Exhibition at the Art Barn

It has been quite intense with the Art Barn in Preston Baggot, Warickshire, where I have 10 paintings at the moment, and the exhibition goes on until the 4th October, and the weekend of Melbourne Art Festival. Both exhibitions co inciding which meant a lot of work inbetween the holidays and before and after the holidays. At the Melbourne arts festival I had about 16 paintings displayed.

This is how the art barn looks from the back

 
It is part of the old rectory in preston baggot and the barn has been converted into a art gallery for last eight years now. I exhibited there in 2010 and this year I was thrilled to be invited back.

I took lot of photographs before the opening of the private view as it gets very busy and difficult later on.

After delivering the paintings at the art barn we went for a little walk around. It is beautiful surrounding.

Little Emily just loved to play around their huge garden area.

A lot of running around.

Then we took this path just behind the front lawn where Emily was playing for a stroll.

We passed the gate.

Passed the church.

And reached the wheat field.

 Yes, daddy and little girl played hide and seek.

I bet you cant spot daddy here in the above picture.

OH! you found him. That was difficult, wasn't it?

Emily was very keen to see the wheat grains.

Later that week was the private view. Exciting when people start pouring in.

The exhibition looked fantastic.These 4 paintings on the wall are my work. The sculptures are Petra Rohr-Rouendaal's, who lived quite a long time in Africa and her work is influenced from it.

Few more of my paintings. These are Encaustic mixed media work.

More sculptures and paintings from Petra.

Some Raku pottery work from Rika who came all the way from Botswana.

Another painter and jewellers work.

A very good combination of art and craft work which will be on until the 4th October. If you do get a chance to be in Warwickshire please do have a look at the exhibition. You wont be disappointed for sure.

All the pottery work is making me so itchy to try my hands in pottery once again. I keep thinking of it but haven't got enough time for now but maybe this is something I want to have along with my paintings in future. Hmmmmm, long term planning is going on here.

Well, enjoy your day and I will be back next with the Melbourne arts festival photographs. Thank you to all those people, who are now following me on Instagram. I am really enjoying Instagram as its lot quicker than blogging.

Camping in the Peak District

Tiffany (our caravan) was out again. Yes, it wasn't long since we went camping but the weather was nice and would have been a same not to go anywhere. So we drove to the Peak District. We camped in a farmers land, that's what we like with just few caravans. There were only Two caravans and a very small tent other than us there and the field was so big that we were all spread out.

As we were not far from Ilam, we went for a walk there. This is the tea room which was packed...

We sat outside and had a cup of tea.

 Saw some land sculptures.

 This was Emily's favourite spot to sit. She called it home.

Was not easy to get her out of there.

Of course, we always collect woods and pine cones. So handy for campfire, cooking in my new outdoor wood burner and maybe some possible future craft work.

And... I can never have enough photographs of these beauties.

They look so adorable and full of character.

Little Emily wanted to give them a hug. She ran, and ran and ran after them for a hug.

We followed her.

 In the end she gave up sadly as the sheep ran away from her. Poor thing.

I gave her my sketchbook to draw them...

But she decided to draw herself instead.

The Lamb watched Emily while she was drawing in mummy's sketchbook.

Then, it was my turn. I have so many photographs of these sheeps from before already so I decided to cut one around and use it for a quick mixed media  work in my book.

I always carry lots of different vintage emphera, Variety of scrap decorative papers, paints and anything and everything almost with me. These are really done very quickly and are not a perfect image or finished work but its more about capturing the essence of  a place or of that particular moment. I don't like planning my paintings at all. Once all dry, some journalism would be done here.

Words

Yesterday after coming back from nursery, little Emily said to me, "good afternoon mummy" in sign language. It is wonderful to see her growing and learning new things, words everyday. At a very young age we learn to communicate with words, gestures and facial expressions.

There are so many ways of expressing yourself, I choose to express myself through painting. I try to express myself with colour, line and texture. I do communicate with my paintings better than words. I think I have gone beyond the need for words.

The Journey

 

 

 

 

I continue to find new ways to work as I have done since I started my art journey. Working is what I have been doing for past few weeks, months and years in my head, on paper and canvas. I have been drafting ideas for a while, I have been dreaming my entire life. This is what I always dreamt of and I am happy to see it come alive.

 

I love the textures you can find in the natural world. The depth created by nature. The shift in the season and finally the shift in my work.

 

Everywhere within the shift of the seasons, we can see the growth in the landscape and so I felt the need to grow in my painting. After having done so many abstract landscape paintings (with acrylic and oil paints) I wanted the shift to happen. Not a drastic change but a gradual change. Mixed media seemed to be the answer. I did a lot of mixed media work during my graduation days, and maybe here and there after, but as I wanted to combine few of my newly learnt skills with my present way of working, mixed media was the right choice. My love for textiles, colour and paint all to be achieved in one finished piece of work.

Yes, the journey started years back, and I am still enjoying it. As I learn and pick up new techniques on my way, I like to add on to my painting.