There is for me nothing that revives my drooping spirit more than a walk in nature, you don’t have to walk far, maybe just into the garden to see the miracle of life and to hear birdsong and the humming of insects. Nature gives in every season, but there is something magical and inspirational in the stirring of Spring life as life renews or starts afresh.

Sometimes you just need to pick up your pencils, paints and brush and just paint. I am not reknown for planning much anyway, and my paintings tend to just evolve. For this I had a vague idea that I wanted to add a hare. Hope you like it, it was fun to do anyway

that perches in the soul

that sings the tune without the words

and never stops at all

Emily Dickinson

This is Summer in Suffolk it is a very big painting, the biggest that I have done, and I think that it really deserves to be seen in the fleash, but I am biased . It currently hangs on the wall in the Darlington Society of Arts annual exhibition. It makes me so happy it was a joy to paint and I let the sun shadow through the trees in the garden paint the sky initial background as I painted the small circles of sunlight dappled onto the canvas by the trees swaying in the breeze onto the blank canvas.

This is the top right of the painting that I am currently working on. At the moment I have about four paintings that I am working on, none are finished, this one is almost finished. I decided to add the soft blue behind the owl and to leave the owl itself largely the colours of the paint smudges and stecks that developed when I dripped paint onto the wet paper when I first started the painting. Sunflowers are in all my paintings this Summer as we had a profusion of them all over the garden and giant statueque ones on the allottment. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

This is a detail of part of this painting, it is a bit startling to see it this large as the laptop has magnified my photo, it’s a bit like looking in a magnified mirror , it shows all of the flaws. She is not as large as this, and she doesn’t dominate the painting, she is infact at the back of it; there is a lot more happening in the painting too. It is full of flowers, birds, insects and other creatures. The painting also isn’t finished yet. Today seems to me to be the first day of autumn, and this painting captures the end of the Summer, so I thought that I would post. More images as I complete the painting, and you can then see how she fits into the final painting.

This is a detail of a much larger painting, that I have been working on, on and off for a long time. I have finally framed it. I think that this is my favourite image from the painting. Why the title? Inspiration I have been looking up the word, and it literally means breathe life into. Art inspires me in all of its forms, but it is the people behind the art and those who love and know me that inspire me most.It is a true gift to inspire positively , to make people feel valued, loved and appreciated.

Here is the whole of the painting, I have tried to show fashions changing during the ten decades that the Society of the Arts has been running. I always think of South Park as a wonderful place and so I featured the bandstand and the clock tower. Darlington is so lucky to have the Park and the Society of the Arts. The original painting will be taking its place with other lovely paintings at the Darlington Building Society in Tubwell Row shortly, I will let you know when this will be.

Here is another image from my painting to celebrate the joy of art and the centenary of Darlington Society of the Art., I think of art as a super power that inspires, calms, motivates, capitvates and moves both the artist and the viewer. More lilies this time Star Gazer ones, white and blue iris and some more Darlington landmarks. More tomorrow, Happy Friday!

Here is a section of my painting Art Full of Love. It’s a big painting framed it’s about 71cm by 81cm. It is a departure for me because for the first time I painted it specially for a special event with a theme firmly in mind. Usually I let the paint decide what I would paint and go whatever way it leads, which is wonderful and free spiritied. This time I had to plan it, and whilst I did incorporate things the paint suggested, the main themes were firmly set. This painting was painted to celebrate the Centenary this year, of the Darlington Society of the Arts. I wanted to include landmarks of Darlington. I also wanted to acknowledge the town’s pioneering link to the first passenger railway in the whole world! I confess the Lilies in the foreground were given to me by my lovely friend I could not resist the urge to paint them.