The Venus of Roker

Only this wasn't made in Roker, it was made at my sister's studio in Poynton. It was intended to be a 'Venus' though, in as much as I was playing around with making small forms in clay, loosely based on male and female body parts; bellys, belly-buttons, breasts, bottoms, curves in the lower back, necks and shoulders. This is one of about a dozen I made over three days, roughly 7" tall and, as yet, is unfired.
I'm visiting Melanie again soon, and I hope I'll be able to get them all fired, and think about what finished surface this should have.

Through blogging I have made many friends like Gesa, Vivien, and Chris. Casey Klahn is another person who has mentored me over the last couple of years. He is an award winning artist based in Washington State, USA, and he has honoured my by featuring my sunflowers on one of his blogs, Pastel.
In the mean time I have been getting on with painting the rosehips I gathered on Monday, and re-organising my studio space. It's becoming a place I like to retreat to, and I'm managing to grab what time I can in between all the other demands on my time. For example, last night I did 40 minutes painting straight after the school run, and painted the two top-left rosehips shown here. Then, after cooking tea and dropping my two kids off at Karate practice, I had another 45 minutes to add the bottom-right rosehip, and fix and re-position a book case in the studio. During which I listened to a recording of Mendelssohn's Elijah. Stirring stuff.

a poem by Fernando Pessoa

To be great, be whole: don't exaggerate
Or leave out any part of you.
Be complete in each thing. Put all you are
Into the least of your acts.
So too in each lake, with it's lofty life,
The whole moon shines.

14 February 1933. Translated from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith

Rosehips

We have been scouring the local hedgerows for fruit to put in our hedgerow jam. These hips from Dog-Roses just cried out to be painted. So now my studio has a pile of cuttings in the sink and is crawling with small spiders.

Taming the rose

I decided to see if I could loose the overall scribblyness of my previous paintings yet still keep the rose lively. I love the structure I've managed to capture, but I think this rose lacks umph. Back to the drawing board.

More time in the studio

I'm having a great time finding I can use grey and purple to get deep shadows within the creamy rose petals. The neutral grey-green ground is a fantastic foil for the subtly warm whites. I only bought the roses because sunflowers are at the end of their season, and I was looking for something to paint to continue the flower theme. There are some deep crimson roses yet to come. Unfortunately the florist didn't know the names of either variety, which was a shame.

Ivory white roses

A second outlet has been found for my sunflowers. so that's all seven of them up for sale. A huge thank you to my sister Mel who's been doing lots of running around getting my work accepted and mounted ready for sale.

So today I spent some time clearing space to actually work in my studio, instead of it just being used to store art materials, while I find a place to work elsewhere in the house.
And here are the fruits of the labour that followed; three roses of the pale variety.

Karl de Vroomen

I visited Newcastle Upon Tyne today to see the Newcastle University Master of Visual Arts show at the Hatton Gallery. I have to admit that I was not grabbed by any of the work there, much to my disappointment, with one exception. The exception being Karl de Vroomen. His work was mighty and majestic. Very simple and strong and quite compelling. I especially loved Old Oak. His statement for the show was;

"The imagery for my paintings comes either from personal memory or is chosen in order to articulate a universal concern. On all occasions I am inspired by man's fractious relationship with the natural world. These paintings are borne out of a mixture of anxiety, hope and love of paint."

I hope to visit the Newcastle Gateshead Arts Fair in October, and I'm drawing up an art calender so that I don't miss out on future exhibitions in the North East.

My work is now for sale

My wonderful sister Melanie has found an outlet for our work. A gallery/cafe in Poynton, Cheshire is exhibiting six of my sunflowers and eight of Melanie's still lifes. This is a very exciting time. We drank champagne last night to celebrate, and this feels like the beginning of something. It took me nearly 30 years to get to this point, and it's taken Mel about 3 weeks of intensive tutoring from me. I've taught her all I know, and it only took 3 weeks........
Melanie and I have had an absolute ball this last month, living our art every waking hour, and even dreaming about it too. You know how intense and all-consuming it can be when it's this good. Now we're taking bets on who gets the first sale.
Time to say thank you to you guys; you have been my mentors and peers these last two years. I am so honoured to have found you, and that you've stuck with me.

Sunflower #1

Soft pastels on a dark brown gound.