RUSSETS 6” x 6” oil on board

Our neighbours’ Russet apple tree looked lovely in the early morning light and I couldn’t resist doing a little oil study of it. Our family have a fondness for that Russet tree, which grows right by our garden fence . . .when our boys were little (they’re grown men now), our lovely neighbours told them they could scrump ‘our’ side of the tree whenever they wanted (how our boys loved our neighbours who, with great patience, would also return stray footballs etc and pass other treats over the fence!)
 

Now it’s Boo dog who goes apple scrumping and eats all the windfalls as they drop on our garden path. If you hear me bellowing, “Boo, drop it!!” at this time of year, it will probably be because he is wolfing down his third apple of the day! 🍏🍏🍏🐶

Porthcawl Lighthouse 20cms x 20cms work in progress

The time has flown by since I wrote my last blog and we are now into harvest time already. Lots has happened too, so my painting time hasn’t been as regular as I would have liked, but it’s been very good to be in the studio this week as I work on this piece.

The most upsetting thing to have happened since my last blog post is that Boo, my assistance dog, was found to have another cancerous lump, this time on his chest, but after surgery to remove it plus a wide margin he has now thankfully been given the all-clear and is completely back to his mischievous self again.

Unfortunately Boo’s post-op recovery meant he couldn’t come on holiday with us. I missed him terribly but knew he was in the best and kindest care as our youngest son looked after him whilst we were away. I had planned to get a quick oil study done most days while we were in South Wales, but the week was very windy and blowing my painting stuff about . . . I did get one tiny oil sketch done as the clouds broke up to let the setting sun through a little, but other than that I just used  my sketchbook and pen. Having a break on the beautiful South Wales coast after Artweeks was lovely , and both dear hubby and I felt so much more relaxed after it.

I’ve had a couple of paintings in exhibitions lately too. The first one, a little oil painting of our peony plant in the garden, was painted as I sat  in the garden in between my studio visitors during Artweeks, and was exhibited and then sold at a charity auction at Little Buckland Gallery near Broadway. The peonies started off in my Mum and Dad’s cottage garden when I was little, went with them through two house moves and then ended up in our garden. The peony plant is decades old and positively thrives on neglect.

The second painting is one I did called ‘The Art Stall, Genoa’, which I entered into The Artist magazine/Patchings Festival Open Art Competition. It received a ‘Highly Commended’ and is in their online exhibition through July/early August. It is also eligible for the People’s Choice award which is lovely, but I am highly unlikely to win that as there are some incredibly gifted artists also exhibiting. I am very relieved to have had my work judged at that level and to get that ‘Highly Commended’, it helps me gauge my progress and assess where I am on my painting journey. It takes a lot of courage to enter these juried art competitions, and I’ve had to grow a thick skin so that at those times when work isn’t selected the feelings of rejection and dejection aren’t too painful.- they say that rejection is good for one’s growth as an artist and I’m sure that’s true; I still feel very vulnerable when I enter these things though (although The Art Stall did well, two other paintings I also entered weren’t selected).

The painting I am working on presently is of the lighthouse on the end of Porthcawl pier. I took a photo and did a quick sketch of it one wild and windy July day a couple of years ago when we were down there for a friend’s special birthday. I love being on that pier in wild weather, but it would be reckless to try to paint there from my wheelchair flanked on both sides by raging seas, so a studio painting it has to be for this one. It is still a work in progress but I’m enjoying it very much, remembering the feeling of the salt spray on my face as I sat there watching the stormy sea.

If you watch the BBC weather forecast, you will often see a picture the BBC use when gales are forecast, of enormous waves towering over Porthcawl Lighthouse. It is a very dramatic image, and incredible to see in real life.

Artweeks 2019

I can’t believe that Artweeks is over for another year! Looking back it was such an amazing ten days....thank you to all the lovely visitors who came to see my work in my new studio and made the whole week a happy and memorable one.

I had been a little concerned about displaying all the paintings as my new ‘Little Cwtch’ studio is not as long as my old studio, but dear hubby and I had devised a way between us of displaying it all without it being cramped and I was so pleased with how it all finally looked - I even had space to display the weaving I have been doing over the past few months, which was a new thing for this year.

I met some wonderful people and had some wonderful conversations - always one of the highlights of Artweeks for me. I was also thankful to have some very good sales..... I had decided to donate the profits from paintings sold at this exhibition to the Lawrence Home Nursing Team after they had cared so wonderfully for a friend of ours last year, and am very happy to be able to send them £540 from the exhibition.

I couldn’t do any of this without my dear hubby. . .he works tirelessly in the lead up to Artweeks, helping me to do so much - even the garden was pristine and weed free (well, almost 😊)! During the week he was a smiling host and coffee-maker, and when it was all over he was the one who had all the heavy work to do, bringing all my ‘stuff’ back into the studio, taking down direction signs and posters etc and packing away paintings.

Now I’ve had a bit of a rest and it’s time to think about getting back out there and doing some more painting - here’s hoping we have another gorgeous summer! 🌸

Cloud Study 6” x 8”

I am trying to keep up the momentum of getting out and painting small oil sketches on location as much as I can, but today was not a day to be out much in my wheelchair. As beautiful as it has been at times, at other times we’ve had rain, hail, strong winds and black skies - today is a prelude to Storm Hannah’s imminent arrival tomorrow. I decided the safest, driest way to do any oil study today was in the shelter of the open conservatory doorway!

The clouds were whipping along at a real pace, so I had to move very quickly while painting, whilst also still trying to focus on the colours, shapes and values of the swiftly changing sky.

I was really glad that I didn’t let myself feel that today was a day wasted as far as getting out and painting was concerned, and that I’d made the effort to get out my kit and sit there studying the sky; it was a great lesson in observation for me and a lot of fun on a blustery day.

‘Towards Leafield’ 8” x 10” oil sketch

Today had been set aside for a short car drive and a spot of Plein air painting as the weather forecast had been for a warm, sunny day - what a joy for February! Well, warm it certainly was (a mighty 17 degrees this afternoon), but lovely hubby and I woke up to fog which showed absolutely no sign of being in a hurry to shift. We waited in vain until lunchtime and decided to go for it anyway - even though the sky was still pretty murky looking - as I’d got all my painting gear ready. 

So, flask of coffee made, we set off in the car in the hope that the promised sun would break through the murk. We drove through the Wychwood forest heading towards Leafield looking for a promising scene, but with the softness of the day nothing really looked interesting. In the end I settled for the view across the rolling fields towards Leafield, with its broad Church spire on the skyline peering out through the mist. 

On a sunny day this view is glorious, but today it just looked flat and uninspiring. Even so, all practice is good and, as the murk started lifting a little and the light started changing, the fields became slightly more interesting and I started to enjoy myself. 

I only spent an hour on this little oil sketch, but the pleasure was in being in a quiet spot, and experiencing the sights, sounds and scents of the countryside around me. Of course, as soon as I had finished painting and packed away my painting gear, the sun finally decided to come out and the whole scene before me was transformed! That will be a painting for another day. . .