There's a lovely peaceful nature reserve near where we live complete with lake and a heron who seems to  stand motionless checking out us weirdo humans,  and when the weather is good we'll often wander there. It has become a great source of inspiration for me, I take loads of photos, then come back and paint what I see as an abstract artist. Anyway these three paintings are the result of our wanderings.

30x30cm:

30x30cm:

50x50cm:

Been flat on my back for the last week or so, what a pain in the bum, some muscle thing which is driving me a bit madder than usual ha. Anyway what with that and  the awful weather making it difficult to get a decent shot I haven't been able to post.

This is a 50 x 50cm painting which I had so much fun doing, I think I was inspired by looking at some scratchboard paintings, although the ones I saw were in black and white. Hope you can spot the animals, they all seem very clear to me but then I painted it ha.

She came from the west and sent the animals into disarray.

So called as this was the time I painted it. After laying in bed tossing and turning for hours I finally got up at 4am and painted and this was the result. So this is for all you lovely insomniacs out there. Course I'm totally knackered now  and might have to have a little afternoon snooze

Yes, I'm going slightly mad, or barking mad actually haha. This is another painting inspired by the photos I've been taking of of trees. It's on heavy paper and a mix of acrylics and ink. 20x30cm. I'm finding that I spend more and more time among the trees. Yesterday whilst out walking I saw two red squirrels chasing each other up and down a tree, it left me wishing for the energy to climb one myself and sit at the top with the birds watching the world go by

Happy me. Had a great surprise this morning. Our lovely friend Steff popped round complete with easel. First one I've had for a very long time, can't stop smiling. Thanks Steff xx

This is a detail shot of the painting sitting on my new easel. It's 40x40cm (the painting not the easel haha) and is available

This is the series "Into The Green" that evolved form the previous wip (larger images in the acrylics gallery).

Also available individually. 25x30 cm.

I was like a kid with a birthday yesterday as thanks to my good friend Rach and the very prompt delivery of boesner I finally got my hands on my beloved acrylics again. Yay. (going into boesner in Hamburg Altona as an artist reminded me of going into a sweet shop as a kid - sensory overload)

So I went to work straight away, the top 2 pics are wips and the bottom is the finished painting.

The title is - Into the Green, it was inspired by all the amazing greenery that surrounds my new home town of Hamburg.

Somewhere along the way I decided to turn it around. Here's the result:

It's great to get my hands on palette knives again. I like it so much that I've started on another couple so it may turn into a series.

I painted both of these using shoe cream, you know the little tubes with the sponges on the end (well you would do if you ever clean your shoes :) ) They were fun to do.

Hi to anyone still visiting and thanks  Since I last posted I've been pretty busy. We decided to get the hell out of Dodge after all the problems and illness, and start again. First came the removal of paintings from the struts (thanks Andrew) for easier moving,



then we sorted, packed, gave away, and finally moved to Germany.


Bavarian beer in Hamburg - Andrew says sorry but he likes drinking it.

We are now living in a tiny apartment with no room to swing a cat nevermind a large canvas and for the first time in many years I have no studio, which is why I've been working small - pen and ink - watercolours or digi. I've also been taking loads of photos as I haven't seen this many trees for years.



I've always been a bit of a tree hugger and now I have so many to choose from :)

Pen and Ink

Digi

The complexity, textures and colours of the tree barks are a constant source of inspiration to me. We shall just have to see whether my new surroundings and the local colour will find their eventuell way onto the canvas. A very different landscape colour wise to the hot bright colours I've been used to for so long.

As anyone who has followed this blog will know I rarely - if ever paint any kind of realism. Well I've been inspired on my walks to Zongor where I usually take loads of photos to paint my own version of realism. It's from one of my photos and I wanted to show the beauty of the place. there are a lot of saltpans there which I've long had a fascination for.

this is aprox 70 x50 cm and is available

This is a older painting, done in the days when I liked to use a lot of texture. I also used to collect shiny things - rather like a magpie on my walks. so this has a lot of re-purposed bits and bobs. I've resurrected it as it seems to fit perfectly with my previous post