One year on..... shocking!!!

I was shocked and ashamed to find i hadn't written any blogs for a year!!   Such a long time, so I will have NO followers at all now and start from scratch...WELL...that will do me good and teach me a lesson!

So much has changed!  The inspiring short trip to Iona fuelled my love of Scottish scenery and i have continued to paint Iona and get my work back into the top Scottish galleries again.  Sales are naurally slow but a lot of patience - I am learning a lot of that lately!..... and hard work will prevail!

Our lovely house is on the market as we plan to downsize, stay in Scotland a bit longer, and get outselves 'straight' for our retirmenet...in fact my first pension payment is due in the bank account this very week!!

Please join this blog and watch my new phase in life, making the paint talk.  the new book is out and will keep the Pastels alive, but I am also pursuing my oils this year, as well as pastures new.  Fewer workshops now, none at home, but the challenges are great, and good for the soul - just need a buyer for the house!!

Here is the house, as we try to sell it...the garden is looking fantastic!   And one of the recent Iona paintings, this one featuring soon in Artists & Illustrators Magazine.
Preparing for my 2nd USA trip this weekend - off to teach at Hudson River Valley Workshops, followed by Bainbridge Island Seattle, then Dakota Pastels Mt Vernon WA, before flying back to Atlanta to see my son and fiancee, and celebrate 40th Wedding Anniversary with Malcolm!!  Yep - that's me slowing down!!

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!

January themes of Amish

SHAME ON ME!    The blog seems to end up last on the list as I update FB pages first with new work.  however this site gives me a chance to mention my 'theme' for January, which was about starting and finishing some of the wonderful Amish themes I've had brewing in my mind since being in PA last year.  It is an area I love, as it's so fertile, green, rustic and peaceful, and you can feel the pace of life slowing right down, especially when you take the route we took, from NY then to NJ then into PA...I could feel the tensions slipping away, the nearer we got to Millheim!

So here are the first two paintings from my new Amish Collection.  There will be more USA themes this year, as I am delighted to say I have been invited to have an exhibition of my work at the Elements Gallery near Denver COlorado, while I am teaching at Terry Ludwig's Studio in November...what a thrill.  So watch out for red rocks and rugged scenery coming up next!!  We are nearly into February, and I am just cranking up the gears!!

New Gallery ....new exposure?

Been contacted by Eliza The Gallery and put 10 paintings on to their website - let's hope they are as good as they say they are and can sell some work to their corporate clientele....definitely where the money seems to be at the moment.

I am SURE there are lots of office/ boardrooms with space on the walls for some of my BIG pieces..like this one!!  40 x 28"...can do bigger if need be!  This is 'Ice Flow Glencoe"   It's in Aberfeldy Gallery right now!

A ridiculous amount has passed since my last post which proves i have been neglecting this blog, but here are some Australian demos I did recently ( and sold!) during my Pastel Workshop Tour there...we travelled from Perth to Sydney, Hunter Valley, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne then Tasmania, and over 5 weeks saw some amazing places, met fascinating people and enjoyed some sunshine before heading home to Scottish winter...but we love it!

New Year resolution no.1...to write more on the blog, especially as it will keep you updated on what's being written simultaneously in the new book!!

Up up and away ....again!!

I cannot believe where the summer has gone...it is August already and I am packing the pastel box again in preparation for flying to USA today....  first to Christina Debarry's Studio in NJ, then to Millheim PA, then up to Hudson River Valley Workshops...  after this, fly out to COlorado to Terry Ludwig's Studio then finish at the PSA in NYC!   The Heilman Field Box will be well used by the time I get back and I will be ready to restock it with fresh stock...probably some new TL pastels while I am within grabbing distance of the factory!  Watch this space for some of the demos, or see my page on Facebook!