Jump!

JUMP!

I usually attach a story to each picture but I think this one’s self explanatory!

This large scale painting will be part of my first solo exhibition in the Upper Gallery of Lauderdale House, Highgate 27th April - 22nd May (free entry). Come and have a look - paintings and prints for sale.

Oil and charcoal on acrylic on canvas. 100 x 120cm

Spring walk

Spring Walk

I love this walk through Hampstead Heath extension from open dappled sunlight into a wooded watery world. The flowers are an explosion of forget me nots but I got carried away so they look more like bluebells!

This painting will be for sale in my first solo exhibition at Lauderdale House Highgate from 27th April - 22nd May.

Oil on canvas 60 x 42cm

Pool chat

A very special day this week - handing my first ever oil painting over to one of its models! Corina has been a lifeguard at my local swimming pool since I started painting, and I wanted to capture the warm daily chatter between the lifeguards and swimmers. She also had a calm yet regal air sitting high up on her lifesaving throne! Since then Corina has changed lots as has her uniform, but she’s still a supportive presence in the background while we swim.

COMING SOON - Exhibition time!

Here’s my write up for my forthcoming exhibition in the Upper Gallery Lauderdale House, Highgate. Everyone is welcome to the Private view on Wednesday 26th April from 7.30 -9.30, and then every day during opening times until Monday 22nd May. Come one, come all!

Alice is an artist and actor based in North London.  Her first solo exhibition explores moments in everyday life, both human and in nature. Each picture tells a story with direct brushstrokes capturing a quality of energy and movement. 

Working primarily as a theatre actor, Alice began to seek an additional creative outlet when motherhood slowed down her touring lifestyle.   One day she began doodling with her children's crayons on a scrap of corrugated cardboard.  Having done no drawing since school she loved it, the quick choices of colour and line to capture her son's actions.  Her fine art journey had begun.  

Alice's pictures were selected for local exhibitions and arts showcases at Arts Depot, North Finchley.  Portrait commissions followed, some on the wonderfully textured corrugated cardboard. She continues to explore a wide range of techniques including left handed drawing, with which she won the Life Drawing prize at Hampstead School of Art.  

In lockdown Alice's work necessarily progressed from portraits to landscapes, mainly painting in oil.  A desire to be outside whatever the weather, led to a fascination with the changing seasons and dramatic shifting skies. This enabled her to explore the same themes of energy and movement in landscapes that had drawn her to portraiture.  She now enjoys painting both forms, seeking to capture the feeling of a particular moment in time. 

Alongside her paintings which are mainly for sale, Alice will be selling prints of other work. 

Frost Melting #2

Another go at an old painting…it looks like I posted the first version a year ago but was never quite happy with the purple frost. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a third go next year!

This will be a contender for my first solo exhibition from 26th April - 22nd May at Lauderdale House, Highgate.

Oil on canvas 60 x 42cm

Sea Spray

I’ve been painting this stormy North Wales seascape on and off for a couple of years. I started working from a photo but soon lost it in some far off web cloud.

I was interested in exploring the conflicting sky and sea, though for a while it looked like 2 separate paintings chopped across the middle. I think the sea spray helps? Also the colours are almost hyper real - this part of the world always brings shades of purple grey to mind.

Oil on canvas 76.5 x 50.5cm

THe Unfinished painting piLe

Kicking off the New Year by returning to an unfinished picture. I bet I’m not alone in having a stack of these in the studio!

Time and mood definitely change my perception of an artwork. I’d started this painting of the Duver beach on the Isle of Wight with quick fluid strokes and a large brush, but it needed a little something to draw the eye in.

Oil on canvas 42.5 x 30cm

2022 recap

A year of exploration, exasperation and inspiration in paint! Learning and mistakes in equal measure - some paintings seem to flow from the paintbrush, others provoke constant questions and seem impossible to ‘finish’. The last painting on this reel is just that (unfinished!) so as big a part of the journey as any others.n

Happy 2023 everyone - hoping for a brighter more peaceful year for everyone xx

Happy almost white christmas!

The heavy snowfall left us knee deep overnight and lasted a week. I love the transformation it brings, changing every familiar view into a muffled jumble of differently coloured whites, almost exaggerating through contrast where the small bits of light fall.

Happy almost white Christmas everyone!

