The Best Laid Plans.......

'Broken Chain,' watercolour and gouache, 11 x 8.3ins

I have been back from Cyprus for a week. How much I love the quality of light down there - it is a rich, bright golden light that suffuses everything! Coming back here, it is as if someone turned a light off. But my experience of that light flowed into several watercolours I made in one of the parks, a park I call the Van Gogh park, because of its twisted trees. I sat at a round, green table in the park, and made paintings that explored colour and my visual excitement from walks around the city. They were not illustrations, rather they were composites of an environment.

 

'Pieces of my Soul,' watercolour and gouache, 11 x 8.3ins

While I was in Nicosia, I met a dear friend who is also an artist. Her name is Valerie Brennan and we came to know each other through Facebook. We are planning to make an exhibition of our paintings in Nicosia in the summer. We both love colour and our work will look good together. Right now, we are searching for a venue, possibly one of the popular new cafes. Cafes in Nicosia are always full, even very late at night, and we feel that it would be good exposure for our work.

 

'Orange Rain over Nicosia,' watercolour and gouache, 11 x 8.3ins

The new paintings and drawings I made while in Nicosia will be developed into paintings, though at this point I have no idea what direction they will go in! Meanwhile my plans to get my book finished before the end of the year met a hurdle, namely a lack of time, and then Christmas intervened. It is almost finished, just a few more pages, and I am determined to get it done before the end of this month.

'Fragmentation,' watercolour and gouache, 11 x 8.3ins

End of Year News

'Conversations in the Turkish Baths,' 16 x 20ins, oil and acrylic on canvas

Three of my figure paintings have been selected for a show in January, at the Art Pull gallery in Tunbridge Wells (opening Jan 14th). Two of the paintings are inspired by the many visits I made to the old Turkish Baths in Nicosia, Cyprus. I painted in the Baths over a five year period, gathering visual information in sketches and watercolours which I have used for my compositions back in the UK. The other painting is from my 'One Among Many' series, which concerns the idea of people being lost in the vastness and impersonal aspects of today's world. I am attaching a few of these paintings, and also one of my abstracts, as this will likely be my last entry this year.

'Women and Doors in the Turkish Baths,' oil and acrylic on canvas, 24 x 18ins

I am going to Cyprus on December 30th, to spend some time with my mother-in-law, and get some sunshine! The UK weather lurches from bad to worse, and as I write there is torrential rain and strong winds. I am planning to do some watercolours while I am in Nicosia as the brilliant quality of light will be inspiring. But I'm already playing about with new ideas for when I return. The end of a year is always very positive because it seems to underline where you are, and I find myself tidying up my artwork emotionally, cutting off from paintings, finishing paintings, and seeing January as a time to move forwards!

'One Among Many,' oil and acrylic on canvas, 43 x 32ins

Before I go away, I'm racing to get my book finished and submitted to Kindle, but time is running out. The days before Christmas seem to be shorter than days at any other time of the year! I have designed my cover - which was easier than I had imagined - and used one of my paintings on it. So if I can finish my final 40 pages of editing, the book should be ready to submit before the end of 2013.

'Paintscape,' oil and acrylic on board, 24 x 18ins

New Directions

'Surfing on Paint,' acrylic on board, 60 x 45cm

On December 3rd, the group exhibition of SEE artists (South East England artists) opened at the Art Pull gallery, in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. I have a painting in the show, one that I felt represented me well. The Private View was packed with people and some had to stand outside on the pavement. My painting was displayed on a wall near the glass front of the gallery so it had good light, (important for my colours).

With lots of new paintings on the go, I have also just finished an application for a painting residency in the US next year. It is a wonderful chance to work for a month with other painters, and to have a large studio and the time (and quiet) to focus intensely on my  ideas. I feel that I could do so much in this kind of setting. I am also applying for two residencies in Scotland (a very beautiful environment). All these applications take a lot of time, and competition is very strong, but at this stage in my career I feel that I need a period of time for research.I would like to take these colour ideas (or what I term 'surfing on paint,') onto larger canvases, and see where they lead. I believe that my work is changing and I'm excited about the new direction!

End of Year Plans

'Escape from Winter,' (2) oil and acrylic on board, 60 x 45cm

The exhibition at the Art Pull gallery, Tunbridge Wells, opens on Tuesday night. I still have to collect my painting from the framer, varnish it, and type my biography to go next to it on the wall. There will be 50 artists in this exhibition, and I am really looking forward to the Private View. It is the first time I have shown locally for many years. This year, I've also exhibited in London, Latvia and Belarus (these last two shows had my large painting from my Mark Rothko residency on display). It had been a fairly good year but currently I'm planning to take part in the South East Open Studios next summer, I'm trying to arrange a show in Nicosia, Cyprus, and there are many other exhibition opportunities to be applied for. There is only a month left of 2013 and I am full of plans for 2014!

My final edit of my book is nearing the end. I have fiddled with it a lot, and to its benefit I believe. I am hoping to submit it to Kindle within the next two weeks.

My painting has really reacted against the dull dreary days of winter, and the painting posted is in reality brighter, more vibrant than the image suggests. I'm very excited about the direction of these flowing colours and shapes, but may introduce some more figurative elements as time goes by!

Escape From Winter

'Escape From Winter,' oil and acrylic on board, 60 x 45cm

This painting, still wet, is my response to the darkening days of early winter. I long for sunshine and warmth! In the UK, winter days can be quite inspiring when they are sunny, and sunlight colours skeletal branches red and gold, and wonderful shadows race across the land. But these dull, dusk-like days are a drag!

So I recreated a piece of sunshine! This is painted quite thickly, with a painting knife and brush, and - as with many of my recent work - I let the paint lead me along.

Stairs




'Excursion,' oil and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 45cm

 

At the beginning of December, one of my paintings is going into a group show at the Art Pull gallery (Tunbridge Wells), and I have just applied for a group show in London, also for December. This is by selection committee, so again I'm waiting with my fingers crossed! There are very few spaces so there will be a lot of competition. In the meantime, I am working on new paintings. The two I'm posting are new - the one above is finished, the one below is 'under consideration.'

I like these 'long' shapes, as they take into account the element of 'time,' in the way that listening to music does. I like being able to direct the viewer's eye along the shape, using colours and marks like musical notes. It is important to keep a feeling of freshness, and almost to catch a sense of the movement of the brush as it travels along and up the shape - so it captures time, and takes time to read.

'Stairs to Heaven,' oil and acrylic on canvas, 80 x 40cm

Incidents

'Incidents,' oil and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 40cm

When I first began this blog, some three years ago, I planned to write at least twice a week. Life has not allowed for that! I took the advice of another blogger, who said that in the case of not being able to write anything interesting, it was better just to post images - until there was something worth saying!

I'm rushing to finish my final draft of my book, and in between preparing work for exhibition, and painting new works - this is a new painting.