AbstractAdvent2025
Day 1

I wasn’t going to take part this year but I couldn’t resist.

Mini drawings of album covers by… The BBC Radiophonic Workshop x 3 Mogwai My Bloody Valentine 10cc Scott Walker Neil Young and Crazy Horse Queens of the Stone Age Lol Creme / Kevin Godley Godley + Creme Pixies x 2 Suede Echo and the Bunnymen Stevie Wonder Gene Clark George Harrison OutKast Air Love and Pink Floyd.

Here are this week’s small drawings.

The most fun to draw this time were probably the Pixies and Air albums.

The most difficult: Firebyrd by Gene Clark.

Mini drawings of album covers by… The BBC Radiophonic Workshop x 3 Mogwai My Bloody Valentine 10cc Scott Walker Neil Young and Crazy Horse Queens of the Stone Age Lol Creme / Kevin Godley Godley + Creme Pixies x 2 Suede Echo and the Bunnymen Stevie Wonder Gene Clark George Harrison OutKast Air Love and Pink Floyd.

Here are this week’s small drawings.

The most fun to draw this time were probably the Pixies and Air albums.

The most difficult: Firebyrd by Gene Clark.

Art by me. Cat in pen. Fish in pencil.

My drawing of the cat and the fish tank.

One year ago yesterday: cat + fish tank.

Cat + fish tank.

Cat + fish tank.

(Drawn a year ago today.)

A decaying and vandalised classical building under a polluted golden sky.

‘Wellington Assembly Rooms’
Pastel and acrylic on paper
2025
55cm x 39cm

Liverpool’s old Assembly Rooms on Mount Pleasant are deserted and languishing on the at risk register for historic buildings. My painting emphasises this grandeur in neglect.

#liverpool #art

Cat + box

Cat + box.

Look at this!

Gene Clark Firebyrd Takoma, 1984 Design and illustration by Tommy Steele/Steeleworks.

Gene Clark Firebyrd Takoma, 1984 Design by Tommy Steele/Steeleworks. Photo by E. Beverly Dublin.

Gene Clark
Firebyrd
Takoma, 1984

I got this yesterday. Listening now. I was slightly worried by things I’d read that it might be a bit slick and soulless - but so far it is sounding very good. A couple of the songs faded out too quickly… otherwise, no complaints.

The two albums I didn’t enjoy hearing last week have gone to a new home at @lookingforthemagic.bsky.social so they can be bought by someone who appreciates them!

Delighted to illustrate these common UK finches for the new Birds in Greenspaces survey. Sign up for a free recources pack #birds 🪶

I was there too.

But 20 years!? I feel like I should refuse to accept that.

‘Christmas at Aldershot’ is another appealingly ridiculous situation, like ‘the Idol’ and ‘the New Car’.

It’s a slight shame that the title that’s been adopted for the episode spoils what would have been a totally unexpected shift following the opening scene.

I painted this a year ago today -

Looking at it now, I feel like I could do more of this kind of thing.

TOP TRAX CASSETTES Advert

TOP TRAX CASSETTES Advert

The 1985/86 Top Trax collection just confuses things.

Next there’s a run of Christmas-related episodes starting with the missing ‘Department Store Santa’.

I love how unashamedly corrupt and selfish all the characters are… it reaches a height when Sid James casually admits to murdering the store manager who he’s replaced.

Slightly out of chronological order because I didn’t have it last week, today I listened to the remake of ‘the Hancock Festival’ which is wonderfully done but really makes me want to hear the missing original.

A pile of second hand CDs of Hancock’s Half Hour and The Missing Hancocks on my desk.

I’ve started accumulating some Hancock bargains.