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.

Winterbourne House and Garden Residency

Just popping in with a few catch-up pieces from my residency at Winterbourne House and Garden.

It’s been hard to catch a good time to be out painting because of the sudden changes in weather and temperature. One solution has been to work in miniature, although these paintings still take quite a time.

 

Everything is growing very fast and I’m trying my best to catch a little bit of it all as there’s no way I can do all of it justice. The Auriculas have long been a favourite of mine so it was nice to capture them.

This little guy had to be caught on canvas having visited me whilst sketching one day and had a good long proper chat and even hopped around the side of me as if to see what I was doing.

Ranunculus and Bluebells

In between rain showers I have picked around the edges of the garden finding the odd lovely flower here and there.

One one flower on the candelabra Primula, only three ranunculus blooms that were uneaten by creatures and a couple of bluebells because I already know how hard they are to paint!

I added some spots and stripes and it came together by itself.

© Claire Leggett Ranunculus and Bluebells

This painting and all my others and more besides will be with me at Patchings Festival beginning this Thursday – if you’re on Flickr you can watch the festival progress here and if you are visiting do come and say hi.

Apricot Beauty

It’s been a great year for tulips in the garden.

I re-subscribed to a magazine and got some Sarah Raven bulbs as a freebie.

And they have been beautiful – big, blowsy flowers – interesting colours and shapes. Apricot Beauty was the first to fully flower last week.

It hurt A LOT to cut three of the nine stems to bring in and paint.

But here they are immortalised 🙂

© Claire Leggett     Apricot Beauty