Enid Marx

Last week I visited Warwickshire and Oxfordshire, to deliver some paintings to the Stour Gallery, Shipston-on-Stour and also to see some exhibitions. One of these was in the wonderful Compton Verney, with an excellent exhibition on Enid Marx. Not only were there lots of great paintings and textiles, but Enid's personal collection of ceramics, many of which i have in my own collection. It was very exciting and inspiring.

Secret Art For Water

I recently had two paintings in this exhibition, I was emailed by the new owner last night who is delighted to have got two paintings for £35.00 each. All pieces in the show were untitled and unsigned, and set at the same price. The exhibition was a huge success.

'Secret Art for Water is an exhibition and sale of original postcard-sized artworks in support of the Falmouth Rotary’s WASH project in Uganda. Hosted by Beside The Wave, the exhibition’s challenge is to raise £3,000 in support of this vital work. In achieving this target, the proceeds of the sale will unlock the final tranche of funding for a £124,000 project designed to bring clean water and sanitation to two Ugandan communities. This will result in improvements to health, education and economic development in two Ugandan communities.'

Nursery Ware

I have been collecting nursery ware for many years, and occasionally I have included it in a painting. A recent commission inspired me to look again at this very detailed, decorative work. Here are a few of the paintings I have done on this theme:

Penguin Music score.

Here are two paintings in a series of still life images with patterned music scores behind. The first one is just about to be published by Artists cards. These books were originally produced by Penguin and they commissioned several artists to design the front covers. I bought a number of these books last year as I was really taken with the colours and the designs. I found out later that the illustrator of this one was Stephen Russ, who taught my mum at Corsham Art School in the sixties.

Coincidence.

I recently painted a picture of a piece of Milton head pottery with snowdrops in it, for a friends 50th birthday present, I also gave her the mug which is in the painting. Unknown to me, she had also painted a similar pot with snowdrops, and hers was on a yellow table, the same as mine!

Spring flowers.

Springtime has come later than normal here due to the heavy snow. Now that the snow has finally gone, the flowers are coming up in the garden and inspiring me to paint some new still lives.
This is a lovely time of year and seeing these flowers coming through after being buried under eighteen inches of snow only a few weeks ago is a joy.

Emily Sutton and Mark Hearld.

Last weekend we visited the open studios of Mark Hearld and Emily Sutton in York. The opening was in their own house and we saw so many interesting and inspirational things. As artists, we have collected and hoarded all sorts of objects and curiosities over the years, and we immediately felt at home there. There were a lot of people looking around and almost everything had sold by lunchtime. We bought two paintings by Emily Sutton and they were quite happy for Andrew to take pictures around their house for this blog.

We are going over again on Sunday to collect the work and spend a bit more time in York, one of our favourite Cities.