Kurt Jackson The Thames Revisited

A short film of Kurt Jackson talking about his latest exhibition The Thames Revisited which was on at The Redfern Gallery.

The Colour of Ideas

It has been a long time coming but at last I have a solo exhibition which has opened today at the Sale Waterside Arts Centre. It's a small collection of twenty paintings, and I am really delighted with the way the exhibition looks. It is titled The Colour of Ideas which seemed fitting as it has been this blog and the encouragement of my kind commenters, and the blogging community who have inspired me to continue to paint. Also I must give a huge thank you to the Sale Waterside Arts Centre especially Julia Milns who has organised everything for me and Jenny Waterson who encouraged me to apply for the space. And a massive thank you to family and friends who have supported me and being so understanding over the last few months when there has been no housework done, and my constant refusals to coffee invitations (although I have managed a few) and days out.

I also have a website which is now live, thanks to my wonderful husband. There are still some pictures to add to it so it's still a work in progress but nearly finished.

Nearly There

There are two weeks to go to the start of my exhibition at The Sale Waterside, all the paintings are done, just a little tweaking to do on a couple of them (I have a problem with this, just don't know when to stop). All the small paintings are framed and I have started to photograph everything for my website which will be live soon!! Here is a better photo of the green painting (no title yet!) and one of the smaller paintings.

In the Studio

Paintings are building up in the studio, getting a little bit excited and a little bit worried!!

A closer look at one of the small paintings, they are 30cm x 30cm. Have a great weekend everyone and hope it's sunny where you are.

Winter II

Some photographs from a recent foggy weekend.

Clover Field

I have this strange obsession with dead plants, thought I would share with you my most recent find.

I don't know what the plant is so if anybody can enlighten me I would be grateful. A few weeks ago it looked like this.

The painting that I am working on currently is inspired by the lovely yellow ochre colour of these leaves.

Paul Murray

Red table with cups and cakes

The Scottish artist Paul Murray is a new discovery for me, I came across his work fairly recently at the Lemon Street Gallery in Cornwall. I really like his semi abstract still life and landscape paintings, I love the colours which range from vibrant reds pinks and blues to more subtle and monochromatic. The paintings have great textures and patterns which are achieved by using acrylics collage and gouache, and are inspired  by his local environment.

Yellow cup and pomegranates

Red still life with cakes

Venetian facade

You can see his work here and some more here.

Kurt Jackson: The Trees of Cornwall

Whilst I was in Cornwall over the summer I visited the lovely Lemon Street Gallery in Truro. They were getting ready for the new Kurt Jackson exhibition TREE: GWEDHEN The Trees of Cornwall, unfortunately I will not get to see it, however there were a few paintings stacked up against a wall and I did have a little peek. I decided to buy the catalogue and it arrived in the post this weekend. Kurt Jackson is a prolific painter and I admire the enthusiasm and joy for painting that he has, if I could produce a fraction of the paintings he does I would be very happy. For this latest exhibition he has focused on the tree population of Cornwall, it is not an encyclopaedic survey it is more an observation of favourite trees which have been followed through the seasons, some are the rarest trees in Britain and some the oldest planted by his own family in the orchard. The exhibition is on now and finishes on the 8th October 2011.

Another Studio tidy up

Thought I would do a little tidying today in my studio, not sure how it gets untidy when I haven't done a huge amount of work recently. I came across some small mixed media paintings that I did about a year ago and thought I would photograph them.

I had been doing a lot of travelling on trains and on motorways and the first two paintings were inspired by the view from windows as the landscape whizzed past it all looked a bit unreal and a bit flat because you don't have time to take in any detail. The third painting was just a little abstract thing from my head it was how I was feeling on that particular day.

Elaine Pamphilon: New Exhibition

Elaine Pamphilons latest exhibition is at the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh, if anyone lives near there it is probably well worth a visit. Unfortunately it is to far away for me, so yet again I will have to be content with looking on line.

Cowslips and molehills in  the mill house meadow

Black path

Sea china

Kurt Jackson

Badger  path through the hay up the field

I have long been a fan of the painter Kurt Jackson. I remember the first time I came across his work, I was on my art foundation course and doing research for my end of year project, looking through an art magazine I saw an advert for an exhibition by Kurt Jackson called The Long Field. The painting used in the advert was Badger path through the hay up the field. I loved everything about this painting, the colours, it's abstractness, the composition and the drips giving it a great linear quality. A few years later on a trip to Cornwall I visited the Lemon Street Gallery in Truro, it was their summer exhibition and there were a few of Kurt Jacksons paintings in the exhibition. One was a very large abstract landscape that was a deep orange and browns, the colour and depth of the painting was wonderful, two others were mixed media paintings of vases of flowers that had been collected on a walk with his family, I thought these were particularly lovely.

Zinzi's Flowers

Caroline's flowers

Currently Kurt Jackson is one of Britain's leading painters. His subjects are mostly the places he knows well, that he visits over and over again sketching all the time, and sometimes completing paintings outside capturing a specific moment in time. On his website you will find all the most recent exhibitions he has had and also some great videos which follow him on sketching trips out at sea and along river banks, a really good interview in his studio and a painting en plein air.

Random Pictures

Making progress