Invitation to an exhibition!

You are warmly invited to:

'Figuratively Speaking'

Harding House

Steep Hill

Lincoln

1st September - 6th October 2012

Open: Monday - Saturday 10am - 5pm

Sunday 11am - 4pm

Artists include:

Lyn Lovitt 

Maggie Cullen

Ann Stoker

Angelo Murphy

Ron Harrison

David William Sampson

Kevin Wallhead

The drawing above is one of my pieces that is showing in the exhibition 'Figuratively Speaking', details of which you will find at the top of the page. For those of you who haven't been before, Harding House is near the top of Steep Hill. The gallery is a lovely space on the first floor of the building. There's parking nearby in Castle Square and you'll find plenty of little cafes to treat yourself to coffee and a cake or two after you've been to the exhibition! So why not make an afternoon of it! I hope you will be able to visit the exhibition and feel free to send me your comments, I will look forward to receiving them. 

Back from Spain!

Pics from Spain

It's good to be back blogging...I've missed you all! It was a great trip and as promised I've brought back some pics to show you. These photos are from one of the processions during fiesta week in Castello de Rugat. This is the traditional procession of the Moors and Christians, my favourite procession of all! It celebrates the driving out of the Moors way back in the 13th Century and the celebrations have been going on ever since! It's very dramatic with bags of atmosphere and very loud band music and even louder drums...and the costumes are absolutely stunning! Unfortunately, my phone decided to give up on me as I was taking the photos (a screen problem, apparently common in that kind of phone so they tell me now!) but luckily my daughter arrived in the nick of time and I was able to use hers. The weather there was extremely hot (low 40's centigrade) and we were all melting rather whilst watching this procession. Fortunately, I had my trusty fan with me, which I might add, when in Spain I don't go anywhere without! At the bottom of these pics I have put a link to a short BBC documentary video about the Spanish tradition of the festival of the Moors and Christian. The celebrations in the video are in a town called Alcoi which is not far from our town of Castello de Rugat. So if you're interested, I would recommend that you click on the link and have a look. 

LINK -  http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/the-moors-and-christians-festival-in-alcoi/687.html

Trip to Castello in Spain

oil on stretched canvas 

40cm x 50cm

This is where I'll be from Monday for nine days. You've already seen a small version of this painting a few weeks ago. This one is the original and I painted it before the pathway was re-surfaced with shiny new stones, so this is the historical depiction! While I'm there this year, the almost week long fiesta will begin. This is when the whole neighbourhood goes  just a little crazy!! Fireworks, processions, more fireworks, more processions..plus open air concerts that don't begin until midnight! I'm going to try and blog whilst I'm there and send you some pics of the celebrations...the colours and costumes are wonderful. However, I can't promise as I'm relying on my phone and I'm not sure whether it will work until I get there. So fingers crossed that it does but for now...hasta luego!

'Self-Portrait August 2012'

oil on board

6" x 6"

This is the smallest portrait I have ever attempted and it went better than I expected. By the way, I'm not always so glum! It's the concentration! The good thing about self-portraits is that you don't have to worry about whether the sitter is happy with the outcome, you can paint the truth warts and all! And another advantage is that the sitter is always available when the artist is! At the moment I'm thinking that I might have to darken the left side of the face a little more but I will look at it again tomorrow morning. For now, it's time for pasta!

'The Road to Stow'

oil on board

8" x 12"

Click here to buy

The subject of this painting is a road I walk down frequently. This morning, the rows of trees lining the road along the grass verge were casting wonderful shadows in the sunlight...so I decided it was perfect time to paint it! I took a photo as a reference just in case the sun went in...as if! And I'm glad I did because as I was preparing to return with my materials, the clouds rolled in, the heavens opened and that was that! The phone photo that I had taken wasn't ever so accurate regarding colour and values so I had to improvise and rely on memory. I tried to keep the painting uncomplicated and concentrated on the shapes that I had noticed through the trees which had been created by the sharp contrast of light and dark values. I feel this has given the composition a strong abstract element which is what I tend to look for, especially in landscape. 

'Begonia after the Rain'

oil on canvas board

8" x 12"

Click here to buy

This begonia looked very bedraggled after a huge downpour of rain and looked extremely sorry for itself, but when the sun came out again it perked up straightaway as if taking on a new lease of life...a bit how we all feel this summer! I hope I've captured the brightness of the sun and the optimism of the plant!