All the Little Things

To commission a painting can feel a big leap from buying artwork already made.  How do you guarantee that the artist is on the same page as you in regards to cost, look and feel? And as an artist I feel that too. I really want you to be happy with your commission and convey the atmosphere and colour palette you had in mind. How it begins... I chat to you about the place you would like painting, the size, the colours, the season, what kind of sky it is! I may ask you for photographs, which helps see the...

It has been a long time since I have drawn a moon in pen, so the other week I did! I drew it with a view to screen printing it. I have been mulling over how to draw a crescent moon with some kind of circle background as I really loved the sphere motif. I started sketching, not really sure how it would turn out.. I knew the circle in the background would need to be dark, but I still wanted some detail. This would prove tricky to print but I didn't know that for sure yet. My first attempt...

Sometimes you decide to go for a walk and then the weather starts conspiring against you. The skies darken and the horizontal rain says hello. Sometimes you stay in, missing the open space and spending too much time on your phone. Then sometimes you think, blow it, I am going anyway.  So me and my friend grabbed our coats and went up into the hills. And it was glorious. The rain stopped on cue. Curlews, kestrels and bats! Swooped, glided and fluttered around us. Rabbits hopped and little lambs tails shook. And the skies looked like this... They made me...

This week I have been working on a commission and a smaller landscape as well as trying to finish a Whitby painting. The commission and smaller painting are both inspired by the moors. I was thinking about what draws me to these places; the open spaces, the moody skies and the warm colours of plants and heather. It isn't a chocolate box landscape, it is something wilder. There is a freedom in painting them. Whilst I have been painting I have been watching "Pretend it's a City" (yes, I paint mainly with music but sometimes with the telly on, maybe...

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you will know I ran a little competition to name my new Stoodley Pike painting. I received so many lovely suggestions that I couldn't really choose. So I asked the family that bought the painting to do so; it felt the perfect solution. They decided on "This is what it is to be happy" which I love and suited the painting really well. It is a Sylvia Plath quote and it made me think about the connection between words and pictures. With my background in illustration, stories are so important to me....