As far as you can get!

As is with every year, there are particular months in which deadlines and results of art competitions come in. The last few weeks have been the results! I submitted work for various competitions and Open Art exhibitions, of which I have had some (but not all) success.
Of the ones which were successful, they are as follows:-
UKCPS (UK Coloured Pencil Society) Annual Exhibition at Nuneaton in October with 'Cressbrook Dale'.

AppArt Open Exhibition at Milford, Guildford in October with  my contemporary floral's 'Nymphae Ishwata' and 'Solo White'.

The one I am particularly excited about is the International Cricket Art Prize. 'The organisers invite artists to submit a painting or composition that depicts life in and around the game and sport of cricket, in settings of backyard, park, beach, street, village green or social-cricket.' 
I absolutely love watching and, when I can, playing cricket, so this was a great subject for me to have a go at. I actually submitted last year, but was not successful. But this year I managed to get into the shortlist. It is now winging it's way to Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia, hopefully in time for the exhibition at the beginning of October. There is a substantial cash prize for the winner, so keep everything crossed for me!
The title is :- 'Going for a Catch' and is done in my Fractured style. I tried to evoke a feeling of movement and speed. The judges obviously got it too!

I have also just finished being part of the organisation committee for a new Arts Festival, which happened on Saturday. I was the main exhibitor as the Rector initially invited me to exhibit, and it sort of grew from that! We had a potter, glass designer, watercolourist, oil painter and a jewellery maker. It was a great success and raised £900 for the church! Here are a few photos from the day and the displays.

My next project is to begin a collection of miniature paintings. Whilst on my holiday in Dorset I popped into a beautiful gallery, and after purchasing some items, I ended up having a great chat with the owner and suggested I try some miniatures, which she may, or may not take for the gallery. In any event, I'm doing a little collection. Watch this space!

Our Great Britain

Today I hung my new solo show 'Our Great Britain', once again at Thames Ditton Gallery Library. It features 25 paintings and prints, framed and unframed. There is a wide variety of styles and themes, all linked with the UK, which will suit all tastes!

This is what the exhibition looks like after hanging! I'm really pleased with how it all looks.

It is on from today until the 11th August. Open Tues-Sat 9am- 5pm and 7pm on Tuesday.

Address is - Mercer Close, Thames Ditton, Surrey KT7 0BS

A trip up north!

Next month I will be travelling up to the Derwent Pencil Museum to hold a 3 day workshop and demo session. I will be showing and helping visitors create my Fractured landscapes in Coloursoft Pencils. The dates are 3-5th July at Keswick, Lake District. If you are around then, please pop in! There is lots to see and do at the museum, including the worlds largest pencil!

 

Also in July, you may be aware that the Olympics are starting (!!) Therefore, I decided to get in the spirit of the sports and am exhibiting a new collection of work entitled, 'Our Great Britain'. This not only will have sporting paintings in it, but also a collection of British landscapes not dissimilar to the ones above I will doing at Keswick.  It will be at Dittons Library Gallery once again. After the success of the last one, they have invited me back to exhibit once again. The dates for this are :- 17th July until the 11th August 2012. Thames Ditton Library Gallery, Mercer Close, Thames Ditton, Surrey.

This is the type of thing you can expect!

The Speed Skater. 13cm x 18cm Watercolour. £100

The Cyclists. 50cm x 20cm. Watercolour. £120

The Diver. 13cm x 18cm. Watercolour. £100

This time of year is always busy. Lots of contests and deadlines seem to loom! I entered the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition once again this year, and once again I was rejected. I was not surprised as there were over 11,00 entries, for not much wall space! However I was not too unduly disappointed as I had a lovely studio visit from a young couple, who found me on the Surrey Artists Open Studios website, who promptly purchased the rejected painting! It was meant to be. This is the painting they gave a good home too. It was one of my favourites.

Crummock Water. 50cm x 60cm. Acrylic.

I am also in the process of creating new paintings for contests and waiting to hear news from the ones I've entered. Always a nervous time........!

Great Britain!

My work at the moment is taking on a truly British theme. What with the Olympics and the Queens Diamond Jubilee in 2012, it's obviously taking a hold of my creativeness! I feel very patriotic.
I wanted to paint a piece that evoked all of this and this is the first one I came up with.

Iconic Britain. A4. Coloured pencil. SOLD

I posted this on the Facebook page and within an hour I had sold it! I am now selling A4 prints of this and also transferring them to black t shirts. I am beginning to develop a range of merchandise with this style of design on and have also come up with this.

This design is basically a black and white pen version of the coloured one. And will be printing this onto bags, T shirts and mugs. My next idea is to do a painting using bicycles and the movement evoking them.

The exhibition 'A Little Bit of Everything' at Thames Ditton Gallery Library has now finished. It was a great success, so thank you to the library for letting me hire the gorgeous space for 3 weeks. I will be doing another one later in the year, I'll keep you posted!

I was fortunate enough to visit the now legendary David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy last month. After all the hype and press coverage from it, I was expecting to be blown away...and I was! His use of colours and paint are truly phenomenal. The i Pad room was a favourite of mine as was his landscape paintings created from memory. He sees so much colour!
Before I went I did another i Pad drawing inspired by a trip to BoxHill in Dorking, Surrey. There is definitely an element of Hockney in it! This is the link to the i Pad video of it being created.

Box Hill- Walk into the Woods

I was so pleased with this that I transferred it to canvas using acrylics.

Walk into the Woods. Acrylic. 26cm x 30cm. £120

That is the joy of digital drawing, it may turn out awful, but it may turn out better than you thought it would!

