2012 review - April to June!

Wow!

You'd better grab a cup of coffee before we start as there was so much going on in the second quarter of the year! This is going to take some time but bear with me...

I had huge news in early April. I was told I had won the SAA's (Society of All Artists) Artist of the Year award! Wow indeed! The painting which won me the top prize was this one of my daughter relaxing on the sofa, the same one which had been pre-selected for the Royal Society of Portrait painters exhibition in yesterday's post.

Camille aged 13

The prize itself was amazing! I won £1000 and £1000 worth of art materials, a crystal goblet, and £500 worth of art materials to donate to any school or charity of my choice. What this did for my confidence is really beyond measure. To think that I had been selected from a Society with 45,000 members made me feel that I was on the right track. It also made me think about where I wanted to go, and I determined to put the money to good use. In fact I put it towards two plein air painting trips which I'll cover in my next post.

It was such a boost. I decided there and then to push myself forward with my painting and think about the kind of work I want to be doing more clearly. The congratulations and support from my family and    friends and online friends made me so happy!

Plage privée
£475 framed

We had a week on the island in early April, it was great to be outside painting the sea and the beaches again.

Rocks of Ile nord
SOLD

I was a featured artist at the Sleaford art event which took place in early April. I love to do the Art challenge there! You have two hours to paint from a mystery model, and then throughout the weekend the public vote for their favourite. This time it was a lady archer. And I won!

Painting from the model at the Sleaford Art event

Antique shop, Venice
My demo at the Sleaford Art event

During this period I taught workshops on 'watercolours', 'expressive colour' and 'oil painting' amongst others and giving demos to local art groups.

Tulips and teacup candle
Watercolours

I was delighted to hear news that I'd had two paintings accepted for The Artist magazine exhibition at Patchings art centre. The standard of the exhibition is always extremely high and competition is fierce! A very popular event and I was so delighted to know that my work was included, and not just one but two! 

Union Jack tea party
Accepted for The Artist/Patchings exhibition

In May, we returned to Bréhat with seven lovely ladies for a plein-air painting holiday! We found a beautiful house for them to stay in, and we got together all day for painting trips around the island and then had dinner together in the house in the evenings. 

Our base for the Isle of Painting holiday!

Shipwreck before downpour, Bréhat

We had quite a lot of rain but it didn't dampen our spirits at all! We managed to get out and paint every day, only one morning we decided to stay indoors and paint a still life. Our breakfast table made the perfect subject!

Le petit déjeuner, Bréhat
Watercolours

In May, the SAA's Paint magazine published an article about me. The results of the Artist of the Year competition hadn't been publicised yet.

My painting 'Fin du jour' on the cover

Even though lots was going on, I was still getting out and about to paint 'plein air'. Here's a local one from May that I'm really fond of - 

Blossom and oilseed rape
£395 framed

In June, one of the most memorable events of my life, I was selected by the BBC as one of 20 artists from all over the country to paint the Queen's Diamond Jubilee pageant from the Millennium bridge in London, as it was taking place before me.

I remember when I got the initial email to apply I was so desperately wanting to do it!! There followed a month or so of emails and security checks and a telephone interview before my place was confirmed. We had to list every item that we would be bringing, exactly how many tubes of paint, what sized canvas etc. As you can imagine security was tight, after all we were to be standing up high on a bridge with the Queen and most of the royal family passing by underneath.

Queen's diamond jubilee pageant

The weather didn't seem to realise it was British summertime! It poured with rain throughout the entire event, and up on the bridge it was so cold and windy! Luckily I was well wrapped up and had borrowed my goddaughter's pink bobble hat! 

I was one of the few artists to be interviewed by Anneka Rice and shown on the TV. This was very fortunate! Again I was bowled over with messages of support from all over the world, many of whom had seen me on TV! After the interview my painting was too wet to carry on with, and I decided to leave it exactly as it was on the day - a true record of the event including evidence of the awful weather!

Most artists had packed in by now!

