Inspiration.

A short while ago I was chatting with a friend about the quality of our materials and how our own pride and integrity won't let us use inferior quality art materials. 

This differs from the ethos of recycling and I think a good attitude for an artist, for whom the aesthetic is all important. For me it means a certain level of pride in my work is present. An attitude of 'I deserve better quality of canvas to work on because my work is worth it'.

However, I still have a few cheap canvas's leftover. What do I do with them? I no longer want to paint on them but I can't throw them away as that would be wasteful. So they have become the base for some new experiments, I have been working on and have been completely transformed by layers of paper, paint and wax. I hope you like the result. 

I love how I found myself challenged and inspired to thing laterally about using a base material. I'm really pleased with the outcome. 

A lovely walk today

I enjoyed a really nice walk today in the sunshine, taking lots of photos of things to inspire...

all for illustration research. No more words just pictures.

Delivery of Paintings.

Tuesday saw the take down of my exhibition at The Crompton Tavern and the chance to collect two paintings that I sold on the opening night.  These are two small pieces, that started out as representational pieces, but I have to admit, they went slightly wrong.  However I did like the colours, so decided to see what they looked like if I chopped them up.  The result was two small pieces which really worked. 

I need to email the new owner of these paintings to see when I can deliver them and then take them over to her. I'm really pleased that these little pieces of serendipity will end up on someone's wall to be enjoyed.

Alphabe Thursday - I is for Inspired

I had a list of I's ready for today.

I is for me.
I is for Impasto a painting technique I use lots or
Intaglio for a printing technique I've used.

But I decided to use this opportunity to do some blantent plugging.  So this weeks I is for Inspired for Jenny Matlock's AlphabeThursday blog.

I have been inspired to enter the Race For Life.  For those not in the UK, this is an event that happens yearly across Britain, where women gather together and walk, run or jog to raise money for Cancer Research.  I've done this to raise money, awareness and on a personal level, to get fit!

I would really appreciate any donations to this cause, no matter how small because it all adds up and if you can do this via this link:

My Donations Page

I've got until July to get running, loose at least 4 stone and get healthier.  This is my first public pledge to do this.

And after all that here is a song I have been listening to this morning while painting Mam Tor in Derbyshire.

Scala - Ironic