This month has been about one thing: getting the six pieces ready for the Albany Gallery's summer show. It's taken me thirty years to get into this gallery, so I wanted to send them the best work I've ever made — I’ve been repainting frame edges, checking every surface, and making sure everything arrives in perfect condition. Many thanks, as always, to Aardvark Art Services for transporting them safely to Cardiff.
Albany Gallery has been showing since 1965, and it's the gallery I used to queue outside as a student to see Kyffin Williams and David Tress. Getting to see my work alongside my heroes will be a genuinely proud moment, and I hope it gives confidence to everyone already collecting my work — a gallery like this doesn't take on many new artists, and I’d like to think that being selected says something about where my work sits now.
To express early interest in my pieces, please contact the Albany directly.
And finally, if you’d like to join me (and the other artists) for the preview on Friday 7th (invitation above), email me and I’ll add you to the list. I’d love to see you.
THE SIX FEATURED PIECES IN DETAIL
Bracklesham Bay: High Tide
This piece took months. I started it in May last year and didn't finish until the end of August, alternating acrylic and oil, layer after layer, to build real energy into the wave and push the painting back into distance. In the foreground, I wanted the pebbles to feel almost audible, that sea drawing in and drawing back. I used Liquitex acrylic inks and Golden Liquid Acrylics for the build-up, then Daler-Rowney and Michael Harding oils on top. It nearly killed me getting it right, but it's one of the best paintings I've ever done.
Last Light of Day: West Wittering to the Isle of Wight
A sunset looks simple until you try to paint one. Getting the colour to run seamlessly from blue to gold meant very thin washes of oil, layer after layer, gradually bringing in the clouds and the silver on the water. That silver came from silver acrylic over a dark indigo oil base. I used Liquitex acrylic inks and Golden Fluid Acrylics for that build-up, finishing with Michael Harding and Daler-Rowney oils. The sun itself, that white-yellow light, always goes in last, about a month after everything else has dried.
Loch na Keal, Isle of Mull
Mull is one of my favourite places on the planet, like Skye but on steroids. In certain spots the mountains genuinely feel like they're hugging you, and it's the most comforting feeling, a real sense of safety and beauty. With this piece I wasn't after subtlety, I wanted drama: the difference between light and dark, and that one flash of beam catching the mountains as the sun goes down. I started with Liquitex acrylic ink, mediums and gel, then Golden acrylics, before finishing in oil with Daler-Rowney and Michael Harding.
Dell Quay: Golden Hour
Dell Quay is my little treasure, five minutes from my front door, and such a real ****** challenge that I'll probably paint it for the rest of my life. The sunsets there are some of the best I've seen anywhere, and it's never the same twice. This piece has a touch more figurative detail than usual, a boat and a mast, subtle but instantly recognisable if you've stood there. I used Liquitex acrylic mediums and inks, Golden Liquid Acrylics, and Daler-Rowney oil paint. No Michael Harding on this one.
Reflecting Clouds: East Head, The Witterings
I wanted the moving clouds in the sky to reflect properly in the shoreline, almost like glass. It wasn't about drama, it was about subtlety: gentle cloud movement mirrored in still water, with beams of light crossing the South Downs in the distance. I started with a lot more acrylic medium than usual to get that glassy effect, then brought in Daler-Rowley oils on top. En plein air, my first reach is always watercolour, a simple Daler-Rowney set.
Beams of Light over Ardmeanach, Isle of Mull
This came from an unexpected view on the road to Ulva, looking across to Ardmeanach. For the sky, I went back to a chromatography process I developed as an MA student thirty years ago: a dark ink cloud, solution poured over the top, drawing colour out as it runs down. That process helped earn me the master's degree, since it hadn't really been used in this context before. The result is light that looks like it's travelling forward at speed, exactly how it felt standing there.