Oil on Paper

Some small samples of oil on paper, I love the softness of oils especially on paper.

Tatton Park Autumn visit.

On the 17th  March this year, one of the last days in winter, I visited the National Trust property Tatton Park. I have been on many occasions and it is always inspirational. On that visit I came across a beautiful hydrangea, which obviously at that time of year was not in flower. Instead, it was scattered with all the dead blooms from the previous year, which had dried on the plant. It was a cold crisp and misty day, which made the hydrangea look very ethereal.

At this point I decided it would be a good idea to keep visiting the plant as the seasons changed to see how it would grow. My second visit was on the 22nd April, I think in only four weeks it had grown quite a lot. I liked the way the new growth was growing alongside the previous year's flowers.

My third visit was on the 8th July. I was really looking forward to this visit as I knew the hydrangea would be in flower and I couldn't wait to see what the colour the flowers would be. I am no plant expert as you can probably tell so I was extremely disappointed to find that the flowers were a rather pale green, not what I was expecting.

My fourth visit was on the 26th October which was a beautiful autumn day. All the flowers had already died and were drying on the plant so they were pretty much as I saw them on my first visit, the only difference being that the leaves are turning a beautiful soft yellow, which gives the flowers the appearance of being a very pale lilac.

 

Ghost Leaf

Different materials

Getting into a more autumnal mood has made me think about more natural colours and materials, using the colours inspired by the fig painting I painted a stone and placed it onto different materials. I was very happy that my painted stone on slate image was chosen by emma lamb for one of her colour your monday happy posts, from the all colours in group on Flickr.

Painted Stone on slate

Painted Stone on Paper

Bits and Pieces

I have been having a bit of a clear out today emptying the drawers and cupboards in my studio, I realised that I keep far to many bits and pieces and I need to be ruthless.

I keep a lot of jars with bits of paint residue on them, I like the colours on this one.

Bits of paint that collect on my knives.

A dried rose.

An old piece of machine embroidery.

The rose reminds me of a few lines from one of my favourite poems.

That the future is a faded song, a royal rose or a lavender spray
Of wistful regret for those who are not yet here to regret,
Pressed between yellow leaves of a book that has never been opened.
And the way up is the way down, the way forward is the way back.


From Four Quartets, The Dry Salvages, T.S. Eliot

I think I will put this all back in my cupboard and leave the decision until another day.!!

Would like to see

The new Grayson Perry exhibition on at the British Museum, The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman. Artefacts made by unknown men and women from the museums collection are intertwined with Grayson's own work. Also visit the very witty blog of Grayson's 50 year old bear Alan Measles. The exhibition is on until the 19th February so plenty of time to fit this in.

Also the new Gerhard Richter exhibition Panorama on at Tate Modern until the 8th January. This is a major retrospective of this very diverse painter and includes his realist paintings, colourful gestural abstractions and paintings that respond to significant moments in history, it looks like there is much to see and enjoy in this exhibition.

BETTY

A couple of smaller exhibitions are:
Elaine Pamphilon and her partner sculptor Christopher Marvell on at the Medici Gallery in London this finishes on the 8th November. I like this more abstract piece of Elaine's.

HERE I AM SITTING ON THE BEACH WATCHING THIS WAVE AND STEVE IS TALKING POLITICS

WINGED BIRD

And Through the Garden Gate is a new Exhibition of paintings by Cornish artist David Pearce, showing at Cadogan Contemporary in London. I really like the limited palette of these paintings, beautiful soft earthy tones and very reminiscent of Roger Hilton. This exhibition finishes on 5th November.

MOOR HENS AND  MUSK MALLOW

AMONGST THE RUSHES

There is not a great deal of information on Roger Hilton but I have a great book called THE FIGURED LANGUAGE OF THOUGHT by Andrew Lambirth published by Thames and Hudson. Also found this great video of Rose Hilton (Roger's wife) talking about  the recent centenary exhibition held at Newlyn Art Gallery. Beautiful paintings and I am a real fan.

Fig

Having decided that it was time to embrace Autumn I had lots of plans this week for outdoor sketching, photography and collecting lovely dry crisp leaves. Unfortunately the weather has a different plan for me, one of staying indoors out of the rain. We have had constant rain since Friday and all our Autumn leaves are decidedly soggy!! I have decided to do some watercolours starting with some beautiful figs.

Embracing Autumn

The weather is changing again so I decided it was time to embrace autumn. Yesterday I picked up a few leaves and a lovely flower or berry head, not sure what it is but it starts of with the pink petals closed up like a pod and when it opens it has orange berries inside.

Another Palette

More sketching and just having fun, not trying to think to much about the actual paintings but trying to get the colours and composition right. I am working on some paintings and will post some photos soon.

Colour Palette

Had a back to basics day yesterday, sketching with pencil, charcoal, ink and graphite, and then working on some colour palettes. It was a beautiful day sitting outside surrounded by all my lovely paints and pastels.