Happy New Year!

I wish you all a very happy new year, with my last sketch of last year (above) and a drawing from yesterday :-)

Holiday drawings

My Dad now has a halo...

I always find the Christmas holidays such a great time to sketch... so many models around and so little need to do anything else... other than eat and drink... lovely :-)

Drinking red wine on the sofa

'Listening to football on the radio'

Mary in the school nativity play

Yes that is a dog/neck warmer

The three graces?

And a reindeer

Talking to his grandchildren

Happy Christmas time

Snow at the Roseland Inn

I hope that you are all having a nice Christmas and New Year break. I'm loving the way that everything slows down and you can spend time relaxing with friends and family and not worry that you should be doing anything else. I love checking my emails and seeing hardly any new ones - except for all the January sale ones which I'm deleting straight away.

This painting of a Cornish pub in the snow - oh how I wish we had snow on the way - is now on show in the winter exhibition at the Harbour Gallery, Portscatho. 

You can have a look at all the paintings in this lovely exhibition here.

Fantastic news!

ROI catalogue 1997 

I have had the most wonderful news to end the year with. Last week the Royal Institute of Oil painters elected me an Associate member! It is hard for me to describe to you how much this means to me but if I tell you that membership of this prestigious society has been my biggest and longest held ambition (for the last 20 years) you may begin to get the idea!

The society hold an annual open exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London with a part of the show consisting of non member work which has made it through the competitive and rigorous selection procedure. In order to be even considered for membership you have to consistently have work accepted and hung in the annual exhibition year after year - which is tough enough!

I first had work accepted with the ROI in 1997, when I won a Young Artists Award.  My prize was £500 worth of Winsor & Newton materials, and a tour of the W & N manufacturing plant. It was my first major prize, and the year after I was awarded another Young Artists Award at the annual exhibition - so I had an early taste of success! 

Since then I have developed a hard work ethic, and buckets full of persistence. There have been years when I missed the annual deadline - when moving house or having my hands full with a new baby for example, but I never stopped thinking of the ROI and entered whenever I could. 

At the end of 2010 we were busy packing up ready to move to France and in 2011 living on the island of Bréhat so I missed the ROI exhibition during those two years. When I returned to the UK after the year away I had gained a much clearer perspective on what I wanted to achieve with my work and also what I had missed while being away from the UK. I determined to never miss the annual ROI exhibition deadline again, no matter what. I developed strategies for keeping good work back throughout the year so that I would be ready for submission and prioritising the important dates for the exhibition in my diary. 

The planning ahead paid off and I was extremely fortunate to have work accepted in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 and now have been rewarded for my perseverance and am very happy. I am looking forward to getting involved in the activities of the society and hope to prove myself worthy of being elected a full member in the not too distant future. For now I can proudly use the initials AROI after my name!

With Adebanji in September at A Brush with the Broads

It was a special double celebration as my friend Adebanji was promoted from Associate to full member of the ROI. Many congratulations Adebanji Alade ROI!

Read more about the Royal Institute of Oil painters here :-)

Sketching with friends

Jose de Juan, Glenn Fitzpatrick, Adebanji Alade, Peter Keegan, Graeme Messer, Nur Shodaj, Edward Ofosu
and in front Michele del Campo and me

I had a Christmas treat last week when I was invited down to my friend Michele's studio in London. Michele gathered a little group of artists together and we had a sketching evening, each taking turns to be the model for around 12-15 minutes.

It was really good for me to get out as I hadn't been anywhere or seen anyone since the ROI preview at the beginning of December. And it's always good to get the sketchbook and pencils out, and I had slipped out of the habit recently with so much else going on this month.

My 15 minute sketch of Peter Keegan

My sketch of Edward Ofosu

My sketch of Glenn Fitzpatrick

My sketch of Nur Shodaj

My sketch of Michele del Campo

It is surprising what can be achieved in a sketch in so little time! Not all of my sketches from the evening worked out but I was happy with these ones.

Portrait of me by Adebanji Alade

Me and Adebanji sketching Michele del Campo
Photo courtesy of Peter Keegan

Snowy new homes

First snow,  Drove allotments

These favourite snow scenes of mine, painted this year, have all sold in the last month and are heading off to their new homes. It's so rewarding every time my passion for painting the gorgeous snowy domestic subjects is deeply loved and appreciated by somebody else.

