Galley Hill Art

Exhibition and Craft Fair update

2012-01-24T11:50:00.000Z

Three Running Hares
© Sue Wookey

It's a new year, and I have quite a few dates coming up where I'll be setting out my craft stall again and also doing some exhibiting. First off is a Local Artists Exhibition at the Red Dot Gallery, Icknield High School, Luton. This is a wonderful exhibition space which I know well, having done an Open Studios there in 2010. The Exhibition will feature a lot of different artists living in the local area, and runs from 5th-30th March. I haven't decided which painting I'll be showing yet, but am hoping it will be a new one. You will find full details for the Red Dot Gallery on their Website here.

I'll be taking part in a Craft Fair on Saturday 10th March, 12pm-4pm, also at Icknield High School (the North Hall). More details to follow!

March is going to be a very busy month as I will also be taking part in another Craft Fair at the Priory in Dunstable, from 23rd-24th March. The Christmas Craft Fair was really enjoyable and I'm looking forward to being there again. Once again, you'll find full details on their Website:

After the sucess of last year Priory House is hosting it's second Craft Fayre in March.

Having trouble finding the ideal item for that hard to buy for person?
Join a host of local artists and craftsman as they display a collection of crafts that will prove irresistible.

Crafts will include Pyrography, Wood Turning, Glassware, Art work and more.
The Fayre will be open from 10.00 to 4.00pm Friday 23 March and Saturday 24 March, some of the crafts will be on display for one day only so be sure to visit.

And finally - still in March (I'll need to stock up on energy drinks!) - Luton Hoo Walled Garden will be holding its annual Open Art Exhibition, from the 16th to 18th March. I'm hoping my submission will be accepted again, but even if it doesn't make the cut this year, this is a wonderful exhibition to visit. The theme this year is Garden and Landscape Inspired and the exhibition is being sponsored by the Artist's Network Bedfordshire.

Hopefully I might see some of you again at one or other of these events!

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Obsidian Art: 'The Horse in Art' Exhibition

2011-12-29T16:30:00.002Z

Leave it all Behind
© Sue Wookey

Obsidian Art has a wonderful exhibition coming up throughout January featuring The Horse in Art. I'll be exhibiting the original of Leave it all Behind (above), and there will be prints of it available at the exhibition, along with my Moon Horse:

"The Horse in Art 2012"

Friday 6 January - Sunday 5 February 2012

40 selected artists exhibiting more than 400 artworks - paintings, drawing, prints, sculpture, cast glass and more.

If you love horses (count me in on that one!) then this is a must see! I just know I'm going to end up buying something... (again!).

Priory Christmas Craft Fair

2011-12-12T15:50:00.001Z

My stall at Priory House

Well, it's been a busy week with the craft fair at St Albans last Saturday, and now two days at Priory House in Dunstable. I'm beginning to feel like an old hand at it. At least I now know how to refold my tablecloth properly, and how to hide my water bottle and energy bars behind the card stand!

After a rather quiet start on the Friday, the Craft Fair went very well on the Saturday - probably helped by the magic presence downstairs of Father Christmas, and assorted elves and Christmas Angels. It was a nice day and, once again, I met some lovely people, so thank you to all of you who took the trouble to come up and chat with me, I enjoyed all our conversations.

Priory House used the Craft Fair to showcase artists and craftspeople who they have connections with, many of whom have work in their lovely shop. If you are in Dunstable it's worth popping in if you are looking for something special. They also hold my cards and prints can be ordered through them too!

Hopefully the Craft Fair will be a regular feature there, so watch this space.

Dunstable Priory through the window

Having a Fair old time...

2011-12-04T17:23:00.001Z

My stall at St Albans with twinkly lights

Yesterday was the HVAF's first Art and Gift Fair at the Old Town Hall in St Albans, and it was a really wonderful event thanks to a whole team of people putting in an enormous amount of hard work. I thoroughly enjoyed it, once I got everything set up, because so many people took the trouble to come through the door and they were all very appreciative of all the fantastic work that was on display. There was never a quiet moment and I kept forgetting to sit down, so my poor old feet are really complaining today (along with my arms after lugging all that heavy stuff about!). But it was really worth it. And what I enjoyed most of all was talking to so many interesting people who were encouraging about the work that I do, and who even came up with some new ideas for me to work with, all of which I will take on board. To all of you that stopped by my stall and may be reading this, thank you! And to those souls who fell in love with things and bought them, a double thank you!!

The Fair was full all day...

I was lucky enough to be positioned in a nice corner, so could get my enormous display board up where it could be seen, though it does have fuzzy-felt mind of its own and tried to flatten me at the end of the day when I was at my weakest, by collapsing on me as I took it apart. I was also lucky to be near Hilary and Ben so I had someone to chat to and pull faces at. We all had a good time but it was certainly tiring and once I got home I couldn't move. At the moment I feel as though I can't ever look at tricksy hanging hooks, bubble wrap and cello bags again, but I have to because.....

.....this Friday I will be doing it all over again at the Priory House Craft Fayre, Grove House, Dunstable! I shall be setting up my stall (cute Christmas cards included) on Friday 9th and Saturday 10th, from 10am to 4pm:

Priory House is hosting it's first Craft Fayre, making it the perfect place for your Christmas Shopping. Having trouble finding the ideal item for that hard to buy for person? Join a host of local artists and craftsman as they display a collection of crafts that will prove irresistible. Crafts will include Pyrography, Wood Turning, Glassware, Art work and more. The Fayre will be open from 10.00 to 4.00pm Friday 9 December and Saturday 10 December, some of the crafts will be on display for one day only so be sure to visit.

For added incentive Saturday 10 December is also the day of the Priory House Christmas Cracker. Spend a day of festive fun with the team at Priory House.

For more information please contact Priory House on 01582 890270 or email prioryhouse@dunstable.gov.uk

My poor muscles are protesting, but I'm sure it will be a great couple of days. So if any of you at St Albans are regretting not buying a print, mini-original or cute mouse cards, you know where to find me!

Photos © Sue Wookey

St Albans here I come...

2011-11-25T11:41:00.001Z

Christmas Mouse © Sue Wookey

I've been very busy preparing for next Saturday's HVAF Art and Gift Fair at St Albans (see full details in the posting below). This is the first Fair I've had a stall at and I'm really looking forward to it - once I get it all set up! I keep telling myself that it can't possibly be as difficult as Art on the Common because there is no Gazebo to erect and no wind or rain to contend with. Just a large self-assembly display board to wrestle into submission. In readiness I'll be practising bunging it all together and sticking stuff on it, just in case!

In a moment of last minute panic I decided that I really had to have some Christmas related stuff on show, so I've painted and made some cards of a little mouse with a Christmas present and another carrying a fir branch to make a mouse-sized Christmas Tree. Between now and Saturday 3rd I'll try and do a couple more. If I don't sell any, then at least half of you reading this will get them for Christmas.

The Fair will be at The Old Town Hall, Marketplace, St Albans, AL3 5DJ, and will be full of wonderful hand crafted gifts. Come along and support starving artists for Christmas. Just kidding. But come along anyway.

The Christmas Tree © Sue Wookey

Art and Gift Fair, St Albans

2011-10-03T16:59:00.000+01:00

On 3 December I'll be taking part in this Art and Gift Fair at The Old Town Hall, Marketplace, St Albans AL3 5DJ. The Fair will be a wonderful chance to do some Christmas shopping and support the Odyssey Cinema Appeal. The Craft Fair is organised by the HVAF and promises to have a wide range of beautiful local arts and crafts. If you didn't get a chance to get along to Open Studios, I will have all my prints and cards there, small mounted originals like those I've been posting here (at least, the ones that haven't already sold!), and maybe a couple of larger originals too, depending on space.

