Inside/Outside

Today the sun shone, the wind blew and the countryside looked so beautiful with all the trees bursting into leaf, gorse flowers blazing on the moor top and cow parsley starting to show its delicate face in the hedgerows. Just being outside feels like being dazzled with colour and life and energy and I want to be out there soaking it all in.

I also want to be in the studio painting or else I'm not going to get my work for the Degree Show finished in time! So, I'm trying to compromise by working hard and then having a breath of fresh air to keep me fresh and alert (that's the theory anyway)                              

I've made some progress with this painting.........

....and with this one.........................

....but I've got a way to go yet. So I'll be inside the studio tomorrow with a head full of those stunning visual images outside, all tumbling over each other and catching hold somewhere in the brushwood of my mind. Hopefully they will resurface when they are needed. Hope you are managing to get out and enjoy this glorious time of the season too.

The Disappearing Muse

Well, I really wanted to spend the day painting today, but sadly the rapidly approaching deadline for our Extended Statements meant I spent the day hunched over the laptop grumping and grousing! Why is it when things are going (reasonably) well in the studio, something intervenes? Howard Hodgkin referred to his muse as sometimes disappearing round the next corner - I hope mine is still in the room when I get back! She's a very elusive creature....
Anyway, here's a detail from one of the paintings I'm working on at the moment, inspired by the glorious acid yellow of the rapeflowers which can be seen in fields everywhere at the moment. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish it in the next few days. Wish me luck.