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! 

Painting with friends

After four hours painting - unfinished 24" x 26"

I'm happy with my own company, but also I'm very sociable and love a chance to paint with friends. Yesterday I drove to London to meet with two of my favourite artist friends and two lovely young models to paint together by the canal. It was a perfect day!
I worked on a large white oil primed canvas, 24" x 26" which was a lot of ground to cover! After around four hours I got to this stage. I love the composition and I wanted to get the main colours on and the white covered. The swan kept coming back and forth so I really had to include it in the painting.

The light was challenging. We started with heavy cloud cover but by the end of the session it was full sun. I couldn't start to introduce strong shadows at that point. If we can arrange another day together I'd really love to finish the painting from life. Otherwise I will do my best with it in the studio.

With Michele del Campo and Adebanji Alade and a chocolate brownie thief

California flowers

California flowers
Oils 14" x 10"

I've come back from the convention full of inspiration, refreshed and raring to go - which is exactly what I was hoping for! It was terrific to spend time with my friends and meet lots of new friends and put a face to existing Facebook friends! Especially Cory who's been following my blog since just about the time when I started it in 2011 :-)

 The coastline in this part of California is incredible and I know I will have to come back here to paint. The light seems crystal clear and of course for me the sunshine makes a subject of just about anything. Take the backlighting on these flowers for example.

It was a wrench every day - be out painting or be in the conference centre watching all the wonderful demos and talks. Did I tell you they laid on free coffee all day too? Yes that pleases me ;-)

Look - freebies!

Look at all the gifts! I love gifts - and stickers! There are stickers for my easels ;-)

Duke of York square

Saturday market, Duke of York square
Oils 22" x 24" SOLD

It was a fun and exhausting (and at times a little crazy!) weekend at the Pintar Rapido event in London. 501 artists were registered to take part in the painting event, although I think around 400 turned up on the day. Many may have been put off by the weather reports.. we were expecting constant rain and thunderstorms on Saturday! In the event we didn't have a single drop of rain and it was a gorgeous day. Many of my friends did what  I did and carried a large umbrella around all day, which wasn't needed after all.

So on the Saturday you registered in the morning and had your blank canvas stamped, and then you were able to paint outside anywhere you wanted within the borough of Kensington and Chelsea. I wanted to capture the life and action of the city on a hot summer weekend, and so I headed to the market in Duke of York square.

There certainly was plenty of life there! I chose a challenging subject and worked on a really large scale at 22" x 24". It was a lot to tackle in a day, with constant interruptions when I explained to spectators what Pintar Rapido was and why they were seeing artists with easels everywhere they went!

I was really drawn to the light coming through the orange sheeting at the back of the Sushi stall, and the light glancing along the tops of the market stall canopies.

The figures had to be placed very quickly, and painted mostly from memory. I'm really pleased that I managed to get a Chelsea pensioner in, walking towards me with his blue peaked cap.

It was such a special moment in the day when I met a couple who had come down from Lincoln especially to see the Sunday exhibition because they follow my blog and had read about the event. If you are reading this I'm so sorry I didn't get to see you on Sunday, but I really am touched that you came. 

I ended up packing away my kit in a rush at 7.00 pm, and had to get back to the Old Town Hall to get my painting framed and handed in before 8.00pm. It was a crazy scene when I got there, artists everywhere rushing to get their paintings framed, with tools, frames, glass etc covering every surface and most of the floor. It was hard to find a clear patch of floor to get mine framed and at the end of all that I was completely shattered and made my way gradually back to the hotel.

This is my painting hanging in the exhibition the next day, and I'm pleased that it sold. It was lovely to see all the different paintings and all the artists assembled together. Unfortunately it was exceedingly hot inside the exhibition and there were no refreshments, so I had to keep going out for a drink and fresh air. 

Apart from that it was a great event, well organised and a chance to catch up with lots of painting friends and I hope I can do it again one day.

Pintar Rapido in London

Painting in London on Saturday

I've been in London since Friday to take part in Pintar Rapido, what a great event it was. I'm still recovering so I thought I'd send you this photo for now which was taken on Saturday by the incredibly talented artist Tom Hughes, thanks Tom.
Tomorrow I'll tell you more about the weekend I promise... bye for now!

My 2013 year review - April to June

August evening on Bréhat
SOLD

Settle down for a long post as I take a look over the second quarter of the year...

Back in April something of a sea change was underway. After several years of painting almost exclusively from life and most of that outdoors I began to produce some paintings in the studio that I was pleased with. A large part of the 'secret' seemed to be that if I had already painted the subject on site I could draw on the experiences of actually being there observing and could also muster up something of the enthusiasm and excitement that I feel whilst painting plein air.
Previously attempts to paint purely from photos had resulted in frustration and boredom for me, and stiffness in the finished work. This really was a breakthrough.

