hello again....

a brief post
today i'm off on my travels
a bit of winter sunshine before a new year of exciting opportunities and new places
i have taken the plunge and signed the lease on a wonderful new....very big...studio
more about that in the new year
in the meantime a happy holiday to everyone and look forward to seeing you here in the new year

ps spending sometime here...mmmm....i know...but someones got to do it!

credit risk or market risk?

lying in bed this morning i was wondering how i feel about painting sunny spring and autumn meadows on a gray stormy day.

the answer is i feel happy! in my studio i have the wood stove going, my music playing, often incense burning and usually an offering made. i think about my favourite meadows and i am transported there.

unusually today someone was sitting in my comfy chair beside the wood stove asking me to listen to their explanation of the difference between credit risk and market risk. all that and the dog being sick this morning means it has been rather a trying day.

but somehow magically and momentarily i did feel as if i was sitting here in one of my favourite meadows in the mid summer sun shine.

i wish my daughter would listen to me about being an actress, it would save us both a lot of stress if we didn't have to fill out investment banking job application forms.

pink birds and butterly wings

the pink birds have flown and very happy they look in their new home
the golden meadows, silver birches and dancing orchards have all found new homes....thank you to everyone who made the AAF in Battersea so successful for me x

as i just wrote to the lovely keeper of the Pink Birds:

5 years ago i took the leap of faith to go full time painting .... i always knew it was the right decision for me...although difficult at times...now i feel so joyous and grateful and privileged to live where i live and have the life i have (well most of the time)

to celebrate i bought a ring......it looks like butterflies wings........i have never wanted to wear rings before but this year i gave up biting my nails

i’m not sure if it’s amethyst or fluorite but either is fine
amethyst is a stone of spirituality and contentment and fluorite is used to bring order to chaos....according to my book


actually looking around the house and studio i rather hope its fluorite

well back to work...lots to do in the next few days as more shows coming up and i have very very few paintings left

living in the forest

through every window i see the forest....and it sees me
the house faces east and west...its in a valley that runs north to south...
how different that is...
how aware of the day passing i am...from the early first light that i see bringing the forest in front of the house alive as i make my tea...tea to be drunk in bed with the forest in front of me...then down to the table where i sit at the computer....more tea as the sun reaches the deck and the still beautiful meadow....
the stargazer becomes the sun worshiper

it was a perfect time...

possibly makes sense if you listen to this...but not as often as i have i hope...

it was a perfect time,
i'm glad i spent it with you

part of a series...secret gardens.....sketches really but i dont seem to be able to sketch anything less than a metre square these days...probably destined to only be seen here on summerland

seeing the skyline

on friday i delivered painting to derbyshire....it was wonderful to see the skyline and the open spaces so different to the forest

walking through wild grasses

wild grasses is the title of the painting in the previous post...shamelessly lifted from Robyn's comment which i neglected to acknowledge, sorry about that...

anyway a keen eyed reader has spotted a fairy princess walking in the meadow, not that i believe in such things of course...

more of the same...

thank you so much for the lovely comments and emails about the golden meadow paintings. the autumn continues to glow...and the paint is flowing. here are a couple more of the latest pieces.

Birch and Bracken 100x100 cms


Wild Grasses 100x100 cms

...and sometimes there is a detail in a painting that i wish i could cut out and keep (and sometimes i do just that ...but not with this one!)


detail from Wild Grasses

the moon...

i've been thinking about the moon

it often appears in and influences my paintings. recently i found a very early painting from a time i was on an art foundation course more than 20 years ago.
i was and still am fascinated by the white horses...mainly found carved into the chalk hills of the wiltshire landscape...early land art.
the one i was particularly attracted to was at cherhill.
i recently found this painting in my old studio... its the cherhill white horse in the moonlight. for me the painting was about being restrained and being free...i believed the horse could rise from the hillside during the moonlight and gallop over the down lands...but most of the time it was contained and two dimensional in a hollow of cherhill. the painting attempts in a naive way to represent the horse carved into the land just at the point when it is touched by the moon and is becoming three dimensional.

by the light of the moon

at the time i felt my life was constrained ...but painting was a taste of freedom.

more about the white horses of wiltshire here
and another very recent moon painting on the celtic year blog

autumn gold

the wonderful autumn weather has been very conducive to painting this week...just as well as the affordable art fair in battersea park is coming up very very soon.

