Friday, January 08, 2010

Christmas Cards

I've been painting the first layer to my "flower of awe" today. It's rather eye catching! I'll post an image later. Today I thought I'd share two of the Christmas cards I received this year, special because they were designed by members of my art group. The first is by Dot Burgess and is a pen and ink drawing of the windows in St. Oswald's Church and the second a poinsettia in watercolour by Sylvia Masters.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to visit Macclesfield on the bus to deliver some paintings for an exhibition there. The offices of Jobling Gowler Solicitors are holding a show of paintings by the prize winners of their previous exhibition, which was themed around silk. The exhibition runs until the start of March and is open to the public every weekday during office hours.

At the same time Katherine Laird will be delivering her paintings (and three of mine!) to a juried exhibition in Trafford. Fingers crossed for that one. I've never submitted for this event before, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Both of those trips are weather permitting. The temperature is very low at the moment and the hot water is off for a second day. I now know why Dutch masters favoured oil media with lots of solvent, while their Italian counterparts favoured no solvent. Oil paint in the cold behaves like putty when it should behave like silk!