Art Week Bonanza!

Back in the summer I decided to book a week off work and have an 'Art Week', where all I did was art and nothing else. I often find it hard to get a new project going as I feel I've always got so many other things to get done first, so my art week was a chance to just focus on art with no guilt about having to do anything else and finally do some paintings, some of which I have been wanting to do for years!

This is what I made!

Hello! - acrylic on canvas
By far my favourite painting from art week is this one of a very vocal sheep I decided to call 'Hello!'. It is from a photo I took a couple of years ago on a walk up Cwm Idwal in Snowdonia. This windswept sheep was standing on a big rock calling out down the valley and it was such a great dramatic scene I knew instantly I wanted to paint it some day. I tried to keep a looser style with this to keep the wild and windy feel, which was hard for me because I'm so picky about details! But I love how it turned out and it is one of my all time favourite things I've ever made.

Steps to the Castle -
​acrylic on canvas
This is painting was also done from a photo I took a few years ago whilst out walking, this time up to Dinas Bran Castle near Llangollen in North Wales. That day was the first time I went painting outside and I painted 'Dinas Bran Arches', 'Dinas Bran from the Panorama' and 'Purple Trees'. I came upon this view on my way up to castle and really wanted to paint it but I knew I wouldn't be able to do it how I wanted to in such a short space of time. I took a photo knowing I would paint it one day and I'm glad I waited because I love how it turned out. This was one of those paintings where I could see it in my head and then it ended up looking completely different! I love it though and my Mum tells me it is the best painting I've ever done, which is the best compliment you can get!

Weather coming in - acrylic on canvas
This is a painting that seems to divide opinion. Personally I love it and I think visually it is one of the coolest things I've painted, but I have noticed that it doesn't get the same enthusiast reaction from some people that most of my other paintings get. I do think it is one of those pieces that is more impactful in person as I think some of the scale is lost when just viewing it on a screen. It was done from a photo I took about five or six years ago of a fishing boat off the coast of the Isle of Arran being chased by an oncoming downpour. It was such brilliant cinematic scene, and I have been wanting to paint it ever since. Even if other people don't like it as much as I do I think it's great and the little boat has little seagulls bothering it which is my favourite bit! 

Bee on Pink Lavender 1, 2 and 3 - acrylic on canvas
This little trio were done from photos I once took of bees on the beautiful pink lavender bush I used to have in my garden. The photos were full of layers and depth; lots of out of focus flowers in the foreground and blurry backgrounds and I wanted to recreate that in these paintings. It was quite a challenge painting the out of focus parts as I am almost hardwired to put lots of detail in and leaving it 'unfinished' in places was torture! I do think I am getting better at loosening up when painting though, which is something I really want to accomplish in the future, if only so I can get my paintings finished a little quicker!

Sweet Nectar (chalk pastel and coloured pencil on brown paper)
​and Bird on the Brambles (watercolour)
These two pictures weren't actually done during art week but they were done during the summer. I made them specifically for an open art exhibition at Ty Pawb in Wrexham. The theme was 'Growing Together' and I  didn't have anything to enter that really fit so I decided to create a coupe of little pieces.

'Sweet Nectar' was done whilst watching the bees on the white lavender in my garden, and 'Bird on the Brambles' is a watercolour of a photo I took on the coast path in Cornwall. I haven't been able to identify what bird it was but it was very tuneful.