The studio floor has been painted ready for Winter Open Studios! This year I’m opening my studio to celebrate the beginning of Advent and fellow still life artist Nick Elliot is opening his studio in Fakenham. All welcome to come and enjoy some mulled wine and mince pies.

Above 'Home is Holkham' 46x46cm Framed. £550

Delighted to be showing the above painting and several more with Norfolk by Design at Art Fair East at Saint Andrew’s Hall in Norwich. Opening Friday 29th November – Sunday 1st December. 10.30am – 5.00pm. £3.50 entry fee (under 14s go free). Lots of interesting artists take part, making for an eclectic mix.

The winner of the ‘giveaway’ painting went to Rosanna Scott. Thank you to everyone who took part. I really appreciate it and hope to hold another subscriber winner event in the future. To be in with a chance of winning something original and created by me please join my mailing list for news of up and coming events and workshops. Click on the link below-

Great ways to keep in touch

 

October and I’m in the mood for a studio tidy up and refresh. It’s been five years of happiness since my studio was built at the top of the garden. And to celebrate I’m having a special ‘give away’ of an original piece of artwork.

It seems some of my newsletters are being sent to spam and I don’t want you to miss out on the opportunity to win so if they are not coming into your in-box you need to check your spam box/promotions box or junk box/folder.

The draw will be done at random from my mailing list so if you’d like to be in with a chance of owning a framed piece of my artwork then do subscribe to my mailing list. To do that either click on the link below or scroll to ‘Contact – Great ways to keep in touch’ and add your name and email address to receive the occasional newsletter. Good luck!

The draw will take place on Monday 4th November.

Great ways to keep in touch

As part of this celebration I invited photographer Charlotte Bromley Davenport to take some photographs of me in the studio. It was a wonderful fun experience and I’m delighted with the results Charlotte managed to create.

https://www.charlottebd.com/

In the studio I’ve been focused on working in a series of four paintings at a time so when displayed they will compliment each other. This seems to be a lot harder than it sounds as I’m a bit impulsive when creating and spring from one colour to the next. Although my colour palette is mainly blue I do love to experiment with sunset colours. Working as a painter there is never enough time to discover all the beautiful colours one can find just by using a limited palette.  I recently went on a colour day workshop with artist and tutor Martin Laurance at Anteros in Norwich, it was a great day and I learnt so much from his knowledge of colour.

Having taken the Creative Visionary Project (CVP) course with Nicholas Wilton I feel my art is continuing to develop and is moving towards abstraction. I don’t really consider myself as an abstract painter but I  do find it engaging and meditative to do.

Out and about this month – in between the rain showers!

 

Thank you to Reverent Rachel Alexander for inviting me to speak about Art & Faith at  St. Mary’s Church in Snettisham. Public speaking really does require a leap of faith!

It’s all about play! I’ve just finished an online course called CVP (Creative Visionary Project) with Artist Nick Wilton which has taken over most of my life for the last three months. Now I’m in the process of letting what I’ve learnt sink into developing my art practice. Every artist,at some point, has that urge to progress, take more risks and to push themselves out of the boat and into the deeper waters. For me, I normally do this through setting my self some ‘play time’ that is getting into the studio and work in my sketchbook or directly onto 30x30cm boards, once set up I make different marks using various brushes, scrapers and palette knives. I’m also trying out different colours to the ones that I’d normally use. As you can see below I have used a limited palette of just three colours Amsterdam ‘Kings Blue’ Winsor & Newton ‘Lemon Yellow’, Daler Rowney Systems 3 ‘Process Magenta’ plus Paynes Grey and Titanium White. The brush used to apply the colour samples is by Jackson’s art supplies. S.5551 No.6 PROCRYL. The sketchbook is by Seawhite of Brighton 19.5×19.5cm.

 

Above: experimental work in progress, adding torn bits of paper for creating a sense of composition and ideas

Below: my evolving style from taking the CVP art workshop, here I’m using a brighter colour palette!

