A post by Jess, @jess.gale.art reminded me that our series of Landscape Artist of the Year was filmed around now.
I think my day in Liverpool was exactly 3 years ago today.
Those iconic buildings eh?
But I did love the cobbles on the dock too.
It’s a full-on day and a great experience. I didn’t produce a particularly finished piece of work but I enjoyed every second of the LAOTY learning curve.
There were good chats with The Judgementals as well as interested passers by including a trio of absolutely lovely women who stopped by to watch progress. Whoever you are and if there’s any chance you see this ladies, a great big Thank You as it was, and is, so nice to have a bit of encouragement 🤗
@storyvaultfilms team were great, and luckily when I’m mega-nervous 😳 I appear quite calm 😌…
which was useful.
Here’s wishing this year’s artists a great day with perfect weather 🤞
#laoty #throwbackthursday #pleinair #liverpool #landscapeartistoftheyear
I’m excited to be showing my drawing ‘Midsummer Oak’ in the Pensychnant Conservation Centre Open Art Exhibition.
A big Thank you to the selectors 🌳
Now looking forward to a nice little road trip from Staffordshire to the North Wales coast to deliver it.
‘Midsummer Oak’
Polychromos coloured pencils on Fabriano paper.
Framed @ironbridgefinearts
@artglass_by_groglass
Also shown is the beautiful Arts and Crafts house where the exhibition is held.
‘All proceeds from the exhibition go towards the upkeep and development of Pensychnant, and the conservation of its habitats and wildlife’
@pensychnant
#pensychnantconservationcentre #conwy #oaktree #drawing #visitwales
My watercolour, ‘Bluebells and a Pheasant Moon’ is on display in Nantwich Museum as part of Nantwich Open Art Exhibition.
There are 70 pieces selected including drawing, painting,textiles sculpture and ceramics with a shared theme of Heritage.
It’s interesting to see many interpretations on this idea, mine being a plate that I love, (‘Asiatic Pheasant’) from my grandmother who used to work in the potteries and paired with bluebells possibly my *favourite wild flower.
* but you can’t have just one can you?
What with snowdrops, primroses.. and now the honeysuckle’s in the hedgerows.
Ps After carefully painting the plate design the act of painting those bluebells over it freehand was a challenge.
Lots of staring and breath holding to make sure I placed them where I intended. 😳
@nantwichmuseum
Nantwich Museum
Pillory Street
Open Tues-Sat
10-4
*Exhibition ends June 20th*
#bluebells #nantwich #watercolour #forsale #cheshire
I love a good hawthorn hedge and last year, inspired to draw one I took my oil pastels out to try and capture the essence of a beautiful May day.
I remember that it was so hot my oil pastels melted but I love the effect created by the brushstroke-like marks.
I’ve recently made another study of a different hawthorn hedge and realise that in both I really enjoyed seeing the light that shines through it, especially the gaps at the base.
As it says in my bio “I love to draw the detail and the spaces in between”
‘One Day in May. Hawthorn and Lilac.’ 2025
Oil pastel on 300gsm paper
Unframed
Seen here slightly cropped courtesy of IG
#oilpastel #gardenforwildlife #hawthorn #pleinair #may
‘Thirty-Six Pieces from a Staffordshire Garden’ is currently to be seen in the Brampton Museum and Gallery, selected for the 2026 Open Art and Craft Exhibition.
Featuring some of the many pieces pieces of blue transferware I’ve found over the years in the garden this piece of work set in motion a series of drawings and paintings which celebrate these small fragments of ceramic confetti, discarded by previous occupants.
‘Thirty-Six Pieces from a Staffordshire Garden’
watercolour, gouache and coloured pencil
Stonehenge 300gsm paper
Frame @ironbridgefinearts
Glass @artglass_by_groglass to cut down reflection and UV.
Available £600
There’s just one week left to see this beautifully curated Open Exhibition which closes next weekend.
#availableart #worksonpaper #staffordshire #heritage #watercolour
‘A Day in May’
Gouache and coloured pencil.
I love May.
I love the hedgerows with the fresh greens and white of cow parsley and hawthorn. I’m rather obsessed with hawthorn… 🤍 it’s a challenge to paint though.
I think that this one is finished and will be my submission to the open opportunity collaboration with @auto___amor
@johnmartingallery
@spiritstudios_suffolk @thewildlifetrusts
🌿🤍🌿🤍🌿🤍🌿🤍
#ADayInMay #Hawthorn #landscape #wildlife #blossom
The latest moss drawing is finished and framed.
No china pieces with this one, simply a larger circle of moss, rather like a planet I thought.
The seedlings, which I think are nettle emerged during the drawing process. Interesting to see these miniature ‘trees’ appear in the landscape.
Half way through the drawing I placed it outside so that it could have a breather and take advantage of the rain.
Overnight a bird decided to forage for building materials and had a rummage around in one area (lower left) which I tried to pat back in place. I’m almost certain it was the blackbird which at that time was building in the holly a few yards away.
This patch remained more chaotic than the rest and I wish I had actually drawn it as it was, strewn around and kicked about, rather than trying to put it back in its place.
Because that is the story.
The bird needed it and spotted a handy supply. 🐦⬛
‘Moss with Seedlings’
Polychromos coloured pencils on Fabriano paper.
Framed by @ironbridgefinearts
@artglass_by_groglass
#drawing #colouredpencils #polyychromos #worksonpaper #moss
@fabercastelluk
🔹The exhibition ‘New. Now. Next’ in the Chancellors building at Keele University ends April 26th.
“Midsummer Oak”
Polychromos coloured pencils on Fabriano 300gsm paper.
A portrait of the oak tree that stands beside the gate to the garden.
The foliage is a fresh olive green in spring and a patch of warm golds and browns in autumn. It feeds the squirrels, the jays, nuthatches and numerous others.
I’m interested in the scale of it, the grandeur over the gate and the bird table.
My work documents the everyday, the detail and the spaces in between: the negative spaces where the sky can be seen through the branches, the light and the dark.
With this drawing I found myself drawing the sky around and within the silhouette as I edged my way into the tree.
In a previous ‘process’ post @mennaangharad commented that by my drawing the sky and patches of light through the tree rather than the actual shape I was ‘feeling’ the shapes so that the tree was revealing itself, which is absolutely right Menna.
Framed, as always, by @ironbridgefinarts using @artglass_by_groglass
The Three Counties Exhibition submissions are open now.
@artskeele
#drawing #oaktree #availableart #staffordshire #treelover
A really enjoyable evening at Keele University celebrating 30 years of The Three Counties Open Art Exhibition.
There is an exhibition ‘New Now Next’ of new work by some of the artists who participated last year and I’m thrilled to be included in this.
‘New Now Next’ in the Chancellor’s Building ends April 26th.
Submissions for this year’s Three Counties Exhibition are now open.
A small selection of artwork from ‘New Now Next’ -
‘Lingering Mist on a Sunlit Morning’
@cgcole52
‘It’s the hope that keeps us here’
@peterdavis_art
‘Deep See’
@sallyfitchard
‘A Burrow of Books’
@rty_creations
‘Solar Bloom’
@bernadetta_dziubinski
Huge thanks Deb and Kerry @artskeele
#staffordshire #cheshire #shropshire #openart #affordableart
Bluebell season.
Just the one, in a small bottle found in the garden and with a piece of china (also unearthed) which also has bluebells.
#polychromos #drawing #colouredpencils #bluebell #staffordshirepottery