And while we are on Open Studios, thanks to everyone who came along to see us at Artscape throughout September. We all had a wonderful time doing our Open Studios there (thanks to Gurmeet and all the Artscape Staff), met some very interesting people and had the chance to talk about why we love what we do. We even met fellow and budding artists and, between chatting, actually managed to do some work:

Dawn Hare © Sue Wookey

Curiosity © Sue Wookey

Artscape Arts Exhibition

2011-09-07T17:48:00.000+01:00

My stuff hanging at Artscape © Sue Wookey

Well - we've hung our exhibition ready for Open Studios and all went smoothly. I even managed to get all of my paintings up in straight lines without lying on the floor and crying, which I think is always a plus. All of the paintings are new to Artscape, and two have never been exhibited before - my Green Lady and Twelve Hares. Along with my paintings, there are new watercolours and wonderful photos of Venice from Teresa Newham, beautiful acrylic mounted photography from Hilary Taylor and some stunning figurative painting from Helen Griffin. As always we have an exhibition that is full of a variety of styles and different media.

I've added some small, reasonably priced watercolour originals into the mix, which I hope everyone will like. They are very different in style from my usual square work with a border, but still explore the things I love. Along with those that are based around symbols there are nature paintings - such as the owls I posted here - foxes, hares, badgers and these little paintings of mice:

Autumn Fieldmouse © Sue Wookey

Spring Fieldmouse © Sue Wookey

You can't tell from the scans, but they all have silver and gold pen work on them so they change in different lights!

You can see the exhibition at Artscape Arts, Unit 8, Southdown Industrial Estate, Southdown Road, Harpenden, Herts AL5 1PW from now until the 1st October with artists present on the following open days:

Sat 10 Sept 1pm - 5pm
Fri 16 - Sat 17th Sept 1pm - 5pm
Fri 23rd - Sat 24th 1pm - 5pm
Fri 30th Sept - Sat 1 Oct 1pm - 5pm

I will be there for all of them apart from Sept 23rd-24th. You will find full details of the exhibition here and it would be lovely to see you there if you are close by!
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Open Studios at the Farmers' Market

2011-08-28T17:13:00.002+01:00

Herts Open Studios is nearly upon us again (where on earth does the time go) and a bunch of us returned to Harpenden Farmers' Market to promote the event, (full details here on the HVAF Website). We were lucky because after being hammered all over the county with yesterdays torrential rain we were suddenly blessed with perfect marketing weather. I didn't need my cagoule. I didn't need to cover my nose with factor 50 sunblock. We didn't have to tie everything down with guy ropes and extra strength sticky tape. Everything stayed upright, attached and unbent. My painting stayed on its easel and didn't fall over creating a glass incident. Perfect! And we had a steady stream of really interested people who all took brochures and genuinely want to support the event. We even found some new artists. We all had a really fun day talking to everybody (and each other) and are now looking forward to doing our individual Open Studios.

Click on the piccy above for a larger version

I will be exhibiting throughout September, along with artists Teresa Newham, Hilary Taylor and Helen Griffin, at Artscape Arts, Unit 8, Southdown Industrial Estate, Southdown Road, Harpenden, Herts AL5 1PW. The Exhibition will run from Monday 5th September to Saturday 1st October, with Open Studios days, where artists will be present, on:

Sat 10 Sept 1pm - 5pm
Fri 16 - Sat 17th Sept 1pm - 5pm
Fri 23rd - Sat 24th 1pm - 5pm
Fri 30th Sept - Sat 1 Oct 1pm - 5pm

We really look forward to seeing any of you there who are in our area!

All photos © Sue Wookey

Twelve Hares

2011-08-22T13:12:00.000+01:00

One can never have too many hares! Twelve Hares is a painting based on the fascinating symbol of the Vesica Piscis, two overlapping circles creating a central mandorla (also found in my painting The Cradle of Life). For some unfathomable reason - I guess it's that Muse again - the whole thing popped into my head almost complete, but then, having got it well and truly stuck there, I had to draw it and make all the hares fit. That's the sort of thing that can give you sleepless nights! The Vesica Piscis represents the birth of life and this painting is filled with circles and mandorlas, defining the shapes of all the twelve hares found in this work. They symbolize the continuity of life and its cycle. Dancing between day and night they show Nature's abundance and continual renewal. At the bottom of the picture a hare guards a secret - which could be the full moon, or the pearl of great price, or even the white stone of the alchemists. What ever is it, it is the complete and perfect heart of all life. I composed the words for the border because I couldn't find anything that summed up the complexities I've stuffed into this work. I'm still not entirely convinced that I've captured it, but they read:

Year by year on the hill rises the golden corn, and over the hill swings the reaping moon, and always on the hill leaps the nimble hare - Sue Wookey

Please God there will always be hares on the hills.

'Twelve Hares' is now available from by website, Galley Hill Art, as a limited edition giclee print using lightfast inks on heavyweight archival 100% cotton Hahnemuhler fine-art paper.

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The Green Lady

2011-08-10T16:55:00.002+01:00

I've finally finished and scanned (I now have my own A3 scanner!) my companion piece to The Green Man Ready for Battle. Where he shows nature at its most implacable, The Green Lady is much gentler! She represents Nature at its most abundant and generous. I've surrounded her with honeysuckle because of its beautiful scent, field bindweed for abundance and strength, and blackberry blossom for its fruit. I've also painted in my favourite butterflies (comma, holly blue and ringlet) and a couple of visiting bees. There is even a tiny ladybird. As a final detail I've given her green eyelashes. If I was a Green Lady I wouldn't have anything less.The quotes around the border read:

Nature never did betray the heart that loved her - William Wordsworth

In leaf and blade, in bud and bloom exultantly her gladness grows - R.W. Service

The Green Lady is now available as a limited edition giclee print at Galley Hill Art.

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Owls rule

2011-08-04T11:59:00.000+01:00

Herts Open Studios is coming up all too quickly, with HVAF members exhibiting throughout September, and its time to get my head around what I'll be showing at our usual Artscape Venue. This year, as well as the usual originals, prints and cards, I decided that it would be nice to have a selection of smaller watercolours which will be presented in mounts, but left unframed to keep costs down for buyers. This has given me the chance to paint some looser, more traditional watercolours before I forget how to do it. I also have so much lovely, textured paper that its criminal not to be using it. I use the smoothest paper I can find for my usual work so that it will take detail and scan beautifully for prints, but I have a whole drawer of the rough stuff begging me to get busy with it.

And so we come to owls - or more specifically - barn owls. Start painting them and it becomes obsessive. Those ghostly, heart shaped faces, the blunt profile that looks as though they are head butting the wind when they fly, the huge arc of their wings. You get hooked on their strange shape and general all-round spookiness. So I decided to paint a series of them from a variety of angles, using my biggest mop brush on quite small (5" x 7") paper for the backgrounds and using my dip pen to get into the finer details. I'll have them at Open studios along with some mini-mystical landscapes and various hares (don't get me started on hares....).

Rain stopped play....

2011-06-22T20:47:00.001+01:00

After a really enjoyable Open Studios at The Priory Heritage Centre (it went really, REALLY well!) I was looking forward to spending the following Sunday taking part in Art on the Common. It was huge fun last year, despite nearly being blown from Harpenden to Outer Mongolia by very strong winds. The annual Harpenden event raises money for Cancer Research and everyone else had a very successful day on the Saturday without me. Having packed up at the Priory I was ready to decamp to the Common. I even spent the entire evening making loads more cards because I'd sold out of all the best-selling ones (there's logic in there somewhere...). I packed the car with everything I might need - umbrella, cagoule, woolly hat, fleece, sleeveless top, sunhat, suncream (last year I got hypothermia and sunburn) and was ready for anything. But it rained and rained and rained. We only got the gazebo half up and decided to call it a day. Later in the morning I passed the common again, and there were four gazebos braving the elements with King Lear like defiance and two hardy walkers browsing in rain macs. Later on the wind and rain whipped up into a real frenzy. I wonder if they're in Outer Mongolia?
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ANB Open Studios at the Tea Rooms

2011-06-06T20:31:00.000+01:00

Well, Beds Open Studios has finally arrived and I spent today hanging my work at the Rose Garden Tea Rooms at Dunstable Priory Heritage Centre. I bought myself a super-dooper-whizzy-all-singing-all-dancing hanging system and had the paintings up in no time! Several of them are being exhibited for the first time and the new ones received quite a lot of nice comments. Always nice to know you are not going off the boil or have lost the (paint) plot. The Moon Horse acquired several admirers and quite right too, he's that sort of horse. I spent the afternoon sketching, drew another horse, a Green Woman (coming soon in paint if I can get my act together and get on with it) and a hare's head just to see if I could remember the bone structure. Well... I almost could. Tomorrow I shall work on some overdue Tolkien sketches otherwise I shall be drummed out of Middle-earth.

