Green tea.

Here’s a picture in pictures.

I love this colour palette, the whole painting came together very naturally. I have a friend who says my paintings are ‘wonky’ (in the nicest way) and I can see what she means. I’m claiming it as a trademark!

"Green Tea" © Claire Leggett

Wax resist.

So this is not going to be a post about how much I love BT. We are still don’t have internet access at home and it’s killing me!

However, being the good Girl Guide that I still am, I prepared ahead knowing I might not be living in real time for a while!

This still life is of my beloved coffee pot and some lovely Brie Harrison gift wrap as a backdrop.

I wanted a looser feeling to the background of this painting and so chose to use some wax resist to give the edges a bit of groove.

I bet we all remember doing this at school – getting a box of crayola and pressing really hard to draw something. And then washing over it with runny watercolour paint. Hands up all those who made firework pictures that way! It’s still as much fun now as it was then.

It has given the painting additional texture and gives the lines a bit of life. All good.

Colouring for grown-ups.

I have decided that making these is bringing me the same satisfaction that ‘colouring in’ used to when I was little.

You get to sit and choose from a basket of colours; any order, any quantity and out comes a little masterpiece each time.

Flexi curve.

Before you go and think “Wow, she’s unpacked quickly and started painting!”, this is one I made earlier

I was having a hard time getting the saucer on this cup to look anything but wonky. And as I said to myself “If only I had a bendy thing to draw around” I remembered I had a fantastic little gadget tucked away in a drawer called a flexi-curve.

Essentially it’s a piece of wire in thick pliable rubber. You can curve it at any angle or even bend it into a wiggley worm shape!

It really helped tidy up the curve on the saucer.

© Claire Leggett "TIle and Teacup"

So that is my helpful hint for today! Back to the unpacking.

New view.

Here is the view from my new studio window.

Can’t wait to get started on its transformation – but there are other pressing matters first; anyone found the coffee pot yet?

Moving day.

The day has come to leave our beloved home for the last 14.5 years. I’m sure there will be some wet eyes in the morning when we hand over the keys. This home has seen the birth of our babies, all their growing up, all our growing up, our joys and struggles, our friend and family parties. We’ve learnt to decorate here, work hard to pay for other people to decorate for us, learnt to garden and how to renovate in the broadest sense. It’s taken all our energy and every penny for many years, but we wouldn’t change it for the world. Goodbye lovely house.

We are moving a five-minute drive away, still in the same neighbourhood, and this will be our new view from the front of the house. Lots to look forward to here; woods, park, more space inside and out and oh…did I tell you I get to have a new studio space! Thought I may have mentioned it!

I’m hooked!

Despite all of our possessions being in boxes, despite the fact that I have many, many, little jobs that need doing before we leave here and move out, despite the fact that I am on ‘high alert’ and unable to sit down for long without thinking of something else that needs remembering/sorting/packing up/organising….. despite all that I am so hooked on these granny squares that there has been a little time to begin ‘The Big Blanket’.

I love that six colours can be used in a variety of sequences and make such different statements in themselves, but all go together as well.

A week without words.

Hello! I didn’t mean to go missing for a whole week. My Macbook screen died on Sunday and I had to be parted from it for a week while it was fixed up.

Other than that, it’s all systems go for a house move this week. So it’s busy, busy, busy.

But I did manage to finish this before my materials got packed away.

Thanks for all the good wishes about the Purple Gallery show, I really appreciate it. x

Purple Gallery Summer Show.

What a lovely afternoon I’ve had!  Four of my paintings had been selected for the Purple Gallery Summer Show, and today was the opening for that. The sun was shining, three of the paintings are right by the door and at one point the gallery was half full of my friends – thank you guys. x

The Purple Gallery is a local, independent gallery and it is chock full of some beautiful pieces of art – well worth a visit either in person or virtually.

And if you fancy a closer look at my work, then click here or contact jane@purplegallery.com.

I took advice with the framing and I’m delighted at the way its turned out. I don’t think I would have been so bold if left to my own devices and that’s why experienced advice is worth it’s weight in gold.

I’m deeply grateful to everyone who contributes towards giving me a sense of myself as an artist; my friends and family, my blog commenters and followers, the gallery owners for giving me this opportunity. This is a magic moment. Thanks.

W.I.P.

The teacups keep coming!

I am loving working on water-colour board but this is my last piece.

And enjoying the therapeutic benefits of switching off my left brain while painting! Or is it right?  The side that would be doing the shopping, worrying about moving house, remembering the laundry’s on the washing line.

That side’s switched off, that’s for sure!