Success at an Exhibition in the Summer

I thought I'd start this art blog talking about a success I had in the summer. I entered three paintings into the Hilton Art Show and two got awards, which I was very pleased about.

"Violin, trumpet and music"
Soft pastels and pastel pencils on A3 pastel paper.


This was actually done as my final piece for assignment one in the Drawing module of the OCA degree course I am doing.


I was awarded joint second place for this painting, which I was really pleased about. It is not my usual style, but I think that sometimes if one has an emotional link with the subject, then more goes into the painting. This is my daughter's violin, the music is mine and the trumpet is owned by Sherry - another Carnelian.
 

"Sunflower"

Acrylic ink and wash on 1/2 Imperial Bockingford watercolour paper

My sunflower was actually a piece I did just before OCA for my final year doing A level art at evening class. It was one of my first forays into acrylic inks - something that I have revisited on numberous occasions since then. This is also the piece that I thought typified my work and so has been used as the header to this blog.

Sunflower was awarded joint third place at the exhibition and in fact got the most comments of the three submitted from people in the village.

What was funny was that - until the eleventh hour - I wasn't going to put into the exhibition, as I hadn't got myself organised. Very glad I did in the end!

Welcome

This is my second blog. My first one is solely for my Open College of the Arts degree course, which comprises assignments and my learning log. When I got together with the others to form the Carnelians I thought I should set up another one, which contained the paintings I do from choice or that I am particularly pleased with, as opposed to work I have to do for the course.

The members of the Carnelians are friends who started doing remote learning at about the same time and thought it would be a good idea to offer support to each other, as that type of education can be very isolated. Three of us are artists and the fourth member is doing her MA in Music. We quickly realised that we could support each other in a very real way. All of us play instruments and so can help offering ideas and doing critiques Amanda's work and she loves art and very often comes up with a fresh approach to things. It's a great partnership.

The other two painters have now also got very involved in printing, having done a years course on printmaking at the Curwen Press near Cambridge. They are also members of the Purple Printmakers, which comprises the group they worked with for that year. Amanda, the musician, has a wealth of expertise behind her, as can be seen from her blog. The links to the Purple Printmakers and Amanda Stuart can be found at the side under The Carnelians link.

The reason for setting this up now is that we are planning to do an exhibition next Easter and it was a great way to show my work in preparation for that event. Three of us will display our works of art and Amanda will be providing a musical event at the same time. As an example of how we help each other, Amanda has already composed a piece of music which was influenced by a Paul Klee painting that was shown to her at a meeting of the group. This piece has been selected for the forthcoming Leeds International Festival for Innovations in Music Production and Composition, which is a great achievement.