One quote I remember from the event is artist and blogger Katherine Tyrell saying 'This is the essence of British plein air painting spirit' ! Ohhhh yes!

The other major event in June was the Patchings art festival, an event I was taking part in for the first time, although I had visited many times previously. As well as having two paintings on show in the exhibition in the Barn gallery, I took a stall in the huge marquee full of painters. It was an absolute delight to be there! I know so many people from the East Midlands as I have studied in Leicester, lived and taught near Nottingham, and lived and taught for a long time in Lincolnshire. I saw so many familiar faces, some I hadn't seen for many years, plus met face to face with Facebook and twitter friends! Not only that but lots of other great people too. Everybody wanted to talk about my Pageant painting experience :-)

My Patchings stand before I brought a rug to make the floor look prettier!

Things went from great to fantastic on my second day of Patchings when I found out I'd been awarded a prize in The Artist exhibition!!

Painting from the model
Winner of the Pro Arte award

This is the small painting (12" x 10") that won me the Pro Arte award. My prize was £250 worth of Pro Arte brushes, which I would be able to choose from across their full range. Can you imagine how delighted I was? Over the moon!! The judges included Sally Bulgin, editor of The Artist magazine and David Curtis amongst others. What an honour!

Now I know this has been an extremely long post, thank you for making it this far! I can't leave this quarter without showing you two of my favourite paintings from this time, of my lovely Burlesque model...

Rose Desire with white feathers

Rose Desire with black feathers

And finally an English summer garden...

Ice cream shed
SOLD

At the end of this time my SAA prize arrived! Here is my lovely goblet - 

I told you it would be a long post, hope you enjoyed your coffee break! Tomorrow's edition covers July, August and September and lots of travel!

2012 review - January to March!

Reclining male with tattoos
SOLD

I've had such an amazing and busy year that I felt I really needed to write it all down in a little review, before I can move forwards into 2013. My lovely friends, if you've been following my blog the whole year I do hope you won't mind taking this trip down memory lane with me! For newer subscribers, I hope you'll find it interesting to read about those events I consider my highlights from 2012, and to see my favourite paintings from this year.

Melting snow in the lane
£395 framed

In January this year my husband, children and I moved back to our home in Lincolnshire, England. We had spent the whole of 2011 living on a tiny island without cars in Brittany, France. What an adventure that was! We all had a fantastic year together, and this January found the children back at their same schools in England. I remember the driving around everywhere came as a shock to me!

Lincolnshire mud tracks 1
£245 framed

Lincolnshire mud tracks 3
SOLD

Lincolnshire mud tracks 2
SOLD

While walking our dog, Maisie, I found colours in all the muddy tracks around our village!
I also made the most of the snow when it arrived, getting around locally to paint it every day it was here. I put on snowboarding trousers and pulled my pochade box around on a sledge.

Snow day Sunday
SOLD

Fred's paddock in the snow
£245 framed

Railway cottages at Carlton Scroop
£395 framed

The railway cottages caught my eye one chilly frosty morning while doing the school run. The sun was coming up and lit up the front of the cottages beautifully, while the grassy bank at the side of the road was in the shade and still frozen.

I had a little excitement when I had a painting pre-selected for the Royal Society of Portrait painters exhibition. The only problem was... the painting was in our French island house! There then followed a quick weekend dash to collect it in order to send it down to the Mall galleries. Unfortunately it didn't make it into the exhibition but it was the first time I'd entered and the fact that it had passed pre-selection gave me a real confidence boost.

I started teaching day workshops in my local area. It was lovely being back with the ladies that I used to teach weekly before disappearing to France. Some of the workshop topics I covered during this time were 'painting faster', 'acrylic painting', 'flower painting' and 'painting a tea party'.

Painting faster workshop

Party girls
A speedy demo for the painting faster workshop!

Missing the sea, I also went for a drive to the Lincolnshire coast at Sutton-on-sea. It's become a favourite painting spot for me now, well worth driving for an hour and a half or so to get there!

