Pink and Green

The trees have been full with heavy blossom but sadly it is almost over, went out one more day to photograph. It has been so windy and the blossom has fallen and made a carpet on the ground. I picked up a windfall and thought about pink and green and blossom floating down from the trees.

Melanie Miller

I came across the work of  Melanie Miller a couple of years ago via the Millennium Gallery in St Ives. The recent change in the weather has made me think about these quiet paintings of discarded objects and detritus, not considered important or deserving of scrutiny. Working within the tradition of still life, objects which include flowers, insects, birds small toys and found discarded ephemera, are painted life size in oil on gessoed panels.

Recently, and this is what attracts me to her work, she has began to acknowledge how important the context of where she paints, is as important as, what she paints, the where being Eel pie Island a small Island in the middle of the river Thames accessed only by a footbridge. I don't know why her paintings make me think of winter but for some reason they do, maybe it's the stillness of them. You can see more of her work here, and here.

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.

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.

Feeling Floral

I am feeling in a floral still life kind of mood today, I think it's something to do with the weather the sun is shining and the sky is blue but it doesn't really have the intensity of Summer it has a slightly faded feel to it.

Elaine Pamphilon one of my absolute favourites she always captures the perfect mood.

Mhairi McGregor's beautiful thickly painted oils are bold yet still sensitive to the subject matter.

Christine McArthur's mixed media collages have a quiet and soft appearance.

Alice Mumford paints these lovely romantic paintings of ordinary objects from around the home.

Jessica Cooper simple but elegant acrylics and pencil on canvas.

I couldn't leave out a lovely painting by Emma Dunbar, I love anemones and the colour combination is a favourite of mine.

Kirsty Wither

I am feeling a little under the weather today, just a cold but it makes me wish Summer was still here. So I cheered myself up a little by looking at the beautiful floral paintings of Kirsty Wither.

Cornwall Part 1

I have just come back from a lovely week in Cornwall, the weather was good and the scenery as you would expect was gorgeous. I had lots of plans of places I wanted to visit, gallery visits, and things to keep us busy, but when we arrived the sun was shining and all we wanted to do was just be outside soaking up the soft sun and gentle breeze.

The first thing we decided to do was the coastal path walk from the village to the next bay, the view was lovely, sea one side and gently swaying grasses the other.

As usual I found some dead plants that I thought looked beautiful silhouetted against the soft colour of the sea.

We were staying in the small village of Charlestown on the south coast it was very quiet with the odd boat bobbing in the harbour.

The following day we visited the much busier town of Fowey, with it's narrow hilly streets, brightly coloured bunting, flowers growing in the street walls, busy harbour, and very lovely cream teas!!

I think that's enough for my first post, my one regret is that I should have taken more photographs, but maybe it's nice that some things only exist in your memory.

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.

New Work

Not sure were I am going with this but I made this small painting a few weeks ago and really liked it. Have tried to repeat this but it's not going to well. Thought I would post this anyway as I have been lacking in posts recently.