Getting ready

I've been sorting out art that I've done over the last six months, deciding what to frame for Burton Agnes courtyard.  We set up on the 29th April, so I need to get it sorted out. I'm going to the frames this afternoon, always exciting to get work framed.

I am also trying to get some beginnings done for my painting week at Cober Hill near Scarborough, as I am going on the Sunday after setting up at Burton Agnes, 1st May.  

We are having an open afternoon at Burton Agnes Courtyard Gallery on the Saturday, 30th April, so I need to have everything ready for Cober Hill by Thursday 28th, all packed and just waiting to be put in the car Sunday morning.

summer fields 15 x 15 inch

This piece was a 'beginning' I did at Neil Helyards the week before last.  He said to leave it as it is.  Still not sure, so I'm leaving it for now.

summer hedgerows. 16 x 16 inch

And this is the piece I intended to work on the one above.  I did another beginning but kept going.  It's inspired from a much smaller piece of work I did a few months ago.

New collage work

I have started doing some collages of seaside or fishing villages, the type that are very common along the North Yorkshire coast.  I love doing the collages of still life, and I have painted lots of the fishing villages, but never done them in collage.

It has turned out to be much more difficult than I originally thought it would be.  Because I had painted them lots of times, I thought it would just flow, but it is a completely different way of working, and the paintings I have done don't necessarily lend themselves to collage.

These are two of the four I originally started with.  The top one is on some lovely handmade paper that accidentally was stained with black ink, so it needed covering over with something.  I started by using acrylic inks to cover most of the paper with colour, keeping to a minimal palette.

I then added the houses, roofs and windows, plus basic boat shapes, which can be seen more clearly on the piece below, which is on Bockingford watercolour paper.  They both need a lot more work.

I weill post again when I have worked on them a bit more.

Harbourside stage 3

I'm not sure if this is stage 3 or stage 4, but it's the next stage anyway.  I have added the buildings, copies from my sketchbook.  I couldn't get my printer to print them on the rather thick watercolour paper I have, so I printed them on some medium thick card.  I decided not to make them large and prominent, which had been my first thoughts.  Because the prints looked so good, I made the images a little smaller and got lots more on.  It reminds me of East Looe where the town down goes down the side of the estuary to the harbour, and I think one of the drawings was done there, but as in most of my 'harbour' pictures, it isn't anywhere really.

Harbourside, stage 3

I also added the boats in various collage papers.  It is all a little rough at the moment, but I love working from chaos to resolved painting.  I need to add more smaller boats in the background to give distance, and paint the houses a little, but not so much that I lose the graphic, drawing quality.  I don't usually have distance in my paintings, but this has happened all by itself, and I try and go with what the painting is saying to me.

I had a lovely day out yesterday, although I feel shattered today.  Diane Leach and I went to The Dutch House Gallery, nr Crayke, north of York  to see the work of Lesley Birch.  It was a fabulous exhibition although we didn't realise that it was preview afternoon, so very busy. I hate going to previews as people stand chatting IN FRONT of the work. There was also a very good ceramicist whose name I didn't write down sadly.  Her pots were wonderful.  We had lunch there and it was lovely and the cafe was full of art too.

We then went over to the Lund gallery at Alne, just the other side of the A19, and found that it was North Yorkshire open studio, and there were three artists there - all with fabulous work.  As it was Open Studio, we looked in the booklet and found another open studio on the way home, that also had three artists, held in a beautiful Victorian (?) racing stable.  I came home with my head absolutely crammed full of the imagery of over a dozen artists and some fantastic scenery, but went to bed at 9pm absolutely shattered.