North Heath Lane in snow

North Heath Lane in snow

Our snow has all gone now, but here's another one from last week. It was Monday and we had about four or five inches of snow settle overnight. The local roads were pretty dangerous that day and I decided I'd rather not drive anywhere if I could help it.  So I took my paints out on a sledge and headed up this hill away from the village. The effect of looking back towards the village and hill behind was lovely and soft and muted - things which don't come easily to me with painting but I'm trying hard to introduce softness and blending where it is needed!

Now that the snow has gone outside, I'm working on snow inside the studio - the painting based on the sketch of the ponies that I showed you last week. I'm not sure how it's going - it's exciting and terrifying all at the same time. It's not very often that I don't have the subject in front of me! Well I do have the line drawing in front of me, but no colour notes which also makes it quite freeing.

It's amazing that in the space of a few days all this snow has gone, and this lane is now back to it's default winter setting - mud!

Late summer, North heath lane

Late summer, north heath lane
Oil on panel 24 x 30cms

I can't remember the last time I had a day at home in my studio - and enjoyed it as much as I have today!
With a lot of patient consideration (something I'm working on because it doesn't come naturally!) I finished this one that I painted in the lane on Friday. I'm afraid this photo lets it down because it's played down the warmth - the field on the right is much more of a warm gold than the yellow it looks here. I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out and I don't think I've spoiled it with the extra twiddling!
I've also done some radical work on a commission so I'm in a kind of scary 'it will look a lot worse before it gets better' kind of scenario! And I'm still workshop planning. This Wednesday's drawing workshop will be exciting!
Also I received such a lovely letter from Newark Art Club to thank me for my demonstration last week. It made my day! :-)
Thought you might like to see these too...

The SAA Paint magazine's latest edition with my Oilbar article

Little piece about my Pro Arte award in September's The Artist magazine.
I haven't ordered any of my new brushes yet!
Looking forward to it!

Friday, work in progress...

Work in progress - had to stop not long after this as the light had gone

I really have lots and lots of business/admin/email/workshop writing type work to be getting on with after my lovely August break, so that kept me busy all morning. Then of course Friday afternoon at 2 o clock is coffee time with my friends, and I haven't seen some of them for six weeks. Everything else stops for an hour and a half on Friday afternoons during term time :-)
Then I was able to get out for two to three hours with Mabel, glorious late summer, late afternoon day as you can see! I can't tell you how many times I've walked past this barn and considered painting it. It's good to finally get on to it!
I got quite a lot further with the painting (the barn anyway) than this but couldn't take a good photo and there's one or two touches I want to finish.
I was reading about some fascinating research this morning by Dr Alvaro Pascual-Leone, professor of neurology at Harvard medical school. He found that volunteers who practised piano skills using only their imagination, looking at the keyboard without being able to touch it, gained the same brain pattern improvements as a group that had actually practised the exercises on the piano. I always knew it was a good thing to mentally draw or paint something when you haven't got any materials to hand. In fact, I did quite a lot of that when my children were very young and their needs kept me so busy! :-)

Last snow in the lane

Last snow in the lane

I have been having a ball getting out and about painting the snow! Mind you, it took me about four hours to warm up after painting this one! Sorry to the Fulbeck ladies that I didn't make it back to the hall but I didn't get this finished until after 1pm! I went in search of remaining snow and as you can see in the background we still have the fog hanging around! I loved the character of this ivy clad tree and think I will return here in another season.
Oils on canvas panel 24 x 30 cms