exhibitions, painting, printmaking

Summer

 

After some time on the canal, I’m spending this month travelling around in the van, fitting in family events along the way. I’ll be sketching as I go, so will hopefully be posting as I can, or more likely catching up here later in August.

Currently I have work on display still in Northern Ireland until the end of the month, and was really delighted to receive the award of ‘ Highly Commended Whole Submission’ from the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists for all three Fieldwork prints,  currently on display as part of the Friends Exhibition at the RBSA gallery in Birmingham until the 16th July.

image

image

 

More about the inspiration and the making of the prints here and here.

 

My pastel painting ‘the pathless wood’ has been selected for the Weston Park national open art exhibition, showing for the month of August in the Granary Gallery. When I started exhibiting two years ago, this was the first gallery to accept my work. I was very pleased to receive their support then and now, a great confidence-booster and a fabulous exhibition to visit.

the pathless wood, 2015, 75cm x 37cm, pastel
the pathless wood, 2015, 75cm x 37cm, pastel
painting

the pathless wood

‘the pathless wood’.

The title is a reference to a line from ‘Birches’, a poem by Robert Frost.

..when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood..
When life feels like that, I go for a walk, usually in the woods nearby. This painting started as a watercolour sketch in one of my sketchbooks that I developed as a woodcut print. I then revisited it last year as a large pastel. I kept the 2:1 height to width format throughout.
'the pathless wood', 2015, 75cm x 37cm, pastel
‘the pathless wood’, 2015, 75cm x 37cm, pastel

From sketchbook to finished pastel painting:

 

 

 

 

 

exhibitions, painting

Exhibitions June/July 2015

Over the winter, I spent some time trying to force a reconciliation between the work I do as a printmaker and the work I do as a painter. Both start from direct observation and resultant sketchbook work. But then they diverge.

In my printmaking, I tend to work from a monochrome start, and get very interested in form, pattern and composition, mostly inspired by urban landscapes around me, often reflected and distanced in some way. My painting tends to the experimental in mixed media, inks, colour and pastel, inspired by landscapes with which I have a personal relationship.

There are many ways we create blocks to our creativity. This is one of mine. The pursuit for consistency, a ‘voice’, whatever you want to call it. So, I’ve decided to be more relaxed generally about any perceived ‘split’ in subject and media. All reflect my interests, all resolve well (or sometimes don’t) in the different media and processes involved. I get a lot of satisfaction and pleasure from both printmaking and painting. Maybe some day they’ll come together, maybe they won’t… in the meantime, I’ll keep sketching and exploring wherever my fancy takes me.

I have work in exhibitions in three countries this summer. Very exciting, and great to be able to connect with other artists both locally and elsewhere.

Three linocut miniprints (10cm x 10cm) are on display in June and July at the Kazanlak International Miniprint in Bulgaria

Mill_Fiona_Reflections1

Mill_Fiona_Reflections2

Mill_Fiona_Reflections3

 

A mixed media painting, ‘river meadow’ has been selected for the RBSA Friends’ exhibition at the RBSA Gallery in Bormingham, on show until 12th July.

'river meadow', mixed media
‘river meadow’, mixed media

‘oystercatchers in flight’, a 10cm x 10cm woodcut print will be on display next weekend at the Groundfloor Gallery in Brooklyn, NY.

Oystercatchersinflight
oystercatchers in flight, 10cm x 10cm, woodcut

 

‘In the middle, deep’, a mixed media painting, has been accepted for the Tabernacle Art exhibition, now showing at MOMA Wales in Machynlleth until September.

in the middle, deep
‘in the middle, deep’, 30cm x 20cm, inks, watercolour & pastels