December RMS news.

Earlier this month I took part in the Royal Miniature Society annual exhibition at The Mall Gallery in London. The exhibition is now online and you can view it here

I was thrilled to be awarded full membership (RMS) and received this wonderful news "Due to the exceptional quality and consistency of your work the President and Council members are delighted to grant you full membership".

Also included was a separate exhibition of portrait miniatures from The Granville Family Tree. I was commissioned to paint four miniatures, see below no 2,3, 9 and 10.

This was quite a difficult challenge for me, especially trying to capture the detail on the lace and embroidery details on the ladies dress. Each miniature was a copy of a much larger original painting and we were given a small copy for reference. As you can imagine these paintings have been disseminated over the centuries, it was the desire of present Mr Granville to have a way of exhibiting the family collection as a whole. The commission was carried out by various members of the society over several years and was a huge undertaking.

It was a great pleasure to be invited to a champagne reception hosted by Mr Granville and it was fun to meet the many family members and to hear their stories and memories of the original full sized paintings.

Despite the obvious difficulties I really enjoyed the challenge, sometimes it is good to work outside your comfort zone. It was a mixture of relief and pride to hear that all four paintings met with approval.

Autumn on the Welsh border

I have been busy painting new miniatures for submission into this year Royal Miniature Society show. As an associate member I am allowed to submit six miniatures. The sheep painting was inspired by an apple picking excursion to the home of a friend who has a beautiful orchard and farm on the Shropshire/Wales border.

The tiny water colour painting called "Hare Hill" was painted a few months ago.

The sheep painting was also painted in watercolour and has a gold leaf border.

As you can see my submissions this year vary in size, the rabbit and hare paintings are 3ins by 2.5 inches. The largest miniature features an owl and a pussycat and is entitled "They sailed away". It measures 4.5 ins by 4 ins. The portrait of my granddaughter is not for sale.

 If you are in London from 28th November until Sunday 9th December you are welcome to visit the exhibition at The Mall Galleries in London. If you are unable to visit the exhibition will be online and paintings and sculptures will be for available sale. Further details are available on the RMS website.

new work

I have been taking time out from painting my miniatures to do some black and white line drawings,

This study of a badger shows one of our native wild animals in its natural woodland setting. There are still a handful of these majestic creatures living in the countryside around my home, sadly they are being culled because they are being blamed for spreading bovine TB. 

There is something very calming and meditative about drawing in pen and ink; the play of positive and negative spaces together with the decorative nature of the work, helps to calm and still the mind.

May sunshine and flowers

After a long and dreary winter and a delayed spring, it seems that summer has taken us all by surprise. Now the days are long and lazy, the older I get the more I want to slow down and take time to smell the roses. 

This year I decided to introduce some lupins into my garden, after being inspired by the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. I have been careful to include some organic slug deterrents which I hope will be wildlife friendly but keep the slugs away. They are made from woollen pellets and are said to make an itchy and scratchy hostile environment for slugs and snails... we shall see!

Work has been focussed on creating images for Victoria Magazine, this month the theme was France and so I enjoyed painting summer garden images. You can find a new print of the garden cat in my Etsy shop Acornmoon, link in my sidebar.

It has been a time for long country walks, wild flower spotting and listening to bird song. The bluebells have been spectacular this year.

I even managed to complete a new miniature portrait of our granddaughter. Watercolour on Kelmscott vellum. It was a labour of love!

Easter Blessings from Oxford

We visited Oxford recently to attend The Fine Press Book Fair. Although the event was out of town we had a few days to enjoy the city. The weather was cold but bright and there was definitely a touch of spring in the air.

We saw a Palm Sunday procession complete with donkey,

we admired the well kept gardens,

and found time to visit Pitt Rivers Museum where we found this display of decorated eggs.

Wherever you are I wish you all a Blessed Easter.

Not Quite Spring!

As you will already know, those of us living in these parts of Britain have been in the grip of the most cruel and bitterly cold easterly winds. These have brought snow and chaos and I wish they would go back to where they came from. Having said that, if you are wrapped up against the cold, there has been much beauty to behold in frozen icicles and pure white drifts of snow. I think we feel so bitter about it is because it really ought to be spring! A time to rejoice in the "springtime, the only pretty ring time, where birds do sing hey ding a ling ling...., "

ah well, you get my drift?

Victoria magazine has been focusing on Wordsworth and his daffodils and I have had the great pleasure in supplying some of my artwork.

The botanical study in watercolour of daffodils is available as a print in my Etsy shop should you wish visit please follow this link to Acornmoon on Etsy

Until this snow takes its leave I wish you farewell. If you are visiting from colder climates I am sure you will be laughing at our feeble attempts to cope with what to you may seem a mere dusting of snow. Who was it who said "there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes"?

Welcome 2018!

Hello and welcome to my blog 2018! My exciting news is that I am artist-in-residence to Victoria magazine and I am thrilled to bits. You can read more about it here on the magazine's website

Years ago an art editor I worked with used to post copies of Victoria to me and later I subscribed; it then went out of print for a time but is now back in circulation, this time with Hoffman Media. Victoria is a bimonthly women's lifestyle magazine celebrating all that is beautiful in life and promising a return to loveliness - an excellent sentiment wouldn't you agree? Below is one of the pages in the January/February edition featuring one of my prints. You can find this print and much more in my Etsy shop Acornmoon.

The year so far has been cold, grey and miserable and at times it has been difficult to find inspiration. Apart from a few snowy days and some amazing sunsets, I am feeling ready to say goodbye to winter. This time of year is always difficult and I am reminded of personal losses, especially that of my parents and siblings. Enough of that, life moves on and so do I.

In my garden today I found these tiny snowdrops bravely daring the cold January rain. Roll on spring!