Let's Talk Art Blog

I'm so looking forward to welcoming art lovers and collectors into my studio over the coming 10 days, to share my latest exhibitions and talk all things art! Check out my special edition of Studio News to find out what's on show this year, opening times and more about booking a private viewing on Wednesday 5th October.

Understanding and mastering 'value' and learning how to place it effectively in a composition takes plenty of practice. In this exercise, I'm looking at 'value' in terms of light and dark. 'Value' can be explored in many other ways but here I'm just looking at using light and dark values to create contrast. Exploring this idea just using small thumbnail sketches is a great way to practice looking for values and training our eyes and brain to recognise contrasting light and

Just a bit excited and honoured that 'The Sub Way' has been juried into the 2022 Art2Life International Juried Exhibition! 80 or so artworks selected from around 4500, how amazing to have been noticed in amongst all those artworks! Thank you to this year's juror and curator, Jack Fisher @thejackfishergallery in San Francisco for selecting my work. He chose such a thought provoking and diverse collection of pieces for this year's online exhibition, and it was inspiring to he

I was invited by the Oils & Acrylics Painting Group at Noosa Arts & Crafts Association to facilitate a 'Composition & Design' workshop. Why? Because really this subject is so huge, and I would only have 3 hours! So, I decided we'd just have a general overview of what we mean when we talk more broadly about composition and design and then focus on just two aspects for our practical art-making exercise. I chose 'Value' as our Element of Art and 'Contrast' as our Principle of De

I started this sketch a bit differently - by drawing in pencil over the collage before I picked up the paintbrush, so the drawing led the way instead of the collage piece. Warm colours for a chilly day! The balance of loud and quiet happened all by itself and I love the interplay of the feeling of gravity at the bottom and the sense of space at the top. Just using mixed media; acrylic paints, a charcoal pencil and graphite. I sealed the charcoal with airbrush medium which alw

A little time-out sketch! I love just seeing what shapes emerge and responding to what the image is telling me it needs next. I picked up Mars Black for the darks which I haven't used for a while (and never in a big painting) and the way it works with the magenta is something I think I might explore a bit more at some stage. Am still feeling drawn to capturing 'space'. I'm wondering if maybe this is becoming my eternal quest!