Recently I've been trying to bring a little more colour into my work, it could be a result of the wonderful weather we've been having, but whatever it is I am enjoying it! The paintings featured above are a series of 20cm x 20cm wooden panels I've been working on over the last few months.
I've just completed an intensive 12 week art course entitled CVP, which stands for the Creative Visionary Programme run by the American artist Nicholas Wilton. Within the program there were weekly tasks set and group calls, themes such as artists' mindset, tone, value and of course, colour were covered. These more colourful artworks were created during this course and are more experimental for me.
The painting on the left is inspired by a beautiful sundress my Mum used to wear during the long summers of the early '80's. She made the sundress herself, I remember the unusual fabric with faded organic shapes, stripes and notes of pretty pinks and blues. Of course, this is just a memory now as the sundress is no more, but in someways that allowed me more freedom with the design. The final painting is called 'Candy Sundress'; resemblance to a bag of Liquorice Allsorts is to blame for that one!
On a recent visit to see my Mum, who still lives in the house where I grew up in Upholland in Lancashire, I went through her stash of old sewing patterns and there it was! The 'Style' pattern - an absolute treasure of a design. See above the painting in it's middle stages and to the right, the collage papers I made to incorporate the brighter colours.
'Coniston' seen above, is based on distant memories of visits to The Lake District. This painting incorporates a new technique of layering paint and sanding back, I also used painted collage papers to add pops of colour and form. The picture above left is the painting in it's first stage before it was sanded back and then collaged. Above right is a detail of the painting hanging in Two Tree Gallery in Rectory Grove. To keep the paintings looking like a series, I've had them all framed in the same white floating frames which I order online from a brilliant company called Forest Frames UK. I have also added cold wax to the surface of the paintings, something I discovered through CVP, which gives them a beautiful subtle sheen.
I've added all these paintings to my website now so it's job done and I'm now wondering what is going to happen next!
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Thank you for reading!