Preparing for June

My three paintings ready to be delivered to the Llewellyn Alexander gallery

June is going to be my busiest month of the year, apart from August, when I hope to be in my studio in China painting away all day, every day! Yesterday I delivered my three paintings to the Llewellyn Alexander gallery in London, for their wonderful 'Not The Royal Academy exhibition.' Work can be submitted initially by photograph (if you have had work rejected by the Royal Academy in the last 5 years), or by taking your rejected paintings from the RA straight to the Llewellyn Alexander gallery and receive their decision at once.

I sent photographs of my 3 paintings and all 3 were accepted! I box-framed them, as the photograph shows, and I was really pleased with the framing. The exhibition runs from June 7th to June 20th.

One of the three paintings, 'Calverley Park,' acrylic on canvas, 7.5 x 9.5 ins

 Right now I am preparing work to set up on Wednesday for the South East Open Studios, and only 2 days after that closes I will be setting up my stand at the Tunbridge Wells International Art Fair. Then when that ends, on June 26th, I have to get ready for China and sort out my visa, materials, travelling, etc. 

'Human Exchange,' watercolour and gouache on paper, 76 x 56 cm

This was painted partly to reference a poem and partly from some personal ideas. My local group of artists were all given a set of poems with the choice to illustrate one or several of them. I liked one called, 'We Three Tribes,' and this inspired some of the imagery in my painting. The poem paintings are to be shown at the forthcoming Tunbridge Wells International Art Fair. The painting, which is watercolour and gouache on 300gsm watercolour paper (76 x 56 cm) surprised me because I worked it as I went along, just as I did as a child. Sometimes I really love working from figures and though there was some light pencil drawing for the positions of the figures, I worked most of the painting just by intuition and wanted to overlap abstraction and figuration. I will update you on what happens!

My final news, which I am not at liberty to disclose fully, is that I have been selected as a participant on a painting programme! More about this much later in the year when I can disclose the full details.

Exhibitions and More Exhibitions

This is the brochure for our Open Studios which will be held across Kent and East Sussex in just over two weeks. Due to a change of circumstances, I am now holding an Open Studio with my five artist friends in the Ely Court area of the Royal Victoria Place Shopping Centre in Tunbridge Wells. We already have our Creatives@Tunbridge Wells gallery in Ely Court (now running for nearly 6 months!) and a week ago we took some of the empty shops nearby and put paintings and prints in the windows. Below is a photo of my large painting, ARROWHEADS AT LEMBA VALLEY, in the shop that three of us will be using as our Open Studio.

My painting in the shop window.

Of the four artists I am holding the Open Studios with, two make beautiful jewellery and the other two are painters. I am in this particular shop with the two painters and we will be selling work and also working on some huge panels,  each 8 foot high and 4 foot across, to paint the scene we would have painted in our original choice of studio. We had photographed some amazing trees outside the other studio and were going to work outdoors during the Open Studios each day, but now we will work from the photographs and our memories. Each of us paints with a different approach so it should be quite interesting, and being in the Shopping centre should bring us many visitors!

'Abstract-Coastal,' gouache and watercolour on paper, 11 x 9 ins

When the Open Studios ends, on June 19th, we only have a few days and then have to set up our work on 22nd June for the Tunbridge Wells International Art Fair, at the Assembly Hall. The Private View is on June 23rd (voting day!) and then the TWIAF is open from 24th-26th June. I have a stand and I already have paintings in mind to show there. But because of all the work needed to prepare for these events - and having to take three paintings up to London for the Not the Royal Academy exhibition at the Llewellyn Alexander gallery next week - I have had to come out of the gallery for a few months. I was having trouble finding time for everything!