'First snow, Drove allotments' is a complete favourite of mine. Painted entirely en plein air I haven't had a single day since where I have been quite as euphoric painting as I was on that day. Such excitement, to be at the allotments with snow. Simple pleasures eh?

This painting also felt like real progress to me, in the manner in which it was painted. It was as though I'd passed another level or grade in my pursuit of simplification.
It goes to join another of my snow scenes from the previous winter at it's lovely new home.

Treading softly

 What can I say about 'Treading softly'? Well this photo doesn't do it justice at all. It marks another huge turning point in the development of my work and I was almost holding my breath all the while I was painting it. I was desperate to communicate that delicate softness of the icy early winter morning when your breath hangs in the air as if frozen and shapes are emerging and hidden by the morning mist. I have a tendency to be heavy handed and knew that with this one I had to approach it so delicately and softly and not like a bull in a china shop! That's why I was holding my breath the whole while!

The abstracted shapes and colour combinations within this painting do take my breath away, and I actually feel cold coming off the painting when I stand in front of it. I'm also very proud of this one and happy that it has gone to a very good home.

Out of the woods

'Out of the woods' is a good example of the less is more and get it down quick tactic. It's a much smaller painting than the others here and it's that end of the winters day, do I have it in me to stay out for one more hour? Oh my gosh look at those long shadows and the sun going down behind the trees. Yes. I. Do.

The thaw, Drove allotments

Aww 'the thaw'. Well this one is the largest snow painting yet and I passionately love it also. It's a bittersweet emotion because the snow is melting and my time to paint it is running out fast but what an exciting contrast to try to capture! The warm sunlight, the cool shadows on the snow and that really fresh green of the sodden grass emerging from it's cold cloak. Added to which the structure of the sheds, the opportunity for little abstract passages. Bliss. And strong tonal contrasts which meant that for this one I could be just as gung ho as I wanted! This one is like the 'yang' if 'Treading softly' is the yin.

'The thaw' is currently on display in the Royal Institute of Oil painters annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. Do go in and see an amazing show if you can but be quick, it ends at 1.00pm on Sunday 13th December.

Exhibition is open!

I now declare this exhibition.... OPEN! Cue cutting of ribbon across the doorway...

Ok so the exhibition in Nottingham has been open five days now and it's all been rather busy and is going really well. This is the first chance I've had to share some photos with you. It all looks really great and I'm very proud of this show. I've had a fantastic response from visitors and lots of sales already.

Don't despair if you live too far away to make it to Nottingham, as I've spent many many late nights making sure the whole exhibition can be browsed via my website.

Please do have a look and I hope that you like what you see, and although lots of paintings have already sold there are still many beautiful works looking for a special home.

And the coffee shop across the road delivers...

Solo exhibition in Nottingham 'A lighter touch' opens on Friday 13th November until Sunday 22nd November, at 71 Friar Lane Nottingham NG1 6DH. I will be in the gallery each day and showing around 70 new paintings. We will have a late night opening until 7.30pm on Friday 20th. All other days opening hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm. Five days left, don't miss it! 

See the show online HERE :-)

Waiting at Harriets

Waiting at Harriets

The wet day in Norwich turned out to be such a blessing. In the afternoon it stopped raining but look at the incredible subject I found thanks to the wet streets! I just fell in love with the deep aubergine colours of the jewellery shop and the purple and white striped awnings, as seen with the warm cosy glow through the windows and their reflections. 

I'm sad that I don't have a better photo of this one but it sold at the Paint Out Norwich auction before it was even dry. Am happy that it's gone to a very good home though :-)

Solo exhibition in Nottingham 'A lighter touch' opens on Friday 13th November until Sunday 22nd November, at 71 Friar Lane Nottingham NG1 6DH. I will be in the gallery each day and showing around 70 new paintings. We will have late night openings until 7.30pm on Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Friday 20th. All other days opening hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm. Ten days only, don't miss it! 

Flowers in the rain

Flowers in the rain

Last week I took part in Paint Out Norwich again, now in it's second year. It is such a fun event and so well organised. I had to miss the first of the two painting days and on the second morning it poured with rain without stopping. I stood under a tree in the market square with an umbrella but that didn't manage to stop all the rain reaching my palette and the painting. Still, there's always something fascinating to paint even on the dullest day. I looked across the road at the colourful flower stall. My big challenge was making everything dull enough so that the brightness of the fluorescent strip light within the stall would stand out on the painting as it did in reality. The trickiest part to get right without competing with the electric light was the white and yellow canopy.

