Too many straight bloody lines!

This week I'm sitting typing this at a far more sensible hour than last week.  To get to the studio today was  a real relief after a ridiculously busy week.  Whilst working to become a professional artist my...."day job" is Art teacher at a secondary school (those of you reading this outside of the UK, that's 11-16 year old kids).  It's an incredibly busy job at the best of times but this week it reached warp factor 10 in busy!

Ofsted graced us with their presence to carry out the second inspection in a year, this means high amounts of stress for all involved.  On Wednesday I finished work at 8.30pm and by 5.50am the next morning I was on my way into work again.  Thursday and Friday was my GCSE students mock exam (it might only be a rehearsal of the real thing but in organising everything around it - it might as well be the real thing).  Finally on Friday night as Head of Creative Arts I was responsible for my Faculty putting on the school Talent Show.
It went well, but was another late night and again in terms of helping my anxiety levels...it didn't!

Finally it was the weekend and on Saturday night I toasted it's coming with a few large glasses of wine.  So by today I was relaxed and ready to paint.

When I arrived at the studio today I knew that with most of the under-painting finished freehand, I now had to get to work on layering my colours and using masking tape to tidy up my edges.  So I began taping......

....and 15mins later I was still taping........

.......in fact for 3 hours I spent most of my time taping and this reminded me why I usually paint landscapes with not a sodding straight line in sight!!  In between I actually manged to do some painting!

The thing about working with tape is that, as annoying as it is putting all the stuff on, it is INCREDIBLY satisfying to peel it all off and see lovely crisp, straight edges.  Although it probably doesn't look much like a lot happened today, I managed to layer my colours and add light & shade to both of the flanking beach huts. Next week that just leaves me with the detail of the posts at the front and that's right, you guessed it...........more bloody taping!

Here's how I left it, night night all.

Another late night so......

Perhaps the quickest of all posts.  After a busy evening it's gone 11pm already and Piers Morgans "sob stories" is on in the background, I've got an early start for work tomorrow and I wanted to get this post out tonight to show today's work on my most recent piece.

Think I've managed to make a hash of downloading the photo's off of my phone, so if they are not of good quality I'll upload better images in the week.

Really pleased with how this is continuing to go, although the number of straight lines is knackering!!  Still working on the underpainting, my focus today was on the beach huts on the right (blue) and left (green).

Here they are, I'm off to make a cuppa tea....and so to bed.  Night night.

QR codes and art fairs......

Well as I have said before in previous posts, there are quiet weeks, busy weeks, disappointing weeks, successful weeks, weeks I can't even remember and some weeks where you get a little bit of everything!

I think this week was one of small triumphs.  My work was accepted into an Art Fair which is being held in Chelsea (the one in London, that of the Pensioners and famous barracks)

The manager of the art fair emailed me to say that he had seen my work and would like to know if I was interested in participating.  Abso-bloody-lutely!!!  So, I am now very focused on finishing my current piece (see post below!) so that I can include it with a few other recent pieces.  I shan't reveal all now but will of course be including here closer to the time.  It's in February, very helpfully it's actually at the end of the half term week so I will be off work to take my work to Chelsea to put it up.

Now fate would have it that it is also the weekend that one of my best friends gets married.  This particular fair has invigilators as a constant presence so the artists themselves don't have to be present for the whole weekend.  Good, but I was talking to my partner about the best way to include my contact details for those that are interested in my work.  They can obviously speak to the staff there but I felt like I wanted something a bit more immediate and fun than that.  Of course I have business cards which I shall leave out but then we came up with the idea of a QR code. 
I could put several of these on the display with my work so than rather than just a link on my business card those with smart phones could scan the code and be taken straight through to my website...genius!!

With great ease I found a website that enabled me to make my own code FOR FREE!!!  I downloaded it and when I tried it and it worked I was way more excited than perhaps I should have been.  And here it is.....

If you've tried scanning it and it has worked it should take you straight through to my website, yay!  Okay so some of you might be reading this thinking, "erm...yeah? Those have been out for ages!"  Yes they have but hey I'm always a little late to the party with this kind of stuff.  Anyway, who cares it's bloody brilliant!

Charles Saatchi - as I'll be just round the corner to you if you fancy popping in to look at my work then please feel free, and use the code - I bet you're a bloke that appreciates a QR code?!

There you have it, globally speaking a week of small triumphs, but I'll take them where I can get them.  Success is success right?  I'll take that!