I have been immersed in autumn golds

golden meadow
mixed media 100 x 100 cms

autumn meadow
mixed media 100 x 100 cms

no surprise really...i don't have to look very far for inspiration...this is my meadow...it should have been cut weeks ago but i love it too much

a bit late....

but here are some images and some music from the final day party for h art at the bridge at wilton....the sun shone the music played and we even sold some paintings.

i had fun....
listening to the music of jazz fusion


seeing the beautiful garden going down to the river wye


even the carpark is fantastic


meeting a big fan of pink birds


and engaging in an art (or possibly cider) related discussions

thank you to all that made it a lovely day...see you next year x

i'll take you there

i'll take you there

today has been beautiful, sunny, warm

i have painted sunflowers

thinking of the south of france, of bali and of greek water...so my sunflowers are warm islands floating in cobalt teal seas

cobalt teal is my new favourite colour...

acts of courtship

one of the paintings that have found a new home this week is this one



its one of a series...acts of courtship...a series title suggested by a friend one evening when we were putting the world to rights...every now and then an act of courtship makes all the difference

a romantic painting, going to a romantic new home

pink birds

the story so far....a lovely lady who purchased one of my paintings from the summer cafe many years ago got in touch...she still likes her painting very much and would like another...so far so good.

the new painting was to be a triptych....based on pink flowers, chrysanthemums ...it shows how long this has been in progress...they were in bloom last year at this time when we first discussed this piece!
I have been thinking a lot about this painting...and i also had a dream about it....always a good sign..see here for another painted dream....i dreamt about a fluorescent pink bird flying in a turquoise sky...and here he is.

detail from pink birds

instead of three pieces there are 4
the pink birds are japanese anemones...the spent flowers are stars in a turquoise and cobalt hubble inspired universe
back on the land the pink flowers are growing abundantly....when i painted this it was warm and sunny....i felt like i was back in my beloved bali
i love this painting and would be very happy for it to live in my newly decorated sitting room
but i know it was painted for someone else.


pink birds

gold

yesterday I spent the day in the cotswolds visiting galleries and enjoying a day out. the sky was grey but occasionally the sun came out and the landscape glowed....unfortunately this rarely happened when i could stop and take a picture!
not that it matters really...i am always just as...or possibly even more interested in the hedgerows and verges. the contrast between the gold bleached grasses and flower heads and the still green hedge is a subject i return to every year in my painting.

when i came home i spent a little time at my favourite spot in the forest. the silver birches are changing colour and the place twinkles with quivering gold leaves.

today was spent printing...ian and i have developed an interest (or in my case slight obsession) with cutting lino blocks..here are our latest efforts... i did managed to get some gold paint in...you can never have enough gold....thats what i say :)

think pink thoughts....

phillip and i have been to chepstow....to think pink thoughts...and drink too much lovely coffee
we had fun and went to see our friend at art on the railings
they hadn't had as much coffee as us so their thoughts weren't as pink :)

dartmoor

yesterday i went down to the brownston gallery in devon. instead of coming straight home i spent the afternoon on the high moor.

autumn seemed to have arrived early in dartmoor. in the late afternoon the sun and the rain fought it out and the ponies and i were treated to rainbows that looked near enough to reach out and touch.

i want to paint all this...and i want to go back...soon.

but before i do i have a flower painting commission to do...today i bought lots of new colours to try.....including these




i hope the lady commissioning the piece meant it when she asked for pink!

take two paintings

English Lavender

a couple of weeks ago i visited the lavender farm at snowshill in the cotswolds. a storm was gathering and the sky darkening. the harvesters were working trying to beat the impending rain.
these paintings painted in the studio later show two approaches to the subject.

in the first i am exploring perspective...the rows...what makes this blue field distinctly growing lavender... how to make this a lavender field that isn’t baking in the southern sun...the light on a distant field...and the wild flowers growing on the edges of order.

the second painting is more about actually being there...it’s a field lower down the valley...in the moments after the storm had moved off in a different direction.....a time when everything looks bluer, softer, more at peace. the last evening before the crop will be harvested in the morning.

from a painting perspective it’s been wonderful to explore a new subject especially as i haven’t been painting as often as i usually do.

from an emotion point of view it’s been cathartic...the evening at the lavender field followed the memorial service of a loved and much missed friend.

Lavender Evening

birth

this is the view from my window...very early this morning.
the sun is rising over the Forest, hands wave and clap as my new blog is born!
a blog about a meadow deep in a forest, about painting, about creating, about celebrating art, writing, living things and life.....at least I think that’s what it about but time will tell.