Solo exhibition in Nottingham 'A lighter touch' opens on Friday 13th November until Sunday 22nd November, at 71 Friar Lane Nottingham NG1 6DH. I will be in the gallery each day and showing around 70 new paintings. We will have late night openings until 7.30pm on Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Friday 20th. All other days opening hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm. Ten days only, don't miss it! 

Blue sail

Blue sail
8" x 10"

Here's another new and exciting small work that features in my exhibition, one of my favourites. I love the dynamic shadows and the lines of the ropes that appear and disappear, like a dance of sunlight. It's got all the ingredients that keep me on my toes with painting - shape and suggestion, lost and found edges. 

If you'd like to enquire about any of these paintings before the exhibition opens next week please get in touch and I can happily reserve them for you.

Solo exhibition in Nottingham 'A lighter touch' opens on Friday 13th November until Sunday 22nd November, at 71 Friar Lane Nottingham NG1 6DH. I will be in the gallery each day and showing around 70 new paintings. We will have late night openings until 7.30pm on Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Friday 20th. All other days opening hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm. Ten days only, don't miss it! 

Dusty's deckchair shack

Dusty's deckchair shack
24 x 30cms

This is one of many lovely small works that may tempt you when you visit my exhibition this year. I painted this on the beach in Great Yarmouth at the end of September - it was such a gorgeous day! One of the last real summer days this year and what a fantastic subject :-)

I'm happy to say that I'm able to take credit card payments in the gallery this year as well as online. The whole exhibition will be available to view and purchase via my website when it opens in real life so if you're too far away to get in to the gallery to see me you can still enjoy a browse.

If you'd like to have your portrait painted during the exhibition please let me know in advance so we can book in a date.

Solo exhibition in Nottingham 'A lighter touch' opens on Friday 13th November until Sunday 22nd November, at 71 Friar Lane Nottingham NG1 6DH. I will be in the gallery each day and showing around 70 new paintings. We will have late night openings until 7.30pm on Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Friday 20th. All other days opening hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm. Ten days only, don't miss it! 

Ormesby pumpkins

Ormesby pumpkins
12" x 16"

I should have posted this one for Halloween! I painted it at the end of September when I was in Norfolk for the 'Brush with the broads' plein air festival. I was delighted to find the allotments but the light was pretty flat and uninspiring that afternoon. Never-the-less I was taken with the shapes and colours of this pumpkin patch. The painting was feeling pretty flat and uninspired until I took a palette knife to it and started breaking up edges and letting colour travel around. I really liked it in the end. I'm afraid there's a bit of glare on the photo though. I used a gamblin solvent free gel to speed up the drying time. It also gives a pleasant overall sheen but makes taking a photograph more difficult!

This painting is currently on show at the Picturecraft Gallery in Holt, Norfolk with the Institute of East Anglian Artists.

My solo exhibition in Nottingham 'A lighter touch' opens on Friday 13th November until Sunday 22nd November, at 71 Friar Lane Nottingham NG1 6DH. I will be in the gallery each day and showing around 70 new paintings. We will have late night openings until 7.30pm on Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Friday 20th. All other days opening hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm. Ten days only, don't miss it! 

Evening sailing

Evening sailing, St Mawes
14" x 18"

This is one of my favourite painting spots so you may well recognise this view. I was particularly keen to abstract and soften the buildings to focus attention on that dazzling light on the water. The action in the harbour is represented by a few strokes of light and dark and a couple of more intense spots of colour. 

I'm really busy getting ready for my new solo show in Nottingham, which opens in just a couple of weeks! There is so much 'last minute' preparation underway but it's all very exciting. I really hope you can make it!

Solo exhibition in Nottingham 'A lighter touch' opens on Friday 13th November until Sunday 22nd November, at 71 Friar Lane Nottingham NG1 6DH. I will be in the gallery each day and showing around 70 new paintings. We will have late night openings until 7.30pm on Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Friday 20th. All other days opening hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm. Ten days only, don't miss it!

