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

Obsessing with pastels!

I have been painting for a long time now, and acrylic used to be my favourite medium. However, I have recently become obsessed with hard and soft pastels! I guess a lot of it is to do with the fact that I demonstrate in them, but also I just love the vibrancy of colour they achieve. I can get lots of details and smoothness of texture within the painting. And as I have been seeing with my sales, people do like to buy pastel paintings, which then leaves the decision of how to frame with themselves. I can charge a little less for pastels, as I can create them quite quickly. The pastels I use mainly are Derwent pastel blocks and pastel pencils. (which are great if you don't like mess) They are hard and chalky. However, I invested in some Sennelier pastels recently, which are incredibly soft and these produce a very different look and feel. They also disappear quite fast and create a lot of dust. One way I try and keep dust down, is to use my trusty Colourfix paper, which I have mentioned before. It is like a smooth sandpaper and the pastels stick to them really well.
I have been building up my unframed pieces for my exhibition at Cranleigh Arts Centre. I have enough framed, but wanted to have quite a few unframed.

Mountain Range. £180

Seeds of Love- Now SOLD

Autumn Hills- Now SOLD

Two out of the three have already sold, so I guess that has proved my point about people liking pastels!!

I am exhibiting six small Fractured paintings at The Inchmore Gallery, Inverness from the 19th November. This is part of a large collaboration with other artists to create CD sized pieces which are 'handy' for hanging!
This is a selection of what I submitted. They have since asked me to exhibit some 'normal' sized paintings next year, which I am thrilled about.

 

Tomorrow I will be at the Retail Therapy Fair, Ramada Hotel, East Horsely, Surrey where I will be selling my name paintings and many unframed original fine art paintings. I hope to see lots of people getting in the festive spirit!

One more painting which I have literally just completed, is based on Mother and Child, an age old subject and theme. And seeing as it is my daughters 4th birthday today, I guess I was feeling all motherly!! This is also in pastels.

And the last bit of news, is that I have been included in the new SAA Magazine November edition. (Society for All Artists), where I am introduced as a professional artist! It looks great and I'm chuffed to bits with it. The nicest thing is that when I do my art demonstrations, people have come up and told me they saw me in it!! Excellent publicity for me, so thank you SAA!!

So, that's all for now! See you all again in December. Love, Tiffany. xx

New paintings and a workshop

Last Saturday I undertook a workshop for people who wanted to learn how to create my Fractured style of painting, using pastels. It was in Wokingham, and had a nice group of 8 people. We all brought lunch and a mug so we didn't starve and could be refuelled with tea and coffee when necessary!
I started the workshop by explaining how I came about creating this style of work, and began my own piece of bottles and glasses on a rough paper called Coloursoft. This paper feels like a sandpaper, but smoother. Enough for the pastel to stick to and it makes the colour 'zing'. I brought a selection of smaller pieces of this paper for the students to use, which they did. I showed them how to work each section as an individual area and working out each line and light direction.
I hope they all enjoyed the day and they created some truly wonderful artwork. Isn't that frog brilliant?!
Here are some of the paintings they did, and also a great group shot!

I obviously didn't get my piece completed as I was helping everyone with their own piece, so have just now finished my pastel painting.

After Hours- Derwent Pastels and Pencils. 50cm x 36cm.

Every year, when Autumn arrives, I inevitably create an Autumnal painting showing the wonderful colours that are out there. This year I have created a painting using acrylic on a chunky canvas.

Autumnal Tree Leaves. 60cm x 50cm

At the end of the month I have this years Oxshott Art and Crafts Society exhibition. I am exhibiting 3 framed paintings and 3 unframed paintings. It is being held at Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey from the 31st October until the 6th November. Come and pay a visit! (even if you just want to try the delicious wine they produce there!) These are the framed paintings I am exhibiting.

Bubbles. 40cm x 20cm Acrylic on chunky canvas. £110

RHS Wisley Watercolour. £150

That's Raced to the Boundary. Pastel. £220

Holidays and a rest....

Holidays are priceless, they are there for us to enjoy the sun, family, fun and a change of pace, and mine was no exception. The 3 of us go away with my lovely in laws most years, and I waited 18 months for this one, and boy I needed it! It wasn't so much relaxing - I mean with a very active 3 year old, the word relax doesn't pop up in my daily life anymore- but it was fun. Lots of swimming and sandcastles built, and time to step away from my artwork and think about things.
Before we went through customs at Gatwick airport, I managed to get a brief visit in to The Beehive, Wetherspoons pub to take a look at my paintings. They were there, in their full glory, framed and with a neat little biography underneath each one!! It truly was the perfect start to my holiday.

You can probably tell how chuffed I was from my cheesy grins in these photos!! I thought the framing they chose was spot on and where they were positioned was also great. Thank you Wetherspoons! I can help again! lol!

