Original Watercolour and Gold Ink

Dimensions: w: 68cm  h: 70cm  

£400  

(mounted in antique white, unframed)

THE STORY BEHIND THE PAINTING

This is a sunshine painting, I love the pinks oranges and reds. The weather is hotting up outside and Spring is giving way to a radiant warm, rich palette full of life and vitality.  The colours of the grass, leaves and flowers are becoming rich and vibrant.  I wake up with my windows open so I can enjoy the birds singing their heavenly Dawn Chorus.  Outside smells heavenly.

Several years ago we built our off-grid home on the outskirts of Melbourne. It is the perfect location to enjoy and feel fully connected to the changing seasons and what this means for the land and animals who live around us. 

I paint from home and "Hill-top Lovebirds" is a celebration of these precious mid-life moments painting here in the Summertime.  

PAINT PLAY

I began mark making in yellow and pink.   The organic shapes of pink and green represent falling blossom and leaves.  Outside the blossoms on the pear and plum trees and the elderflowers have blown in the late Spring breeze giving way to the sight of tiny buds of fruits left to grow and ripen. The moving leaves are added as symbols of life and richness and the little hill-top an intimate space and my colours are joyful and rich.  The leaves and blossom fall like confetti.  It is a romantic painting.

ARTIST MATERIALS 

I chose Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolour for this painting as their unparalleled wide and balanced choice of pigments made them the perfect choice.  I especially longed to create a painting with a resolved pink and red clash and complement it with the deep turquoise I so enjoyed in 2022. Opera Rose and Deep Turquoise are perfect choices for this.

I have painted on a sheet of Langston Prestige a superior-quality 140lb (300grn) watercolour paper manufactured using 100% cotton, the highest quality material for papermaking.  It is tradionally made on a cylinder mould machine acid-free, with an alkali reserve to preserve finished pieces of work and prevent discloration.  This pretty painting will cheer the wall in any home.

Original Watercolour and Gold Ink

Dimensions: w:60cm  h:56cm

£250

(mounted in antique white, unframed)

THE STORY BEHIND THE PAINTING

I have wanted to include the songful blackbird in a painting for some time and I very much wanted to capture the deep emotional connection I and so many others have with this beautiful song.  In May 2002, following a show in Dallas, Texas, McCartney discussed the song with KCRW DJ Chris Douridas, saying:

"and I actually just remembered why I'd written "Blackbird", you know, that I'd been, I was in Scotland playing on my guitar, and I remembered this whole idea of "you were only waiting for this moment to arise" was about, you know, the black people's struggle in the southern states, and I was using the symbolism of a blackbird. It's not really about a blackbird whose wings are broken, you know, it's a bit more symbolic." Wikipedia 

PAINT PLAY AND ARTIST MATERIALS

This painting began as a Sunday evening doodle.  I was experimenting with dots of paint and gold on transparent blue-grey shapes.  I could see the aerial pattern and seized the opportunity to paint this scene with my blackbird isn't it.  

I am happy with the aerial aspect to the land below.  My free Blackbird has  flown and is sitting high up looking down at the land below thinking and reflecting from its lofty seat on a rock

This reflective blackbird has been painted with a mix of indigo and deep turquoise from Winsor and Newton professional watercolours on thick watercolour paper.  

For the rest of the painting I have painted with Maimeri Blu watercolours.  It is an excellent quality watercolour made from a mixture of single pigments and gum arabic- no blending powders, no additives, just clean transparent colours.

Original Watercolour and Gold Ink

Dimensions: w: 92cm  h:  65cm

£500

(mounted in antique white, unframed)

THE STORY BEHIND THE PAINTING

I wanted to revisit my fish motif.  If you knew my paintings before my 2020 collection you will remember that I painted around 15 works with an abstract woman, fish and bird. Most of these paintings enhance the home environments in and around Derbyshire. 

I do enjoy dramatic art with a bit of a wink!  My blue-eyed fish line up has a positive, friendly vibe and this reflects my fun in the immersive process of painting.  I always have a favourite in my line ups, I especially like the expression in the fish on the far right (why?) the hopeful expression in its light blue eyes offers personality and a pleasing colour dynamic with the dark red backdrop.

PAINT PLAY

Having chosen my main subjects I decided to paint large big trout-like faces. To add Winter drama I chose to paint with bold rich colours. I enjoy the visual experience of complmentary shades and how their shared palettes help bring a painting's differrent parts together. Winsor Red, Winsor Blue (green tint) Winsor Yellow (pale) and Indigo were my chosen paints.  I then like to make these shades pop.  Lots of pop or abstract artists use black or bright blue, or red outlining to add pop.  I use gold, or silver.

ARTISTS MATERIALS

I painted with Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolours who I enjoy painting my boldest paintings with. They are loved by watercolour artists for their unparalleled wide and balanced choice of pigments in my opinion they interact with ink better than oil and acrylic paints.  I chose gold as I think it both compliments these warm, rich colours and its glint makes the paints POP.

For my support I painted on Langston Prestige a superior-quality 140lb (300grn) watercolour paper manufactured using 100% cotton.  It is tradionally made on a cylinder mould machine acid-free, with an alkali reserve to preserve finished pieces of work and prevent discloration.  I hope you enjoy the humour and drama in this piece.