One last thing - the staff at the Centre, both in the shop and the cafe, are wonderful. I felt right at home.

You can discover more about Artist Network Bedfordshire Open Studios in my post here. There is still plenty of time to pay me and all the other participating artists a visit!

Moon Horse

2011-05-29T20:17:00.002+01:00

Yes, it really is another horse and this one is so special to me he's not even going on sale, although I have made prints so I can share a little bit of him even while I keep the original. He is very real to me and if I had a garden bigger than a fairy's pocket handkerchief and could keep a horse, then he would be it. He has, I think you will agree, a great deal of presence. And I wanted his dappling to be like the dappling of the moon. Because of the association with the Moon, he should really be a she, but, well, he isn't. So there. I painted him a few months ago and put off the print making as long as I could because I knew it would be a nightmare, and it was! Hours of fiddling, balancing and tweaking have, in the end, produced prints I'm really pleased with. I gave blood to get the colour of the earth right. Well... not literally... but late yesterday it really felt like I had. I couldn't find a quote to go around him that I was happy with so wrote something myself:

Over the hill runs the Horse,

above the hill rides the Moon,

silvered with the forgotten fire -

the dappled Horse and the Moon.

Don't ask me to explain it, you will have to ask the Muse.

Giclee prints are available, as ever, from my website at Galley Hill Art.

Leave it all Behind

2011-05-24T13:09:00.000+01:00

Time for another new painting, the first of two I've done with horses in it! Leave it all Behind is yet another painting that evolved while I was painting it (I don't go into much pre-planning...). I wanted something that would incorporate wind and movement, and a sense of moving forward. As I painted the leaves the title came to me, and it was then that I understood more about what I was trying to capture. The painting was clearly (to me anyway!) about one of those magical journeys where we sense we are moving forward in life. Old habits that hold us back, old troubles, and unwelcome difficulties are peeled away by a cleansing wind and fall like autumn leaves. Having served their purpose, we reach the point where we really can truly leave them all behind and look forward to new beginnings. The words around the border read:

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine into flowers,
the winds will blow their freshness into you,
and the storms, their energy,
and cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

- John Muir

The prints were pretty tough to make because of the very subtle shades and tones of the horse and figure, and the use of different blues and indigos. Blue it always hard to get exactly right! But after a struggle I beat my colour adjustment filters into submission and have managed to produce prints I am happy with. So I now have lovely limited edition giclees available from my Galley Hill Art Website.

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ANB Open Studios

2011-05-20T11:24:00.000+01:00

It's ANB Open Studios time again (where do the years go?) and this year I'm exhibiting from 6th - 11th June in the Rose Garden Tearooms of the The Priory Heritage Centre, Dunstable. This is a lovely venue and I shall be around from 10 - 4pm all week to chat to people and perhaps do a bit of sketching. Alas, there won't be enough room for me to paint, but I can still get creative!

The Priory Heritage Centre

High Street South,

Dunstable, Beds LU6 3RZ

Bedfordshire Artists Network Open Studios

Link to PDF of Open Studios Brochure

There will also be an Open Studios Taster Exhibition at The Red Dot Gallery, Icknield High School, Riddy Lane, Luton LU3 2AH. You will find full opening details on the right of the page if you follow either of the two Open Studios links above. This will be a chance to sample a wide variety of Bedfordshire artists works. The Red Dot Gallery is a wonderful exhibiting space and those of you who supported me at Open Studios last year will know where to find it ;-).

A green and pleasant land?

2011-04-21T20:53:00.001+01:00

My Green Man Ready for Battle really is going into battle on 5th May as part of Obsidian Art's HS2 Protest Exhibition against the proposed High Speed Rail Link. The £33 Billion Link will cut a swathe through the Chilterns and the beautiful countryside that surrounds the Gallery, passing only 200 metres from it. For full details about the Exhibition and how you can help, clicky clicky on the picture link above. For full details about the HS2 protest visit the STOP HS2 website where you can find out more and sign the petition.

Visit the Obsidian Art Gallery

Elements Exhibition Private View

2011-04-15T10:24:00.000+01:00

We had our Private View last night for the Elements Exhibition at the AIM for Art Gallery in Milton Keynes. I thought the exhibition looked wonderful with so many different styles and media. As usual I had to give myself a stern talking to, to prevent my buying stuff instead of selling stuff. Luckily the piece I was most tempted by was way too dear for me! It was lovely to meet other artists from around Beds and Bucks and also to have a chance to talk about my paintings and explain some of the symbols I use to people. I even sold some cards. Hurrah!

Full details of the exhibition, which runs to the 7th May, can be found here.

My paintings in the centre

The Temple of the Moon

2011-04-08T12:44:00.001+01:00

Another moon painting. Yes, I admit it, I'm obsessed with the moon and I think the recent spectacular Lunar Perigee at the Spring Equinox hasn't helped. It was just so Big and Bright and Beautiful. It made me want to leap around the night-time garden just to celebrate all that silver light, but thankfully I spared the neighbours (and the snails - it's impossible to run around my garden at night without flattening snails, slowly processing westwards across the grass, on some inpentetrable mission). This painting is also full of mystery. Like Eostra's Moon, the moon is being reborn inside an ancient mound, but this one has Guardian Trees and the traces of a labyrinth on the top. Behind it a full moon hangs over a misty lake. The words around the edge read:

Behold the glow of the moon
illumine the world's four quarters
perfect light in perfect space
a radiance that purifies.
- Shih Te

The Temple of the Moon is now available as a limited edition giclee print from Galley Hill Art.

Elements Exhibition in Milton Keynes

2011-04-06T18:11:00.000+01:00

Another exhibition! This time at the AIM for Art Gallery in Milton Keynes. It's been a busy couple of months...

Elements

an exhibition of paintings, photography, wood-turning and pottery for sale celebrating aspects of the natural world

Thursday 14th April - Saturday 7th May

Participating artists

Julian Abrams, Irene Foster, Jill Goodyear, Susan Gray, Roy Holding, Sarah Janavicius, Liz Linton, Tracey Mason, Di Oliver, Georgina Porter, Rowena Quilleash, Barbara Swann, Sue Wookey and Rosemary Wright

AIM for Art Gallery can be found at the centre:mk on the outside, next to Costa Coffee and opposite Waitrose.

AIM for Art Gallery
759 Midsummer Boulevard
@ thecentre:mk
Milton Keynes
Bucks
MK9 3BG
tel: 01908 674 069
email: info@aimforartgallery.org.uk
web: www.aimforartgallery.org.uk

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Into Spring ANB Exhibition

2011-03-22T16:18:00.000Z

Into Spring

Letchworth Arts Centre

22 March - 31 March

Monday - Saturday 10am - 5pm

The Artists' Network Bedfordshire invite you to visit our show "INTO SPRING" at Letchworth Arts Centre. The gallery opens out from a busy cafe\bar where you can relax with cup of tea or snack while visiting the show.

Letchworth Art Centre is located at 2 The Arcade, Letchworth Garden City, SG6 3EW and you can find more information about the event on their website www.letchwortharts.org

A group of us hung this Exhibition yesterday and, though I say so myself, it looks pretty darned good. It was hard work (I never want to look at a tape measure again) but we were fortified by the cafe next door and (in my case) rather too many cups of tea. You can see my work hanging around the central pillar, and it was a relief to put them somewhere where I could bung them up without trying to get them all in a straight line! Even so, I managed to stab myself in the finger and have now generously given blood - as well as sweat and tears - in the cause of art.