Well, better get back to the studio, got some more demonstrations to prepare for and exhibition paintings to paint!

New Exhibition- A Little Bit of Everything

So there I was, visiting my local library choosing some books for me and my daughter today, when I noticed that their lovely art gallery area was empty. Now, I have a real soft spot for this space as it was where I had my first ever solo exhibition. The staff have always supported me and my work, which I am extremely grateful for. I asked if there were any artists exhibiting work in the next couple of months, and there weren't! So I decided, why not? Let's do it!!!! I have now got 5 days to get it all ready, and as well as that, another demonstration to do at Tandridge Art Society. I will need a holiday soon! 

The exhibition will be a mix of styles and themes, with a price tag to suit everyone.

The dates are 15th March until 5th April. Tues 9am-7pm Wed 9am-5pm. Please come and visit, there will hopefully be something there you like. Here's a little taster.

All at Sea- Watercolour. 56cm x 46cm. £150 (reduced from £200 for this show)

Solo White- 40cm x 50cm. Acrylic and Mixed Media. £150 (reduced from £200 for this show)

There will also be a selection of unframed originals for sale.

As seen on TV!

There's nothing quite so exciting as seeing your own paintings on the TV! I was watching Relocation, Relocation this evening on More4 (Mon 20th Feb), and recognised a past customer from my interior design days. At the end of the design, she asked me to do a painting commission for her for the kitchen. I completed a red triptych sunset. This was back in 2006. This was one of the reasons I gave up interior design- to focus on painting. I am thrilled to see that she still has them on display, and focused the room scheme around them!

These are the stills from the show.

 

Demonstrations and workshops

Demonstration time has loomed once again, after the Christmas and New Year break. I have been booked for 17 demo's around the South of England up until November, that'll keep me busy! I really love doing these and sharing my knowledge with fellow art lovers. This is the sort of thing I have been doing of late. Using Derwent pastels on Colourfix paper.

Demo for Walton on Thames Art Society, Surrey.

Prints

In these austere times, I have decided to start offering a print service for those who either don't have the funds or just wall space. I am currently charging a fee of £25 + p&p, which gets you a maximum size of A4 signed print. You can choose whichever one you'd like! I have had quite a few orders already, so am pleased that I can access new customers this way. If you are interested do contact me on tiffanybudd@wall-power.co.uk

New Paintings

As well as my Fractured paintings, I have begun to do a series of 'traditional' landscape pastels. Every now and then I like to go back to basics and create normal landscapes. Here are a selection. They are all 23cm x 30cm and completed in Derwent pastels.

Llyn Peninsula -Wales 

Northern Lights

                                       

Sunrise in Spain

Winter by the Sea

All the originals pictured here are £120

It has taken me a while to get up, back to speed, after I did Jury Service in January. However, with my new toy, an i Pad, I wasn't ever starved of painting and sketching! I caused a bit of a stir, in the waiting room, sketching out ideas. At one point I had 20 people around me, asking me all about it! I'm hoping to gain some commissions from people I met while doing Jury Service. I blame David Hockney! If it wasn't for his passion for digital art, I wouldn't have wanted one so badly!

This is a digital sketch of an idea I had, and below it, the proper one, created in Derwent Coloursoft. I missed using my pencils and brushes, and loved getting messy once again! I couldn't replace digital art with real art.

Digital sketch completed on the i Pad.

'Patchwork Hills' Coloursoft Pencils on Fabriano Artistico paper. 15cm x 28cm. £150

Long Live paint, paper and pencils!

Cranleigh Exhibition begins!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are settled into 2012 with vigour! I do love the festive season, but there's something very cleansing about tidying up the decorations and taking down the tree. I like getting back to normal.....but no, I don't wish it could be Christmas every day!
I have been thrown into January with a flourish, this being because of my new solo show 'Fracturing the Flow'.
There are 40 paintings and drawings in all, 28 framed and 12 unframed, but mounted and put into a browser. The prices range from a very reasonable £40 up to £450 for the biggest painting, 'Flame Runner'.
I have just got back from hanging the show today. Climbing up and down a VERY tall ladder, wasn't the most enjoyable of experiences, but it had to be done.
I was sent an exhibitors pack which had the sizes of the gallery, and this meant I could plan out where each piece needed to go before I arrived. Preparation saves you ALOT of time!
I first laid out each painting on the floor as to where I wanted them to go.

 

Note the scary ladder! I did wobble on it a few times, and tried not to look down too much, there was a different climate up there!
The hanging system was the reason I had to go up there, each painting had it's own wire with an adjustable hook on the end. It worked really well.
The space is wonderfully light, with gorgeous big windows letting in lots of light, they also supply spotlights which could be moved to light up the paintings.
It took me 3 hours to get them all up, cleaned and ticketed. I met some lovely people too, and look forward to going back tomorrow (Wed 11th), Thursday and Saturday to do a bit of 'in situ' painting.
I hope some of you could spare a couple of hours to come and visit my exhibition.

'Fracturing the Flow' begins on the 11th January and runs until the 28th. Opening hours are 10am until 4.30pm. Address is 1 High Street, Cranleigh, Surrey. GU6 8AS.
I am painting there on the 11th, 12th and 14th, 21st and 28th. I hoped to be there more, but I have been called up for Jury Service, and can't defer it again. (Talk about timing eh?) If I don't get picked, I will be there. If you want to call me to find out, my number is 07870 293424 or e mail tiffanybudd@wall-power.co.uk