After some more time in the studio....

So I took advantage of a bright and sunny afternoon by going to the studio.  I get a great light in there in the afternoon.  After a very hectic month including a completing a comission that I'm really proud of (here it is).....

I got back to work on the newest piece in my Essex series.  It's taking a long time to paint and I'm still working on the underpainting!  Its a LOT of straight lines which although time consuming I'm insisting on painting free-hand rather than use masking tape.  I'm enjoying painting it and as I'm working on it I can see the painting it's going to be, like nothing I've worked on in a long time.

I think it was Michelangelo who said he freed the scultpture from inside the stone, with this one I feel like I'm uncovering the painting from the canvas.  I'm painting it like I know exactly what everything is going to look like, ordinarily my work changes and adapts whilsty I work on it, but with this I know absoloutely what it will look like.  Even though I will be using lots of differnet materials, some of which I've never used before - I am totally confident of how it will look when finished.

Here's how it is looking so far...

Taken once it had already gone dark which is why it's a bit shadowy and on my phone's camera.  I'm waiting for a new phone which should have a much better camera and so make my "in progress" shots better in quality.  And before I have people saying "well why don't you just take a real camera to the studio?", I use my phone because it's a lot quicker to get the pictures on the computer and yes I am THAT lazy!   More work to do at the weekend so more pictures in a few days, make sure you keep coming back.

No sketchbook!

I'm sorry it's been a bit quiet on here over the last couple of weeks, unfortunately my day job has somewhat taken over my entire life it seems.  Evenings have been spent doing extra work and so my opportunities to get on here and hammer out a post have been non-existant.

Anyway....I'm here now.  So this weekend was spent down in Weymouth, visiting family.  It was a great weekend and it really is a very beautiful part of the world, especially with it's Jurassic coastline.  The weather was meant to be grim, however, apart from a few small showers, we were treated to some moments of glorious sunshine and dramatic skies. 

I had intended to take my sketchbook, but in the whirl of getting home from work on Friday, getting everything into the car and getting on our way - I left my sketchbook behind.  No sketchbook certainly does not mean no inspiration.  With the cameras on phones now being what they are, the fact that I also left my camera behind (I know, I know!) proved to be no problem either.

I managed to get some great shots, a couple of which I've included here, and some walks along the coastline have certainly given me some great ideas for work.  I think that as a landscape painter it's really important not to just observe or record or place, but to stand and just absorb it.  Experience the moment you are there, the quality of the light, the effects of the weather. 

Standing on a very windy Portland just as a weather front was moving in, gave some wonderful colours in the sky, but to look down at the rocks beneath your feet and see the remenants of prehistoric sealife, frozen in the rock for millions of years certainly adds to the sense of being very small standing out there.....very small indeed.  I have had some great ideas for the next series of works once I've finished my "Essex" series.  So it seems that to be an artist in a great landscape without a sketchbook, isn't such a problem as I'm sure it once used to be.

Only thing is.....I might need to make quite a few more trips back down to Weymouth!!

Up to my elbows in it...literally!

Sunday roast is nearly ready so short and sweet.  Here's the progress in the studio today of my current piece.  A LOT of concentration painting all the straight lines....then whilst painting the roof I stuck my entire forearm (right up to my elbow) on most of what I had just painted, didn't even realise I was concentrating on what I was doing so much.

Anyway, tried to patch up the damage - see if you can spot it!  Happy Sunday!

What a weekend!

I'm absoloutely shattered!!  It's been a long but fantastic weekend.  The Colchester Open Studios 2012 began and at my studios we threw our doors open this weekend to welcome all to come and see what we create in our spaces.

(That's my painting "A Stormy Clacton on the back cover of the brochure!)
I enjoyed speaking to a whole host of people from all different ages and backgrounds, about my work...why, how and what next?  I had very positive comments about my work and spoke to others about the work that they themselves do.  It was also a real priviledge to speak to all of the artists that I work with at the studios and to share ideas, advice and more than a few laughs.  A reminder that if no man is an island unto himself then the same is surely true of artists.  Finally we also enjoyed some long needed sunshine as the crowning glory of the weekend.  I go back to work tomorrow not sad because the weekend is over but feeling really positive about what I do artistically and priviledged to be part of such a great community of artists.

In between the chats, discussions and more than a few cups of tea, I managed to make real headway with my newest piece.  I'm not a great one for lots of drawing out, and I certainly don't make a habit of using perspective too much!  But in my last piece and now with this one...I seem to be punishing myself.  It took a LOT of readjustment and rubbing out to get it drawn up properly.  Finally I could begin the painting.