There is a wide range of interesting work across several different media and is well worth a visit if you are in the area!

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Earth and Fire

2011-03-16T19:57:00.000Z

Earth and Fire
© Sue Wookey

This is a newish painting that I've been meaning to post for a while, but I wanted to wait until I'd made giclee prints. Getting the colours right have been a nightmare, but I'm finally satisfied with them and they are now available at Galley Hill Art. The painting represents the Elements of Earth and Fire, with the stag representing fire. Stags have a longstanding relationship with the Sun in many cultures and have been regarded as a sacred animal since neolithic times. This fiery stag popped up (or, more specifically, bounded up) in a half-waking dream and was so vivid I had to capture him in paint. Needless to say he doesn't now look anything like what I saw. Such is the gap between our imagination and what happens when you get your jam jar of water out. Never mind, he still looks pretty hot. The words around the outside are attributed to St Patrick and describe his imaginative vision of all that is staggy:

Light of sun, radiance of moon, splendour of fire, speed of lightening, swiftness of wind, depth of sea, stablility of earth, firmness of rock.

The Innermost Garden

2011-02-28T09:55:00.003Z

The Innermost Garden
© Sue Wookey

Here's something a bit different from my usual work - a painting with flowers in it for the Luton Hoo Walled Garden 'Season's in a Garden' exhibit. Luton Hoo Walled Garden is a major project to restore an unusual octagonal walled garden, originally created in the 1770s. Following serious decline after WW11, it is now slowly being brought back to its former glory, while being used as a centre to inspire the creative arts with resident painters, sculptors and photographers.

I really enjoyed exhibiting there last year - where I showed my Green Man and a couple of photos - but this year I couldn't see anything in my work that was suitable for a garden theme. The, answer, of course, is to paint something special! Flowers are definitely outside my comfort zone. The formal style of Tudoresque roses even more outside it (they are pretty tricksy things and I was almost sorry I started them...). But I wanted to reflect the idea of the mystical garden (the inner Eden) that features so much in religious art and alchemical drawings. I'm not at all sure I've been that successful, although all the flowers have specific meanings, and there is a fountain and water flowing out from the centre of the painting. Never mind - I'm pleased by how the colours work together and their relation to the stylised form of the primary pattern - the sacred geometry of the Flower of Life. It looks like some exotic tiled floor or sumptuous carpet. The words around the outside read:

I am a kind word uttered and repeated

by the voice of Nature;

I am a star fallen from the blue tent

upon the green carpet.

- Song of the Flowers, Gibran

A grove of trees

2011-01-22T15:41:00.000Z

Grove
© Sue Wookey

I've been meaning to post this new painting for ages but have been putting it off until I had a chance to make prints. Well, the prints will be coming very soon, but I thought I'd better post the painting anyway or it will look as though I've done NOTHING over Christmas. Which is very nearly true. It's just so dark in late December, early January, isn't it?

This painting is - as you can see - all about trees. In fact a whole grove of trees forming a sacred space (hence the joined roots and the sun at the centre). A quite place within Nature to do all that contemplating we mean to do, but never find enough peaceful moments to get around to enjoying. A green, tranquil island within our busy lives. A miniature grove for the home if you haven't got a forest at your door or a humungously sized garden. I speak as one who's garden would give a pocket handkerchief a run for it's money.

The words around the edge read:

I part the out thrusting branches

and come in beneath the blessed and the blessing trees.

Though I am silent, there is singing around me.

- Wendell Berry

May there be many helpful and happy trees in your life.

The Owl Knows

2010-12-10T17:59:00.006Z

The Owl Knows
© Sue Wookey

Finally another painting to show you! This is an image that just came to me complete (as they sometimes do), and there is more to it than meets the eye. I know - it's a terrible pun. Although this is ostensibly a painting of an tawny owl peeping out between some autumnal oak branches, it is, in fact, yet another painting of the Tree of Life. Only it's a very little one seen in the owl's eye. So - what does the owl know? He knows that even though the leaves are about to fall and winter is coming, spring will follow and soon everything will be renewed. The Tree in his gaze is in full leaf. He also knows that the Tree of Life is not only something that we are all part of, but something within us, at the centre of our being. So he sees the Tree within and all the hope it brings.

The words around the border read:

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart,

The Holy Tree is growing there,

From Joy the holy branches start,

And all the trembling flowers they bear.

- W.B. Yeats.

This comes from a favourite poem of mine. You can find the full words here, or, if you like, hear the words beautifully set to music and sung by Loreena McKennitt on Youtube.

Limited edition giclee prints of The Owl Knows (made by my myself and I'm pretty fussy with the results) are now available on my website at Galley Hill Art.

Earth Pathways Diary 2011

2010-11-07T17:24:00.003Z

Three Running Hares
© Sue Wookey

The Earth Pathways 2011 Diary is out, and I feel very fortunate to have my Three Running Hares painting in it. I love this diary, full of inspiring paintings and words that help us connect with nature, the turning year and our spiritual responsibility to this world and to each other. It can be used as a diary, but I use it for all my to-do lists, so it gets well and truly written over. When do we never have too much to do?

You can read more about the diary on the Earth Pathways Website. There are even sample pages. See - it's irresistible.

I'm still painting like a mad thing, and will have two new ones to show you all soon. One has me completely puzzled and I'm still reaching for a title for it. I know - if I don't know what it's about, what hope everybody else? But maybe a flash of lightening will hit me before I get around to getting it scanned. The other painting is another owly one, but very different from 'Owl Dream' below. It's one of those images that you see in your mind's eye and then just have to get down on paper. What is it with all these owls? Maybe I'm haunted by the fact that I often hear them in the bridle-way trees at the end of my garden, but - because it's always dark when they come - I've never seen one.

Only the Moon and the Owls know...

2010-10-09T14:41:00.002+01:00

Owl Dream

Another painting that started out as one thing and ended up as another. I wanted to paint something that was about dreams of flying but it came over all shamanistic and the little flying woman looked more and more owlish. After I finished the painting I discovered that owls are associated with spirit flights and journeys to the Otherworld. And of course, they are associated with the Moon. I guess one just had to be there....

So... it's ended up kinda wierd, but I love it. The words around the painting read:

Between dark fall and light rise,

between lost dreams and sudden waking,

the Stars dance the silver winding path

and only the Moon and the Owls know.

- Sue Wookey

I've got prints available at Galley Hill Art if anyone fancies a sweet little flying Owl-woman on their wall.

Heren Istarion

2010-09-13T19:59:00.000+01:00

The 2011 Heren Istarion Calendar is now available for preorder and I'm thrilled to be featured in it again this year, alongside Jef Murray (who has painted the cover picture) and Anke Eissman. If you don't know their wonderful Tolkien work then follow the links to their webstes and take a look.

You will find full details about this beautifully put together calendar and how to order it here:

The Northeast Tolkien Society

A bit about the calendar from the Heren Istarion Website:

Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of The Northeast Tolkien Society we are happy to announce our 2011 Shire Calendar.

Once again Phil "Parmastahir" Goss and his wonderful daughter Megan are steadily at work just in time for the Fall Holidays to create another wonderful calendar for us. Many of you, hopefully all of you, know Phil from his incredible Tolkien Calendar Collection, and website dedicated to it:

The Compleat Gyde to Tolkien Calendars

In its 4th year, our Calendar has been blessed to have a special cover by the brilliant artist Jef Murray. The reflective nature of Gandalf and Frodo as they look upon the Shire is perfection. The Northeast Tolkien Society is very grateful to have had such a wonderful community and member support in the past 10 years, and looking ahead we hope to continue being the Tolkien community in the New York City area.

For our Shire Calendar format we are fortunate to feature the work of Anke Eissman and Sue Wookey, and a special 10th Anniversary centerfold illustration by Catherine Sparsidis to accompany our 10th Anniversary narrative.
.