Sutton-on-sea
SOLD

Tomorrow, I'll talk about April to June - things get really exciting! In fact, there's an awful lot to cover...

Your turn to win!!

Festive prize draw!!

I have just put your names in the hat for the big festive giveaway and pulled out five winners!
I really wanted a way of thanking you for all your support throughout the year. It's a shame I can't give prizes to all of you, but it's all of you that I thank. It means so much to me that you follow my painting adventures through my blog/diary. It's so nice having you there to tell about everything and to show you everything that I'm working on.
It's so super to hear your kind comments, read your supportive messages, meet you in person and make new friends in you all over the world.
I hope I can offer you plenty more paintings and fun and inspiration in 2013!

And now without further ado, the winners are....

'Sheep in melting snow' goes to.... Julie Mackinder!!! Well done Julie!

'King of Christmas' goes to..... Valerie Rath!!! Congratulations Valerie!

Third prize of my new book 'Paintings of light and colour' goes to... Pipa Hall!! 

And the final two prizes, of a small bundle of greetings cards, go to....

Sarah Knott and Barbara Limb!!

Well done everybody!

I shall be popping them all in the post very soon! :-)

Thanking my lucky stars!

Painting away at the ROI painting evening

Well I said I would have a lot to tell you after my second visit to the Royal Institute of Oil painters exhibition, but I didn't expect to be telling you this!

These photos are all from the annual ROI painting evening. I had such a great time! Three models were placed around the gallery for artists to set up around and paint from. In order to get a good view you really had to set up before the models arrived, so we had no idea who we would be painting.

You can see I had my Open Box M and tripod with me, I brought all my kit along in the wheelie suitcase that I used all over Venice. 

Everyone was very friendly, but it was especially nice to have friends David Pilgrim, Adebanji Alade, Tim King and Graham Webber there.

I was delighted to meet online friends Tim Benson (I'm a big fan of his work) and Katherine Tyrell (if you are a fellow art blogger you will surely know of her Making a mark blog). 

Katherine sat on the stairs near the entrance and did a fantastic sketch throughout the evening of the painters painting! In fact I take quite a starring role in the drawing, and I look very relaxed painting with my left hand in my apron pocket! You can see the drawing on Katherine's sketchbook blog :-)

Many painters painting! That's Adebanji Alade sitting in front

We painted for a couple of hours but also had rest breaks for the models. It was such a great atmosphere. I haven't mentioned the onlookers to you yet have I? People buy tickets to watch and have a glass of wine and a mince pie while chatting to their friends or to the artists. I love it when people interrupt me for a little chat, I think it's a really useful break to take your eyes away from the painting for a couple of minutes and then go back to it a bit fresher!

The finished painting

Our lovely model

I used my tripod and Open Box M, and a linen canvas

There is a prize awarded to the best work of the evening by a non ROI member, voted for by a small panel of members, and you'll never believe who won!

Adebanji took this photo of me seconds after they announced my name! I think you can see how surprised and delighted I was (and am!).

Adebanji took this photo as soon as they announced my name! You can see
how surprised I was!

My prize is £200 worth of Winsor and Newton art materials, what an amazing Christmas present and what an amazing night... and what an amazing year this has turned out to be!!!

Royal Institute of Oil Painters 2012

Me with Incoming tide at Hook head

Yesterday was a London day for me - the preview of the Royal Institute of Oil painters annual exhibition. I can't tell you how honoured I feel having my work hanging there amongst all those amazing paintings. The exhibition is too great to take in all at once so I'm very glad I'll have another chance to look round on Monday. I also want to get a better look at the Daphne Todd exhibition running at the same time. Here are some photos of yesterday's event, taken after the first three hours when things had calmed down a bit!

I'm the very tiny one!

There's me looking very small indeed next to the great UK painters Peter Barker, Roy Connelly and David Pilgrim, not forgetting the man behind the camera Adebanji Alade. Check out their blogs if you haven't already met. Thanks for the photo Adebanji!