Distant Horizons

My mind is full of thoughts of travelling, both in my work and physically, so I am adding a painting which encapsulates my sense of urgency to move forwards.
Travel and change dominated my week. I have just applied for a residency abroad, which sounds incredibly exciting, and would allow a big development in my work, and also open up new horizons. It is at the Mark Rothko residencies, in Daugavpils, Latvia. It involves making two paintings there, for an exhibition, and includes the use of a studio (great!). Materials and accommodation are provided. Of course, with these international residencies, competition is huge, but I feel in a stronger, more confident position to apply - so we will see what happens!
I have also applied for an art award, with the intention to make a series of large canvases to exhibit in London. My streams of drawings and compositional ideas are crying out to be explored on a larger arena, and while I believe I put forward a good statement, there again competition is stiff! I am currently very restricted by lack of funds.
The exhibition at the Llewellyn Alexander gallery is now open (and my watercolour is on their website), and the Kings Hill Project is also open. So I am working on three new paintings, and finishing two that feel unresolved.
You just have to self-promote, and I have put my work on two new websites, and put work for sale on the saatchi online website (as prints and originals) With my net cast wide, I hope new opportunites are netted.
('Nicosia Evening,' oil on board, 122 x  61cm)
http://www.saatchionline.com/profiles/portfolio/id/82603

Jubilee Celebrations and Dreams

Half-term week coincided with the Jubilee celebrations, which meant painting was squeezed right out of my day. Though I didn't take part in any street parties, I was still finishing off party food from my birthday on 31st May (a party prepared by my husband). The past few days passed in a haze of juggling housework with looking after my niece, interspersed with colourful images of the Jubilee events on the tv. Wistfully, I wondered what it must be like to have the world at your feet, and to have the potential to go anywhere and do anything you dream of.
I liken my flat to a station platform, as my sister and her daughter drift in and out at all times of the day, my husband prepares our food early in the afternoon to avoid the first meal sitting (my mother, sister and niece), and then my other sister joins in the noisy dance in a cramped space. My tiny,temporary painting space disappeared.
Thankfully, my painting materials arrived on my birthday, so I stretched another canvas and began a new painting yesterday - an 80cm by 40cm paintscape. My husband remarked how much happier I always seem when I am able to paint - and then on our walks (in torrential rain this week), we scheme and plan for the money we must find for our many creative projects, and of course a studio! In darker moments I wonder if we will make it, as the news is full of gloom and doom, and our dreams seem far away. But you have to keep on dreaming.
('Taking Flight,' oil and acrylic on canvas, 81cm by 45cm, 2012)