Hayfever...

Yet more digital starting points for a painting, the dots suggesting pollen, a real problem for us hayfever suffering flower painters at this time of the year !

Bluebell Journeys...

I have really enjoyed working from the digital collage I created the other day based on my bluebell sketches. Using watercolours and a lot of masking tape, to mask off each individual section as I go along, I have been layering up the passages of marks and colours in an attempt to re-create and develop some of the wonderful chance relationships between marks and passages of colour that occur when using layers in photoshop.
Here is the painting so far without the addition of the willow pattern elements that I have now decided to add using gampi tissue.

detail

More layering in photoshop - the next painting?

My good friend Karen called in this afternoon for a cuppa and has got me looking the work of Jilly Edwards and Jo Barker whose inspiring tapestries appear to be inspired by a Japanese aesthetic and also the paintings of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. 

Jilly Edwards

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham

Jo Barker

Boro inspired... patchworked bluebells

I came across a wonderful website which sells old Japanese Boro textiles, www.srithreads.com.

I am now really inspired to keep on with my current fascination with cutting up & collaging my paintings back together to make abstract pieces with the focus on shape, texture and colour.
I picked some bluebells out of my garden this morning to paint with my watercolours before digitally collaging and layering them up along with the addition of willow pattern extracts. I can't wait to do another painting working from this now...

Anenomes...

I bought some lovely flowers this week and was inspired to get my paints out! I now have the luxury of a month without teaching obligations ahead of me so I am hoping to actually get some serious painting done. This was a warm up for me using a full sheet of Saunders HP paper and a selection of my new Daniel Smith paints.

'The Artist' Has Arrived!

Here are a couple of pages from my first article to appear in 'The Artist' magazine. Its great to see myself in a publication that I have been reading for many years.
My local art shop, Youdells, is going to be displaying the final painting 'Pool Side' and my 'Lemons on China Blue' alongside the article from the end of next week. So if you are in or around Kendal during April do go along and have a look.

The Artist Magazine Article

I am impatiently waiting for my copies of the May issue of The Artist to drop through my letterbox. Released on March 28th this issue has my tutorial article based around a painting which evolved from creative time spent next to the pool at Arte Umbria last September. There is a step-by-step demo alongside a little bit about my own working practice and approach to creating a painting. I hope you will find it engaging and interesting.
Here is an early sketch made on location. I brought together a combination of sketches for the final watercolour painting...

Here is my official portrait taken especially for the magazine.

Thanks go to Victoria Sedgewick for her patience waiting for a flattering shot!

Off to Lancaster...

I will be holding a mixed media workshop tomorrow with the Lancaster Art Society and today have been been working on a piece based on the estuary series that seems to be evolving at the moment. I have also done a digital 'cut out' of it which may spark another investigation... The painting shown here started life as a demo in Keswick. The digital piece reminds me of the enamel paintings that develop from the tracings made by the artist Ingrid Calame whose work I was fortunate enough to see at The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh.

I shall add another little piece that came out of a sketch I made in the warm (yes warm!) sunshine this morning looking over the fields to Morecambe Bay.