Painting the Sea.

I'm always experimenting when painting the sea. It has so many different guises, so many different moods that I'm at a loss as to how to depict it. Sometimes it's as much about how you feel as how it looks.
Here are just a few snippets from some of my paintings, with a bit of explanation.

Purple ground with cobalt blue and cerulean blue
 loosely brushed over. The foam is titanium white
with a touch of raw sienna and cadmium yellow,
very thickly applied.

Dark grey ground with cobalt blue and cerulean
blue scraped on. White, raw sienna and cadmium yellow
dabbed on.

Countdown to Open Studios.Three Last Minute Things To Do Before Throwing Open Your Doors.

Oh gosh , oh gracious, oh goodness, how time flies and it's almost time to welcome the public and a few good friends into my studio.

House Through The Trees on a Stormy Day is a picture I'm varnishing in preparation for open studios.  
There's loads of little jobs  to be done and I'm in a panic because the list seems to be growing and growing each time I think about it, and really I'm not sure if my work is worth looking at anyway and of course I HAVE TO CLEAN THE HOUSE !

If you've ever opened your home up for the joyous event that is Open Studios you will know what I mean. 

So I'm going to share with you three last minute things that worked in previous years for me.

This Artist's Weekly Schedule. A Lifestyle Audit.

I have to 'fess up straight away that this blog is a crib of something I saw on a post by Lisa Call a textile artist who asked "what do you do all week?"
Mary Kemp. Cat and Flowers.

Well what do I do all week? I sometimes wonder!
Have you ever thought what you do all week?
Lisa put us all to shame and set out a nice little timetable to illustrate  how she spent her time.
After reading it I felt it was now time to write down in black and white  (and pink, and purple, and green and turquoise) what really happens in my week.
Unfortunately this schedule rarely works out as planned and isn't an ideal schedule anyway.
I've never written it down before but had it loosely floating around my brain.
I found the exercise quite sobering and something I thoroughly recommend.

Mary's schedule.
In case you can't read my writing here's the code.
Pink is painting time. Usually morning, the best time for me.
Purple is my other job.As you can see it takes up two whole days and leaves me knocked out in the evenings. I like it a lot (most of the time) but really I'd sooner be painting.
Green is domestic duties. The least said about that the better !
Turquoise is admin. and marketing, writing my blog, connecting with the art world. Thank goodness for the internet. Real life interactions alter my schedule and often take priority.
Sunday is my day of rest where I try not to do anything. I find if I paint all through the weekend I just feel a bit lack lustre on Monday.
After all this I suppose I must draw some conclusions.
Two days of work eats up an awful lot of painting time.
Shame about the domestics.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Garth Bayley. Artist in Residence St. John's Church, Peterborough.

My home town of Peterborough is bursting with artists. They're everywhere, in places you would expect them and in places you wouldn't.
So this is a photo of Garth Bayley in the art gallery of the Peterborough museum , a fitting place for an artist, displaying the fruits of a year's work as artist in residence at St John's church in the middle of the city.

Garth Bayley. Artist.
I've known Garth's work for a while now and love his exuberant pictures of cows and manic landscapes so I was rather surprised when he took on the residency at the church. How did cows fit into that scenario?
I needn't have bothered because they didn't!
Instead we were served up a cornucopia of Christian images in a mixture of media.
Striking were

  • The Last Supper, a mixed media picture on paper, seen from above, making it a strikingly modern image.
  • Angels and Fallen Angels. Bird wings and clay, a rather sinister interpretation !
  • In His Embrace. An oil painting on canvas, typical of Garth's style. This is a part of the continuing debate on same sex marriage.
  • From the Cross. Oil on canvas. A powerful image of Christ on the Cross.
  • The Wall of Fame. Portraits of people of the church. A joyous bank of portraits.

Garth Bayley. Wall of Fame.
It's a fabulous exhibition held at Peterborough Museum and is on until the 29th of June. You just have to go and see it !

How to Care for Prints

Dear fellow art lovers, I'm often asked by busy customers how to look after their prints once they've bought them. Prints are a ...