Original Watercolour

Dimensions:  w: 45cm h: 38cm

£150

(mounted in antique white, unframed0

THE STORY BEHIND THE PAINTING

Spring 2023 is emerging and I am on colour watch for flowers popping up a reminder of the continuing cycle of life outside.  The shades of yellow and purple in succession remind me how much I love to celebrate Spring.  

The softness and femininity of this palette brought essences of Spring to me.  It is a simple little painting but very absorbing to gaze at. 

PAINT PLAY

It was a delightful painting to create and I lingered marking its gentle tranparent colours.  These feminine shades and my pleasure creating them have encouraged me to explore lighter palettes in my work and also satisfied my love of organic shapes. 

ARTIST MATERIALS

Maimeri-Blu watercolours on Arches watercolour paper.  Maimeri Blu is an excellent quality watercolour made from a mixture of single pigments and gum arabic- no blending powders, no additives, just clean transparent colours.

I painted this Spring inspired painting on Arches paper which is a world  famous professional grade paper.  I was gifted some Arches (rough) and I loved it.  Arches rough (the thicker the better) is now my "go to" paper. This paper is made in France and the only one there to use the cylinder mould process, this combined with natural raw cotton means it is of the highest quality and as good as handmade paper.  It is a professional grade paper.  

My affection for where I paint and the sights I see influences my work and feeds my playful imagination.

Original Watercolour

Dimensions:  w: 67cm  h:84cm

£600

(mounted in antique white and framed in French Oak)

THE STORY BEHIND THE PAINTING

I live and paint surrounded by fields of barley and winter grass grown for cattle feed.  These lovely fields are deceptively high and are home to a wide range of small birds and also larger birds such as pheasants; occasional gatherings of geese, ducks, a funny trio of visiting guinea fowl and a visiting junior heron.  

In this quite charming scene I have paired two ground-loving birds the friendly wren with a cheeky guinea fowl, who my husband calls a "Turkey Fowl". We often see our neighbours three Guninea Fowl zig-zagging across the field near our home and they run in a hysterically funny way.   I am really pleased to be offering up a painting with them in.

PAINT PLAY

I began enjoying mark-making circles overlapping soft pastel colours.  I painted a wing shape around these gorgeous overlapping colours and decided then that this would be a bird inspired painting as the shape was wing-like.! 

"The Wren and the Turkey Fowl" came to mind... a title reminiscent of "The Owl and the Pussy Cat" by Edward Lear.

ARTIST MATERIALS FOR THIS WORK OF ART

I painted this with Maimeri-blu watercolour on Arches paper. 

Maimeri Blu is an excellent quality watercolour made from a mixture of single pigments and gum arabic- no blending powders, no additives, just clean transparent colours. 

I used Arches paper which is a world  famous professional grade paper.  I was gifted some Arches (rough) and I loved it.  Arches rough (the thicker the better) is now my "go to" paper. This paper is made in France and the only one there to use the cylinder mould process, this combined with natural raw cotton means it is of the highest quality and as good as handmade paper.  

Original Watercolour and Silver Ink

Dimensions: w: 65cm h: 50cm

£200 

(mounted in antique white and unframed)  *please note there is a crease in the watercolour paper on the lower left, this is a reduced price to allow for this fault

THE STORY BEHIND THE PAINTING

I can always see birds outside when I am painting.  I like to pause when I am painting to gaze out onto the open fields through our french doors.  There are always small and larger birds to be seen.  It is no surpise that I am painting more bird groups these days and fewer people in my celebrations of interconnection.

My lovely home studio is surrounded by pretty agricultural fields, there are two lines of established pear trees nearby and along the generous hedgerows blackberry bushes and smaller plum trees can be found.  The cycle of  farmer's seed and crop and tree blossom combined with bugs and flies makes it an attractive home for small birds and large birds.  

My affection for where I paint and my passion and gratitude for these mid-life moments is expressed through both the subject and colours of my paintings  

Sometimes groups of starlings, housemartins or swifts rest in lines on the roof.  Often little rows of crows, magpies of pigeons will take a moment up there too with just the blue sky behind them.  .

PAINT PLAY

I really wanted to create energy and personality in each bird shape and also indulge in a strong rich turquoise backdrop.  It is called PENCIL BIRDS because of their small pointy faces and sharp beaks.  The birds stand like different coloured pencils come to life.
Once the pencil shaped bird shapes were happily in place I enjoyed painting their inner colours and seeing expressions on each bird's face as I went along.

ARTIST MATERIALS FOR THIS WORK OF ART

I have painted this with Winsor and Newton professional watercolour.  This popular make have a Deep Turquoise (Series 4) and I knew I wanted to use this.  The unparalleled wide and balanced choice of pigments of this range made them the perfect choice for lots of painting styles. 

I painted on Arches paper which is world famous and a professional grade paper.  I was gifted some Arches and I loved it.  Arches rough (the thicker the better) is now my "go to" paper. This paper is made in France and the only one there to use the cylinder mould process, this combined with natural raw cotton means it is of the highest quality and as good as handmade paper.  It is a professional grade paper.