It’s been a very rainy, windy and dark month here on the South coast. Soggy is the word that comes to mind!
I had hoped for a crisp and cold month with beautiful clear light; you know, one of those gorgeous winter months where it’s cold and most importantly dry! However, that was not to be. It has not stopped me making headway towards my solo show, though.
When I have been able to and it has not been too wet, I have gone out painting, of course. The weather has given me a range of soft light at different times of day. I am always searching for different and interesting light to paint. And the recent storms in the beach have helped me to produce some good stormy work in oil and also gouache. For these, I went down to the beach early in the morning.
Lot of the places I went to paint have been nothing but flooded fields. Most years these fields do flood a little, however this year the flood seemed bigger, wider, deeper and the water has been on these fields for longer. Normally I would go and stand and paint in these fields but I’ve had to perch at the side of the road or on a raised path and paint the view from there. There is definitely change in our weather that will have a knock-on impact all year on the ground, I am sure.
With the rain, I have spent some extra time in the studio. This has allowed me to give attention to my palette for the show. People often ask what colours I use. And I’m so naughty because I don’t really stick to one palette. I also mix a great deal. I have some key colours that I do use regularly. But the rest I switch in and out as I like. Not drastically changing the colours but maybe using different darks or lights. Or switching up or out a yellow. So after a lot of deliberations, I’m not going to set my palette too much. This is how I work. I change colours from the lights and darks and I think if I change how I work with my palette it really won’t work for me. As I will be painting throughout the day (and night!), I will have to adjust my colour choice and I will share my palette process with you all further down the line.
Outside of painting I have been working on my website and YouTube. These are important steps to the show as they are the ways in which I am journaling my show diary. With short vlogs and blogs on my website and longer video content on YouTube. Here is February’s video update. I have already had some lovely feedback from you all and it seems that this is something you are enjoying. Thank you all of you, for connecting with me, sending me messages, and general DMs. I always answer everyone and it’s great to hear from you.
One of the areas that I need to get better skills in is my videoing. I’m hoping that by the end of the show I will have really improved. To this end I have purchased an extra tripod to take out with me for timelapse videos. I’ve only just got it and had a ‘trial run’ in the studio which you can see here along with my February vlog. It proved very good. So, I’m hoping to take this out with me and have more footage to share with you guys!
Next month is going to be an exciting month and an opportunity to paint different times of the day with very different light as I will be somewhere hot! So, keep your eyes on my social media for that!
Look after yourselves. Stay dry! And thank you for coming along the journey with me.
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