Blown Away

Here I am, pictured on Tresco in the Isles of Scilly, on a very gusty December day in 2007.

I love visiting this amazing island, where I have family connections, and I am frequently drawn back to paint there.

My last visit was in March this year, and I completed five canvases while I was there.

The homeward journey was via the island of St Marys, and while waiting at the small airport there I bought a bunch of daffodils, for which the islands are famous.

I painted these from life, in the studio, as soon as I got home.

I've since sold the painting to someone who I had the pleasure of meeting on that journey home. They saw me buy the bunch of flowers, and subsequently saw the painting on this blog.

The painting was one of a series I painted in preparation for the forthcoming Daffodils Exhibition at Gallery Tresco. This is in aid of the Precious Lives appeal, for the hospice for children in south-west Cornwall.

I'll post more details about the exhibition, and the painting I'm exhibiting, later this month.

Return Visit

Today I went to see the children from our local school who recently came to see me in my studio.

This time I visited their classroom.

We continued our discussions about portraiture, concentrating mainly on the subtleties of colour.

The children produced these lovely paintings which you can see in the photograph above.

I had a wonderful time. The whole class were so enthusiastic, and took real pride in their work.

Browse & Darby

Later this month I'll be exhibiting this painting at the prestigious Cork Street gallery Browse & Darby, in their summer show.

Last time I showed there, at their Christmas exhibition a couple of years ago, I was very happy with the response.

The gallery represent many excellent painters including my contemporary Andy Pankhurst, and my tutor at the Slade - the late Euan Uglow.

More details nearer the time.

(Read a little about the painting above in this blog post from March this year)

Ludlow Summer Exhibition

I've had a painting accepted for the Ludlow Summer Exhibition in August this year.

I painted it from life on the banks of the river Stour near Bryanston last year, as this post that I made at the time explains. I also discussed the size of the canvas here.

This is quite a large painting, and it is dominated by the cool, cold colours of the winter landscape - the blues, greys and greens.

While it was working on the painting two teenage boys arrived on the opposite bank and started fishing. Like painting, this activity requires the practioner to stay still in the landscape for a period of time. This gave me to wonderful opportunity to add them to the painting.

I love the small red mark of one of the boys' fishing bucket in the centre of the picture. It is exciting for an artist to have such a small but significant contrast to depict (click on the picture above to see a larger, more detailed version).

The vertical lines of the bare winter trees on the riverbank also offer a challenge, and they strongly dictated the composition.

I will post more details of the Ludlow exhibition as soon as I have them.

Progression

Here is a short video showing the progression of the Thomas Children painting from the commissioning visit up until delivery to the client.

You can see the painting in larger format at my website: www.harrietbarber.com

Village School

Last Friday children from the Year 3 (7-8 year olds) class at a local school came to visit my studio.

I gave them an art lesson on portraiture, and they got to see my recent Thomas Children at Ringstead commission before it left the studio.

I started by explaining that my studio used to be the village school until 1932, and that all the children of the village would have had their lessons here.

The children then looked at all of my art materials, and I explained what they were all for.

Then we all had a go at drawing faces, looking at basic proportions - followed by drawing figures.

We all really enjoyed ourselves, and the children got to choose a greetings card each from a selection of my paintings.

I'll be going on a follow-up visit to their school soon.

Commission

The reason my blog has been quiet lately is that I have been finishing a large painting commission, the culmination of three months work.

I completed it on 2 June, had it framed - and delivered it personally at the weekend.

The recipients were really thrilled with it, and I'm delighted that they now have this unique lifesize painting of their children.

I'll be putting up a few more posts about this painting over the next few days.

In the meantime I've added it to my website, along with a new 'Portrait' section.