Thoughts on the Eve of an Art Fair

Oh why do I do it?????

Have I got everything I need?
Have I got the dates right?
Do I know the time?
Do I know where it is?

Have I got everything I need?

Am I appropriately dressed? !!!!!
Will it be hot? Will it be cold?

Will I have enough to eat?

MOST IMPORTANT. Where are the loos?

Is there enough change in the box?
Hope there's someone nice next to me.

What's the lighting like?
Have I got my glasses?
What if no one comes?
Worse still what if lots of people come and no-one buys from me?
Have I packed the sellotape, blue tac, pens, business cards........packaging, bags..........?
WILL I SLEEP TONIGHT?
Have I told everyone I know?
Are they interested?
Should I have a glass of wine tonight?
Will it prevent me sleeping?
Is it possible to smile ALL DAY if you're grumpy at heart?
What if my work's not up to scratch?
Are my prices too high? TOO LOW???

Will anyone love my prints?

Will I frighten people away?
Am I too friendly? too aggressive?
WILL MY CARD READER WORK? (Of course that doesn't matter because no one will ever buy anything anyway.....)

STOP!!!!
STOP!!!!

What's for supper when we get home?

Pizza and baked beans eaten in front of Saturday night telly with the one I love.

I wrote this on the eve of Peterborough Artists' Open Studios Affordable Art Fair.
It's been a while since I've taken part in such an event. We used to do them regularly, locally and up and down the country, but I must admit I've been seduced a bit by the internet of late and stay at home in the warm. My muscles may be atrophying from not carrying all those heavy boxes but my weekends are a lot calmer.

And if you'd like to see more of my prints check out my Etsy store , the reason I don't do many art fairs anymore.

Days in the Studio as Christmas Approaches.

This time of year as Christmas approaches I struggle with light levels in grey old England. I can't imagine how those in the land of the midnight sun fair over winter. It fills me with a whisper of glumness that sneaks into my days and settles in my lap at about tea time.

I long for the summer to come along and wake me up with bright sunlight.

My studio suffers from light inconsistencies this time of year. I may moan about low light levels but when the sun does shine it ricochets in through the window straight across the painting I'm working on, splashing light and shadows everywhere making it hard to judge colour and tone.

So I put up paper blinds on the window (I find the thin paper that comes between the sheets of glass for my husbands picture framing business ideal for that) and get a lovely diffused light. Then the sun goes in and my studio is plunged into an underwater world, leading to blinds up and lights on.

I'm amazed how I actually get any work done with all this housekeeping.

Low light in November © Mary Kemp

I'm working on a few things at the moment, exploring landscape and seascape, finding them as often as not peopled by those I know.
I have a lot of material from summer to draw upon, saved up for the time of year when I don't want to be out and about. Memories, watercolour sketches , line drawings and photos. I installed daylight bulbs in the studio so there's no excuse. I've just got to get on with it!
Watch this space.......

They Tell Me I Need a Cyber Sale

Pre Christmas Sale on Etsy

Dear Seaside Friends,
We're getting excited about Christmas.
They tell me I need a cyber sale! So I'm sharing it with you.
It's only on for a short time.

Mary's Cyber Sale!!!

Tuesday 20th to Monday 26th November.
20% OFF EVERYTHING
Go to www.marykempstudio.etsy.com

Here's some of what you'll see.

Lots of prints!!

Lots of small paintings!

And some very special seaside paintings!

See you there!

www.marykempstudio.etsy.com

Best wishes

Mary xx

Copyright © 2018 Mary Kemp, All rights reserved.

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Bittersweet Inspiration

Today I'm sharing with you the bittersweet inspiration for a series of paintings I've rather grimly called "Long Lost Days" which keeps growing and growing as I add to it.

They've come about from the fact that I was sort of sad when my children grew up and left home. Not that I didn't want them to fly the nest. But, you know, no matter how much your brain tells you it's the way it should be and you've done a great job, your heart feels a little bit empty.

Like most parents I'd been so busy battling through the everyday that I hadn't realised how precious those days were until they were gone.

Now I realise that part of my life is behind me.

I still see my children and their families often but I am a bit player instead of the main protagonist.

And with that comes great benefits!

No more organising trips, making sure everyone is fed and watered, and worrying about inappropriate clothing. The buck no longer stops with me. My children are adults and their children are their responsibility. In fact if I play my cards right someone else might take on responsibility for me and make sure I have everything I need. (fat chance!)

But one of the great advantages of this state is that now I can truly observe life because I am no longer on duty.

When my children were little I ached to paint them, incorporate them into my paintings. Now it's my grandchildren who take their places, and some look so like their parents.

