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Thank you Rotary Cambridge - It was a fantastic Passion For Art

I have spent this week recovering from a fantastic weekend where the 'A Passion for Art' festival was run over two days in conjunction with the Rotary Cambridge Garden Festival.So many lovely people came and visited me and it was delightful to see people again and to meet new friends.I decided to try something different this year and did a number of smaller paintings of flowers (to go with the Garden Festival).  They were a hit!  I have three of the paintings left, but the one at the t...

Spring - Gardens and Flowers time

Spring is here (even if only for a day every now and then!) The bulbs are coming up, cherry trees are in blossom and my garden is starting to look lovely. Looking forward to the roses coming out - but I will miss the smell of the lovely daphne.Speaking of flowers and gardens, I am looking forward to the Rotary Cambridge Garden Festival on November 10th this year because...  we are running another Passion for Art Trail for the whole weekend.Saturday November 9th and Sunday November 10th ther...

New Year - New Ideas

Looks like an active year ahead for people who love art.So let’s see what is happening?I am now exhibiting only at the Heritage  Gallery and I like the new owner Adriana very much. Adriana worked at Heritage Gallery a few years ago so she knows the ropes and she knows her stuff.I have a good selection of works at my home, and I do have a painting regularly in Onyx Restaurant , because….I love them and it is my most favourite place to eat !!!!MARCH 23 and 24 are very important dates as t...

A bright spot on a cold rainy day

A mid-winter blog on this cold day. A glass of wine is always nice on days like this, snuggled up with my best friend Bella. (see photo).I have some new paintings, which are in the pictures above and below this blog post.I am always thinking of new ideas and new ways of painting some of my favourite scenes.  I have three paintings in the Heritage Gallery and am planning for an exhibition in November on the 18th and 19th.I have been excited about a new and popular project, centre table mats....

So much has happened!

Reality - much has happened since I last wrote in this space.Last year I organised and exhibited in the A PASSION FOR ART exhibition which was run in conjunction with Cambridge Rotary, this was a total success.Cambridge Rotary and Carey Church can be commended for the manner in which this Cambridge event was publicised. It was brilliant and thank you Cambridge Rotary.I have been busy painting , had strong interest and good sales at A PASSION FOR ART and had the best of help from artist Kirsten M...

Getting ready for the 'A Passion for Art' exhibition in November

Life has been so busy here, I haven't had a lot of time to paint.  But... from today I am inspired and back into it! Along with a team of magnificent people, I have been involved in setting up U3A Cambridge (University of the Third Age).  From a standing start on May 24th this year, we now have around 180 members, we have had our first lecture (with others booked  until this time next year), and we have well over 20 special interest groups up and running.  Somehow! ...

A Passion for Art, Hundertwasser and a new painting

Not a good start with Omicron and ‘red traffic light’ settings. BUT by November we will be fine. Take my word for it. I am part of a team who is organising a project named A PASSION FOR ART. What we envisaged and were working towards was a two day exhibition on April 2 and 3 during the Cambridge Autumn Festival. The Festival was cancelled because of Covid and we cancelled our project because of the concern that people will be fearful of visiting our studios and galleries. As a result, we hav...

Mugs, Outdoor Art, 19th November exhibition and 'This is Africa'

An interesting time for all of us, particularly for those of us in lockdown. Anyway, I believe in being positive and I am preparing to see you all on November 21st at the Rotary Cambridge Garden Festival, I am fortunate to be having an exhibition on that day at my home . Let’s be positive, we will be out of lockdown for this and if you live in Auckland, you will be too. I will have a selection of paintings and cards plus place mats and this year I have a host of mugs with my painting on each o...

Painting during lockdown & enjoying Cambridge's History

Katherine Mansfield said, “It is of tremendous importance that we laugh at ourselves.” For those who know me well will be aware that I am a very big admirer of Mansfield and in these times of lockdown I guess we have to find something to laugh at even if it is ourselves. Hopefully by the time you read this, those of us who are in the areas south of Auckland, will be getting closer to being back at Level 2. I have been painting and have attached a couple of paintings I have finished. One is t...

Africa, Cornwall and the Cambridge Museum

I can be very boring… and it’s hard to believe that here we are again and the time has sped past us. So I will be boring … and look at what has happened during that time! I am preparing for Sunday, November 21 and the Rotary Cambridge Garden Festival.  As I am a sponsor,  I will be having an exhibition here for that day. You can buy your tickets for the festival on line at www.cgf.nz, they are on sale from Friday 13th August as “early bird tickets .”  (You can ...

Enjoying painting Fowey in Cornwall

Here I am in Wellington for Easter, blustery city, but the city houses two of my daughters, so I have a special  affinity to this city. I had my pop up exhibition a couple of weekends ago - just for one day, to celebrate the Cambridge Autumn Festival.  I met some very nice people, but it has also confirmed how important the  Autumn Festival art trail is. This  was  cancelled this year,  and so with the help of...i hope...  Jennifer Burton and Julie Epps we may ...

A painting to hang outdoors in a garden - a special challenge

Good Morning - I’m looking  forward to this coming year. Getting back to normality anyway after the Christmas break. I saw all of my family, three daughters who are the mainstay of my family and am off soon for a week in Wellington where two of my daughters live. I have been painting and each one I am doing is a challenge. I am painting a very large painting of a provincial village, on board to hang out side as a feature of a garden for a client.  It is a very hard and lengthy proces...

