Just a month to go before I open my studio to visitors during this year’s West Berks and North Hampshire Open Studios. I haven’t done this for several years so I feel like I am at the bottom of a steep learning curve again, full of nerves and anticipation but excited all the same. I am venue 53 in the OS brochure and will be showing a selection of my work plus sketchbooks and drawings. My opening times are 11am-5pm every Saturday and Sunday from 7th to 22nd May, plus 2-7pm on Friday 13th and 20th May. I look forward to welcoming you to my studio.

Yesterday I spent a happy few hours at Hungerford’s Heritage Market selling some of my work, meeting new people and catching up with familiar faces. It’s always a nice feeling when someone likes your work but even more special when they want to take it home with them. Thank you to everyone who bought from me – it really made my day!  

I’ve been busy recently with fabric and wadding making things for the craft fair coming up in Hungerford Hub & Library (12-14th December) and it sparked an idea for a series of Christmas cards. There are four designs and all of them will be on sale in the Hub but in the meanwhile you can buy them direct from me via my contact page here.

20% of the proceeds of any sales up to Christmas will be donated to Hungerford Library & Community Trust, working hard to keep a roof over our library.

Such a lovely day chatting to people about drawing and making art!

I’m exhibiting alongside six other artists at TheCurve at Hungerford Hub & Library* and although it’s a small space, the curators have put together a beautiful and eclectic collection of drawings and sketchbooks. Each artist has something different to show and the range of media and ideas is inspiring.

This piece is an ink and wash exercise from one of my landscape sketch books. I work with themes in my books so I have one where I focus on still life, one for landscapes and more than a few with drawings of people when I’m urban sketching or just stuck for something to draw. So don’t sit still for too long – you may be next!

Marking the Page is open 10am-4pm, Friday 20, Saturday 21, Sunday 22, Wednesday 25, Friday 27, Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 September.

*Hungerford Hub & Library, Church Street, Hungerford RG17 0NL.

Went to a new life class last night at RAW in Wiltshire. The evening started by looking at some sketches made by Seurat. No lines, tone only. Then we had a go.

We worked positive then negative; graphite on to white paper, followed by charcoal lifted using finger, sponge and putty rubber, gradually revealing the form of our model as we put back the light. Hard! But good to shake up a few predetermined concepts.

Several summers ago I visited Monet’s house in Giverny – it was jammed with other pilgrims and as we snaked our way through the garden in a sluggish fashion because it was too hot and too crowded, any notions of seeing what Monet might have seen were dashed. It was the same inside the house, except for one little quiet spot I found, cool and shady, with an open window looking out onto the riotous garden.

I am still working out the painting I want to make of that scene but this is something in between. It was initially painted in acrylics, quickly and intuitively, and without the usual painstaking planning (which often leads me nowhere anyway), then finished more leisurely in oils. I might tweak it more but at the moment it feels ready.

Who knew it would take so long to get an initial thought on to canvas?

Yesterday I stood on the Ridgeway where it carves through Oxfordshire by Wantage and watched the sun chasing shadows across the fields below. It was so windy the trees were roaring like 747s ready for the off. The light changes with the moving cloud formations were dramatic and fast. This is one of the watercolour sketches drawn with a large wet brush trying to capture the scene before the cold drove us indoors.

28 January 2019