I've been painting this current series of paintings for about 2 years now, and it took me a while to realise that they were really scenes from the past, not the present day.

I suppose it is my way of adjusting to circumstances.

I called this series "Long Lost Days" but I think it's a bit maudlin so I have settled for " Beach Paintings" for the time being.

The series has grown and grown, scenes and couples added to it, so much so I've created a whole new shop for it on Etsy, and included some of the paintings as prints.

Here's the link! and here too.

And especially for you is a discount code . Just type in SEASIDEFRIENDS at checkout for a 15% discount.

Happy seaside days !

Every Painting Tells a Story. "Two Whippets Playing in the Surf"

Dear Seaside Friends,

I'm sure you'll agree with me that an artwork is not solely a collection of colours and shapes. It's so much more than that.
There's usually a bit of a story behind every painting and I thought you might like to hear how this particular painting came about.

"Two Whippets Playing in the Surf" is an oil painting on canvas panel measuring 30 x 30 cm (12" x 12")

We'd visited the beach on a Wednesday. It was quiet, not many people about and all the children at school. The beach belonged to the dog walkers and those with time to dawdle, like us.

On the sand that particular day were two dark brown whippets frolicking in the sea under a blushing pink sky. They reminded me of children racing in and out of the waves.

There are no children with me on a daily basis any more. They're all off living their own lives, which if truth were told gives me time to paint.

For some reason much of my art has taken inspiration from the coast. After all every bit of life is there or somewhere close by, whether it's on the beach itself or in the sea or the wonderful seaside towns and villages, sometimes very refined, often not!

I paint a lot of dogs, and love their free spirits just like children on the beach. Perhaps that why I paint them.

This painting is available now online, and in time for Christmas I have also produced a print of it which if you use your SEASIDEFRIENDS discount code gives you a 15% discount.

All best wishes

Mary x

Border Collie Love on Etsy - Gift Guide

I love the feeling I get when I discover something new and exciting while I'm browsing a site that I love.
As you might have guessed I'm a big Etsy fan, and coming up to Christmas it's full of all sorts of enticing goodies.
I popped "Border Collie" into the search engine, (as you might have gathered I'm a big border collie fan too) and here are some of the wonderful things that came up. I hope you enjoy them.

First I saw this unusual mug, with a border collie doing what border collies do best, going for a long walk in wild open countryside.

Blencathra Mug by Lake District Designs

My second discovery was a rather smart tote bag, just the thing to carry those little treats home in!

This is made by Tailzgifts and is called an Agility Border Collie Shopping Tote Bag. They have lots of doggy type gifts.

I couldn't let a winter, nearly Christmas, round up go by without including a cross stitch. There's nothing like a long evening with a sewing project on your lap while you snooze over the television.
I've found a lovely border collie for you in counted cross stitch.

Border Collie 14 Count Cross Stitch Count/Kit
by BluebellThreads

My next border collie find I think is a bit niche, but they were so cute I just had to add them. They came up when I was looking at cross stitch kits.

Collie Stitch Markers by EBMetalStampingCraft

You use them for counting rows of knitting and crochetting

I looked at a lot of T shirts.
Etsy explodes with T shirts with every possible image you could think of.
But in the end I chose a very simple understated design with a rather winsome border collie looking out at me.

Border Collie Tshirt by HisAndHersThreads

And really I know you're dying to see what my border collie offerings looks like on Etsy. I have a lot of border collie paintings and prints there, because my son's family owns the lovely Grace, a border collie with a lot of energy, and she finds her way into much of my artwork.

Jade Green Sea with Border Collie by Mary Kemp Studio

Check out Etsy, it's full of great stuff.

Click here to visit.

Welcome Autumn!

Oh, don't you just love autumn!

I revel in it's misty mornings and trees exploding into colour. There's conkers and baked potatoes, not to mention wooly jumpers, and for the knitters amongst us a new project in heather coloured wool to accompany all that telly watching.
It's just a shame it has to lead to winter.

Sometimes I paint autumn (although my heart really belongs to summer)
It's very difficult for me not to reach for the blue. Sometimes I have to consciously decide not to use blue because before I know it everything is cobalt or cerulean or ultramarine.

© Mary Kemp

"Three Trees in a Russet Field"

And should I include my all time favourite autumn painting, from many years ago?

© Mary Kemp

"French Jug"

Check out my SHOP for available paintings.

Happy autumn to one and all!
Mary xx

Painting From Start to Finish

I sold this painting earlier on in the year and because, unusually I recorded how I painted it, I wanted to share it with you.
Like a lot of artists I know, my head is always full of pictures, and it's very difficult when you think in pictures to put your ideas into words.