Hertfordshire Open Studios

2010-09-02T18:07:00.004+01:00

It's Open Studios time again, this time with the Hertfordshire Visual Arts Forum, or HVAF for short. Five of us are exhibiting at Artscape Artshop in Harpenden, where the owner has kindly allowed us (yet again) to use a large first floor room. You'll find all the details on the poster above if you clicky-clicky on it, but there is one amendment - we won't now be open on Friday mornings.

Open Studios is a great opportunity to meet artists and learn about their work and if you live in the Hertfordshire area it's worth checking out the full brochure here. Just click on the different areas listed on the blue menu, which runs along the top, for the full programme.

We had great fun hanging our exhibition on Tuesday - there are lots of different types of surfaces to hang onto at the venue and it's easy to start getting fixated on fixings, but it all got put up in the end. You just have to accept that it's impossible to get everything straight in this life. I think straight pictures must be one of the rewards that artists get in heaven, along with masking fluid that doesn't bung up your brushes and Private Views with more than 10 people at them.

My pictures, not looking in the least bit straight

Just to jazz things up, I have moody black and white photos hanging this year, along with the paintings. Variety is the spice of life.

If any of you have an idle moment and want to come along and heckle while we try to paint then it would be lovely to see you. You may feel the overwhelming compulsion to straighten a picture....

Festival in the Shire

2010-08-20T10:58:00.007+01:00

Well, I'm back - not to the Shire but from it. 'It' being three days of Tolkien filled fun in Wales. If you've been following this blog you'll know I was exhibiting in the Art Exhibition there and have come back thrilled to be hanging amongst such terrific art. I've decided I should give up painting fantastic trees after seeing Rodney Matthews' 'Old Man Willow' but I guess I'll just have to do better! I have to thank the volunteer organisers for hanging my work and setting up my prints and cards for me in the Festival Shop. You were heroic.

I also had a new print there - yet another Tolkien painting I did a while ago but never got around to making a print of - Gollum:

Gollum
© Sue Wookey

Gollum is looking somewhat freaky here, he's seen reaching out for the Ring while reflected in the Ring itself. An image showing him trapped by it's power. The Ring is also seen reflected back in his eyes and to add to the tension, the Eye is looking out from the centre of the Ring. Enough to give anyone bad dreams! The limited edition giclee prints are available now from Galley Hill Art.

All in all I was very pleased with how the exhibiting went and sold enough prints and cards to feel reassured that my work was enjoyed.

BUT - it wasn't all exhibiting, of course. There was a fantastic Conference where papers were given by (amongst others) Tom Shippey, Verlyn Flieger, John Garth, Colin Duriez and Cary Olsen. I admit I was in seventh heaven (is there an eighth heaven? I might have been there too...). I learnt so much, there was plenty of laughter along with the scholarship (did I mention Tom Shippey?) and one talk that I will never forget from John Garth, who read a very carefully put together series of excerpts of the letters of Tolkien's great TCBS friend, Robert Gilson. Gilson's niece was in the audience as we followed his time at school with Tolkien, through to his army training, journey to the Front, his hopes and fears. Gilson died in the first major push at the opening of the Battle of the Somme and hearing his own words as he prepared for battle in the horrific mud of the trenches, was unbearably moving. I'm hoping, like everyone at the talk, that there will be a book so that these very well written letters can be shared.

The main speakers:

L to R: Olsen, Dimitra Fimi, Garth, Flieger, Shippey, Duriez, Alex Lewis (hidden), Colin Manlov and Ruth Lacon.
© Sue Wookey

Outside the Conference there were many other smaller talks, music, storytelling - how wonderful to hear Beren and Luthien told out loud from memory! - and re-enactments. All this and beautiful scenery too!

Yet another Tree of Life

2010-08-04T17:56:00.003+01:00

The Golden Seed
© Sue Wookey

And yet another attempt at Life, the Universe and Everything. One day I'll stop painting the Tree of Life.... OK, you're right, I probably won't! I think there are several Trees left in me yet. Maybe an entire Forest.

This painting started off as an attempt to create a less stylised Tree. Really worked, huh? Once again we have the balance of opposites within the Tree (which of course represents all Creation), but this Tree is bearing suns and moons as its fruit. It's springing up in all it's profusion from a small version of the simple Indian Tree I painted a couple of years ago, based on an ancient Chola Bronze. A simple archetype from which an endless variety constantly evolves. Today I read the words of someone who compared the manifest universe to God's clothes, a glorious robe through which we can see Him and which also envelopes us. Makes it even more important that we don't pick holes in it, eh?

The words around the border are from the Shvetashvatara Upanishad and read:

He is the One who presides over all
and rules over everyone from within.
He sows the golden seed of life when time begins
and helps us know its unity.

Prints (in glorious technicolour) of The Golden Seed are available from my website at Galley Hill Art

It's all about Tolkien...

2010-07-09T20:51:00.002+01:00

Tom looks through the Ring
© Sue Wookey

It's all go on the Tokien front at the moment. Not only have I FINALLY made prints of Tom looks through the Ring (it's only taken me a couple of years....), but I'm exhibiting in August at the Festival in the Shire, a huge Tolkien event talking place at Pafiliwn Bont, Wales, from the 13th to the 15th August, 2010.

From the Festival Site: This will be the most comprehensive event ever held for the fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, with a conference, a fan exposition of original art, rare books and memorabilia as well as a large festival with stalls and entertainment.

Sounds like something for everyone!

As well as the originals, which you can see at the exhibition and which won't be for sale because I can't bear to part with them, there will be prints available in the Festival Shop, (including my overdue Tom looks through the Ring). There will be many more Tolkien inspired artists at the event and, for those with tickets for the Conference, a chance to hear Tom Shippey (can you see me genuflecting?) Verlyn Flieger and John Garth speaking.

For more info about Festival in the Shire, visit the website at http://www.festivalintheshire.com/ or contact info@FestivalintheShire.com or freephone 0800 6125469.

And while we're on the subject of Tolkien, my Glaurung's Death Throes is currently thrashing about on the cover of the latest issue of Mallorn, thanks to Henry Gee:

Very fiery and splendid he looks too..... Glauring that is. So, with the Festival coming up fast I really must get down to making more prints, making cards....worshiping Tom Shippey...doing another new Tolkien painting. Maybe I'll even get down to painting Aragorn with the Palantir, which I sketched out over a year ago and which has been in artistic limbo ever since. It would be good to have an Aragorn at the Festival. I can't wait! Did I mention Tom Shippey.......?

I believe in Angels....

2010-07-02T17:27:00.004+01:00

Michael
© Sue Wookey

I've been meaning to tackle Michael for some time (not literally. I think in a one-to-one bout with the Prince of Light, I'd definitely come of worse). But how do you paint an Archangel? Aren't they a bit, well, Archy? So it took me quite a while to find a way around the whole man-with-wings thing. I wanted to represent him because of his association with Skellig Michael, Kerry, St Michael's Mount and Mont San Michel, and that whole remarkable alignment that stretches to Monte Gargano in Italy (also founded and dedicated to Michael) and beyond. An Angel of fire and light who appears in visions on rocky hilltops...

I've used his symbol of the sun twice - the real thing blazing away in the background and a symbolic one in the foreground - and you can also see his sword and a balance (another of his symbols as the Weigher of Souls). His wing is like a great feathery rainbow - fitting for his role as Protector of Mankind. You don't mess with Michael. There is a belief that if you are touched by angels they leave a white feather behind as a sign and so I have plenty of them floating around!

The words around the painting are Michael's names and titles, and read:

Michael, Prince of Light, Quis ut Deus? Protector of Mankind, Guide and Herald.

Prints of 'Michael' are available from www.galleyhillart.com

'Blow wind and crack your cheeks...'

