Exhibition news

Towards St Michael's mount from Mousehole
Oils 46 x 46 cms framed
£595

I had the happy news that two of my paintings have been selected for the Society of Women Artists (SWA) annual exhibition 2014. These are both plein air paintings, one painted in Mousehole in Cornwall and the other in Morocco.

The exhibition takes place at the Mall Galleries, London from the 26th June to the 5th July, with the private view on the 25th June. I have a few invitations to the private view so let me know if you can get to London on that day and would like one, or if you would like to know about owning one of these two paintings. You can email me at thedrawingroomgallery@gmail.com

Towards the fort, Essaouira
Oils 41 x 51 cms framed
£495

A little info about the society from their website... Founded as the Society of Female Artists, this unique group has held an annual exhibition in London of the work of women artists ever since 1857.  In the mid-nineteenth century, women were not considered to be serious contributors to the field of art and had great difficulty in obtaining a public showing. At the first exhibition, 149 women showed 358 works, some hiding their true identities for fear of social recrimination.  The art world was dominated by the Royal Academy which, at its foundation in 1768, had two women among the founders but had no other women academicians for over 150 years when, in 1922, Annie Swynnerton S.W.A (a member since 1889) was elected as an Associate.  The Society attracted some of the most noted artists of the time; when Lady Elizabeth Butler's The Roll Call was displayed at the Royal Academy in 1874, even Ruskin, with his peculiar views of femininity, revised his opinion that no woman could paint. The S.F.A was involved in education for women artists, effectively excluded by the mores of the time from professional training. Even for those who did gain a place at art school, the model in the women's class would be decorously draped on grounds of propriety.  The Society has had many famous artists among its members. Dame Laura Knight, the first woman Royal Academician for over 160 years, was elected President of the S.W.A in 1932. The world-famous illustrator Mabel Lucy Atwell was a member. Current members include Daphne Todd OBE, the first woman President of the Royal Portrait Society; well-known portraitist June Mendoza OBE; the late Suzanne Lucas, Past President of both the Society of Botanical Artists and the Royal Miniature Society, who in 1980 was elected as the first woman president of a Royal Society; and Philomena Davis, elected first woman President of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1990. The current President is Sue Jelley.

Sunday market part one

Mixing up the same colours

Yesterday I showed you a small plein air oil study that I painted in Morocco at the market at Hedra. I spent most of last week in my studio painting a larger scale version while the scene, the heat, the sounds were all still fresh in my mind. 

Using my painting and a variety of photos that I'd taken I worked out a fairly detailed sketch putting different elements together. I don't always need to do this but it was going to be quite a complicated scene.

I then stretched up a pretty big canvas, big for me anyway at 22" x 34" and set to work.

Compositional sketch

Early stages, blocking in lights and darks

Fountain in the Cantina square

Fountain in the square

Just a quiet little painting this one and a memory of a really enjoyable afternoon. Believe it or not the white wall on the right really was that curved, or so it seemed to me anyway!  I could probably check that with photo reference. I really loved the simple tiled water fountain and the intrigue of the dark doorway contrasted with the brightness outside in the square. 

That blob to the left of the door is supposed to be a dog but that doesn't come across! There was also a cat or two milling around.

The moped on the right hand side was actually yellow but before I got any of the yellow bits painted it left the courtyard.

And isn't this the cutest photo? It's me and painter Mo Teeuw with a few local children who entertained us with antics while we were painting in this square! Many thanks for the great photo Eric Davis.

Me and Mo Teeuw with some of the locals

Monsieur Bouabid

Monsieur Bouabid

This was one of my most exciting painting moments from my trip to Morocco last week. Monsieur Bouabid who is the wc attendant near the harbour in Essaouira remembers me from my painting trip last year and so, as we exchanged pleasantries I asked him if I could paint a picture of him right there and then and he agreed! I was a lot braver this year about attempting to put the people into the paintings and I felt that attempting this portrait in the street was a pretty courageous move. 

Of course, the doing of it attracted a lot of attention from the other workers and passers by but I had to pretty much ignore them and crack on. I just didn't know how long I would have and thought that he could have moved off at any moment. (It could be, I was thinking, that I'd misunderstood when he'd apparently agreed to sit for me, in French)

Unfortunately I soon realised that I wouldn't get his whole self in unless I did a naughty thing and shortened his legs by a couple of inches. Usually I would have restarted at that point, with the top of his head higher up on the board but I was in a major hurry thinking that this glorious moment wouldn't last long. So I had to make a decision and I sacrificed accuracy for the added information of being able to include his feet, which will come in useful if I start a studio painting based on this. And if I do I will know I need to lengthen his shins :-)

The painting in situ, outside the toilets

All was not as simple as first appeared with this white jacketed figure lit by bright sunlight. I was amazed at the amount of reflected light bouncing up from the ground, it certainly made things tricky.

Fresh fried fish, Essaouira

You might remember this studio painting from last year, that's my friend Monsieur Bouabid there on the right hand side, underneath the WC sign. 

With a little help from friends

And on this photo taken on a different evening last week I am wearing Mr Bouabid's lovely coat (he lent me it because I was cold) and eating chocolate given to me by another new Essaouira friend. That is why I love love love plein air painting. Unforgettable, unmissable experiences. The kindness of people.