Oil on canvas 80 x 60cm

For sale in Gallery sale

First SOLO ExhibItion

Really excited to have my first solo exhibition lined up next April.

Thinking about what to put in it and couldn’t think of a better way than laying out loads of paintings in the lounge! Thank you to brilliant and wise Desmond Healy (IG-@desmondhealy.art) for coming to take a look, and giving me a beginner’s guide to curation. Apparently I don’t get to put everything I’ve ever painted up!

The exhibition isn’t for a while so I have lots of time to pick my favourites and perhaps create a few more.

It’ll be in the Upper Gallery of Lauderdale House in Highgate running 27th April - 23rd May with a private view on the 26th. More details nearer the time.

Sleeping

Sleep doesn’t come easy in our house. It seems ironic that I’ve spent a particularly sleepless week painting this!

Maybe for that reason, I love the physical abandon that comes with deep sleep…a kind of suspension of a person at their least conscious?

(NB painting done with permission of sleeper! Although he did insist his 2nd favourite ted be added at the last moment so he didn’t feel left out).

For any art nerds out there I’m a bit late to the party but this is my first go at water soluble oils. Love the way they can be used as textured oil or acrylic/almost watercolour. Lots of potential.

Wednesday lunch

We had lunch in a cosy dark cafe in Hampstead. Next to us sat an elderly woman dining alone with a huge bowl of pasta and a glass of wine. She was extremely frail and small, padded by cushions and clothes - the effort of each mouthful was palpable. But this meal seemed ritualistic, almost sacred, and I found it deeply moving. Her choice to enjoy a sensory experience despite the obvious challenges of old age was inspiring.

Oil on canvas 76x51cm

For sale in Gallery Sale

Landscape quest

I seem to be on a sort of mission with landscapes. I’m so bowled over by the beauty of what I see in reality that no matter what I put down, no painting comes close to measuring up to that feeling.

When I think of other artists’ work that get closer it’s always less naturalistic, more ‘painterly’ if not completely abstract.

So here’s the latest small step in my quest - this time exploring an autumn scene using palette knife, scratching and brush on a bright pink background.

Oil on canvas 42.5 x 30 cm

For sale in Gallery Sale

Autumn painting!

Another go at autumn had to be done, but this time in my warm studio without an umbrella lodged down the front of my anorak!
Oil on canvas 30 x 42.5cm

For sale in Gallery Sale

Autumn rain

I’d planned to paint the autumn colours at Hampstead Heath with my friend Morag. We refused to let the rain stop us but did get wet in the process..as did our pictures. My drawing is very blotchy, so instead here’s a pic of the determined art making in action!

My Dad’s portrait

A year ago my dad had a dream he was standing on the stairs in his house, looking in a long mirror next to a painting of his great(x3?) grandfather. He asked me to paint it.

In keeping with Dad’s fascination with the past, this became a painting of layers and time. His study of genealogy crept in as bits of the family tree I wrote for him when I was young. The wallpaper from his house grew over parts of the image, all but obscuring the mirror. He mentioned the artists reflection in Velazquez’s ‘Las Meninas’, so in a nod to the great work, I snuck myself in, ghost style as I painted him.

Slideshow of the many stages below. It was quite a journey!

Oil on canvas 150 x 100cm

Stormy skies

No matter how sunny it is outside I keep coming back to stormy skies! I’ve now painted this scene 3 times - I love the scale, and the contrast between nature and the tiny boat. Also the hopefulness of the blue sky appearing.

Oil on canvas 76.5 x 51 x 4cm

Private view at arts depot

A while back. I went to the private view of the Arts Depot Spring Arts and Crafts showcase where my painting Maldon clouds was exhibited. I had a great time meeting local artists and makers and seeing their work.

Painting On hAmpstead HeatH

I had a lovely time painting with a group of friends from Hampstead School of Art on Hampstead Heath. We sat in front of Henry Moore’s statue looking across the lake with the top of Highgate peeking through.

I had a go at acrylics on a smaller canvas board which seemed to lead to a tighter more illustrative style.

Acrylic on canvas 30 x 22.5cm

Art on display

Fantastic to see a selection of my artworks hanging together @emscoffeelondon and a couple at @potterspantry4 .

I’m thinking I might be working up to my first exhibition. If you know of a gallery that might fit, please shout as I’m still new to all this. Em’s in Whetstone and Potters Pantry in New Barnet do the BEST coffee!