Painting in Adversity

At the moment I'm battling through bad weather to get painting. The studio was too cold on Monday to spend long there, everything I touched was cold despite the heater having been on for at least an hour. Today it's much warmer, and it's only when the sky's dull and the temperature dips below freezing that I wimp out. 

In case I haven't told you before I work from a wooden studio in my garden, a space full of light and air, which I feel is pivotal to my inspiration, but it does have it's drawbacks in the winter!

But being the trooper that I am I won't let this slow down my art for long.

At the moment I am working on several seaside scenes and of course the inspiration for these is the English coastline in summer, so far away from my suburban garden this week.

©Mary Kemp

©Mary Kemp

This pair I have on the easel, side by side, are of a girl I saw walking her dogs on Scarborough sea front. What struck me about her was how matter-of-fact she was, striding out, doing a job, quite in contrast to the holiday makers that she overtook. I decided to paint in quieter colours than usual but this is just the beginning of them. You'll have to wait before I reveal the completed pictures.