2010-06-25T12:48:00.002+01:00

Art lovers braving the freezing north wind

Well - I've now had my own blasted heath moment doing Art on the Common in Harpenden last weekend along with fellow artist Teresa Kirkpatrick (she has her own account here) and her trusty partner Jon who has more than earned his Artist's Assistant Gold Medal. Boy was it windy on Saturday. And cold. And rather scary. Although we had our gazebo roped and weighted down it was leaning at a very unfortunate angle as the north wind buffeted it. Sometimes it took all three of us to hold it up. And I spent the day wrapped up in a fleece and coat and I was STILL cold. Ah... the joys of a British Summer. Still, we stuck it out in a bloody-minded British sort of way.

Our gazebo looking surprisingly upright

On the Sunday we tied the gazebo down with enough string to wrap a herd of elephants and I wore a jumper. And the sun came out and blasted us in the inferno of our south-facing gazebo until I was reduced to a sun hat and factor 50 sun cream. Lucky I didn't have to plaster it all over my arms because of the Jumper. I now know how a Christmas Turkey feels. Frozen solid, gently defrosted overnight, then blasted in the oven until your skin is nice and crispy. Michaelangelo had years lying on his back painting the Sistine Ceiling and we had our 'suffering for art' baptism in the frozen wastes and searing desert of Harpenden Common. Ah.... just kidding. I think Michaelangelo wins that one.

Some of our stuff before the wind knocked half of it over

But - it was HUGE fun. We'll definitely do it again next year (and probably be better prepared). It was wonderful to meet so many art loving people, encouraging to hear their comments and sell stuff, and (even better) we had a nice cheque to give to Cancer Research at the end of it. I wouldn't have spent the weekend any other way!

Bedfordshire Open Studios

2010-06-03T17:36:00.001+01:00

It's Open Studios time again and throughout June artists all over Bedfordshire will be opening their studios, demonstrating and exhibiting their work. I'll be sharing an exhibition at the Red Dot Gallery in Icknield High School, along with painters Celia Glyde Husband, Jan Drury, Hannah Spirito and Dawn Iles, mosaic artist Dionne Ible, and mixed media and collage artist Vanessa Lee. The Red Dot Gallery is a fantastic venue and there will be a wide range of styles and media - something for everyone!

Our exhibition will be open on Sat - Wed 12-16 June, Sat - Wed 19-23 June and Sat - Wed 26-30 June. Weekends 10 - 4pm and weekdays 11 - 3pm. On each day there will be at least one artist there to greet you and talk about the work. I'll be there myself on the 12th, 15-16th and 22-23rd and possibly some other days too. You can find out more about the Artists Network and Bedfordshire Open Studios here at the ANB website. There is more information about the Red Dot Gallery here.

It would be lovely to see some of you there - this is a great opportunity to find out how artists work in a variety of media, so stop by for a chat :- )

Happy Birthday, Universe...

2010-05-15T09:54:00.004+01:00

Cradle of Life
© Sue Wookey

It's a bit ambitious to paint the start of Life, The Universe and Everything but, hey, what's to lose? This painting is based on the ancient and complex symbol of the Vesica Piscis - two interlocking circles of the same radius which create a Mandorla (or almond) in the enclosed space between them. See Wikipedia here for more. It looks simple but the shape is the basis of sacred geometry, the mathematical creation of the 6 platonic solids and the symbols of the Seed of Life and the Flower of Life. For more on Sacred Geometry see here. The Vesica Piscis and the various forms that spring from it are found in many places and religions around the world. You can see a well known example on the cover of the Chalice Well in Glastonbury (that's a dreadful pun...).

I've painted it exploding with the Birth of Life, with the elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water and also managed to bung in the Sun, Moon, Earth and Stars (once can never paint too many moons...). By applying some of the rules of sacred geometry we get a great cosmic eye in the middle. Think cells dividing, atoms spinning and 'Thus spake Zarathustra' playing very loudly in the background.

The words around the border are an ancient Hindu text:

Fire is his head, the sun and moon his eyes,

the heavens his ears, the scriptures his voice,

the air his breath, the universe his heart,

and the earth his footrest. The Lord of Love

is the innermost Self of all.

- Mundaka Upanishad

If you haven't read the Upanishads you haven't lived.

Treebeard prints now available!

2010-05-07T21:02:00.000+01:00

Limited edition, signed giclee Prints of Treebeard are now available from Galley Hill Art. It was quite a task getting all the subtle shades of green, grey and brown just right on the print but I finally got there after I don't know how many attempts! As Treebeard would say, 'Don't be hasty'.

Treebeard

2010-04-24T14:46:00.000+01:00

Treebeard
© Sue Wookey

I've finally painted my Treebeard and am hoping to have prints available of him at Galley Hill Art very soon (next week, hopefully!). This is Treebeard on the knoll where he encounters Merry and Pippin, and I've tried to capture his quizzical look as he takes in the Hobbits. I've stuck with Tolkien's description on him as 'Man-like, almost Troll-like' as there is always the question of what to do with Treebeard's legs if you make him too like a tree. Knee caps in great big tree trunks just don't cut it. He's maybe not as 'sturdy' as Tolkien had in mind - more wiry, but I wanted him sort of 'twiggy' and showing his extreme age. His 'trunk' could be clothes or could be skin. I'm hoping he's a fit partner for my Fimbrethil, despite the ages and leagues that divide them!

'Together we will take the road that leads into the West,

And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.'
- JRR Tolkien

Haring around at Easter

2010-04-04T16:18:00.002+01:00

Eostre's Moon
© Sue Wookey

Another new painting with some of my favourite bits and pieces in it - the moon, the trojan maze, a megalithic temple and a leaping hare. Amazing how I somehow manage to bung them all together...

To lead you around the maze of symbols I've created, the sliver of the New Moon is ready to be reborn where it will follow it's winding path to completeness. And the leaping hare represents the spring goddess Eostre who was associated with the renewal of life and the spring equinox. She also liked letting her inner Hare do it's thing and may be the real source of the Easter Bunny. The fact we know anything at all about this nearly forgotten goddess is down to the Venerable Bede who told us that April was Eostra's month. I love the idea of her dancing for joy as the world is renewed with the coming of spring.

My poem around the border reads:

Spring hare, silvered messenger,

dancing between sky and earth,

where does the slivered moon hide

to fill her shell for birth?

Happy Easter everyone!

Aim at the Gallery

2010-03-23T15:40:00.002Z

Another exhibition - this time with the ANB (Artists Network Bedfordshire) who are exhibiting at the AIM Gallery, Milton Keynes until the 24th April. The Gallery is very easy to find as it faces Waitrose in the main shopping area and it has plenty of parking in front of it. I'm showing 'The Road' and 'Tree of Transformation' which has pretty much cleared me out. I now have more paintings hanging about bits of Bedfordshire than I have at home! It's nice not to be shuffling them about the place.

'A springtime show that continues the year with a fresh and dynamic selection of works by a variety of artists and crafts people from across Bedfordshire'.

You will find the Gallery at 759 Midsummer Boulevard, Central Milton Keynes, MK9 3BG, tel: 01908 674069.

New paintings at B Gallery

2010-03-13T12:15:00.002Z

Skellig Michael, Kerry
© Sue Wookey

I've been to b Gallery in Toddington this week and changed around my paintings so it's all nice and fresh and new. My 'Green Man' is there, glowering at visitors, along with 'Balance' and my newest one 'Skellig Michael' (above). And mine isn't the only new stuff there - there are several artists and photographers exhibiting at b Gallery for the first time and, to jazz things up even further, many of the other established artists have also changed their work around. Well worth another trip as the Gallery just gets better and better.

Best of all, visit on their Gala Day on Saturday 17th April where there will be several artists demonstrating throughout the day along with drinks and nibbles. There are well attended and a lot of fun! You'll find the b Gallery at The Old Town Hall, Market Square, Toddington, Beds LU5 6QJ, just off M1 J12. info@bgallery.co.uk

Now on to the painting! Here is a bit about Skellig Michael from the Galley Hill Art Website:

Skellig Michael (Michael's Rock) is one of the world's most amazing places - the site of a tiny 7th century monastic community whose beehive huts cling to the top of the sheer rock, 9 miles off the coast of Kerry. It is also the start of the great Apollo-Athena line that links the island with distant Megiddo, taking in countless sites dedicated to Michael, and the ancient oracular centres of Delphi, Athens and Delos along it's way. I've depicted the crossing of 'Apollo' and 'Athena', and in the doorway of the hut can be seen another cross - the ancient island one that has worn down almost into a figure. The words around the border read:

Still you meet on Michael's Rock, Mother Moon and Father Sun, and dance the old and winding dance until all days are done. - Sue Wookey.