   

Above: Top Tip – try cropping areas of your paintings using a cardboard framing mount. Quickly maneuver it over areas of interest to find intriguing shapes, colour and design. Remember to take a quick photo for future reference

Above: ‘Fisher of Men’ painted ‘live’ during worship at the New Dawn Christian Conference 2019. This is something new and I’m inviting lots of other artists who’d like to join me in 2020 to contact me and get involved

 

Student’s work: from a recent  workshop I gave to a local art group

Above: Student’s enjoying a fun morning painting at a recent art workshop I gave for a 60th birthday party 

Feel free to get in touch if you’d like me to deliver an art workshop for you or your art group.

More inspiration to follow…..

 

Above ‘Sea Bright’ 75x75cm mixed media on board

‘Stormy Day’ was selected by the Sea Pictures Gallery who came to take away 5 paintings for their Summer by the Sea show opening 5th July, in Clare, Suffolk.

 

Almost a the end of June and my monthly inspirations have been a bit slow this month! Lots of gardening, walks and running workshops have been a joy.

More to follow ..

NORFOLK OPEN STUDIOS

Looking forward to opening my studio doors for Norfolk Open Studios starting over the Bank Holiday weekend. I shall be opening my work space for three weekends:   25/26/27 May 1/2/8/9  June. Opening 10am till 5pm. All welcome –

A big thank you to everyone who came to the first of my art workshops – it was a very busy day and the rain held off so we could enjoy walking and sketching around Burnham Overy Statithe harbour.

 

Welcoming Spring light in the studio and brighter days…

I’m holding an extra workshop on Saturday 29th June  – sign up here!

http://tracey-rossart.co.uk/tracey-ross-artist-great-ways-keep-touch-join-mailing-list-for-news-of-workshops-and-exhibitions/

Trial and error

In the studio this month I’m trying out cold wax medium as it’s textural and interesting to use.  I’m hoping to go on a course at some point to learn more about the process but for now I thought I’d try it and see what effects I could create and learn from making lots of mistakes. Before starting this process I first read a good blog by Nicki Heenan  http://nickiheenan.com/ and recently found some informative videos by Lisa B. Boardwine on Youtube. As I’ve used Zest It products before I thought I’d try their version of cold wax. Cold wax is mixed with oil paint  and as I normally paint with acrylics the feel of oils is quite different. It’s a vast subject and my first results are painful to say the least – so I’m allowing myself time to play and see what happens.  These images are the results so far, some pieces are on mounting card and the two blue abstract ones are on MDF board – coated with three layers of Gesso first. For the sake of health and safety it’s important to wear a protective face mask, gloves and work in a well ventilated studio with the doors and windows open.

Framing – new styles

This month I’m trying out some new framing ideas – the one below is called a St Ives/Nicholson frame by Ashcraft framing. Ashcraft Frames are an online framers and this is the first time I’ve tried using an online company. The only problem with using an online framer is that all the frames need to be assembled, taped on the back and strung by you! so you’ll need to feel confident enough to do this before ordering any frames.  To finish off the frames why not have some sticky labels designed to add any extra information about your painting and to promote your website, wish I’d designed some ages ago…

http://www.ashcraftframing.co.uk/home

Sketching update…

Loving taking time out of the studio to sketch the views at Wells-next-to-Sea. I use Seawhites of Brighton sketchbooks as they are sturdy and the pages seem strong enough to take whatever materials I like to put on them or scrap off! I’ll be demonstrating how to use a sketchbook at my one day art workshops coming up soon. Due to lots of interest I’m holding an extra workshop on Saturday 29th June  – sign up here

http://tracey-rossart.co.uk/creative-art-workshops-fun-mixed-media-norfolk/

Studio Lighting –

Studio lighting is a big topic and one I spent ages researching and asking advice on. Finally I choose a set of studio lights by RALENO. I found them on Amazon, the reviews were good and the quality of the stands and lights seemed good enough for my first set. After seeking the help from a photographer friend I realised my old Nikon Coolpix camera was quite capable of taking some decent images for printing cards and giclee prints.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post –

More creating news coming soon….