I took a photo of one of my granddaughters paddling in the shallow seas of the Norfolk coast. She was surrounded by water, with poised self sufficiency. So much so that I wanted to translate her pose into a painting.

Without further explanation here is how I painted this picture.

Quick sketch and transparent raw Sienna ground.

Cerulean blue and cobalt blue sea.

More yellow.

Defining the waves.

Getting to grips with the figures.

Whole picture so far.

Detail and colour on figures.

The orange changes
the feel of the picture completely.

Finished!
Woman and Child
Oil on canvas panel
30 x 30 cm

Welland Valley Art Society Autumn Exhibition

Being an artist can be a pretty lonely life at times.

Day to day is usually stay at home and paint, listening to the radio or your favourite music.

Social interaction is sporadic, and to be honest, not to be encouraged when you're in the middle of your current masterpiece.

That is why it's so very nice to be part of an art society.

Not many of my family or close friends paint. Come to think of it none of my family and only one of my close friends paint. I haven't fired children or grandchildren with the desire to pick up a paint brush. I suppose it's a niche occupation, or perhaps all my family are just technical geeks.
There's a great comfort to being part of a group with shared interests, to know you're not alone. Of course the internet has opened up wide horizons, but there's nothing like the real life interaction of a casual chat with friends about the way the sun falls on a table or how a colour stands out with startling clarity from the rest.
I write this as it's coming up to the autumn show of the Welland Valley Art Society of which I'm a member. I have been for over a decade.
I'm looking forward to the exhibition not least because we get to steward on a couple of occasions.

I used to feel stewarding, sitting at a desk being on hand for the public, was a bit of a chore but over the years I've got to see it as a wonderful way to interact with members of the public, from our buying collectors to a group from a school for adults with learning difficulties who spent over an hour looking and discussing in detail our artwork and supplying some wonderful insights into what they saw as important.
Another aspect is the chance to spend time with at least one other steward. It can be a few minutes when look round the exhibition and talk about what we like, what we don't like and analyse it all to death. It's also a chance to meet up with old friends.

This year I shall be exhibiting four paintings (if they're selected) and here they are:

Here's the link to the exhibition.

If you're in my neck of the woods do drop in.

Fashions in Picture Frames.

Over ten years ago my husband took over a small picture framing business.

It all came about when Bill who had been framing my paintings for years decided to up sticks and retire to Spain to live the good life.
"Mary" he said, "I've had enough. Would you like to buy my business?"
"No way!!!!!" was my very quick reply. After all I'm a painter. All I want to do is paint pictures.

But my husband was interested.
So a little while later we bought the business and moved it lock, stock and barrel into a brand new workshop next to my studio. In fact it's adjoining my studio so we can argue with each other as we work.

We inherited a wide variety of stock, including a stack of mouldings, which included lots of gold and a ton of dark wood. There were some patterned lengths and some blonde wood too.
My husband took to framing like a duck to water. Being an engineer the precision and the practicalities suited him well and he produces neat, well put together frames.

At first our most popular frame was a chunky number in burnished gold, speckledy with a fancy profile. Next most popular were dark oak or mahogany mouldings. Most mounts were fairly slim and usually beige, cream or sludgy green.

We used up most of the gold and mahogany, even ordered in more, but much of the other stock remained untouched. Some of it even found it's way into the bin.

After a while the gold and the heavy wood became less popular and we started to be asked for more black or white frames with very plain profiles, nothing fancy. Mounts got bigger too (much to my husbands disgusts. I don't know why because bigger mounts meant bigger profits) and they became paler too, no beige, rarely any colour, only soft cream or white.

Fashion in frames, what's in and what's out.
Heavy wood and fancy gold seems to be out, and there's not much limed wood to be seen either.

Walking Into The Sunset

I've painted several commissions already this year but this one of a couple walking into the sunset was a little bit different.

Usually I paint dogs and families on the beach. It's a sight I absolutely adore, and if there's one subject that allows you to bring a piece of the seaside home with you it's children, or dogs, or children and dogs, running around on the beach having fun.

This summer however one of my commissions turned out to be not the same. I was asked to paint not dogs or children but a couple on the beach.

It was a young couple, just a silhouette as a reminder of being together at that time. The whole painting was inspired by one of my more abstract impressionist pieces.

Although the painting was very impressionistic and the couple not identifiable I was nevertheless sent photos so I could get their relative height and build right.
I took great pleasure in painting this picture and was pleased with the end result, and even more pleased when it was well received!

Discover how to commission your own special painting here.