Feast of Irish Colour

Monica Boyle Falacies of Hope VI

Yesterday I was delighted to discover the Barbara Stanley Gallery on Connaught Street which shows Irish contemporary art. What a find. I recognise some of the artists and loved seeing lots of Irish landscapes, as my own dissertation at university was on Irish landscape art. The soft atmospheric colours in some of the paintings are typically Irish with the good old Atlantic weather fronts blowing in - usually bringing rain!
I was struck by the rich glowing colours in Monica Boyle and Cormac O'Leary's paintings.

Looking forward to seeing more Irish art in future shows at this Gallery, especially having had a warm welcome from the owner.

Cormac O'Leary All Soul's Night

First painting sold

I've been experimenting with inks and oil pastels in my Jasmine series over the past few months. I've loved layering sumptuous colours in different media in dozens of studies.

Huge jasmine flowers suspended in water become surreal floating landscapes with depth.

I've sold my first finished Jasmine painting, after many many studies and it's gone to a lovely home in Belfast! 

Pontobosio Mist

I've enjoyed playing with ink in the last few days, remembering atmospheric walks in Italy at new year. Now I'm back in London, it's fun to recreate my own abstract version of the morning mist-covered mountains that were all around us, near a village called Pontobosio.  Here's a small selection: 

Cloud Collage

Panicale, Italy

As we get to the tail-end of the summer, and inspired by my trip to Italy, I'm in the mood to make a cloud collage of my pics from different countries. 

Here it is...... all going on my Cloudtastic board on Pinterest. 

Tao Fong Shan, Hong Kong

Gotland 1

Chongqing, China

Gotland 3

Gotland 2

Dali, China

Tuscany studio

Not many jewellers get to go on holiday and find a bench has been set up, with stunning views across the hills.

liked the knot of wood on the edge which worked well as a bench peg

I did a few hours of filing in the best studio space ever, looking out across the valley at Panicale. Was relaxing to do a bit of work - followed by sunbathing, then eating, then a bit more work.

Wouldn't mind working from a hilltop studio in the future.

It's easy to work when you have views like this.....

Italy mountainscapes

Just back from Tuscany and the two weeks have been chillout time - and pretty productive too. We had a big art studio set up for kids and adults. Some varied creative approaches to painting! 

I did some paint play, using my Chinese brushes (and a bit of salt) and 

am happy with these dramatic little pieces. It's just fun to have a go.