Just a quick visit!

This July, I took my mother on a surprise birthday visit to Iona, just for an overnight stay, as she had not been there for years and it means a lot to her with her church connections.  I didn't plan much painting as we would be travelling around on the journey there and back, but as I had special permission to take the car on the island, I did thankfully take my Heilman Pastel box and a few boards...phew i AM glad i did!
Apart from the inspiration for taking lots of photos to paint from later, the ability to be able to do quick plein-air sketching was invaluable, and the sketches quickly grew into full scale paintings as soon as I returned home to the studio
Here are a few paintings completed since that overnight journey, and there's still quite a few in the 'pipeline' of my brain, churning away and just waiting for the chance to seize the moment!!
So - moral of the story?....... always be prepared!  Even the slightest, quickest, scribbliest offering can be used in the artist's brain to create something wonderful, and memorable, and hopefully sellable too!

A long gap of creativity

It's been a long gap since writing on this blog but my writing skills have been focused entirely on the new pastel book which will be released next March 2014
However it has made me realise that, once 'the engines get going, it is difficult to stop!'
As a tutor, there are always things to say, point to make, demo's to show, and this blog makes use of this, hopefully without turning into verbal d......a!
I've just had a week of getting back to painting, and delighted to see that, just like riding the proverbial bike, the inspirations are flowing again and my head is full of ideas for painting, including a few more book ideas too!
My workshops in UK next year will be different & exciting.  Instead of being in my studio, I am claiming my space back, and transferring the workshops to the Duchally Country Club nearby where we will have more space, different inspirations, and fewer dates available.  There will also be a residential painting week, which follows a 3-night Scottish Highland trip, offering the ultimate chance to sketch outdoors in the Highlands, then paint in a lovely studio back in Perthshire at Duchally, with further day trips around the locations of central Scotland
Keep in touch with our new plans - there are more - including an exciting vist from Tony Allain to teach a 3-day Pastel Workshop, full of imagination & inspiration
It has done me good to have this 'different' year, putting art to paper for sharing...I hope you will all enjoy the outcome, and the new creativity I have to offer for 2014!