Studio Time...

'Late Night Drive', oil on canvas, 70 x 70cms, 2019

I opened up my studio to the public as a participating artist in this year’s Birmingham Open Studios event at the beginning of the month. It runs over 2 weekends but I just took part in the first one, keen to have a look around at other artist’s studios the following week. 

Empty new painting rack...

I was working right up to the wire to get ready as during the week prior to opening my good friend, Richard was building me some rather splendid storage racks in the studio to try and help me create more storage space and keep my paintings in a better order. I’m absolutely chuffed with the results and its totally transformed the studio, so I’m very grateful. 

A much fuller painting rack...!

making just this year to gauge an audience response. I’ve been having a good, productive year, so I could have shown twice as many paintings and more, but the ones I selected seemed a good mix of things, and were received very positively I’m pleased to say. The studio visitors were really attracted by their vibrant colour, which is something I’ve been pushing lately.

Some recent paintings...

I even sold one, ‘Late Night Drive’ (see top image), to an artist friend, Matt, so that was great. It’s a particular favourite of mine, which I had thought I’d want to hold back on, as I thought it might have quite a broad appeal if I approached some commercial galleries, which I’ve been looking into lately (largely in vain I have to say…), but in the end it was really nice to see it go to a good home. 

I enjoyed the time the weekend allowed me to quietly look at some of the recent work with fresh eyes and spend some time on my own with it. I’m really enjoying painting at the moment, and after looking at the more modest sized paintings I’ve been working on, I really feel many of them would be so much better on a bigger scale so that’s where I’m headed in the next few months.