It’s the day before Hampshire Open Studios goes live and for us it’s been a busy day emptying out the studio, taking everything off the walls and then putting up the new collection.
Over the last few months my main focus has been trying to capture this hot summer in the local landscape; light on the drying out fields or on the sparkling rivers and the lovely sight of cattle grazing in fields or looking quizzically at me as I take endless reference photos of them.
I’m usually told that my work is very eclectic; with lots of different styles. This time I have made a conscious effort to create something cohesive in theme, style and size.
After my stint as a wedding artist in June I was inspired to paint more quickly, after realising that the quick sketches I did on that one intense day were often more interesting than ones I spent hours over. I feel as if in the last few weeks I have been painting with more confidence and freedom; and my most recent paintings have even felt like the sort of paintings I have always wanted to paint, if that makes sense.
That said, when I put them on the wall today I felt nervous. Although I felt I had an intuitive sense of direction when I did them, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will be popular with visitors!
Martin was a great help hanging the paintings and we were ruthless in not including everything. I now wish I’d invested in some professional framing services to get the absolute most out of each one, rather than leaving them raw around the sides.
So the studio is ready, the signs are up and there are boxes of really lovely merchandise from ‘Wraptious” printed with my artwork all ready to be set up for sale tomorrow.
Even more exciting, my website is nearly ready to re-launch and I am absolutely bowled over by the work Anna Lambert has done re-vamping it. We had some nail-biting moments today trying to get the shop functioning correctly but that is all working now (touch wood) and soon people will be able to buy directly art from there as well as booking onto courses and reading blogs and watching podcasts and videos! It’s so exciting!
Meanwhile we need to get a good night’s sleep before it all kicks off in the morning!
Hampshire Open Studios runs from Saturday 16th August till Bank holiday Monday on 25th August. There are over 300 venues open across the county and all are free for visitors to visit. Look out for the pink signs!
