Back in the UK.

After a quick visit to Los Angeles to help my daughter Rosie settle into her new flat, Barry and I dashed back to New Mexico last Saturday, (it's a long way to drive in one day!!).  I only had one day to finish the big painting before leaving last Tuesday. 

I arrived back in Lincolnshire last Wednesday,  unpacked, packed and paid some bills on my Dad's house, loaded up my little car with my beetle cabinet and beetle boxes and drove up to Scotland on Friday to deliver my work to the Royal Scottish Academy.  Phew!!   My work had been pre-selected for the Scottish Society of Artists exhibition and I am now waiting to see if I have made it through to the final exhibition.  Luckily, I can stay with my friend Jasmin whilst I wait to hear.

As many of you know,  Edinburgh is not flat, so we had to be very careful not to let the sack barrow run away with us!  Here is Jasmin holding onto the cabinet.  She is very strong!!

Last post, I had promised to include the stages of the large painting I was trying to finish before returning to the UK.  I hope you enjoy them.  Please don't hesitate to ask questions.

I used to cover the whole of the canvas and then wipe out, but I work more directly these days.

Building up the image.

Although from my reference material there wasn't a river, I put one in because I thought it needed something for the eye to follow into the landscape.  Plus I wanted to echo a little of the sky colour and not just have a lot of green fields!

At this stage I began to mix Ultramarine blue deep with the Burnt Sienna to create the darks.

Big decisions to be made on the colour of the fields,  to bring some fields forward and push others back. 

I found it difficult to find the appropriate colour for the distant hills, wanting them to be fairly true to the colour which is quite warm,  but needing them to recede.  Forming the structure of the hills.

Adding the sky, hoping to create the atmosphere. 

Rolling Mist - The Lake District 40 x 64 Oil/Linen

When the whole painting was covered and I had worked on all the tree shapes, tweaking the lights and darks and the distant hills, I let the painting dry.  Then I covered the distant hills and the sky in a milk glaze... transparent white, paynes grey and a tiny amount of ultramarine blue.  This pushed the hills back.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the US.  My birthday once again falls on Thanksgiving day.  Last time it did that was when I was 50 and Barry and I took off to Oaxaca.  That does sound very appealing, but I will be happy to stay in Scotland.

Bye for now.

New Exhibition

I am back in New Mexico now and getting ready for our show on 3rd October.  I will be here until 18th November.  It's wonderful to be back and I am looking forward to staying in one place for a while after all the running about I have had to do this last seven months.   Once the show is over I am excited to get out and paint.

If you are in or near Santa Fe, please come to our opening.

Native-Beauty - Landscape Show featuring Barry McCuan and Lynne Windsor

Back to painting...

Hello everyone...
 

Wicken Fen Autumn ii 12 x 12 Oil/Linen

Barry and I are finally back at my Dad's in Lincolnshire after a couple of weeks travelling around.  I have managed to get back into painting and I have just finished the above oil, which I started earlier this year!

We spent some time in London, visiting friends, going to exhibitions and visiting one of my daughters, then onto Somerset to visit the other one and popping in to see a good friend in  Gloucestershire.  I thought I would share some photos (difficult to choose, so many good ones) and information from our trip.  At Tate Britain I finally got to see a Vija Celmins exhibit, which was worth the wait!  I have been studying her for my essay and was desperate to see some of her work in reality.  As John Berger wrote in The Shape of the Pocket,

“You have to see them. Words can’t get round them. And reproduction sends them back to where they came from”

How right he is, they are truly exquisite.  She also curated a little exhibit of Turner's watercolours and prints.

We also went to see The Mechanical Hand Exhibit which was fascinating.  25 years of printing at The Paupers Press.  Not as much pure etching as I had hoped for, but some really wonderful work, a lot of lithographs, but I think my favourite was Christopher Le Brun's etchings and Grayson Perry's Map of Nowhere, which is fantastic and very humourous, if you are fortunate enough to be able to see it close up.

Grayson Perry Map of Nowhere  - Heliogravure

Below are a few images from our travels...

Holly (my eldest) and I walking around the Cadbury Castle iron age hill fort.

Me painting just down the road from my Father's house.

I love buttercups and they are everywhere at the moment!

On the way up to Cadbury Castle hill

Our walk with Annie

On our way home with Annie

Not sure where to begin!

I knew that this last couple of weeks were going to be a bit of a whirlwind what with my workshop in Scotland, my show in London and starting my MA in Cambridge!!   I am still trying to catch up!

