Another week has flown past

We finished at Burton Agnes on Tuesday.  Didn't do too bad, but the footfall is drastically down.

I wasn't feeling too great, a combination of the ongoing back problems, plus very tired, and then a sore throat and cough, presumably because I feel worn out.

I'm feeling much better now, and have started working in my 'Trees' workbook again, preparatory to the TSG summer school in July.

I have also ordered 6 canvasses for my artist residency at Scarborough Old Parcels Office, the complete work being 1m x 4m.  I have started planning out how this is going to work, but I am a bit worried that I won't get it all done during the time I have there.  Hopefully I will find time in the next couple of weeks to make a start on the research - walking, collecting, sketching over on the north side of Scarborough, starting at the Sealife centre.

I have also had a lovely time experimenting with pouring acrylics, and am very excited by the results.  It is messy and I think I need to get some of those plastic clogs to change into when I'm doing it as it's difficult not to walk into the puddled paint.  I have a plastic sheet down, but I'm thinking of putting sheets of paper underneath as these would be absorbent, and would make nice beginnings, or failing that, sketchbook pages.

Modiglianis piazza

The above is a collage painting started at Cober Hill.  It's quite large for me, 25 inch square.  I haven't had time to do any more to it, and I'm not sure I want to finish it, so it will be propped up against the studio wall for a while until I decide to either paint over it or work on it.

Burton Agnes Hall and Cober Hill

Spent most of the day setting up our exhibition at Burton Agnes Hall Courtyard Gallery.  The weather was horrible, windy, raining and very cold.  The exhibition looks very nice, but unless the weather improves, not many people are going to come out to walk around gardens, however lovely they are.  I had to do a little shopping on the way home and got caught in a hailstorm!

I have also spent what was left of the day finishing my packing for Cober Hill.  I don't go until Sunday but I am stewarding at Burton Agnes Hall tomorrow, so took the chance to do it today.  After such a busy week, getting ready for the exhibition, it will be lovely just to have five days of painting.

Summer tide

I'm not sure if I've posted this painting or not.  The colours haven't come out very well in the photograph, it's much stronger and the brush marks more prominent in the painting.

Hopefully I will have lots of new work to post next weekend after Cober Hill

Burton Agnes

I'm still getting ready for our first exhibition of the year.  We are setting up at Burton Agnes Hall Courtyard gallery next Friday.  I have all the work finished, but still framing the results.  I have taken the photographs though, and remembered to sign each piece of work.

South beach.  Acrylic & watercolour on gessoed paper

This piece is one of three I am framing.  I started them in Joy Green's workshop, using watercolours, but I have since worked over them several times with acrylic.  I found that acrylic does wipe off the gesso in the same way that watercolour did.

Had a wonderful workshop with Lesley Birch last Sunday.  We experimented with using three primaries, any red, yellow & blue.  Later we added in white and black.  The results with some primaries was amazing.  I did stick to safe colours, cad.yellow, permanent rose and ultramarine, but some of the earth colour results were lovely and it's something I want to experiment more with when I have the time.

acrylic approx. 10 x 12 inch

This is one of the many pieces I did on Sunday.  It needs more work, but I love the energy in it.

Lesley Birch workshop

I'm going on a one day workshop, lead by Lesley Birch tomorrow, the subject being 'colour'.  I'm really looking forward to it,  hopefully I'll write about it next week.

This week I have been pulling work together, getting ready for the first exhibition of the year at Burton Agnes Hall.  We set up on Friday 29th April, so only two weeks to go.

I have had some lovely frames made by Paul at Blacktoft, I'm very pleased with them.  Together with some I bought last year, my work is going to be in mid to pale wood frames this year, with either white or cream mounts.  I have striven to get a more co-ordinated look, and this year I have finally managed it.

I spent the day matching paintings to frames and mounts, then making a list of the work, together with notes on what else still has to be done.  I have twenty-two pieces of work altogether, sixteen of which are new this year.

Fishing boats. Collager & Oil on canvas with some stitching

This is one of the pieces that's almost but not quite finished.  I still have a lot to do before set up day on the 29th April