Michael Exciting times – we were interviewed this week for a feature in Live Ribble Valley Magazine about Soulspace Art Studio which will be released around the 10th/11th November. Here are one or two of the pictures we took to send off to the magazine for possible inclusion….
We had a great weekend taking part in Staithes Arts and Heritage Festival, sitting in the very characterful ‘Garden Cottage’, drinking tea and talking art and poetry with so many (and varied) people. We even managed some decent sales and the ‘Naked Soul’ combination of Jo Lewis’s poetry and my artwork went down really well. Especially pleased for Jo because it affirmed that what is deeply personal is also fairly universal – people were clearly moved by her words. Very grateful to Jim Mason who lends us the cottage each year (and lets us put holes in it) and to my sister Caroline and Husband Paul who come and support us in all kinds of practical ways each year. Feeling the love. 🙂
Here’s my latest painting around the theme of s o u l s p a c e: acrylic on canvas. 🙂
It was a good day in soulspace studio yesterday with 2 small but productive workshops. Jacqueline Smith was working on card designs and getting artwork ready for a London exhibition. So today as she heads down to London I will be heading out to Earby and Skipton to spread some leaflets about. Here’s another photo of this great space – needs to be visited to be fully appreciated. 🙂
Exciting times! I am developing a new art studio space at Soughbridge Mill in Sough Nr. Kelbrook and it will be completed within the next fortnight. It will be another shared space with artist Jacqui Smith and poet/photographer Jo Lewis. I will be running drawing and painting workshops there on Thursdays and continuing to run my art workshops at Art & Soul in Padiham on Wednesdays. The rest of the week, I will be painting at one or the other studio. We have named it ‘s o u l s p a c e’ and it will be a place where the creative spirit is nurtured and given breathing space. Special thanks go to Phil Darby, my friend and colleague from Art & Soul who has built partition walls and surfaces with ‘assistance’ from me. I am very excited about the space and its possibilities and am looking forward to running the workshops there. Here are some images and below is the leaflet I’ve designed for the workshops About the Workshops :
Here are a few recent moodscapes inspired by our recent visit to the Isle of Lewis…..
I made a welcome return to Arttutor.com this week and went to Liverpool to film two landscape tutorials for them. Here are the pieces that I produced in soft pastels and pastel pencils. I often feel like I struggle between making sense in words and concentrating on the pieces themselves. I was happy with the visual outcome of these and trust that after Jon has done his magic through the editing process, it will sound ok and make sense too!
Having stripped the Studio walls to take work to Castle Park Arts Centre, Frodsham for our ‘Elements of Art & Soul’ exhibition, I have refreshed my studio area…
I have been showing my work at Staithes Arts festival this weekend and was talking about this series of paintings called ‘Happenings’. I am tempted to leave them untitled because people bring such personal and independent responses to them. Having said that, ‘Dance of the Waves’ does suit this piece which has just found a new home following the festival. Dance of the Waves
I struggled to find the right title for this as it seemed like the end of the tunnel or journey and a new beginning or birth. I settled on ‘the Source’ which captures for me the place from which all things came and to which they will all return. The Source