Redwings at Looe

Redwings at Looe
14" x 18"

One of my favourite paintings of the year so far. I feel that the vigorous sketchy nature of the brush marks reflect my excitement and passion for the subject. I lay in wait for hours for the racing to finish and the boats to come ashore and then I ran around with my camera like a woman possessed, in and out of the water. Moments like this are so special and so fleeting that I didn't think I would achieve very much if I attempted a plein air piece. Instead I decided to gather as much information with my camera as I could which I could then use for a series of studio paintings. This is the first and it all came together so easily, I was right back there on the beach with wet legs and a silly grin on my face :-)

This painting is currently on show in the Barn gallery at Patchings Art Centre. I have six paintings in a group exhibition with other artists who won the exhibition prize at The Artist magazine exhibition there last year. It's a smashing exhibition and it's on until the 22nd November so do make a trip to see it if you can. You could even make a day of it if visiting from the 13th November because my solo show 'A lighter touch' will be open in Nottingham city centre a couple of miles away.

Warm evening waves

Warm evening waves
6" x 12"

I was recently interviewed by my friends at New Wave Palettes in Pennsylvania. They make the best palettes, as anyone who's ever seen me demonstrate with my 'grand view confidant' will know!

You can read the full interview here :-)

Painting in regency dress with my New Wave palette

This painting is available to purchase now direct from my studio :-)

How important is drawing?

I was recently asked if I could write a guest blog post for my friend Lori Putnam, on any subject of my choosing. I decided I would write my thoughts about what drawing means to me, and why I think it matters so much for an artist to draw regularly from life.

How important is drawing? Do I need to learn to draw or can I just skip that and get straight to painting?

Occasionally I come across a student whose face drops when I mention the discipline of drawing practice. Somewhere along the line they have picked up the belief that drawing skills elude them and are nursing a hope that it’s not that important to being able to paint, which is what they really want to do anyway. After all there are plenty of techniques out there to lean on if your drawing skills are lacking – grids, tracing, projecting, carbon transfer paper …although admittedly these things are not so easy to use in the field.

I feel extremely fortunate to have had a love for drawing stretching back to my childhood, as far as I can remember. For me drawing was the most natural of ways to try and make sense of the world. I seem to have a primordial appetite for visually recognising shapes.

As far as I’m concerned, being able to draw accurately from life, far from being restrictive, is actually a pathway to freedom. Drawing underpins everything in the context of figurative painting. It doesn’t matter how good one is at mixing colour or applying the paint, if the drawing has failed the painting has failed. Artists sometimes remark that although they are generally happy with one genre they can’t paint ‘..….’, fill in the blank here with ‘boats’, ‘figures’ or ‘horses’. Students often show a struggle with perspective. The fundamental problem here is lack of drawing practise. When you can competently draw from life, no subject matter will ever feel out of bounds to you.

Why draw particularly from life? How is it different to drawing from paintings or photos? When we draw from life we are bombarded with information about the world before us which we see in three dimensions, and using basic materials we are having to translate and simplify that information onto a flat surface, in a convincing manner. The skills involved are a long way away from copying something that is already two dimensional such as a photograph. That’s not to say I don’t think it’s worthwhile to ever sketch from the static image as any drawing practise is better than none, but it hasn’t taken you through that all important process of interpretation. I would say be aware that it’s the process of drawing from life regularly that’s going to have the fastest and most profound impact on your painting skills, so make every effort to get into a daily habit of even just ten minutes. If you fall out of the habit, as I do from time to time, make every effort to get back into it as soon as you can.

The drawings in your sketchbook don’t have to relate closely to your painting work. This year my sketchbooks are full of faces and figures. I mainly paint marine landscapes. Drawing for it’s own sake is hugely important to me, and when I am in a regular drawing practise I can feel the benefits within my paintings. I feel sharper, more visually ‘tuned in’ and also more open and inspired. The paint flows from my brush more smoothly. Tiny choirs of winged angels hover above my easel singing softly. Ok, so the last sentence wasn’t quite true but you get the idea.

Drawing is the artists way of learning from the world around us, it is a conversation between you and nature with the only intermediary being the tool you use to draw with. It’s also about personal growth, and there’s something immensely satisfying about working privately in your sketchbook for your own interest and improvement in these fast paced times where photos are snapped and shared worldwide in a matter of seconds. I use drawing as meditation, a chance to check in with my deeper self.  Do you incorporate drawing into your working practise? I would love to hear what drawing means to you.

Read the full version of this post on Lori's blog by clicking here. Also tune in to Lori's blog for the whole month because she has invited to her #bestblogpartyever so many fascinating speakers and I am getting so much out of reading all the posts.

Also I have just added a gallery page of some of my favourite drawings to my website and you can see those by clicking here :-)