If art was the destination, this was the journey, welcome to my blog, about me, Brent Meheux, and the art that has evolved from my continuing journey through this funny old thing we call life.

3 RIFLES Snipers in Afghanistan, HERRICK 11, artwork by Brent Meheux

Predictable questions, there are those who ask simply because they can’t think of anything else to say, and then there are those for who the question is a carefully laid trap and you spend the next 20 minutes listening to this twat prattle on, the stress of city banking, next share option, blah, blah, blah… Well not me, out I come with it, “I run dating websites”, always gets the eyes popping, the follow up, “I also lecture part-time at university”, and, “ I’m in the TA, Afghanistan? Yes I got back in 2010, my age then? – Oh 44”, our city banker is now in full rabbit in headlights mode not knowing quite where to turn. All down to my sense of humor, the wife knows differently, I mean how do you tell people you’re an ‘artist’ and keep a straight face!

Hunter, or Hunted

This is the first piece I’ve produced since I got back from Afghanistan that relates to that tour, I’m not sure where I’ll go from here to be honest. I’d like to think that it’ll be the start of a series of paintings from the tour, but still not sure. The subject is a British army sniper team in Afghanistan, taken from reference photos of the lads on the ground. I’ve deliberately chosen angles that hide their features, they know who they are, and so will all the lads from the tour, but I didn’t want others to. The title relates to the fact that as with any war fought between conventional forces and insurgents you really never know where the threat will come from, is the local national enjoying tea in the shade harmless, or is he ‘dicking’?

There is no way you could describe this section as a ‘gallery’, it’s just not what I wanted or saw when I began to plan the blog, and lord I’ve built enough of them online over the years, no this was always going to be different. Here yes you will see the finished artwork, but I wanted all the support work to be shown as well, the sketches, the paths that didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, the techniques I used and learned along the way. And most of all the ‘why’ – the rational for the work, what it means to me, and what I hope you see when you cast your eyes over it for the first time – click here to visit ‘The Art’

If art is the destination, this was the journey, and what a journey. Everything you do and see influences you, but as an artist this is doubly so, and so here I try to give you an insight as to my journey and the effect it has had on my art, hell without the journey there wouldn’t be any art! Don’t expect a 1000 page Bio, as I can’t really be assed, any more than you would be to read it, but rather I’ve tried to cover the important bits, the bits that I hope allow you to see the real me. And then there’s the journey, the journey that started that day in my mid-forties when I woke up and realized that from now on the art had to always come first. The journey to me is not just about places, trips and memories, it’s about the books, web sites, artists, and even the photographers who have, and continue to influence me. So jump on board and you never know one or two things may influence you as well – click here to visit ‘The Journey’

Hair by Barbara Meheux

Barbara, the wife, has decided to get all arty on me lately, must be rubbing off from me! She’s been a hairdresser for years now and has her own salon in a small village in Devon, Country Styles in Newtown Poppleford, usual thing really same old thing every week, until now that is. All of a sudden she’s decided to go a little mad, and I thought I’d share it with the world, click here to see her latest work….

The Cava Queen

Stimulation comes in all guises, a thought provoking website, an unsuspected conversation, and sometimes a bloody good book, a category the Cava Queen falls beautifully in to. After being enticed to read the opening chapter on Amanda Meheux’s website I was hooked, bought the book on Kindle and was rewarded with a rollercoaster of emotions for the next few days as I found myself totally unable to put the book down.

Read my full review of the Cava Queen here.

Glamping, short for ‘Glamorous Camping’, two words I’m sure the Oxford dictionary never had any intentions of seeing in the same sentence, let alone side by side.

I for one have become really rather addicted to it, and so, more to the point, has my wife. Ok I know roughy-toughy soldiers do not normally do anything that could in anyway be seen as camp, and glamorous camping has got to be camp right? You couldn’t be more wrong, to me Glamping is more akin to a 1920’s safari than ‘Carry on camping’, and quite possibly the cheapest way possible to recharge the batteries in both style and luxury. Glamping has been around for quite sometime now and there have been thousands of words written on the subject, loads of books, magazine articles, and websites, and so I don’t propose to repeat what others have said, rather I’d like to give my slant on it, why I became addicted, and where I see us going next with it - click here to read the full article

Botelet Farm, near Looe in Cornwall

Without a doubt one of the best little gems of a campsite we have as yet found in the West-country is Botelet Fatrm, again from the Cool Camping book, this campsite is on a working farm not far from the tourist attraction of Looe in Cornwall (about 8 miles inland), down, down through narrow country lanes you drive until you come upon a small gap in the dry stone wall, all that greets you is a simple hand painted sign, but on turning into their farm yard you’re instantly taken back a century or two - click here to read the full review

Traveling by train is something no one enjoys, other than groups of cackling middle aged women on shopping trips, laden with bags and packed lunches, or small children, although admittedly their excitement has a shelf life of about thirty minutes. Everything about train travel is dull, filthy and frankly depressing, but for some of us it’s an unfortunate necessity of working life. Every winter from October through to May I use trains to commute from Devon to Southampton, up by 5.15 and back home by 8.45, four or five days a week. And yes like millions of other commuters up and down the country it on the whole gets me down, but at times I do find it and my fellow commuters fascinating and often highly amusing - click here to read the article

Christmas 2009 in Afghanistan - a short story

In no time at all it was Christmas, I’d got home from my tour in the May after spending the last in Afghanistan and was really just looking forward to a quiet family affair. In mid-December we at 6 RIFLES held a choir service at the small church in Topsham and I’d been asked to talk about what it was like to spend Christmas in Afghanistan. All through the tour I was an avid diary keeper, well diary is the wrong word really, journal would be a better choice. So after re-reading my entries from that period I wrote the following, little knowing that afterwards it would be read out by an army Padre on Christmas day, on the BBC. Leading up to Christmas this year I found myself reading the passage again and felt it would be good to share it with you - click here to read the story