Essex in Mayfair 2015

Thrilled to have all 3 paintings selected by Essex Art Club for their Mayfair Exhibition. PV to be opened by Ken Howard OBE.

Essex in Mayfair Exhibition

Getting ready for our annual exhibition in Mayfair. Such a lovely little gallery right in the heart of the bustling Shepherd Market in Mayfair. As our president can't make it this year our Patron Ken Howard has graciously stepped in to do the official opening for us, it's always such a pleasure to listen to him speak.

Please join us if you can, there is always a lovely varied collection of work on show and for sale, including works by John Tookey and Sidney Cardew.

Essex in Mayfair . . . .

The Essex Art Club will once again be showcasing selected works by it's members, in their Spring Exhibition at the lovely gallery in Mayfair.

Join us . . . 

54 The Gallery in Shepherd Market is a wonderful bustling little square in the centre of London, full of restaurants, unique shops and a wonderful atmosphere. 

The Exhibition will be opened by our president and renowned Artist Tom Coates, on the 24th March at 6pm.  

The Exhibition is open all week from 11:00 am until 7:00 pm, apart from Sunday 30th when it will finish and close at 4:00pm

Please come and take a look at the delightful selection of works that will be on display. Works of Art will be available to purchase, framed and unframed along with a selection of cards by the EAC artists. 

to find out more about The Essex Art club or to join our membership, please visit the website at www.essexartclub.co.uk 

Watercolour & Ink Tiger . . . " Panthera "

I've often used ink on watercolour paintings in the past , although I also love it just as it is, especially when used for architecture. Not having used it for some time I got started on it again recently after seeing a wonderful pen and wash "Helping Hands" by a member of Painting Friends forum, Sharon Williams. which you can see by following the links in the text.

What grabbed me most about Sharon's painting was how it wasn't the typical "Ink & Wash" that is too often a watercolour painting outlined neatly with an Ink pen. While there is nothing wrong with that, I just loved the way the wash overran the lines into other areas and how that gave Sharon's work that painterly look that really appeals to me.

 This is my attempt at a different take on "pen & wash"
 "Panthera"

So out came the ink ... and a straw....
                                      The initial attempts resulted in the painting "I belong to Africa" which you can see in an older post by clicking on the linked title. Although I loved that painitng and thoroughly enjoyed painting it, I still wanted a more randomness to the ink work. This is where those odd workshops and lessons come into use, the ones you don't always immediately use afterwards, but the parts that appealed and inspired seem to sit in the back of your mind just waiting.

 I had taken a short watercolour and Ink course at the local adult education center a few years back, a very enjoyable course run by a talented teacher, but never really used much of what I had learnt. The one thing I enjoyed the most was the use of other implements for the ink work, giving up a bit of control may be scary sometimes but it can have some wonderful effects and becomes part of what goes towards making a painting "yours".
 

  *** The Original painting will be on Exhibition and for sale at the  ***

  * Redbridge Arts Association Summer Exhibition  *

  *  at the Dovecote Gallery  *

* Valentines Mansion, Emerson Road, Ilford, Essex.  IG1 4XA  *

* from 2nd Jul-30th Jul  *

  ***   

Selected for Mayfair Art Exhibition

I'm absolutely thrilled to have had three paintings selected Essex Art Club and to be showing in Mayfair again. I have been busy doing various things of late, but this is one exhibition I do my utmost to enter. The Essex Art Club is one of the two Art Societies I belong too, a wonderful inspiring and friendly organisation

Above are the three paintings that were selected. These will be for sale along with some unframed original paintings in the browser. In a while I'll be off to help hang the Exhibition, another experience I'm very much looking forward too. Do try and get along to see the exhibition during next week if you are in London, it's a lovely gallery with a varied collection of contemporary and fine art. See previous post for details.

 A very special thanks to both  Steve Evans and Rita Willaert  for the use of their wonderful photographs as ref for the portraits.  Please take some time and enjoy browsing through their work. 

Essex in Mayfair ... Art Exhibition

Essex Art Club
Patron: Ken Howard OBE, RA, RWS, ROI, RBA, Hon NEAC
President Tom Coates: RP, PPPS, PPRBA, PPNEAC, RWS, ROI

Presents it's 114th Art Exhibition.

Selected works of art by the members of the Essex Art Club.

 

 www.essexartclub.co.uk

The Essex Art Club is a long standing society having the who's exhibiting members having included artists such as Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Frank Brangwyn and Sir Alfred Munnings.

SOLD...SOLD...SOLD...

......and just when I though it couldn't get any better...

..Having just spent a lovely long weekend staying with my dear friend Jaytee in the gorgeous market town of Kington in Herefordshire, where we went 3 days on a life workshop which had a wonderful teacher who was extremely inspiring...I come back to the news that I'd sold the remaining paintings that were selected into the Essex in Mayfair Exhibition. Well what a phone call that was, I'm still taken aback by it. I've never sold all work in an exhibition before so needless to say, am thrilled to bits. 

For the first this year, if we had work selected , we were also able to sell our cards as well. Apparently I sold quite a few, so another added bonus.

It's very hard to describe the feeling you get when you sell a painting, and the inspiration that brings with it, to want to grab your brushes and paint more, there really is nothing like it.  Now I need to get working on the next collection amongst other things. We have the Ilford Art Society "Art on the Railings" on September 15th, so lots to do.

I really would like to say a very big thank you to all the people who have purchased any of my work, and to my partner for the support in allowing me the time to live my dream.

Hidden Tears ...SOLD

SOLD at PV of Essex in Mayfair...

Monday I spent a most wonderful evening at the opening preview of the Essex in Mayfair Exhibition. I really enjoy these occasions as it's a chance to chat with lots of other fellow artists, catch up on what they've been doing and how they are getting on. There is such a wide variety of artists working in various mediums and subjects, means the work is so interestingly different, always making for great topics of discussions. 

The exhibition was opened by Tom Coates, as our president Ken Howard is away. Tom is a wonderful artist and a very entertaining gentleman all round. He chose a wonderful landscape painting of London which was awarded the Ken Howard prize, and the rest of the evening we tested the wine of course and admired the art work on display. 

I was thrilled towards the end of the evening to have sold one of my paintings. The highlight for me being to actually meet the buyer. I'm always intrigued to know where the paintings are going, what appeals to them about it, why they want to buy it. On this occasions I chatted with the lovely young lady for quite some time which was thoroughly enjoyable. We talked about the collection I was working on "Children of the World", what grabbed me to paint these children in the first place,  the emotions I was trying to get across to the viewer and why, which she totally understand having the same love for Africa. It was really so wonderful to talk with her.

 "Hidden Tears" part of the Children of the World collection

 The Exhibition is still open until Sunday

54 The Gallery

Shepherd's Market

London

W1J 7QX

Mayfair Exhibition...

3 paintings selected for Essex in Mayfair....

    Each year the Essex Art Club put on a summer exhibition and the last few years, along with this one, it has taken place in a beautiful little gallery amongst the bustling streets of restaurants and cafe's in Mayfair, London. Members are invited to submit up to three paintings for selection process and I was thrilled to have had all three selected again this year, along with 5 unframed mounted originals. 

Ken Howard is the president and usually honours us with opening the Exhibition. This year unfortunately he can't be with us, but we are fortunate to have the very talented Tom Coates stand in for him. It's full of a mix of wonderful artist work where most is for sale.

 54 The Gallery

Shepherd's Market

London

W1J 7QX 

It really is a lovely place filled with so much atmosphere. Do try to visit if you are in the area. It is open from 11am - 7pm apart from the last day when it closes at 4pm. nearest tube Green Park Station