I manged to get the sky finished just as the last of the sunlight left my studio and the warmth of the day disappeared.  I'm very excited about carrying on next weekend. 

 

 

Although I've started painting this in a traditional way I've got quite a few special techniques and materials lined up for this one.  Keep coming back to see the progress.  And just for anyone who would like to know the scene...beachhuts at Mersea - Essex of course!!!

Just as I finished typing this the most phenominal finale to the London 2012 Games - bloody hell, we did good!

How I love a great weekend!

I love being busy....when I'm busy painting!



It's a good week, I'm sure of it....I know it's only Monday however, I'm really excited about my new piece. I get paid on Friday (yay!) which means I'll have the money to get the materials I need to get started. Have been working on the composistion today and the sketch below gives an idea of what the composition will look like.

I made a great discovery of a new material that I can't wait to use and can't wait to my teeth into using spraypaint for the first time in my own work.  I always seem to be showing my students how to use it but have never ventured into the realms before myself.  It's quite ridiculous how excited I get at starting a new painting...if I was of an addictive personality I could probably develop quite a problem with it!

I'm also starting to organise myself for the Open Studios that we are having the weekend of 8th-9th Sept (it certainly will help to take the edge off of going back to school!), I'll post details of it on here closer to the time for those of you reading this who live close enough and are inclined to come along.

I have to get prints sorted of my most recent finished piece "All that glitters must surely be in Essex" (see previous post).  I've already had 2 people who've enquired about prints... on the same day I finished it!
2 is clearly the magic number here as I also have 2 comissions to finalise and begin.  One from the good ol' U, S of A.  On top of that I've got to do my submission for the Salon Art Prize.

With only 2 weeks of the 6 weeks holiday left before school starts, I really don't know if I've got time to go to work!  If being a professional artist is like this, bring it on!

Newest Piece.....in the bag!!

The world is all about keeping things in balance, so - bearing that in mind, my last post was very wordy and so this one is going to be full of pictures and very few words.

My newest piece from my "Essex" series is finished.  It is (as yet) untitled and for those of you who are interested it is oil paint and glitter.  I have taken shots from different angles to show the glittering effect as caught by the lovely sinshine coming into my studio today.  I have already had some interest expressed from people asking if it is available as a print.  It will be very soon - keep an eye on my website www.oilypalette.co.uk where all of my work is available to buy as an original or a print.

So here it is...... (photo's are taken on my mobile so are of lower quality)



Medals, more marmite and marketing

I was reading a fellow artists blog who said that the most difficult thing about blogging is the title of the posts and how to start them.  I whole-heartedly agree - there are millions of blogs, hundreds of thousands by artists alone...so how do you make it interesting enough in the first few lines to make someone want to read it?  Wish I knew - I just write what I'm thinking at the time, this really is just me talking but on a keyboard.

Anyway, first few lines over with on to the nitty gritty.  The whole point of this blog is to chart my journey into becoming (hopefully) a professional artist...professional being making money or a living from my Art.  Those of you who have been to my website, or follow me on here on Twitter, and of course that great rareity in the world of the internet-those of you who actually know me, will know that I spent my youth (up until 22) studying Art.  My degree is in Painting, but then I stopped.  It took me 7 years to pick up a paint brush again.  In truth I don't really know why, was it that after so many years of being creative to obtain a grade/qualification, after spending every waking hour thinking about, planning and writing about my work I just had run out of creativeness or (as I had always had up until then) the compulsion to create...I really don't know.  I'm sure I could pay a man with an agreeable tone of voice and a taste for comfy looking cardigans, a fortune to delve into my psyche to give me the answer....but honestly, I don't care.  I didn't paint for a number of years, and then one afternoon I just began again.

With my urge to create restored, my passion for painting back again, I then began to think..."well...I enjoy this so much I wonder if  could do this full-time?"  Perhaps because I was finally painting for me rather than for credits or a grade - and so my enjoyment of it was even greater than I remembered.

So I find myself on the road,endevoring to become a "professional" artist.  And bloody hell it's a tough one.  There are no hard and fast rules of how to do it, and much like I imagine is also true for acting and being a musician, there is no one way to become successful.  By successful I don't mean famous...I mean successful in the truest sense of the word. No shortcut, just a lot of hard graft and as today delievered me, a LOT of no's and closed doors.

