Humber Valley Workshop

Thank you to all my workshop students who took that leap of faith and have worked with me learning how to paint portraits this past month with the Humber Valley Art Club. A lot was packed into the 4 Wednesdays we were together online! This is my finished demo painting. The workshop was originally planned for the spring of 2020 but due to COVID restrictions was postponed several times. Over the summer we decided to convert it to an online workshop so that it could finally go ahead without any more delays.It was lovely to be able to support and teach others again via the zoom platform. Thanks to the Humber Valley art Club for making this possible.

1st Place Pennsylvania Watercolor Society Members Exhibition

 I was delighted to receive the news that my painting 'Cookies Aint just for the Big Guy was awarded 1st places in the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society members exhibition. 

The exhibition has gone live virtually today. http://pawcs.com/Exhibits/Member-Show/member-show.html. I hope you will enjoy looking at all the paintings. Congratulations to all who entered and a special thank you to the juror Dorie Rifkin and the executive of PWS for making this exhibition possible.

The creation of the paper butterfly

I know I have been quiet over the last few weeks but I have spent this last month busily writing the first part of the book I am hoping to write and illustrate this year. I felt that I needed to have a good section of the narrative written before beginning the images so I could get a feel for the progression of feelings, colour and storyline. Last week with the first part of the story written I felt ready to begin the paintings that will accompany them. 

This will be the first  image of the book. I kept to a fairly muted colour palette for all but the paper butterfly herself as, to me, it helps to focus our eyes on her as she is introduced to us. She is , after all, the heroine of my story and sharing her creation visually with my readers will hopefully help them to connect with her too. 

This is the snippet of the beginning part of the story that I chose to illustrate: 

'The long, graceful fingers moved, turned, and folded in what felt to the Origami butterfly to be like a rhythmic dance. As she felt her Makers soft fingers lovingly form each careful fold of her wings and body, she sensed a momentary flutter deep within her folds. It almost felt as if this feeling would carry her high out of his hands and up into the air.'

It was a lot of fun bringing to life that sense of movement in the image. I chose to have just the maker's hands and not anymore because to my paper butterfly this is what she connected with and what she felt made her. She is so small that visually it then also helped me to focus in on her and yes, I spent several days learning how to make an origami butterfly too. The maker's hands were modelled by my husband. 

Happy New Year! Looking ahead to 2021

 I have decided this year to shift my creative focus away from stand alone exhibition pieces and want to write and illustrate a book. I am really looking forward to the challenge of creating a cohesive body of work that flows from one painting to the next keeping a similar style for all. I am also enjoying formulating the story in my mind that will be told through the paintings and the words that will accompany them.

My protagonist for the book will be an origami butterfly which is so fun as I actually get to create her myself so there is no need for me meet other people to get reference photos (very useful since we are back in lockdown as everything I need to do can be done from the safety of my house and garden.) My studio table  at the moment is filled with folded pieces of paper  as I learn how to create my paper butterfly and sketches of painting ideas  and excerpts of writing as I work on the first part of the story.  My studio wall is also decorated with completed 3D paper butterflies that I can use for references and just to make the room look cheerful.

Hope you all have created some fun plans for 2021 too.  Many of us may be in lockdown or needing to be home more right now but there is so much we can still do. I am probably going to mostly work on this quietly so please dont worry if you don't hear from me much. I will share the odd painting but don't want to give too much away until the book is complete.