Meet the Paintings - Bed of Tulips

Celebrating the coming of spring, here's the first of my 'Meet the Paintings' - the appropriately seasonal 'Bed of Tulips'.

I've been to Amsterdam many times over the years, and every time I go I bring back bags of tulip bulbs to plant in my garden.  The exotic pictures of such exuberant blooms promised on the front of those packets in the flower market are irresistible.   

These are the tulips from those bulbs, including my pride and joy , my black 'Queen of the Night'.

The queen has been a little shy for the past couple of years, and sadly abdicated completely last year, but I'm still looking.

Every spring, my beautiful tulips give me such joy, especially with the backdrop of my magnificent cherry tree in blossom (at the moment, it barely has buds though).

They are a burst of pure colour, and a constant seasonal pleasure to look forward to.

Affordable Art Fair at Hampstead

The good weather may be on hold for the moment, but I'm still heading off to the Affordable Art Fair at Hampstead Heath in London later this week, for some bright and beautiful summery art in the park.  The Fair opens on Wednesday evening and goes until Sunday 19th June.

Although I've painted pictures of the Heath, I've never been to the Affordable at Hampstead (and it's a wee while since I've been to the one at Battersea), so I'm really looking forward to it.  It's a lovely setting.

If you're going along, then I've got paintings with Duncan R Miller Fine Arts (Stand D5).  Look out for them!

 Calendula in Bloom (Oil on linen, 12 x 12)

For more information about the Fair, please click HERE.

"Colour"

I've got paintings in a new show called 'Colour' that's opening at the Lime Tree Gallery in Long Melford in Suffolk.  It opens with a preview on Saturday 9th April from 10am-5pm.

I'll be exhibiting alongside Pam Carter, Marion Thomson and Peter King, all Scottish artists well-known for their exciting and vibrant use of colour.

Yellow Flowers in Spring Sunshine, Bass Rock (Oil on linen, 32 x 32)

View the exhibition HERE. 

My contribution to the show is built around the colours of the seasons, and the way that the landscape changes with the different light, flowers and plants throughout the year.

For winter, I looked at the soft, subdued colours of Scotland during short days in cold weather. This painting is of Glen Lochy, which is on the A85 heading from Dalmally to Tyndrum.

Winter Colours, Glen Lochy (Oil on linen, 24 x 26)

In spring, the days lengthen and the colours sharpen, and for summer, I looked at the vibrant shades of seasonal flowers in bright sunlight.  I have paintings of the blue of fragile harebells on cliffs in Northern Ireland, and the pinks and purples of waxy rhododendrons in the country park near my studio and sweet peas in my studio garden.

Summer Sweet Peas (Oil on linen, 16 x 16)

Autumn is all burning reds and oranges in the landscape, and a changing kaleidoscope of colour in stormy seas under turbulent skies on the coast.  This is of the long, low, shingle shore at Aldeburgh, looking out across the North Sea under the huge sky.
 

Autumn Sea with Dark Clouds, Aldeburgh (Oil, 8 x 10)

Do come along to the preview and see the show if you're in the area!

If you'd like to receive a catalogue in the post, or emailed in PDF form, then please contact me.

Another Couple of Sales

Two more gone in London today!

Some lucky people are going to have these beauties on their walls.  Both of them are floral pieces.  Here's a very cheerful painting of the spring flowers in my back garden.  I planted huge amounts of wildflower seeds so that I would get a lot of very intense mixed colour.

Spring Flower Border (Oil on linen, 12 x 12)

And another waterlily painting gone...

Blue Waterlilies (Oil on linen, 12 x 12)

Still a few more days to go, so fingers crossed!

Last Week of Show

Yes, it's in to the last week of my show, so here's a few images of the gallery resplendent with my paintings!

 

Work in Progress

Here's the scene the other week in my studio - hardly able to move for new paintings for the Edinburgh Art Fair and work for my show in London.

It's good to work through an idea or motif whilst it's fresh in my mind - in this case a series of pictures of the coastline around North Berwick and also Northern Ireland.  

It's good to do a series of related paintings, as no matter how carefully you plan an image, it will always bring to light problems, puzzles, issues and new ideas and relationships as part of the process of executing it.

"Crackling with Colour" at Crieff

Here's a few photos of the show at the Strathearn Gallery in Crieff.

I'm sure you'll agree that the paintings and ceramics all go wonderfully  well together - all three artists were delighted when we saw the exhibition all hung!

Anne's 'Reliquary for Ellen' can be seen on the plinth below my painting "Rosebay Willowheb at Camusdarach".  Anne's sculpture is all about her family history, and has small photos of her relatives, reproductions of letters and found objects.

Here's Anne at the preview, with some more of her ceramics, showing the raku-fired 'crackle glaze' which gives the name to the show.  As part of the process of the firing, the glaze cracks, allowing smoke to get in to the cracks, causing the patterns on the surface of the pot.

This is my large Morecambe Bay piece "Sweep of the Bay", where the lovely greys and pinks are cleverly picked out by two pieces by Anne positioned below it.

 

Anne's crackle-glaze pots also work well with Emma's painting (seen on the right), and the lacework included in the painting is also echoed in Anne's little found-object sculpture 'Love Potion'.

Her Harvest Moon piece also echoes the subject matter and foreground plant forms in my painting, above left.

"Colour" in Suffolk

Here's a couple of photos of the show at the Lime Tree gallery in Long Melford, Suffolk.

The show opened yesterday (with 6 out of my 10 paintings selling!) and continues for another month.  You can see below that my work is hanging alongside paintings by Pam Carter and Peter King.

Thank you so much to everyone who came along and who helped to make the show such a success!

Previews North and South!

Amazingly, tomorrow I have TWO shows opening in two completely different places at the same time!

In Crieff I have "Crackling with Colour" opening at the Strathearn Gallery, with ceramics by Anne Morrison and mixed media work by Emma Davis. (The reason for the name is to give a sense of the mixture of colourful paintings and the crackle-glaze of the ceramics).

Rest and Be Thankful (Oil on linen, 32 x 32)

Meanwhile, in Long Melford in Suffolk, I have "Colour" opening at the Lime Tree Gallery, with paintings by fellow Scots Pam Carter, Peter King and Joe Hargan.  Again, the title reflects the vibrant love of colour that Sottish art is so well known for.

Pink Grasses in Sunlight, the Campsies (Oil on linen, 12 x 12)

Please feel free to come along to either of the all-day previews.  And see you in Crieff if you're in Perthshire!

Affordable Art Fair, Battersea

It's a busy week...

If you missed my recent solo show in London, then you might like to know that I have paintings going on display at the  Affordable Art Fair in Battersea, which opens tomorrow. 

It's held twice a year (March and October) in large tents in Battersea Park, and there's over a hundred galleries with work on display, all of which is priced at under £4000.

A selection of my work will be on the Duncan R Miller Fine Arts stand, so look out for it if you're there!

Heather and Harebells, Torr Head (Oil on linen, 12 x 12)

Next Show...

...Thompson's Gallery Aldeburgh, opening Saturday 9th August at 11am.

See you there!

Fields with Common Mallow, Walberswick (Oil on linen 24 x 26)

Like a catalogue?  Drop me an email. 

The show will shortly be available to view online at THOMPSON'S GALLERY WEBSITE.