Using a muted palette, focussing on the placement of warms and cools within the picture frame and trying to find interesting ways to link them up.

Back to a muted palette for this one - really focussing on the placement of warms and cools within the picture frame and trying to find interesting ways to link them up…

Boy did I do battle with this one! I think I won in the end though but it was hard fought! Love the colour scheme here - it’s quite unusual. Inspired by a beautiful bunch of flowers given to me at the end of a day of teaching ‘flower painting’ at Micklem’s Farm.

Focussing on keeping separate areas of warm and cool colours…with the greens and blues in a kind of ‘spider’ shape and the pinks and purples grouped together and dotted around.

My paintings are so affected by the shape of the brush I choose to use - you can tell this one was done primarily with a flat brush (my favourites for sure!)

An intentionally unusual colour scheme for this one. I got 2/3 the way through it and thought - STOP RIGHT THERE! I liked it just as it was so resisted the temptation to continue.

When I work as muted as this it gets me itching to use more colour next time!

The name felt ‘apt’ for this one - like you could spiral round the roses then slide around the jug sitting in your hessian bag!

I’m excited to be exhibiting at ‘Art in the Park’ in Leamington Spa this summer. Please do stop by and say hello!

I love the turquoise and green in the pale pink rose that is next to the neck of the vase. It’s interesting how often turquoise can be subbed for pink, and visa versa, without it looking odd. I think it’s because tonally they are often the same.

If life drawing has taught me anything- it’s to work instinctively and be prepared to fail - often. It’s demanding and hard to get it ‘right’, so i’ve got used to trying and failing, it doesn’t worry me so much anymore, which frees me up to take risks and be more adventurous.

Working to a specific colour palette on top of a ‘bubble wrap printed board! - can you spot it ??!

Two things I love: jugs and coloured glass! It’s so lovely to be able to use them in my paintings…and a good excuse to buy more !!

What it really important with animal portraits is: where and when to stop overnight. You can see here that it was important to get the edges of the animals blended with the background before I let it dry overnight, these joins must be done wet into wet to make the animal sit IN its background and not ON it.

‘Pretty Kitties’ are the hardest kind of animal portrait to get right in my opinion…but what a stunner she is!

Here are my attempts and painting from the reference photos below…have a go yourself - see what workshops are available.

5-35 minute drawings and paintings from life. It’s not just about copying what you see - you’re also trying to create the illusion of movement, mood, balance, weight and tension.

Testing how far I could push the colour boundaries but have it still say ‘Daffodil’!

Using Daffodils as my inspiration again. Starting with chaos and bringing it towards order.

Trying to keep the jug kind of camouflaged!