By the seaside.

Barry and I are down in Kingsgate, near Margate, Kent for a few days.  Staying with our friend Jim enables us to paint some of the gorgeous places down here.  It's good to get back to painting for sure!  I know you have seen some photos from this area before.  It is really one of my most favourite places. 

Today, since it was very windy, we took a break and went to see the Grayson Perry exhibit at Turner Contemporary.  Wow, how amazing he is.  I loved his ceramics... so contemporary yet referencing historical subjects, art and traditions.  My BA is in ceramics but I haven't really touched clay for years.  I found myself wanting to have another go.  His pots are classically shaped, handmade (coiled) with wonderful surfaces covered in multiple colours, drawings, photographs and advertisements from various eras and locations often relating to his childhood.  The surfaces are paintings in themselves.  I am also in awe of his etchings... goodness me!  They are incredible.  I know what it takes to make an etching like these and I am IMPRESSED!  

Here is an interesting article regarding one of the etchings that was in the exhibition.  You never get tired of looking at them but I wished I owned one so I could sit down and really spend time examining them closely.  

Early this morning before it became really windy, we were out painting on Botany Bay.  How I love this place!  I feel that I am just getting to grips with painting again and my strokes are freer and often thicker.  Well, we will see what happens!

My special rocks on Botany Bay

Barry

Me, trying to decide where to paint.

One of my studies

Obviously the beach is the place to go for an early morning dog walk and natter!

Barry getting started

Me, holding down everything as the wind whistled by!

Last night wasn't so sunny, but I just had to get out and paint.  

Last Gasp of Summer

There has been a great deal of toing and froing this last month.  I attended the Bite exhibition at The Mall Galleries in London and it was full to brimming at the Private View  and as a consequence I had to return in order to see the work.  I was taken by Gillian Thompson's dry point and Jane Waterhouse's Hare from her Wayfaring series.

Wired - Gillian Thompson - Four Colour Dry point

Hare - Wayfaring   Jane Waterhouse - etching

The wonderful and fascinating thing about Printmaking is that although there are 'rules' many Printmakers manage to continually break them and find innovative ways of creating their images.  I am fascinated by the two Printmakers above and wonder at their techniques!

Having finished my two paintings for the Oklahoma Heritage Museum, and a few others, I decided to go off on a little 'drive about' visiting old friends and family, sketching and taking photos on the way.  I drove from Lincolnshire to Kent, to London, then down to Somerset.  Briefly visiting Devon and Cornwall on a quest for wind swept trees for a commision and to Dorset because I just wanted to sit on a beautiful beach.   Glorious weather made it possible to get some great photos and to sit outside on the ground to sketch and get bitten in places I would have preferred not to have been!

Below are some photos.  The two paintings are for the Oklahoma Heritage Museum Small Works, Great Wonders exhibition in November. I have posted the Cottonwood painting before, but I was advised... (by my darling husband) to change the lines of the middle parts... and of course he was right..  you can compare with the image below... also this photograph was taken by a professional.

Autumn Cottonwoods and Pond 12 x 12 Oil/Panel

Early Snow 12 x 12 Oil/Panel

My daughter lives just outside of Glastonbury and I found a perfect spot for painting and sketching the Tor.  I would love to teach a workshop in this area because it is so very beautiful.   Please contact me if you are potentially interested for 2013 or 2014 via my website email.  I am thinking May time because the wild flowers are particularly lovely, but early September would also work.

That's all for now folks!!

From Eype clifftop, Dorset

From Walton Hill Somerset

Rocks

After our jam-packed long weekend in London, visiting friends, spending time with the kids, going to the museum and the movies, we drove down to Kent to visit an old college friend of mine, Jim, who happens to have MS. I try to visit him every time I come to the UK as he is no longer able to travel. He is a great artist and a wonderful classical guitarist, but sadly his hands don't work the way they used to. It's a heart breakingly horrible illness. Jim is the reason I have painted scenes from Romney Marsh on many occasions.

Just after we left him yesterday, Barry and I nipped down to the beach and found these wonderful chalk cliffs. Not surprising really since Jim lives just along the coast from Dover. We were amazed when we stood back to look at this particular grouping... it's just like San Francisco de Asis Church at Ranchos de Taos (where Barry and I actually met 16 years ago!).

Barry McCuan's Solo Show

Here is a link to Barry's solo show at Ventana Fine Art, opening this Friday 8th October. Sadly, I won't be attending, unless of course someone has a private jet!!

The above painting is one of Barry's wonderful boat paintings inspired by our trips to Dungeness Beach, Kent. I love the clouds.

I am busy working on new paintings for a show in January called 'Sacred Creatures' on Sanibel Island at the Watson Macrae Gallery.

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.

A landscape for a change!

Grove Ferry Springtime
16 x 16 Oil/Linen

I have visited this place many times. It is near where my friend Jim used to live in Kent and I just love it. I suppose I fell in love with the area because Barry and I first discovered it on a beautiful summer's day and had a really good painting session there.

I am getting lots done, although still have lots more to do before I return to England. I am also waiting for my first appointment with the United States government which will entail fingerprinting! I think this will be the fourth time they have taken my prints! Do they change as you get older I wonder? Dad still doing well, but hoping to go back at the end of May, but that will depend upon the fingerprinting appointment. Hope I get a date soon.