Looking back on the year I can see that I’ve painted some excellent artwork, although I only had one commission to do for a client living in Derbyshire, who spent three hours in the car coming to collect the artwork, an hour with me, and a three hour journey back home again, and said it was worth it… Wonderful praise indeed for my artwork, and it illustrated beautifully how happy they were with it.. !!
The first painting of the year in January was of ‘Petit Bot, Guernsey’ after visiting Guernsey for the first time over Christmas last year and falling in love with it, this painting was painted in acrylics on paper I used three photos that I took whilst I was there to create this wonderful panoramic effect, I adore seascapes and feel this painting picked up the essence of Guernsey totally.
And later on in the year I did another Guernsey painting, this one of ‘Fermain Bay, Guernsey’ after having the chance to visit Guernsey again at Easter, again this painting was painted in acrylics on paper, and I adore that bluey turquoise sea, the soft horizon and the trees in the foreground and all their fine branches adding interest to the painting were quite difficult to capture…. not helped by the fact I was working from one photo, that had two benches in it, and I only wanted to paint one of them, and that one had people sitting on it, which I knew would detract from the view beyond, so I took them out using artistic licence of course….. I absolutely adore this painting!
I also painted ‘Unrequited love’ in February as I wanted to paint an enigmatic painting in an old fashioned style with the people wearing richly luxurious fabrics so again acrylics were the perfect medium as I could build up the layers, and again this one is painted on paper.
It was nice to be asked in August for prints of Repton for someone who had been married there and wanted them as anniversary gifts, they wanted ‘Old Priory, Repton’, and ‘The Arch, Repton’ and I was delighted they went off to make someone happy, I was brought up in Repton (Derbyshire) so I have many happy memories of that place too.
And in October I painted ‘Godinton garden’ after a visit there in August, and loved the Italianate gardens of Godinton House (near Ashford, Kent) best of all as my painting of it involved every part of a garden that I love the best – walled garden, stone statues, steps, bench, brick outbuilding, trees, shrubs, flowers, a rill and central fountain.. And again I used acrylics on paper to paint it. I adore this painting.. its so very appealing…
And the last painting of the year I finished just in time for the Christmas break, ‘The sisters of faded dreams’ is again in acrylics on paper (you could never tell that I used to hate painting in acrylics and couldn’t see the point, but now I use them more than any other medium!). This fantasy painting is a quirky one capturing the shared memories of two sisters, and their faded dreams of their past, where they used to live, but with so many fantasy aspects of the flower petals blowing in the breeze, and them standing in water, there was every aspect of landscape here, castles in the air, stone towers, steps, trees, grassy banks, water, and sky, its certainly a quirky painting! And again, I love this one too!!
So I am delighted with the artwork and what I have captured this year…