So what the hell has any of this got to do with the title?  Well, the Marmite Prize for Painting sent me an email today notifying me that I had not been successful in being shortlisted.  I had a moment of inner struggle today when I asked myself if I was really the sort of person who could relentlessly self-market myself (an absolute necessity), if I can't blow my own trumpet then who else will.  This does not come naturally to me at all and at times I find it excrutiating.  But it must be done if I want to be noticed amoung the hundreds of thousands of other artists who are struggling to be seen and get their work noticed.

And the medals....well for those of you reading this who aren't aware of Great Britain's history of medal winning in the Olympics - Team GB 2012 is the most successful at getting the jewellery in over 100 years.  Now this is quite exceptional for us Brits - usually we tend not to watch too much as we know we won't win or aren't even in the running for a medal - but this year, my god we're winning left, right and centre.  I daren't move away from the tv in case I miss one of our fantastic athletes winning something.  I dragged myself away today to finally get into the studio, but even then had the Olympics Live being streamed to my phone.  Not great for the focus.

There are many obstacles to be overcome, if I am to become a professional artist.  Many moments of self doubt still to come......and a hell of a lot more no's!  I'm not going to wax lyrical about being thick skinned as I think an artist ahould be sensitive to the world around them in order to reflect it and to express ourselves in a way that others can identify with. I'm sure it is as it ever was.

My progress on this piece is below, I got to go to town on it with the glitter today and had enourmous amounts of fun.  Although unfinished, I'm pleased with how it's going (apart from a few niggling refinements that I've been thinking about all evening....OCD) and should get it finished later in the week...as long as I can tear myself away the the Olympics!!

Another "no" then today but I suppose I need to wait a bit longer for my work to strike a chord with others.

Back to the Olympics, it's been 20 whole minutes...we must've won another gold in that time!

When it's not a good time to run out of tea.....

Spent time in the studio this afternoon/evening, continuing on my current piece.  Still without a title, but have few ideas in the running for it.  Am catching up with all of today's Olympics excitement so this will be a post of mostly photo's of how the work developed this afternoon.  Didn't get as far as I would have liked as had to come home - ran out of tea in the studio...an absolute nightmare for a Brit.  Stayed for as long as was humanly possible without a brew, but had to give it best.

Note to self, either take more tea...or pace myself and not have 3 cups in the first 10mins of painting.  And yes, I can drink tea and paint at the same time.

So this is how things were going after just over an hour working on it,

Road now painted, I began to work over my underpainting to give the edges of the road more texture and depth,

From here I added the detail of the road markings, and then adjusted them, adjusted them again...and again until I got them to a place I was happy with them.  I also didn't want to make them stand out too much, although coming in to the foreground I don't want them to catch the eye too much as all of the attention should eventually (when it is finished) got to the viaduct.  The markings should act as a device to keep leading your eye back into the work.

So, unfotunately I couldn't get started on the viaduct (so it remains glaringly white!).  However, I will get back to the studio at the weekend, armed with a lot more tea and see if I can get it finished.  I wouldn't be able to carry on with it for a few days anyway as I need the paint to completely dry before I begin work on the viaduct as I have something speacial planned for it..............

Painting the sky & Colchester FC

A productive yet shorter day at the studio than I would have liked.  Wanted to spend the whole day, but its been a really busy and rather tense week.  So of course, I wake up with a crashing bloody headache this morning.  Didn't get to the studio till this afternoon but managed to get quite a bit more done on my newest work.  Still not finished, but pretty sure I will get it finished this week. (these were taken on my phone so not the best quality)

Really enjoying painting this one, particularly liked painting the sky on this by looking staight out of my studio window today and painting the sky outside, just above Colchester FC stadium (which is just across from my studio window)....they were playing at the time, not sure if they won or not!

Higher resolution pictures will be on my artist page at http://www.emergegallery.co.uk/eve-brinkley.php next week.

Big screens, Q & A's, half finished work...Marmite

Yet again I find the only time I can make time for a post is 11 o'clock at night.  Trying to wrap up the GCSE's for this year and organise an exhibtion for the students is very time consuming so unfortunately didn't get time to get to the studio at the weekend, very unsmiley face.

