Monday 30 January 2012

Happy New Year !

Life is finally getting on an even keel now we have entered 2012 and have settled into our new home.  Artwork is finally emerging and my teaching schedule is getting busy, with workshops going on at the Wildlife Trust and also at several local art groups and the Society of Floral Painters.

In addition to the above teaching, from September I will be teaching botanical art classes at Peter Symonds College in Winchester.  I am thrilled to have been offered this post after getting through for an interview.  There was much angst after Christmas deciding what I was going to teach for the 10 minute micro-teaching part of the interview.  I decided to do a demonstration on using overlaid washes on leaves.  So my green colour-mixing charts also made an appearance.

The emphasis for my artwork during the early part of this year will be concentrating on botanical subjects in acylics on natural linen canvas.  I enjoyed doing this for a while last year (both pictures sold in my exhibition).  It is so different to watercolour and I love the challenge of trying to still get fine detail in the painting.

As well as this blog I now manage one for the Society of Floral Painters, which has just launched this week.  We hope it will compliment the already great newsletter and provide another format for members to share their news.

The blog address is:  http://society-of-floral-painters.blogspot.com/

In addition we also now have a Facebook page 'The Society of Floral Painters' - so why not take a look ?

One of the advantages of having moved house is that I now have a small room dedicated just to my artwork (and a few other things!).  The light is really good, with windows on a double aspect, with the largest one coming on my left.  Storage has been a bit of a struggle, but I'm getting there - courtesy of Ikea and their storage solutions ! 

Another advantage is that I have had to go through some old portfolios and have come across a selection of work that I completed in the late 1990's and the early part of the last decade.  I have posted some of the pictures below.