Here are a couple of those studio works together with the plein air studies that kicked them off -

Sketch painted at the fish market, you can see that I was very interested in the WC sign!
8" x 10"

Fresh fried fish, Essaouira
Studio painting
16" x 20"

Sketch painted on site at Belmont tower
10" x 12"

Sledging at Belmont tower
18" x 22"
SOLD

In April I had a week in France with my family with a bit of painting time thrown in, and travelled to Bristol to give workshops for the SAA again.

The month of May brought the most wonderful painting trip when I was invited to Florida as one of the featured artists in the Forgotten Coast great plein air paint out. Whereas 2012 will be remembered for painting in the rain 2013 was shaping up to be a year of sunshine!

Early morning at the marina, Mexico beach
SOLD

Sunrise over the marsh
SOLD

I had such a fantastic time and was made to feel so welcome by all the other artists and event organisers. I met so many kind and lovely people. The subject matter was great, the weather was great, I was fed and watered and driven everywhere by my great friend Lori Putnam. What more does a girl need?

Best pals- me, Lori Putnam, Sandie Yarbrough and Dawn Whitelaw

One of the sweetest plein air painting events ever happened to me during this trip to Florida, with the watermelon man. You can read the story if you want to by clicking here!

Me and the watermelon seller

Watermelons for sale
SOLD

One of the highlights of the trip was the Quick Draw event. Unfortunately for the morning of the event it was pouring with rain but that didn't deter all the invited artists and many other keen painters from coming along and joining in the fun! There was music, dancing, coffee and doughnuts! How like me to remember the coffee and doughnuts... 

Anyway the rain didn't dampen our spirits and I was thrilled to win an honourable mention award amongst such prestigious company!

Me with my medal and the painting titled
'View from the restroom'

Here are a couple of other paintings from the trip -

Early morning shadows on Mexico beach
SOLD

Morning light at devil's elbow

Greg La Rock and other artists painting at Cape San Blas
SOLD

Lazy afternoon at the marina

Oyster boats in the early morning light, Eastpoint
SOLD

Shrimp huts on Water Street
SOLD

Also happening at the time I had a painting accepted for the Society of Women Artists exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London, and another article published in The Artist magazine. The subject this time was painting cats in acrylics and I used my own three cats as models.

Ginger Charlie and Pumpkin

Firmly back in the UK June was Patchings Festival time. Again I had taken a stand in the Painters marquee for this four day event.

I was enormously honoured to have all three of my entries accepted for the Patchings/The Artist magazine annual exhibition, the opening of which coincides with the Festival and takes place in the Barn gallery. I'm so fortunate to have Patchings art centre almost on my doorstep, at around 40 minutes drive from home. I've met many good friends through being involved with the Patchings festival.

I was even more delighted to hear that one of my paintings had been selected for a prize in the exhibition. I won the Royal Talens award which was £250 worth of art materials of my choice. I decided I could do with a new studio easel and the other nice thing about that is that the easel I'd been using for the past 20 years was also a prize that I'd won with a small self portrait on the Channel 4 show 'The Big Breakfast'!

Workshops continued apace in this quarter with 'Painting from photos', 'Figures in a setting', 'Still life with flowers in acrylics' and 'Introduction to gouache' amongst others.

Daler Rowney System 3 workshop at Patchings Festival
They did so well!

Corner of the Barn gallery
Painted as a plein air demo during Patchings Festival 2013

That brings us right up to UK summer time, what an action packed few months that was! Tomorrow I'll have a look around the July to September period, lots more travel still to come...

  

Sunrise over the marsh at Cape San Blas

Sunrise over the marsh at Cape San Blas
Oils 9" x 12" Sold

Another early morning one from my Florida trip. Again I was really inspired and 'in the flow' and pleased with the results. I was especially excited with the distant fishing boat and it's figures, to me they seemed as though brightly lit and so of course I painted it that way. I love the contrasting textures of thin, glazed paint and thick opaque paint in the lighter areas.

This one also sold in the wet room exhibition.

Going to Florida!

I am so excited because in eight days time I will be travelling to Florida, as one of the 23 invited artists to take part in Florida's Forgotten Coast plein air paint out - my first ever plein air event in the USA!

I've got quite a lot on my plate at the moment trying to organise everything in preparation for my time away. Today I've been thinking about frames, art materials and panels that I will need to prepare for the trip!

Recently I was interviewed by Wes Locher for the Star newspaper and you can read the article by clicking here.

Also you can read here all the information about the event so that you can see where I'm going to be painting and who with, and as usual I will do my best to bring you daily reports while I'm away!