Blog

Some more mini big skies heading to the Biscuit Factory in Newcastle. Ten brand spanking new paintings all inspired by the ever changing weather up here in the North of England. Each one is finished with a bespoke St Ives style frame which has been hand painted with Little Green Slaked Lime.

In January 2021 lockdown was creating havoc with my schedule and I would find that I wouldn’t leave the house for 3-4 days and be constantly glued to my computer screen. I decided I needed another project which would give me some structure and this coincided with the start of the 100 day project which was running on Instagram.

Lockdown for me meant very little painting... in fact almost no painting at all for 3 months. So when I eventually got round to thinking about doing something this painting literally fell out of my head!

Lock down has given me the time to do a lot of jobs that have been hanging around the house. It has also given me the opportunity to play! Here I have taken a very large piece of Arches Huille to create 16 warm-up paintings in one go.

 

With lockdown now in place you may have limited paint colours available. So why not try an exercise in limiting your palette?

I find it really helps to simplify things, to avoid overthinking. All you need to have is a white, a dark colour, warm colour and a cool colour and you are all set to go. 

Because of where we are at the moment a lot of things have been cancelled or put on hold for me including a painting trip to Ireland. That didn't stop me still taking the week off work and use that time to get used to being at home but more importantly to dust off the old cellar studio space and paint.