Since my last post, however, a few exciting things have happened.  It hasn't all been GCSE paperwork and drudgery!  Some of my work was shown last week in NYC, on Broadway!  Big screens and at some point between 7.45 and 8.15 (Eastern) my work appeared on over Broadway......very awesome.  I couldn't get over to see it and it was too late here for me to stay up to watch on the webcams as I had a full day's teaching the next day (just as well I didn't as the webcams all went down apparently). But the knowledge that my work was visable on Broadway is fantastic.  I'm really grateful to all the people who voted for my work and enabled that to happen.

Then, my first interview with Emerge Gallery at http://www.emergegallery.co.uk/blog.php, which was incredibly exciting and really enjoyable. 

No time in th studio at the weekend so my current piece remains semi naked, with only some underpainting to prevent it's blushes. 

And finally before I go off to bed, my attempt to apply to the Marmite Prize tonight failed.  Our computer quite frankly is knackered, it has about 35 vertical lines across the screen and struggles to cope with anything.  It looks like downloading a pdf was just too much for it, so after watching that bloody little green bar stay frozen for over 20mins I gave up and asked the lovely people at Marmite Prize to email me the form.  That's over half an hour of my life this evening that ain't coming back! I wish there were more hours in the day....oh there are I just need to get off Twitter a bit earlier in the evening.

I really want to get to the studio this weekend, so that I can post more complete images of my current painting.  Very excited about getting this finished - please let me find the time I need to get myself down t'studio!  Talking of excited, I found that Stewie from Family Guy is on Twitter....that too is a high point of the week.

No.3 off of the ground

So made it to the studio this week and got going on my 3rd work of my "Essex" series.  Only drawn up onto the canvas so far but ready this week for the underpainting.  My studio space is not the biggest but since I've moved in there my work has been getting bigger and bigger.  Apparently the artist who had it before me had the opposite happen with her work and it got teeny tiny. At this rate my work will be back to the 10ft canvases I painted during my degree by the summer!

I would have gone to do some more work on it today, but was at the Download Festival yesterday - Metallica were completely fantastic!  I also enjoyed Steel Panther's performance, in a post big-hair and leggings metal, ironic sort of a way!  Quite surprised at how many woman got their boobs out in the audience when asked to by the lead singer.  So, we left at about 11 and then it took us an hour and a half of walking endlessly around the fields surrounding the venue, turned into makeshift carparks before finally finding the car.  Then a further hour to get out, finally getting home and to bed for 4.30am.  Getting to the studio was the furthest thing from my mind - a day in front of the tele watching Storage Wars semed like a much better idea.

With half term nearly finished it's back to work tomorrow, so studio time will be relgated to the weekends again...at least for the next 6 weeks until the summer holidays.  Although with this one underway and a whole host of prizes to enter over the summer, think I'll have to find some time to get to my little studio space during the week too

A mixed bag

Well, as the post title would suggest it has been a week of high's and lows.  My work has been picked up by Emerge Gallery who I am now working with.  They support new/emerging artists as the name would suggest http://www.emergegallery.co.uk/ and they contacted me after having seen my work in progress right here on my blog!
My work didn't get pre-selected for the Threadneedle Prize, which I tell myself is fine, never mind - I'll try again next year...but I worked really hard on my submission and really laboured to get it finished in time for the deadline, then spent 2 hours just trying to upload my picture onto my submission form as the website was in chaos with 2,000 people all registering in the final 24hours.  So in truth I was gutted, but there are other prizes to go for.  My work is going to be shown as part of Art Takes Times Square, albeit probably briefly - but because of lots of wonderful people who voted for my work it will be shown.
I have a piece entered for the John Jones 2D art competition - and I have now found out about the Marmite Painting Prize, definately getting in on that one.
Exciting to have stuff I'm going for, but obviously with everything entered I have to prepare myself for disappointment with each one.  Over the last week I have had different people tweeting or messaging me with words of advice, and the main thing is - you will be told "no" so many times but you just have to keep all on.

So it's back to the studio this week for the first time in a fortnight and I'm carrying on with my "Essex" series which I'm having a lot of fun doing.  I've attached the images of the first 2 in the series here so they can be seen together and as the week goes on I'll be showing the work in progress at the studio, so keep coming back to have a little shufty and see how it's going.  (Oh and if anyone has any ideas on what I can call the "Untitled" piece let me know...it's the one on top, I just can't come up with a name for the glittery little number!).

