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Have started painting my ‘Grandmas’ Picnic’ painting again, after a hold-up of 3 weeks to paint the marsh marigold.

COMPLETED ‘MARSH MARIGOLD (Caltha palustris)’, but not without setbacks (see below). NOW BACK TO THE GRANDMAS’ PICNIC, UNLESS SOME OTHER WATER PLANTS COME OUT UNEXPECTEDLY!
Book picture: have started again. It took 3 hours to re-trace the drawing onto good paper! I am now ready to start painting again. I used a water colour pencil (different colours for different elements) on the back of the tracing so that the tracing would be very feint. However, upon pressing this onto the good paper I discovered the colour I had used for the stalks did not come out! So I have drawn these by hand with a paintbrush – my favourite way to draw. It looks a bit messy, but will easily be remedied during painting. I have now added a seed head as I am taking too long to paint the picture, I thought I would take advantage of an extra bit of information in the illustration.

Paintings progress has been extremely slow as I have had so many other commitments, work has had to go on the back-burner. But hopefully I should complete the Marigold painting by the end of this week and can then get back to my Grandmas’ Picnic!

9 April 2014 – After the rejection of the SWA (see 8 April 2014 entry), today was a good day: all five of my artworks submitted to the Fine Art Trade Guild for the Guild Artists Exhibition 2014 have been accepted. The exhibition will take place over the weekend of 17 and 18 May at the Gate Suite, Holiday Inn London – Elstree WD6 5PU. FREE ENTRY, and Doors open 3pm on Saturday until 5.30pm and on Sunday, from 10.30am to 4.30pm.

I also visited Banham Zoo today to take my submissions for the Natural World Art Group Exhibition 2014—Now Natural World Art Society (NWAS)
Opening daily from 11am to 4pm from Saturday 12th April all the way through to Sunday 14th September, with a continually changing display of work. If you visit Banham Zoo, there is also a fabulous garden centre there, and the zoo itself caters for everyone – the food is delicious and the animals usually put on a good show, and of course, visiting the art exhibition will cap your day off nicely.

‘MARSH MARIGOLD (Caltha palustris)’: One for the ‘book’.

Have just had a nice round of golf which cheered me up after the disappointing news received earlier in the day that my submissions to the Society of Women Artists Open Exhibition had been rejected (to the cost of £84!). These are the paintings which I submitted:

Just heard that my submissions to the Society of Women Artists have all been rejected, so I am sad that I spent £84 for absolutely nothing. I have learned a lesson here.

Progress pics for MARSH MARIGOLD, (Caltha palustris, Code 1404), water colour. One for the ‘book’ (co-author, Sylvia M Haslam).

Have abandoned the marsh marigold painting. I had so many interruptions whilst trying to paint that in the end I ‘mucked it up’! I am now re-tracing my preliminary sketch onto water colour paper to begin again – very tiresome. The plates below show the discarded picture’s progress:

‘THE GRANDMAS’ PICNIC’: (On hold whilst I paint the Marsh Marigold as it suddenly flowered). Please click here to view the sketches and progress of the commissioned artwork.

As some readers may be aware, to supplement this ‘starving artist’, I am copy editor for CUP’s Modern Asian Studies Journal. Imagine my surprise when I opened the latest paper and found it had an illustration in it, and that this was a map I had drawn for someone a couple of years ago. What a nice feeling!