What’s New?

With Open Studios North Fife 2025 fading to a distant memory, it feels like the start of a new painting year and it seems like a good time to take stock of where I am in relation to the development of my craft. The experience of putting together the exhibition taught me a lot and having several pieces hanging together in the gallery space, gave me the opportunity to review my work.

I have experimented with different styles and techniques over the past year or so and seeing my work displayed in one place allowed me to decide which pieces I was happy with and which I could happily paint over and start again.

For me, the two most significant points of learning in the last twelve months have been around colour, particularly in relation to mixing pigments, and tonal values. It has been my habit to mix colours on the canvas and take rather a piecemeal approach to light and shade. This has sometimes meant that the work didn’t quite hang together in the way that I had imagined it should.

Over the three days of my Open Studio, I had the opportunity to try something different. I decided to work “live” on a piece in my gallery space and take a slightly different approach to the execution of a painting.

I don’t often attempt floral subjects other than quick sketches, or water colours of flowers I have brought in from the garden.

A still life seemed like good subject and my friend from Wild Muse Flowers provided a gorgeous bouquet of peonies and lupins for the purpose.

I used a limited palette, mixing a range of shades in each. To begin, I mapped out the tonal values (from darkest to lightest) in a neutral colour to provide a framework for the piece. I was aiming for impressionistic rather than realistic and I feel i managed to achieve this. The painting took just over three days to complete and I was pleased with how it turned out.

Overall I think Open Studios was worth my while and I will certainly consider doing it again. I had around 80 visitors over the three days of the event, all very positive in their feedback. Sales were better than I anticipated which was also a plus.

In terms of inspiration for my work I plan to return to still lives when the mood takes me. In the meantime, what do you think?