Since the last blog post quite a lot has happened. There was, of course, the small matter of Covid 19. Personally, this meant the early cancellation of my first solo exhibition and another group exhibition for which I had submitted work.
With lockdown in full swing I had to go to France in order to attend to some family matters. This was probably the best thing that could have happened, as I spent the whole summer in the relatively safety of my countryside tiny house, doing mainly building work and a bit of gardening.
Alas, I couldn’t stay in France forever, so it was back to Scotland in time for the start of my daughter’s school term and it was also back to the studio.
The change from rural France to urban Scotland is not easy and it took me a few weeks to adjust. Painting certainly helped and I produced these two works as I got my ‘hand back in’.
Prior to leaving for France I submitted two works to the Paisley Art Institute’s 2020 Online Exhibition. On my return I was delighted to learn that they had both sold!
More recently I have taking some expert tuition in order to improve my portrait painting skills. Although I have produced a number of small portraits already, I have always felt that my technique was not consistent. I could often ‘muddle through’ and produce something decent but could equally fail repeatedly.
So I have started training with Michael at the London Road Atelier in Glasgow. Here I am learning the ‘classical’ techniques of portrait painting in oils by copying the works of the masters such as John Singer Sargent.
What style my own portraits will ultimately evolve into remains to be seen but I am sure that having a solid underpinning of portrait skills will help enormously. Exciting times!