Essaouira montage

Studies of characters in Morocco

I must apologise for abandoning you while I was still in Morocco - technical glitch to blame! I was using wifi every day at a very friendly cafe but then I realised that things with my blog had gone a bit strange and my text had completely disappeared. Thus you subscribers probably received two small photos by email without the accompanying stories. It's not that I couldn't be bothered to write because I was having too much of a ball, as you might be thinking! Naughty blog going doolally like that, I decided I'd better not try again until back in the UK.

Now that I am back I'm hoping that all will be magically cured, and therefore I won't have to look into anything too taxing technical ;-)

In order to strike while the iron's hot I have made up some BIG canvasses today and started work on two studio pieces based on Essaouira studies from last week.

A lesson!

Gave an art lesson this morning!

Quick demo for Aurelly

The butchers

Butchers shop with chickens

I love painting on the high street here. It's very very busy so it's hard to get out of the way, but I have a sympathetic shop owner who is happy for me to stand in front. In fact he asked me to mind the shop for ten minutes today while he nipped out!
I'm here with a group of painter friends from the UK, plus we have met with some American artists - one of whom I was already friends with on good ole Facebook. We managed to get eleven of us together one evening for a delicious seafood dinner so that was fun.

My 2013 year review January to March

Chicken huts in the snow
SOLD

It's that time of year again for my end of year review, so I'll be taking a few days to look back over all of my artistic events of this year before starting to focus on what's coming next. If you only joined me part way through the year I hope you'll find something of interest here and if you've been with me all the way through I hope you won't mind taking a recap with me. It's been another busy year of fun and travels and opportunity, and being able to spend time with lots of great people who share this passion of mine.

The year began with generous amounts of snowfall in January which meant I was able to get outside a lot to paint one of my favourite subjects - snow! The painting above is definitely one of my top favourites of the year, and was painted in challenging conditions with quite a blizzard at times! The chickens and ducks disappeared and hid whenever the snowfall was heavy.

Painting at Galley Hill allotments

Belton House formal gardens

North Heath lane in snow
SOLD

I even tackled something I never had before, painting moving figures sledging and playing in the snow, and I loved it! I wanted the snow to stay for longer but I didn't get a chance to paint those sledgers again this year. There is a little video on YouTube of me painting there that you might enjoy.

In February I was a guest artist giving workshops at the SAA 'Its All About Art' event in Manchester and took part in a group exhibition in London on the subject of Venice. I ran a workshop on painting cats in acrylics, and gave demos to local art societies.

In this period I had a couple of articles published in The Artist magazine including one about 'finding your own style' which also became the theme for a couple of workshops.

I was proud of these two self portraits that I painted in early spring, and both were pre-selected for the Royal Society of Portrait painters exhibition in February. I need to paint more portraits, it's something I love to do.

Self portrait with warm backlighting

Self portrait with iPhone 

In March came the trip of a lifetime - painting in Essaouira, Morocco, with Ken Howard RA. In my opinion Ken is the top of the tops here in the UK, and it was such a privilege to be able to get to know him. I didn't spend very much painting time with him because I was so excited by the new surroundings and wanted to choose my own subjects, particularly in the harbour area. We had wonderful group get-togethers in the evening though, and Ken was happy to look over our work while we had the pleasure of viewing all of his work. I only hope I have his energy and stamina when I am in my eighties. 

The fort at Essaouira

Cinnabar green light

Tides at Essaouira

Le médina, Essaouira

Walls of the médina, Essaouira

There was another exciting trip to a new place just around the corner in the next quarter of the year...

Fresh fried fish, Essaouira

Fresh fried fish, Essaouira
Oils 30 x 40 cms

'Tis finished! I am over the moon with this because I now have another studio painting which actually beats it's plein-air brother, in my opinion, hands down!

This is exciting progress as, for a long time now, I have believed that all my best work is painted plein air. If I can now take plein air paintings and make a studio version based on them which changes and improves on my original vision this is a huge step for me!

I am now looking forward to doing the same thing with some of the plein air paintings I will bring back from Florida in a little over a fortnight's time.

Here's the original plein air painting so you can compare which was done in less than an hour to be fair...

And here is a detail from the studio version...

I absolutely love the depiction of the guy on the right and especially his cigarette! He became really friendly with me during the week as I was often painting in the area and he always called out to me as I passed. I wish I'd asked his name now! His job is looking after the toilets and he is sitting next to the entrance which is just around the corner.

I had to be so careful to keep the brushwork loose but descriptive, and when you are painting figures in a setting you must treat them just the same as you would any other part of the painting if you want them to look as though they belong there.

Fried fresh fish

Painting a fish stall in Morocco 

Fresh fried fish

Fish fresh fried

Fried fresh fish

Fish fried fresh

I painted this little 8" x 10" in Essaouira on my recent trip to Morocco and now I am working on a studio painting based on it, since getting back from France in the wee small hours yesterday morning. I will post progress shots soon.

I also wrote a new 'to do' list when I got back, it's three pages long and fairly terrifying. Mostly it is work or work related but doesn't involve painting, so I have had to make time for two hours painting a day despite the big list. Those hours are keeping me sane and calm.

I also feel as if I've made a big breakthrough or a new discovery in my painting but I can't put it into words yet. Be assured you will be the first to know when I do manage to verbalise it!

What's coming next?!