A lot going on

Still marking GCSE work so 11.15 on a Wednesday night seems to be my only opportunity this week to post.  Okay, so I finished my submission to to the Threadneedle Prize (although it took me over 2 hours to upload the image last night as they were having such a high demand over their website....in fact they increased the deadline by 2 hours today because a lot of people were having problems.  I have to say that the support was fantastic, advice on Twitter and when I rang in a panic they were lovely!  I digress) anyway, I'm really pleased with the piece so even if it doesn't make pre-selection I'm really proud of it.  Generally happy with how my "Essex" series is going, lots of ideas - 3 paintings now in the initial stages at the studio including the biggest canvas I have tackled since graduating.
I also joined Emerge Gallery, an online gallery who work with new UK artists.  We need more people like Emerge Gallery, I really admire the commitment to giving new artsts a platform....something which I'm sure mostly every artist ever would agree - is the hardest thing to get.  So swing past their great new website, http://www.emergegallery.co.uk/

The summer season is well and truly on now.  For the next few months I have a series of prizes and awards to apply for, not to mention waiting for the results of Art Takes Times Square (my work will be shown at the launch and VIP party, even if I don't make it onto those lovely big screens!)  The John Jones 2D prize, the Threadneedle Prize AND on top of that I have 3 paintings to finsh as well as 2 others planned.

What a few months it should be.  Busy, yes.  Nerve-racking, yes.  Disappointing, possibly.  Exciting, bloody hell yes!! 

One thing is for sure, I'm having a great time - I'm not sure which artist said it, possibly Francis Bacon, but it's so true; as long as you paint for yourself you will never be unhappy with your work.

Even if all of the prizes and awards bomb out, I'll still keep painting because I just love it!

So here's the finished piece, "The Only Way is Constable", I did dabble with a slightly more tongue-in-cheek title but decided it was a little bit too YBA for me.  And yes, I have vajazzled my painting - in the next post I'll go into the themes and ideas behind my "Essex" series....I'm sure the Essex girls and boys among you can already see where I'm going with this one!

Work in progress

Busy week and its only Tuesday!  So this post is going to be all about the piccies, so this is how my most recent piece from my "Essex" series is shaping up.....

New York, Neeeeeew Yooooooork!

So, it's getting quite exciting now, my work has been submitted for "Art Takes Times Square" which is an amazing exhibition - on the biggest scale.  Artists from all over the world have submitted work and it is up to members of the public, whose art gets selected to go into the exhibition event on June 18th.  If enough people select or "collect" our work then we get through to the event where our artwork will be shown in NYC baby!!! If our work gets thorugh to that then it may be selected by he judging panel to be shown on the big screens in Times Square.

This is the most awesome opportunity, I have stood in the middle of Times Square a couple of times in my life and the thought that my work could be on the screen is insane.  To be honest I would be totally chuffed to get through to the exhibition event on June 18th.  Excitingly enough I am getting close to it happening, I have already had my work collected by more people than I had ever expected!  Below is the link to my portfolio of work and if you reading this and have a few moments I would love you to follow the link and click "collect me" if you like what you see.  Come on people - help me to get through on this crazy thing!!

My link is http://EveBrinkley-Whittington.artistswanted.org/atts2012

Thanks all x

Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines.....

It's a busy time at the moment, fitting in any painting of my own has been almost impossible whilst I endeavour to get my yr11 students through their GCSE. After putting in a lot of extra hours to get them through their exam I now have to put in even more in marking it all to get the exam board paperwork off by the deadline. At the same time I'm trying to get a piece finished in time to register it for the Threadneedle Prize. There are at least 3 Other Open Exhibitions and Prizes coming up that I need to finish work for in time to register them.

So much stuff to get done and barely any enough time to do any of it! teaching full time And trying to get my painting career off the ground is certainly a lot of deadlines to juggle! Better that than having nothing to do! Here's a piccie of how one of my submissions is coming along....or not, depending on how much time I can steal to get to my studio and do it!

A productive day at the studio.....

The sun was out, the studios were bristling with fellow artists creating.....and my studio space was under attack from twelvety million ladybirds! In amoungst all of this I finished the first painting of my "Essex" series.  As yet untitled, I have included some pictures (only on my camera phone so not best quality).  With this series I hope to show Essex as I view it/how it has been shown by other artists, combined with the Essex that people who don't live here expect to see. The Essex that is all about the superficial, the cheap and tacky that is proliferated by endless Essex girl/boy jokes and by certain TV programmes! The glitter hasn't shown up on these pictures but when I photograph it properly it should.  I've put in some details of parts of the picture.  Proper photo's to follow soon......