New show – ‘Tranquility’ (post 2 of 2)

I’m happy to say that my new show has been a big success! Of 7 paintings, 5 were sold in the first week. Having spent a lot of the past 18 months wondering what was going to happen and what I should be doing, this was very affirming :o) Thanks to all the collectors who chose to buy pieces! (by the way, if you missed out, do you know I take commissions? Just drop me an email!)

Whichever route I drive home, 99% of the time I drive past this house. It’s at a junction, on the corner, and when it’s dark they tend to leave their porch light on. As you can imagine this catches my eye! Back in 2019 I painted a different house like this, and since then I’ve been on the lookout for another, but the perfect house is hard to come by. And even harder to come by it with it’s porch light on!

The hardest part of this painting was getting the darkness level right. I paint it ‘quite dark’, and then use washes to darken it further. I think it took 6 attempts; it was too dark, not dark enough, too dark, and so on! Lots of painting and then wiping off again….

“The House on the Corner”, 20″ x 16″ acrylic on panel.

This painting was my favourite from the recent show. It’s titled “Forest Glow” (16″ x 20″ acrylic on panel). This was based on one of many paintings I took on our land last winter.

When I was part-way through the painting for the show, I was talking to my husband about how I always seemed to struggle with the texture of the tree bark on our trees. I could never quite balance the detail with the painterly-ness (fairly sure that’s not a word!) that’s required. I told him that I needed to pick a subject that had a lot of tree bark texture and really work at it. And this was the result!

I’m really please with the result, which is why I think it’s my favourite, but I also really love the faint blue scenery in the background. I have a feeling this winter I’ll be looking for that when I’m staging my photo references…

Lastly, this piece is called “Here Be Magic” (24″ x 18″ acrylic on wood panel). It feels like a combination of various subject matters that I like… lights in the dark, sunsets, silhouetted trees. It’s based on a photograph by .

The name for this one took a while, but looking at all the dark foliage on the left and how the house was nestled in it kept making me think of magical, mystical places! Twilight can often feel like this; like the boundary between the normal and the magical :o)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this more in-depth look at the paintings in my recent show. It’s been nice to document them in this way; normally these thoughts would gradually fade. Thanks again to my collectors; please contact Argyle Fine Art to see if any pieces are still available, and if you’d like a similar piece feel free to drop me an email.

1 thought on “New show – ‘Tranquility’ (post 2 of 2)”

  1. Brenda B Eischen

    The lantern slung upon the tree is so lovely. I can see why it is your favorite! There is something so intimate and “visually quiet” about the studies you’ve staged in the woods. Really special!

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