A mysterious painting for a mysterious place. Isn't the old cross rather spooky in the doorway?

6 Degrees Exhibition, AiR Gallery

2010-03-10T12:20:00.001Z

How everyone is a new door, opening into other worlds.' - John Guare

I'll be exhibiting Raven and the Sun at the AiR Gallery at Barnfield South Academy, Luton, throughout April. The exhibition is called 6 Degrees and is 'An exhibition of the creative talents of the local, the national and the international'. It's only a small gallery but is a beautiful space and the exhibition should be really interesting. The Gallery is usually used to showcase the considerable artistic talents of the Students of Barnfield South Academy.

You'll find the Air Gallery at Barnfield South Academy, Cutenhoe Road, Luton LU1 3NH and is just off the M1.

The Green Man gets going

2010-03-01T16:00:00.001Z

The Green Man Ready For Battle

This is another of those paintings that ran off and did it's own thing. It started as a perfectly reasonable 'Green Man', that woody spirit of all things green and growing that puts his pagan stamp on churches up and down the country. But the leaves he's spouting wanted to form a helmet and as he went on he got more and more militant, spewing brick destroying ivy and wearing a sprouting seed as an emblem on his forehead. The sort that comes up in your concrete path and gives it what for. I'm not sure I like the look in his eye and the vast array of bugs he's sheltering. I think this is the Green Man very definitely taking a long look at 2010 and getting ready to demonstrate that Nature can be battered but in the end it always wins. And thank goodness for that.

The words around the painting read:

When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with the fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze - Thomas Carlyle.

Wise words to take to heart next time you see a new mall popping up where you used to look for fairies when a kid.

More moody trees

2010-02-15T17:26:00.005Z

Winter Trees

I've added another photo to Galley Hill Art and as you can see, I'm still feeding my tree obsession. It could because they don't move when you try to take the picture (as far as we know...), but don't they just look beautiful with the fading late afternoon winter light behind them? This was a magical walk in the fields behind Galley Hill and the tree's shadows were reaching into the distance across the ploughed furrows behind me. I have some photos of those too, so watch this space. I also have a new painting to post in a few days, if I can ever get the colours right for printing. There really are too many different greens. Green is the new blue (which I was ranting about here several months ago).

I'm going out and I may be some time....

2010-02-03T15:44:00.001Z

Snowy Day 1

I've added another of my black and white photographs to my website. This was taken in the recent 'big freeze' and although it was definitely freezing and sometimes very scary, it was also very beautiful. I went for a long walk on a day so white that the trees and hedges were the only features. At one point I thought I'd take a short cut back along the bottom of the hill, which turned out to be one of those crazy off-piste moments. After slogging through pathless tracts of drift, and realising that I'd never get up the hill but had to keep plodding along the base of it, I had one of those moments when you beat yourself over the head with your own thermals for being such a numpty. The photo was taken long before I achieved complete meltdown somewhere in the frozen wastes you can see off in the distance.

It's all about balance...

2010-01-26T14:32:00.003Z

Balance

Here is the first of several new paintings that I'll be posting over the next few weeks. Yes - it's the Tree of Life (again!) but this is one of those paintings that has wilfully gone off in its own direction. To be honest, for a day or so I had no idea why there were so many circles around and underneath the Tree apart from the fact that they somehow looked 'right'. The title just popped into my head and as soon as I had the title I began to understand the painting. This ought to be the wrong way round to do things but somehow it works for me. I think that it means that all life is delicately balanced on a fragile support, take it too far one way or the other and everything is off kilter. This applies as much to nature as to ourselves and the way we live in the world. It also applies to our inner harmony. Nothing in excess as the old adage goes. Weirdly I feel as though my own painting is wagging a finger at me and I resolve to be more... well.... harmonious.

I hope to have prints of this available at Galley Hill Art in a few days :-)

Photography roots

2010-01-20T16:52:00.003Z

Beech Trees, Sharpenhoe

I've opened a new section at Galley Hill Art for black and white photography, my first love from the days when I worked with it at the BBC Hulton (now glorified via several sales and incarnations into the world's biggest picture agency). I'm steadily going to build up a selection of limited edition black and white giclee prints of some of my photographs (more enduring than a photographic print which will only fade and annoy you hugely). I have a horrible feeling that they are nearly all going to be of trees. Going back through all my photos I seem to have a serious tree obsession going on. How very Tolkien.

The trees above are giant beech trees growing over the bank of an iron age promotory hillfort on Sharpenhoe Clappers, which is part of the Chiltern range in Bedfordshire. I have so many photos of the Clappers you wouldn't believe. Anyway, the gnarled roots of this old tree look amazing, curling over the earth bank in a mass of knots. I'm sure this tree must walk about at night going 'hoom hoom'.

Remember Fimbrethil?

2010-01-14T14:54:00.009Z

Fimbrethil © Sue Wookey

I've finally got around to making prints of this painting. Like Treebeard I've been less than hasty! They're now available from Galley Hill Art .

And there are quite a few new paintings to come when I get around to having them scanned!

'b' Gallery opening a terrific success

2009-12-07T12:16:00.008Z

The new 'b' Gallery in Toddington had a terrific opening day yesterday with crowds pouring through the doors. There were times when I could barely move - I kept finding myself trapped in odd corners by the tide. I'm certainly not complaining, it was incredible to see so many people interested in art and appreciating what Melanie Burnell and Julie Boyle have achieved at the Gallery. It's situated in a wonderful old building, built in Tudor times, although the exterior looks as though it's had a bit of an 18th century revamp:

As you can see, it's right in front of the Parish Church, which is also well-worth a visit if you're up this way (there you are - two reasons to come...). The gallery has a wonderful atmosphere and as well as the artworks you can chill on comfy sofas, browse an art book or two and you might even get a cup of coffee to help you along. Mel and Julie have done a terrific job of making the place both lively and relaxing at one and the same time. Downstairs has jewellery, ceramics, cards and prints for Beryl Cook fans, as well as prints by other established artists and a large and beautifully painted view of Machu Picchu by Rolf Harris. Us local artists have most of our stuff upstairs in a huge room with a wonderful beamed roof. There is a LOT of it to see, with such a variety of styles and mediums to enjoy that I think anyone who visits will find something that inspires them. In case there is a slim chance you've forgotten what mine look like, here are some of them on the left:

Hey - this is a GREAT place to do your Christmas shopping! Only 18 days left...).

Check out the post below for details of how to find the Gallery,

New 'b' Gallery

2009-11-23T17:42:00.004Z

What a relief - I've found a new gallery for my work: 'b' Gallery in Toddington. Not only is it in a lovely building it's only 10 minutes away from me. This is a new venture by Melanie Burnell and Julie Boyle (who have a lot of experience between them running galleries) and who are transforming the Old Town Hall in Toddington into something fresh and exciting for Bedfordshire artists. It opens on Saturday 5th December with an Open day from 10am - 5pm in which you can mingle, meet artists and have a drink of mulled wine. It would be wonderful to see some of you there! Apparently even Father Christmas is coming. I have quite a few new paintings for the gallery, so you won't be looking at all the same stuff as at Artscape ;-).

You'll find the gallery at the Old Town Hall, Market Square, Toddington, Bedfordshire LU5 6QJ. Here is a google map for the intrepid amongst you. The Gallery is on the corner between the Market Square and Conger Lane. Check it out as there will be some wonderful artists there, with exhibits changing regularly.

And as a bonus here is a new painting based - very loosely - on Tyrebagger (wonderful name) Stone Circle. The words around the outside are from a very old poem by O. H. Holmes:

Time, that unbuilds the quarried past,
Leans on these wrecks that press the sod;
They slant, the stoop, they fall at last,
And strew the turf their priests have trod.

