Friday coffee break

How has your week been? January can be a polarising month, as I type I can see snow falling and hear the wind creaking around our semi wooden home. For me it's the perfect time for cake :)

Painting of the week

I have had a great time in the studio this week. Lots of creative thought and flow - this is not always the case. taking advantage of this frame of mind, I have explored ideas that I have been mulling over for a while.

This orange and grey piece is 60x70cm. I have been experimenting with warm colours and tones. As a child orange was always my favourite colour....I think it still is, well this week anyway. So far it has the working title of Tangerine, not very evocative so I am hoping for a better idea to rise to the surface.

Basquiat love

I cannot define what actually draws me to the work of 80's Titan, Jean Michel Basquiat. The combination of colour, which is sometime aggressive and usually quite primitive, his neo expressioniat style, his fascinating place in the vibrant 1980's New York art world, and his attention grabbing exploits outside the art arena probably caught my eye when I was a student. Watch this quirky film - a nice bio pic.

 

Untitled Skull
1988
Jean Michel Basquiat


Recipe of the week

Anna Jones is one of my favourite cookery writers. This British writer, cook and stylist creates the most subtle, sophisticated and refined vegetarian/vegan recipes. A far cry from food with the label 'good for you' these recipes feel nourishing and light. I have two of her books, A Modern way To Cook and A Modern Way To  Eat  and am devoted to both. For a touch of January uplift though, I recommend these salted almond butter chocolate bars. A friend made me some after I confessed to eating all the mini bounty bars out of a chocolate selection!!

 

After Monet series

I have decided to create a series of large scale paintings based on my love of the watery, fabulous late Claude Monet paintings.

After Monet
acrylic on canvas
120x200cm


Something about the colours, the depth of field, the abstraction and the size of the pieces really moves me, I am enjoying working on a large scale. It's very liberating!

I use palette knives, rags, brushes and dripping to create a rich paint surface. I work with the canvas on the ground sometimes, and also on an easel. Drips, overlapping colour and layers help to build up a story with the paint.

My 'After Monet' (above) canvas has been in my home for a couple of years now and I have been looking at it every day. I will create five or six pieces moving on from this one, and also market this painting too. It's great to move foward and challenge myself to create work which is meaningful, using lots of different ideas and techniques with paint.

I am very excited to say that my first new canvas, only just completed, (see below) has sold via a photo from my facebook feed. I'm thrilled!

After Monet V
acrylic on canvas
120x150cm
£3400
sold

Exciting week

I have had a great start to 2017, with big thanks to Saatchi Art. My facebook page also has a loyal following of wonderful people who regularly message me with questions, comments, and sales inquiries. I have also started selling prints from my own website too....just waiting for the courier to collect today.

Welsh Air
30x30cm
acrylic on canvas
sold via Saatchi Art

English Afternoon

80x80cm

acrylic on canvas

sold via Saatchi Art

Teal Sea
80x80cm
acrylic on canvas
sold

Celebrating Spring
Limited edition print
sold from my website

Warm colours

A 60x70cm painting, warm colours in my quite cold studio today!

Sunday inspiration

We visited the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate yesterday, it's a beautiful modern building by the beach in this English seaside Victorian town.

The exhibition of Turner watercolours and light filled sketches and oils was informative, interesting, and I found a few paintings really sublime. My favourite work was an oil titled Venice With The Salute (pictured below). This is an unfinished work. I feel that the spare minimal light infused canvas appeals very much to modern sensibilities - it certainly appeals to mine! This painting is part of the permanent Tate collection. Find out more here.

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Venice with the Salute

c.1840–5

There are also some quirky shops (including the fab boutique lighting shop The Light Keeper) and a couple of nice eateries close by, housed in beautiful old buildings located in squares and tiny lanes.

Altogether a lovely day out.

 A view from the harbour arm, close to the gallery. I loved the gentle misty light - for me a source of inspiration as well as the artwork we saw.

Friday coffee break

Friday is probably my favourite day of the week. I would like to celebrate the week and weekend ahead with a few of my current preoccupations.

Film of the week

I treated myself to a couple of dvd's over Christmas. one of them Kon Tiki is transporting. It takes us from Lima in 1947, all the way to Polynesia on a balsa wood raft, using trade winds and currents only. This ancient technology was replicated by experimental archeologist and all round Indiana Jones Thor Heyerdahl in an attempt to prove that the islands were colonised by South Americans, not Asians.

My choice was inspired by one of my favourite childhood books, The Kon Tiki and I, by shipmate Erik Hesselberg. I'm sad to say that I coloured in quite a few if his pen illustrations as you can see from the cover...

Pinterest.

There is something very addictive about Pinterest - I can lose hours hopping from one beautiful image to another. I have just started a new board, Blue. It is currently full of indigo textiles and paint pigments.

Ceramic crush 

Having just read Edmund Du Waal's extraordinary book 'The White Road' on the development of porcelain, I have discovered the delicate pastel tableware of Kirstie Van Noord. Check out this article and fall in love!

A birds eye view of Kirstie's work.

Favourite photo from my studio.

It has to be Winter Skies. I have working on this painting for weeks now. It keeps changing and morphing into different things, but I think I have it finished now!

Winters Sky
acrylic on canvas
90x120cm
£1700

New painting and work in progress today

I have had a gorgeous day in my studio today, it's cold and crisp outside, and full on paintings and ideas inside. Here are two largeish paintings I have been working on in the past weeks.

I will expanding my After Monet series. It's theme that fascinates me. The colour, layering and tones in his later large works really inspire me and always have.

After Monet IV
120x150cm
acrylic on canvas
work in progress


This painting has so may layers of colour on it! I have been thinking about bright skies in winter, and the darkness that the ground can have towards the end of the day.

Winters Sky
acrylic on canvas
90x120cm
£1700

Happy New Year

I hope that you have had a great start to the New Year.

I am very happy to have started selling limited edition prints via my new website... they are a mix of watercolour paper and canvas prints. Take a look below for a taste what I have so far published. More coming up soon.

Celebrating Spring
Canvas print
£180

Early Morning Walk

Watercolour paper print

£100

Dream Landscape

Watercolour paper print

£100

Latest sold work is below, including my first sale in Bucharest, Romania!

Welsh Air
30x30cm
acrylic on canvas

Teal Sea
80x80cm
acrylic on canvas

Water Lane
90x120cm
acrylic on canvas
commissioned painting