Original watercolours sale

I have completed a little body of work from my Hebrides trip this year. If you would like a piece they are all listed below in order of size, with prices and UK postage included – postage will be worked out for any sales abroad once you have emailed the destination.

Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk and I will send payment details 🙂 Thank you x

BALRANALD 10cm x 7.5 cm watercolour on watercolour board £15 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

FIELD 10cm x 7.5 cm watercolour on watercolour board £15 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

DUBH-LOCHAN 10cm x 7.5 cm watercolour on watercolour board £15 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

PORTREE, SKYE 6×4″ watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

THE BRAES, SKYE 6×4″ watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

AHMORE, UIST 6×4″ watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

LOCH MADDY. SOLD 6×4″ watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

LOCH MASSAIG. 6×4″ watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

SOUTH UIST 6×4″ watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

UIST INTERIOR 1 6×4″ watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

UP TO LOCH MAASAIG 6×4″ watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

SEILEBOST 10.5 x 27.5 cm. watercolour on watercolour paper £30 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.

Hebrides painting work

As the year draws to an end, I’ve found it has galvanised me to complete the body of paintings I have been working on ever since we visited The Hebrides back in April.

I have been steadily working away filling a sketchbook and creating ideas for future pattern designs in-between all the other things I also do. I find I like to nest a bit on my work before sharing it and now I find I have a lot to show.

The thing that caught my painters eye the most in The Hebrides were the patterns these little pieces of land make as they are cut through by waterways and creeks. I have enjoyed painting them over & over. I love the way the horizon blends in as the water is reflected in the sky 

I have also played around with granulating medium recently. This salt-marsh painting in Leverburgh was perfect for it. Granulating medium separates the pigment and binder allowing the colour to settle onto the surface of the paper making lots of texture,

I’m gearing up to have a little sale of some of these pieces – so watch this space if you’re interested, Claire x

Outer Hebrides painting work in progress

I have been working my way through the wealth of inspiration I found since returning from our 3 week adventure around some of the islands of the Outer Hebrides.

There was so much colour, texture and mood to capture.

I did try to work on site but found either the rain or the cramped cab conditions in the camper van a real challenge.

So most of my work has been done from photographs and sketchy sketches back home in the studio where conditions can be controlled!

I loved the colour palette of the Uist islands the best from all the islands we visited (I did a little write up of that in a previous post somewhere) – peaty brown, pink and burgundy – yum.

The beaches are legendary and with good reason too.

Lots of cloud and sky with beautiful delicate hues and fluffly clouds. Sometimes the weather changes very quickly and so stormy indigo blue clouds can roll in very quickly.

All of which makes this watercolour painter very happy.

March 2022

It’s been a while since I’ve painted much. You have to be in the right emotional space to create like that. And not too busy with other things! But in recent weeks the Spring flowers have been calling me and I’ve pushed myself over the line and wet my brush.

3/3. 100dayproject

Made it!

Wow, that was a marathon adventure and like all good runners, towards then end I had to slow down rather than just stop and call it quits.

But like all things, its when you’re stretched and challenged that growth occurs.

The daily (or technically I should say sustained) practice of showing up to paint has indeed kept me creative and accountable for doing so.

And I have found that my muscle memory and my hand eye co-ordination has improved and that I’m as surprised as anyone when I can capture a plant in a few strokes of a brush and with a limited colour range.

In short, practice makes you better at looking and capturing.

Which shouldn’t surprise me really.

We know if we exercise that our muscles become stronger but probably don’t talk much in those terms of the process of practising creatively.

And we should, because it does work the same way.

I have thoroughly enjoyed naming the plants in my garden – many of which I have inherited from the previous owners or Mother Nature.

And I have a unexpected sense of satisfaction to have two books full of catalogued plant names.

But I am glad it’s finished now and as the season winds down I won’t have the challenge of finding something new to include.

With hindsight 100 was a lot and maybe 75 would have suited me just enough.