New paintings and cheese platters

My exhibition with Jo Beckett on Saturday 28th November and Sunday 29th November is getting closer, and I am busy preparing new art with some new themes.I have attached the photos of three of the new paintings to this post -Fowey in Cornwall - I have a great love of Cornwall, I went there with my youngest daughter Jenny many years ago.  My interest and passion for this part of England was born when I was probably 12 and I read Daphne Du Maurier's books.  I loved the description of...

Tinakori Road, Oriental Bay and a new exhibition in November

It is always a joy to visit Wellington (not the least because two of my daughters Anna and Jenny live there!), seeing the beautiful old homes that look like they could fall off the side of the hill.The narrow winding streets of Tinakori Road, the Katherine Mansfield House, and the history that the tall skinny houses invoke are great inspirations for my art, I have painted these several times.Driving around the harbour - on a sunny day, or a gusty day with whitecaps on the waves provides the vist...

Paintings in the time of Covid

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone - September and Spring already! You will agree (I am sure), that this has been a year like no other, and stress has been at a premium - for different reasons, whether it is because of lack of freedom, lack of income, concern about becoming unwell. I have been very busy with commissions and have completed four so far. The biggest one was 2 x 2 metres, and went wailing off on the bak of a truck to Te Awamutu on Thursday last week. The painting was of a ...

Memories of my wonderful travels - and the inspirations for many of my paintings

Time to write a blog - sitting here as you all are - waiting for this lockdown to end and trying to work out what happens next. Disappointed that The Cambridge Autumn Festival was cancelled because of the lockdown and we have to wait a year for this to happen again. It is a difficult time for all of us. However, I am planning a special project for the end of November and will write more about this as time goes on. I thought I would write this time about trip to Europe in 1998. I went with my dau...

What I've been up to and short note on Fauve artists

Here I am again, - it has been a while since I have entered a post – the last few months have gone by so quickly! In November 2019 I took part in the Cambridge Rotary Garden Festival as one of the ‘art in the garden’ exhibitors. This was a magnificent success with 950 people coming down my drive and viewing art. I do enjoy sharing my art with people, and talking about my inspirations. Most people were happy, pleasant and enjoying the day (some others weren’t thrilled about the driveway a...

Hundertwasser - brilliance

Hopefully you have heard of the fascinating Artist & Architect - Friedrich Hundertwasser. Many of you will know of him because of his high profile in Keri Keri, New Zealand. His art is totally different. How a brain can go every which way but one has always been asked of artists like Picasso, Salvador Dali and Joan Miro. There is also Gaudi, who is an absolute enigma and his building designs and his presence in Barcelona is and must be one of today’s wonders of the world. If you aren’t awar...

Brittany Dogs, Garden Festivals and Art Exhibitions

It is nearly at the close of July and I am in Wellington for my youngest daughters birthday. Today I have a day to myself while my family members are at work and I have as company two Brittany dogs.  Really - they are little people...not dogs of course, just humans in dog costumes, white and orange.  Anyone who knows me well, will know that I had one of these Brittanys for 15 years and it was devastating when I found her her in my studio one morning and she had died in her sleep. These...

Frances Hodgkins

If you have a passion for art you will know about Frances. I put her in the same category as Katherine Mansfield. These New Zealand women are two of my most admired people. Individuals, probably really stroppy, prepared to be individuals and making their mark in New Zealand history. There is a Frances Hodgkins exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery at present. It is called European Journeys. Frances was born in Dunedin in 1869 and died in 1947…when I was six …and I didn’t even kn...

Rita Angus

The next woman artist that I admire and who has influenced my work is Rita Angus. Rita Angus, google her, but you probably know who I am talking about. Rita was born in 1908 and was a contemporary of Toss Wollaston and Colin McCahon.Rita was a very confident artist who always thought that her paintings would one day be appreciated. At the time that she was painting and exhibiting in the early 1930's there was little support in New Zealand for artists and she could never have earned a living from...

Frida Kahlo - an inspiration

There are three women artists who I admire immensely - Frida Kahlo, Frances Hodgkins and Rita Angus. They are all so interesting, so I've written a blog on each one. Many of you may know of Frida Kahlo.  She is a dramatic and very charismatic woman from Mexico.  Her life was a dramatic piece of art in itself.  Today (as I write this) is the 75th anniversary of Frida's first  solo exhibition in New York.  This exhibition really introduced her extraordinary talent to ...

Getting the Garden ready for 'Art in the Garden'

We have been busy preparing the garden here for the Rotary Cambridge Garden Festival on Sunday November 24th. The garden is being pulled into shape with the very able help of Robyn at Garden Control. I am thinking about what the theme will be for my exhibition for the day.  It won't only be my garden that will be on show, but a range of my paintings (that will also be available to buy). These are two photos that I took a while ago ...but this year...of two people who asked me to paint their...

German Expressionism

I have a penchant for the work of the German Expressionists and they have influenced my style. Expressionism is a style of painting, music or drama in which the artist or writer seeks to express the inner world of emotion rather than external reality. It has been said that the German Expressionists were uneasy and angry, railing against Christian and bourgeois values as much as rampant urban industrialisation. Expressionism originated in Germany as an avant-garde style before the First World War...

A challenging commission and new paintings

I've had a very interesting time in the last few weeks. A challenging private commission I was asked to do an exceptionally interesting commission to do for a client in the South Island.  The client was introduced to me by Wayne Good (of Arkanda Living & Interiors).  I met her briefly when she was in Cambridge meeting with Wayne to organise the decoration of her new home in Christchurch. She was a very vibrant, attractive woman who wanted a painting of her five sisters, and her husband...