William Morris Gallery & Plein Air Painting

On Monday I spent the afternoon with my artist friend Nao painting in her garden. The weather was glorious and we both spent a wonderful couple of hours getting creative with acrylic paint. Nao worked on a huge canvas inspired by John Hoyland and I began a new piece focussing on Georgia O'Keeffe's abstracted style based on natural objects. I tore open a pomegranate so I could work from observation.

It is not quite finished yet. I aim to work into the pomegranate cells like those in the bottom right

I took the Victoria Line out to Walthamstow on Wednesday to meet with my friend Charlotte to visit the William Morris Gallery. Having studied Textile Design at Art College William Morris is the absolute KING of repeat pattern and has produced some of the most enduring and timeless designs that are still fresh today.

I had not realised that the beautiful Georgian house (now known as the William Morris Gallery) was actually where Morris lived until his early twenties which made the experience even more interesting!

Morris reproduction wallpaper and chair designs

Original Morris wallpaper samples protected in frames

A wide selection of beautiful Morris wallpaper designs

Beautiful ceramic tiles decorated with many delicate patterns based on natural forms

Gorgeous planting in the rear gardens of the Gallery

Stunning thistles in the garden which are a reoccurring theme in Morris' designs 

Overall I had a beautiful day enjoying this historic building and gardens. More surprisingly the William Morris Gallery is free and has a great cafe and gift shop too. I would highly recommend a visit and if you want to go it's open Wednesday until Sunday from 10.00 until 17.00.

Tate Modern O'Keeffe Art Course Part I

As an end of term summer treat I booked myself onto an evening art course at the Tate Modern. It is ran by Sheila Wallis (who ran the Marlene Dumas art course in 2015) who is encouraging us to be inspired by O'Keeffe's approach to art. Nature, Image, Abstraction, Looking through O'Keeffe.

The course started last Monday with a visit to the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition. We were given a clipboard and pencils and had 40 minutes to capture our favourite O'Keeffe work using monochrome. Initially I found this task quite difficult as O'Keeffe is famous for her beautiful sense of colour.

I was taken with this abstract piece based on the view of Lake George.

Georgia O'Keeffe, 1924, Onto the Lake #1

Here is my 40-minute monochrome interpretation using pencil, felt-tip and graphite.

Last night on the second class of the course we were asked to create three different abstracted compositions (portrait, landscape and square) based upon the work we had produced in the previous week. Again, only in monochrome. We were given five minutes for each composition. I sketched mine out quickly and finished them this morning.

I used black watercolour for the landscape composition focussing on the bold contrast between black and white. The portrait composition was a quick study using pencil and graphite and the final square composition is a a mixed media piece using marker pen, felt-tip, graphite and water.

Before launching into painting we had a fun warm-up activity where we listened to a piece of music and were asked to respond. I have done this before and really enjoyed the flowing mark-making outcomes. You create marks and shapes you wouldn't necessarily make without the music guiding your hand! It's a very free-ing activity.

The warm-up exercise: A mark-making  response to music (the theme tune to Tomorrow's World)

During the rest of the evening we produced observational paintings based on plants and flowers. I selected this striking green flower below (I think it is a chrysanthemum?):

Below are my 30 minute and 10 minute studies using watercolour and then acrylic paints:

30 minute study using watercolour paints with an overlay of acrylic

10 minute study using acrylic paint

5 minute abstracted study using the curves of the petals to inspire the flow of the lines