So when I calculated that there were only enough pages in the book for 96 I took that as a divine compromise 😉

2/3 100 day project

I have been falling and leaping my way through this #100dayproject of Painting Something From My Garden Everday.

It’s not quite been everyday in a daily sense – more like nothing some days and three things another.

But for the most part it’s become a regular practice and I’ve kept up…just.

Some days I accepted a less than polished finished piece in favour of doing something rather than nothing.

I’ve also embraced my garden weeds and found them to be pretty and deserving of a place in the final book.

I’ve developed a mix of approaches to method and media.

On some rainy days I was forced to complete the work inside and I found the results were far better than when I’m painting irl.

However the feeling of, the experience of painting outside is far greater and brought a greater deal of well-being that gets lost as soon as it becomes studio work.

And I have enjoyed playing again with coloured pencils, pastels and collages solutions to painting white flowers on white paper.

That’s about it for now as things reach the final stretch – thank you for reading.

100 days

On June 1st I decided I’d commit to doing a 100days project. There were a few reasons for this:

For Christmas I got given a seed advent calendar which has been a lot of fun but also a lot of work – 25 different kinds of annuals to grow has kept me on my toes in the greenhouse. But it also means I have a lot of lovely plants to enjoy.

I had also enjoyed my residency at Winterbourne H&G so much that I had decided to try and document my own garden in a similar matter. However as is often the case when things are at home, it seems harder to paint and draw in my own garden. I have found time to do some studies and textile work but it doesn’t document the changes as I’d hoped because I can’t keep up the frequency of work needed.

Lastly, I’m back working at MAC (hurrah) and when I’m focussing on delivery I often find my own creativity takes a backseat.

So for all those reasons I started 100days of drawing/painting something in my own garden.

It doesn’t need to be finished or good and it can be quick or slow and I’m also finding I automatically apply several styles to my work but I’m not over-thinking it – just doing it, noticing and letting it be whatever it is.

Here’s the first six days.

My first online painting project is live!

Here it is 🥁🥁🥁 My first online painting project for you to do at home in your own time – handy for another Lockdown. And the great news is that I’m offering an Early Bird discount – the first 12 people get access for just £12 💫

A couple of people suggested I give digital teaching a go, so I’ve massively upped my skill set over the last few months and recorded a painting project which you can do step-by-step alongside me.

It’s a digital watercolour painting project comprising 13 videos to guide you through every step of making a still life painting of tomatoes on a plate. I demonstrate every step and there are two project options so you can find the right challenge for you.

You will learn how to stretch paper, how to use masking fluid, the Flooding and Salting techniques to create watercolour effects, the Lifting Out technique and advice on how to sketch, add hi-lights and shadows, what materials to use and how best to finish your painting. Created to offer you a moment of creativity – it is for all ages and stages and there are no expectations of you other than to have an enjoyable time.

All this to keep forever for just £15 by emailing hello@claireleggett.co.uk.

Coming soon…an online class

Exciting news coming soon… an online painting project from yours truly: A step-by-step, at-your-pace, video-based painting class for just £15 (with a special price of 💫 £12 💫for the first 12 sign ups) – that’s less than £1 per video. And you’ll have access to it forever. 13 separate YouTube videos, each one explaining every step of the process, as we paint and create a still-life together (tomatoes on a plate 🍅 or apples🍏 in a bowl, it’ll be up to you). I still have a few uploads to complete and then all will be revealed…

All the paintings

Here in no particular order of date painted or size, are the 12 paintings I have completed as part of my Artist in Residency at Winterbourne House and Gardens, Birmingham University.

I like to work in many styles as a response to what I’m seeing to paint.

Most are gouache watercolour layered up with texture and washes of colour. But there are also a couple of mixed media pieces with acrylic.

I started out with grand plans to document the seasons passing or the same plants at different points in time but actually I was quickly over whelmed by how much growing goes on and how much there was to document in so many valid ways.

In the end I opted for a simple formula – I painted whatever brought me joy, whenever, wherever it did.

This project has stretched and challenged my ability as an artist to capture landscape, light, the feel of a place and working to represent a lot of visual information even in smaller works.