Getting ready for the start of the season

I only realised a few days ago that our first exhibition of the year is only six weeks away, and as it coincides with my painting week at Cober Hill, I have a lot to organise in the next month or so.

I have spent the day sorting out frames, throwing out old ones, and checking the measurements of the new ones as well as checking what mounts I need to order.  This has taken up most of the day, but at least I know what I have now.

I also had a nice hour or so doing some expressive painting to music,and managed to finish an abstract collage, shown below.  I really enjoyed doing this one, and have a couple more in the pipeline.

Coastal Pathways 2, acrylic collage 9 x 9 inch

Rain over Flamborough, monoprint 10 x 10 inch

I started a new series of expressive landscape collages yesterday, five in total.  These are larger than the last ones, at 16 inch square.  I have the collage and the acrylic underpainting finished, and will start working on them with the Markal oil sticks tomorrow.

I want to try adding stitch to these in a different way from the last series.  It may be difficult stitching them on the sewing machine as they are on paper and so much larger than the previous ones.  I can only try and see what I can do.

Koi carp monoprint

I've had another very busy day today getting ready for the exhibition.  I also worked on a spread in the Bridlington Art Society SAA Frisk layflat sketchbook challenge.  I forgot to take a picture, so will have to catch up with it later.

Koi Carp, mixed media, monoprint

This started life as a monoprint, three curved blobs.  It took some time to make something of it.  I did it last week while at Cober Hill.

Because I have been working larger and larger lately, it is getting more difficult to produce a piece of work everyday.  I am reluctant to stop doing a daily painting, so have made the decision to begin a series of small paintings, probably only 6 x 6 inch square or a similar size.

I want to find time to do more of my textile work, something I haven't touched for a long time due to lack of time.  I'm hoping cutting down on the size of my daily paintings will give me more time whilst still letting me experiment with my paintings.