Now back, and sort of rested, I am planning more projects and exhibitions. The first is a group show- Oxshott Art and Craft Society, at Denbies Wine Estate, Dorking which starts on the 31st October and runs until the Sunday same week. I will be showing 3 Fractured paintings and a couple of unframed ones too. Pop along, it's a great day out! And Denbies sell the most delicious wine....I also got married there, so it has a special place in my heart.

The next exhibition is a biggie! I have booked Cranleigh Arts Centre, Cranleigh, near Guildford from the 11th January 2012 until the 28th, all to myself!! It is called 'Fracturing the Flow' and will consist of at least 20 Fractured paintings and drawings. I am extremely excited about it, and hope you can all pay a visit during that time. I am also hoping that I won't be snowed out/in!! I will post more information about it as it gets nearer, but I am sure it'll creep up on me....fast!

Fracturing the Flow- with The Swallows Flight as image.

Being an artist is a constant battle, especially in these austere times. Some months are wonderfully busy, with lots of sales, and some can be extremely quiet, and it's the quiet ones when I start organising new things! I guess it's all swings and roundabouts!! (and not just in the literal sense for me either!!)
Thanks for reading!

Gatwick commission

Walkway to the skies

Things are once again busy for me, which is great.
I had a phone call out of the blue about a month ago from a gentleman who wanted to commission me two large paintings for a new Wetherspoons pub based in the South Terminal at Gatwick airport. I obviously jumped at the chance! The only downside was that they had to be completed in 3 weeks! That was pushing it, but I knew I could just about manage it...with a few late nights involved!
He wanted the paintings in my Fractured style, something, he said, that was exactly what he was looking for! The pub, was to be called The Beehive. Based on one of the first ever departure terminal buildings in the UK. It is very Art Deco in style, and wonderful building.
This is what The Beehive building looks like now.

I was sent numerous photos, style boards and plans from the buildings architects, and from that began to sketch out ideas for the painting.
Both paintings are 1.1m x 1m and 1.2m x 90cm respectively. And varnished for protection.

'Fracturing the Beehive'
The pub is opening on the 30th August, on landside. I'm due to go in September so will hopefully see them up then!!

Results are in!

It's that time of year now, where results from the competitions I have entered start to dribble in!
I was unsuccessful in the deckchair competition and the Battle Contemporary art fair this time, however I was pleased to find out that 2 of my coloured pencil drawings were accepted into this years UKCPS exhibition which is being held in Westminster. The Millennium Wheel and The Gherkin (topical, yes) were chosen. I painted these in Derwent Coloursoft Pencils on Fabriano Artistico paper. That paper I find to be very resilient to layers of pencil, and it's also very smooth, which is what I am after.

Millennium Wheel

The Gherkin

These will be hung and I will also be able to sell some greeting cards. I will be attending the show (dates to be confirmed) where I will be demoing this style of work. It'll be great to see everything hung altogether!

I am still waiting for results of the Hahnemule Calender watercolour competition, but there were ALOT of entries, so I don't think I'll be in the running. This is the painting I submitted.

I tried to make it stand out and as bright and colourful as I could!!

Now, I am a bit of a cricket nut. I used to play until I fell pregnant. (not a good idea to run around chasing after a very hard ball if you are) but I was bitten by the bug and watch all the England games I can.
This is my homage to Jonathon Trott, one of our finest batsman at present. I tried to evoke the movement of the bat and swing which I think works quite well with my Fractured technique. I hope you like it! I completed it in Derwent chalk pastels on black pastel paper.

Jonathon Trott playing in a one day International.

One last thing. I have a wonderful client who keeps coming back for more paintings for her lovely house. She is a fan of my floral collage paintings and she commissioned me to paint a pink tulip to co ordinate with her armchairs. This is the painting in situ, and it looks great!! It was completed in acrylic with tissue paper collage in the background, and is 80cm square on a chunky canvas.

I am now undertaking a very big commission, which I cannot say too much about until next week! It's certainly keeping me busy.

Preview of Gallery in the Square, Usk, Wales

Last week was very busy! But all good. I travelled down to Wales the Wednesday before the opening to deliver 15 paintings to David. The journey was nice and traffic free.....which can't be said for Fridays journey back down for the Preview Evening! I left at 2.30pm and got to the gallery at 6pm, just in time!
I was greeted by David, the other two lovely artists joining me in the show, a press photographer and the Mayor of Usk!
The evening was wonderful. I had a fantastic response from the invited guests, especially for my Fractured work, which pleased me no end! They all wanted to know the technique and development of the pieces and seemed very intrigued.
I was fortunate enough to meet a couple who were just about to purchase one of the Fractured paintings. We discussed it in finer detail, and then they went ahead and bought it. There's nothing like seeing a red dot on the ticket under the painting!
I left the gallery just after 8 and had a great journey back home.....to collapse!
The exhibition is on for 6 weeks, and I left another couple pondering over another piece. I hope they go for it!

In front of some of my floral and Fractured paintings.

More work in the gallery.

This is the painting that sold. 'In Flight'.