Radio interview and Pintar Rapido

Rowing club at Putney

Today I was invited along to BBC Radio Lincolnshire to be interviewed by Melvyn Prior, live on the 'Melvyn in the morning' show. It was so much fun to actually go into the radio station, as last time I did an interview via telephone about painting the pageant in 2012. This time Melvyn wanted to talk about our year living on the island as well as my latest awards.

If you'd like to, you can listen to the interview during the next seven days. The radio programme is 2 hours 59 minutes long, and if you want to just skip to my bit I come in just after the first hour.

You can listen here! 

I also wanted to tell you about an event coming up in London, called Pintar Rapido. It's on the weekend of the 19th and 20th July, and it's an exciting new annual plein air event in the UK which began last year. Hundreds of artists will be joining in (including me), on the Saturday painting in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea and on the Sunday exhibiting all the paintings at Chelsea Old Town Hall on Kings Road.
If you'd like to take part in all that excitement then you need to act quickly because the closing date to register for an artist's pass is June 30th.
It's sure to be an incredible atmosphere and a fun weekend. Find out more here :-)

A little interview

This week's Grantham Journal

The local newspaper, the Grantham Journal, printed an interview with me this week, which was very kind of them. You can read the whole interview on their webpage at www.granthamjournal.co.uk

I also have these two paintings in a mixed exhibition on the theme of seascapes at the Ashdown Gallery, Forest Row, Sussex. The exhibition opened today and will remain open until the 3rd March. This is my first time showing work with this gallery and there is a great variety of gorgeous paintings in this lively exhibition. The gallery is happy to ship paintings to anywhere and you can get more information by clicking here.

Agapanthus flowers at the beach £395
Measures 16" x 18" framed

Low tide at Port Clos £750
Measures 20" x 24" framed

TV show and student art day!

Me and Sarah and her painting

Another busy day here in Florida! We got up extremely early (4am) for our breakfast tv appearance on channel seven!
The filming took place at the welcome centre in Port St Joe, and as well as the three of us painting and being interviewed about the plein air event there was live music from a group of school children. I completed a painting while we were there, after the sun came up so that we could see the view that is!
We went from there to Eastpoint for the student art day. This is such a good event, where students from the local schools are each assigned an artist from the festival to tutor them while they paint for a couple of hours. They also receive lots of art goodies to take home with them. Then we all have a fabulous lunch together! This is my very talented student Sarah and her beautiful painting! Their paintings are framed and will be heading over to Port St Joe to join ours on display in the wetroom.
We left after lunch and headed over to the boatyard at Carrabelle to paint. I was really involved in a 8" x 16" of a couple of boats which took me far longer than it should have but I intend to frame it and take it along to the exhibition. At first it was cloudy but then the sun came out and I was ridiculously hot at times, standing in the full sun!
Amazingly I managed to muster up some more energy and went over to the comfort of a shaded area to finish off a painting of the boat called 'Jennifer Mitch' that I was painting here a couple of days ago. It didn't need much but it was great to just look at it again in the same light conditions and notice a few little changes.
We are now having an overnight sleepover at a pretty little cottage in Carrabelle before heading back towards Mexico beach tomorrow.

Coming back to earth

My TV interview with Anneka Rice

I confess, I'm having difficulty coming back down to earth after events at the weekend! I'm also having difficulty writing my blog post tonight because really, what can ever compare?! And yet, I don't want you thinking I'm ignoring you, so here's a brief review of what I've been up to post Millennium bridge...

I've been sorting out my sodden kit from Sunday, which was hurriedly stuffed into various bin bags as I left the bridge (proving once and for all that tv filming isn't glam!). The umpteen brushes that I'd used got cleaned with special love and care. Tubes of paint got dried, rubbish got thrown. Palette still drying as we speak.

I've found a link to the BBC news page featuring the work of many of the artists on the bridge...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-18330492

I've enjoyed very much reading Katherine Tyrell's lovely jubilee blog post on her Making a Mark blog.
My favourite quote of the day is "This is the essence of British plein air painting spirit'!

I've been looking at funny little clips about me in local newspapers -

 How lovely and sunny it is on those photos! If only...!

I've been working on a third painting, a larger canvas based on the two I did on the bridge - putting them both together and finishing it off a bit! I really don't want it to look too tight - hence I am really nervous of spoiling it - hence it might become too tight...
If it works out well, you'll be the first to see it. If it ends up a disgrace well, just forget I ever mentioned it, ok? Deal!

I've been painting and waxing frames and fitting in these two paintings, and have driven them to Patchings art centre today where they will be exhibited in The Artist exhibition in the Barn gallery, from June 14th to July 22nd.

Painting from the model

Union jack tea party