I must congratulate my three intrepid and dedicated students from North America who flew all the way to Scotland just to take a workshop with me!  We had a lot of fun!  It is very easy having so few students, although more would have been nice from a financial point of view!  I am not complaining though, it was like painting with three good friends and accomplished painters to boot!  The week before, I was avidly watching the weather and it didn't look good.  However, for the most part the weather stayed fine, except for an extremely rainy Wednesday, which wasn't nice for Rose's husband who had booked a fishing day on the River Tweed.  Poor thing.  We stayed nice and cosy in the studio! Rose and Katherine loved Skirling House.  They were treated royally.  If anyone ever wants to stay in the Scottish Borders, this is the place to stay.  Bob and Isobel are wonderful hosts.

When we were painting alongside the river Tweed, see photos below, we were watched intently by quite a number of cows... they seemed to find us very fascinating!

Exhibition

Here is a link to the Blackheath Exhibition that I am part of, opening this coming Saturday.  I hope to see you there on Saturday!

 

Evening Meadow

Little Mitchellwood, Biggar

This little wood is almost opposite Jasmin's house and is just delightful. There was talk of it being developed, but the owner eventually donated it for community use. It was just lovely last week with all the beautiful blossom. The daffodils are fading fast, but bluebells are now starting to bloom. All the fields are full of lambs and we have a weeks worth of sunny days coming!



Evening Meadow
9 x 16 Oil/Linen

Above is another of my paintings recently finished. I do wish you could see them in reality. They are, if I may say so, so much better in reality!

Russian Night at the Taos Art Museum

Above Rutland Water
10 x 11 Oil/Baltic Birch Panel

This is a little painting I have done for the Russian Night fund raiser for the Taos Art Museum. Hopefully it will sell, raising money for the museum and for me!!! I rarely donate all of a painting anymore because in the past I have done this many times and don't even receive a thank you!! In addition artists' can't write it off. Not a good policy to have I think. Maybe this sounds uncharitable, but I have been inundated with requests for free paintings and it just gets old after a while!

Romney Marsh vi

Romney Marsh vi
10 x 12 Oil/Panel

Every now and again I revisited in painting a place that I love. I find that the years in between create a growth in one's painting and although the scene is the same, there are differences in the final painting.

This is a favourite area of mine. Not so far from Grove Ferry, but different in that it is a wetland area, much of it reclaimed. It has a full and varied history, too much for me to write here, but here is a link for more information if anyone is interested. It is not far from Canterbury, in Kent.

Getting there...

Morning Meadow
20 x 20 Oil/Linen

This painting is inspired by a photo that I took on a gorgeous winter morning walk near my good friends', (Tom, lovely ex-husband and Charlie Dore, lovely partner and great singer/songwriter), house near Henley Upon Thames.

The enjoyment of being able to work uninterrupted!

Derwent Meadow - Sold
8 x 12 Oil/Panel



Another one finally finished. I so wish my work would photograph better. In reality there are so many nuances which you just can't see. Still here it is. A Lake District meadow. I do love that area.

I have almost finished my pieces for the museum, but still working on the Howard Mandville pieces. Thanks so much for all your kind comments.

Return to some serious work!

Water 10 x 12 oil/panel

I am back! My friends left last week and although I miss them, I am happy to be able to get back to some serious work. I have so much to do. I did do a little work when they were here, but there is nothing like being able to work without interruption for hours and hours, which is what I am doing now.

I am finding it hard to know when a painting is finished?! Anyone else have this problem? I have a tendency to overwork a piece and not leave all the lovely underpainting nuances... I have tried to leave more in this one.

Back in New Mexico

It has taken me a week to get over jet lag and feel somewhat normal again. You would think after nearly 16 years of toing and froing between the US and the UK I would be used to it, but I think it gets harder! Something to do with being 55 maybe?!

Anyway, all kinds of things have turned up and changed and now I have decided to postpone my workshop because I have been invited to submit two paintings to the Howard Mandville small works show this October, plus I am working on my three pieces for the Albquerque Museum show and have decided to return to the UK at the end of October, so all in all I have my work cut out for me. Oh, I forgot to mention, I have three dear friends, whom I have know since art college days visiting for three weeks on Monday, so that might make a dent in my production!

Enjoy the lonely wet sheep until I have something from the studio to post!

Skiddaw in the Mist i, The Lake District, England

12 x 12 Oil/Linen - Sold
Available at Newbury Fine Art, Boston, MA

This was the first painting I did from pastels and photos when travelling in the UK in 2007. The larger piece (see first posting) was created from this piece.

Mist and Sunlight, Scotland

12 x 24 Oil/Linen - Sold
Available at Newbury Fine Art, Boston, MA

Every time I return to the UK, I visit my friend Jasmin in Scotland. One of my favourite roads is the road to Peebles where there is a row of trees in a field which is often surrounded by early morning mist. I have painted this scene many times.

Skiddaw in the Mist, The Lake District, England

Oil/Panel 48" x 48"
Available at Ventana Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

My first post! I painted this from pastel sketches and photographs I took during my trip last year. I so love this area and hope to return soon.