SHEFFIELD ARTISTS OPEN STUDIOS AND EASTER FLOWERS

Gosh, I can’t believe it’s the Sheffield Artists Open Studios event starting at the weekend. It’s all very chaotic and last minute as usual, but I’m sure it will sort itself out.

Not much time to write at the moment so I’ll post these sunny flower paintings I did over the Easter period. I was inspired by walking through Weston Park in Sheffield and seeing all the colourful new flowers. I’ll be showing them at the weekend along with around 20 new paintings, some big, some small. Something for everyone!

 
The weather has been glorious lately, apart from a crazy hour the other afternoon when it was more like Christmas. I’ve never seen such big hailstones and the roads became mini rivers. This was the view from my eyrie, dreaming of a white Easter!

Anyway, back to the preparations for the weekend. I’m staging my event at Sheffield Cathedral this year so hopefully there’ll be a good turnout of visitors, especially if the weather stays nice.

Check out the details at the following address:

http://www.openupsheffield.co.uk/artists/mark-h-wilson.htm

SPRING CLEANING, NEW PAINTINGS & MY FIRST EVENT OF THE YEAR

Well, the house is ready for a spring clean. Wifey has started today and I will start on the top floor studio rooms as soon as I’ve got my latest paintings mounted and framed ready for my first event of the year. Honest, I will, whenever I get a spare minute! 

My first event of the year is the Curbar Art Show in Derbyshire. It’s being held at the local school and helps to raise funds for the school.

I first started taking part in these village shows in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire in the mid 90’s when I began to concentrate on landscape painting. They are held in churches, church halls, schools, community centres etc and I used to do as many as possible. I did really well at some selling all, or nearly all, my work. Some were a dead loss so I ruled them out and concentrated on the better ones. It was a big help to get me known in the region and also helped out the organisations and charities involved. 

I will be showing six pieces including these two new paintings of mine at Curbar in the Peak District on the weekend 9/10 April 2011, so get yourself along, have a cup of tea and a piece of cake and maybe pick up a bargain work of art.

Anyhow, back to the spring cleaning!!

 

 

City Storm Sky

First Light City Sunrise

SPRING, BLOSSOM, FLORAL PAINTINGS & THE SPACE-INBETWEEN

Well, the weather has been great recently with the advent of Spring, my favourite time of the year. I love the blossom, the emerging buds and the longer, brighter days. I feel like I’ve emerged, too, from a winter hibernation. Wifey loves the winter and the dark nights but for me it’s a bit glum, especially after the Christmas and the New Year festivities.

Anyway, seeing all this new colour has got me inspired to get going on some new floral work.

 SPRING 40cmx30cm

I’ve always loved using flowers as a starting point for a painting. There are so many colours to choose from, so many shapes. I don’t set out to depict a flower in a botanically correct way, after all I’m an artist, not a scientist. I choose my flowers, setting them up in an untraditional arrangement and start with loose, quickly done studies using diluted acrylic and a selection of brushes, palette knives, sponges, bits of card, kitchen roll, anything that’s lying around really. I sometimes put spotlights on the arrangement to cast shadows on the white background, what I call the space in-between. Working like this allows me to try different compositions, colour combinations and techniques and because I use paper I can throw them away if they don’t work. I usually work on about 10 of these at a time moving from one to another in rotation. At the end I might get 5 or 6 that I think are worth saving and mounting.

I don’t really class these paintings as studies. Quite often they contain a freshness and spontaneity that larger, more ‘worked’ paintings can lose.

Here are three examples to finish with.

ON GOLD 40cmx30cm

  

BUNCH 40cmx30cm

ARRANGEMENT 40cmx30cm