I know exactly how they feel...

Tyrebagger Stones
© Sue Wookey

2010 Heren Istarion Calendar

2009-11-07T10:41:00.004Z

The 3rd 2010 Calendar of the Northeast Tolkien Society is now available for order , featuring work by Jef Murray, Ted Nasmith, Ruth Lacon, Henning Jannsen and myself. I’m thrilled to be included in this year’s line-up with such luminaries.

From Heren Istarion: “The focus of this calendar has been, and we hope will continue, to feature work from artists that may not entirely be “household” names in fandom. Yet have been illustrating and inspired by Tolkien for many years. The 2010 NETS Calendar as a portal of creativity inspired by Tolkien widens the artistic lens with the work of Ruth Lacon, Henning Janssen and Sue Wookey, with sketches and illustrations by renowned Tolkien artist Ted Nasmith. The stunning visual representations of people, places and events from the history of Middle earth by these renowned artists stand as a testament to Tolkien’s plan, message and scope for a creative continuity of individual minds and hands to participate in a complex and beautiful world. A world Tolkien himself set the foundation for us all to build upon. The 2010 NETS Calendar would not be complete without a cover illustration and sketches by Jef Murray. This year, as we all are a part of a modern world with many complex issues, we can all take refuge and healing in what Jef has illustrated. We must remember Galadriel’s words to Sam “Let the Light be a guide for you in dark places,” which many of us find ourselves in right now.”

It’s good to be inspired by Tolkien’s world, to further his vision and explore the Middle-earth of our hearts and minds together.

The Calendar is a Limited Edition, in the Shire Reckoning format with Gregorian offsets, with funds going to support the Northeast Tolkien Society.

Order Enquiries should be sent to herenistarion@yahoo.com. The price is $20 + shipping and handling, and a minimum of 3-6 weeks should be allowed for delivery as the calendar is printed in small batches. Go on... you know you want one!

Moons and Mazes

2009-10-13T19:48:00.006+01:00

The Road

Well - Open Studios is over and done with and it's been a blast. It's been wonderful to have so many visitors and to have the chance to chat to them all and talk about what we do and why we do it. Hard to do without sounding all arty-farty. It's also been wonderful to have days where you aren't expected to do anything but sit and paint. I thought I'd just dabble with a few example techniques but ended up with some half decent paintings - amazing when you realise that you just can't leave a watercolour wash in mid-flow without total disaster. Somehow I managed to keep painting and talking at one the same time - at least I think I did. There are probably people out there who now think of me as 'that weird lady who talked gibberish while dipping her brush in her tea cup.'

The painting at the top is one of those that I managed to complete. The words around the outside read:

To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. - Emerson

The Moon
© Sue Wookey

This was painted from a really amazing Nasa photo called 'Purple Moon'. There is so much detail on the Hubble photograph that the moon looks very dark and 'in your face', instead of the distant, pale, and fragile looking wafer we normally see. Judi, our glass artist, had used it as inspiration for a fused glass wall piece and suggested I had a go at painting it. Interesting to interpret one image in two mediums! My moon has hardly any purple, though, so it's now just 'The Moon'. The words around the outside are a poem I wrote quite a while ago which seemed appropriate:

Night

The moon
is knocking on my window
full on,
no sideways smile
slithering behind the night,
no teasing through
a dusky slip of cloud,
but bare and bright
and fey -
drawing the blood tide
to dancing;
to measuring circles,
to conjuring her reincarnation
under the lunar white.

Sue Wookey

It was jolly difficult to fit all that in around the border without teeny-tiny writing but determination goes a long way....

Artscape Exhibition

2009-09-02T16:26:00.007+01:00

My paintings (left) and Vanessa Jayne Smyth's (right)
© Sue Wookey

Our Open Studios exhibition at Artscape is now up after a whole day of blood, sweat, tears and hammering and we are thrilled with how it looks. But I've discovered that there is no such thing as a straight line and, no matter how hard you try to corral them, paintings creep up and down walls of their own accord and laugh at you. How long is a piece of string? Any length but the length you thought it was when you measured it. That's how long it is.

Teresa Kirkpatrick's paintings (right) with mine again on the left
© Sue Wookey

The exhibition is above the shop at Artscape in Southdown, Harpenden and open from now until the end of the month. There are Open Days on the 12th, 17th-19th and the 24th-26th when some of us will be hanging around to talk arty stuff with you.

Judi Menges' beautiful glass
© Sue Wookey

Betty Stratham's Vogue inspired fashion sketches
© Sue Wookey

This has been a huge amount of preparation and it's good to see it all finally up on the wall. All we have to do now is deliver 1,000 flyers and persuade everyone we know that they haven't lived until they've seen it. Personally I never want see a tape measure or a nail again!

Great balls of fire...

2009-08-26T12:01:00.004+01:00

Tree of Transformation
© Sue Wookey

I have two new paintings ready to go to our Open Studios Exhibtion in Harpenden on the 1st September (see post below). The Tree of Transformation came out of nowhere and painted itself while I had no idea what was going on. It just sort of grew. I don't know what you might see in it but I see worlds being re-formed and re-born, and it took me quite a while to realise the bird was going to be a Phoenix. Which is probably why it looks nothing like one. Luckily for me it has hardly any blue in it as blue is horrible to try to match for prints (which will be available very soon). I must remember to do more red and yellow paintings and save myself the agony of Cobalt Blue.

The Sun Boat
© Sue Wookey

This is a larger version of a little painting that I've had for sometime, meaning to work it up into something proper. To save you craning upside down the words around the picture read:

The Seket boat, wherein is thy majesty, goeth forth with might, thy beams are upon all faces, thy rays of red and yellow cannot be known, and thy bright beams cannot be told.

It's from a very old translation of the Papyrus of Ani, from E.A Wallace Budge's 'Egyptian Religion'. I rather like it. 'Thy rays of red and yellow' (and no tricky Cobalt Blue).

Open Studios Exhibition

2009-08-20T14:58:00.002+01:00

It's exhibition time again and this time I'm exhibiting with 4 others at Artscape in Harpenden, Herts. For any of you that managed to get to Purple Poppy - I've been working very hard and will be exhibiting 5 new paintings, the two Sacred Landscapes (below), the Three Hares and two I haven't posted here yet: The Tree of Transformation and The Sun Boat of Ra.

The exhibition runs for a month from 1st September and there will be artists there on all the Open Studio days listed above. I'll be there myself on the 12th, 17th-19th and the morning of the 24th, attempting to demo some painting, or drawing or whatever is easiest under the circumstances! As well as paintings and glass work there will be limited-edition prints, photography and cards.

This will be a very varied exhibition and well worth a drop in, if you're in the neighbourhood.

Sacred Landscapes 3 and 4

2009-07-28T14:52:00.005+01:00

I've completed two more in my Sacred Landscape series and prints are now available of both of them. These are imaginary prehistoric landscapes in which I've let my imagination run riot. I'm hoping they come across as full of energy with a dash of mysterious something-or-other thrown in! Making prints of the night time landscape was a hair-pulling-stare-despairingly-at-the-screen nightmare. For some reason certain shades of blue are horribly difficult to reproduce accurately and, after two days of fiddling trying to get the exact shade of cobalt blue (unsuccessfully...) I'm beginning to think I'll never paint with cobalt blue again. Or violet. Or cerulean. Or a particularly springy shade of yellowy green...

If Picasso had been making his own prints from his paintings he would never have had a Blue Period, it would have been Red, Red, Red.

Three Hares go round and round...

2009-07-22T17:05:00.004+01:00

I've finally got around to scanning my latest paintings (more to come!) - I know it's been a while since I posted one. I have been painting, honest! This is a painting based on the ancient symbol of Three Hares. No one knows the real origin or meaning of this strange symbol, but it is found all along the Silk Road from China to South West England where it can be seen on church roof bosses and in stained glass. The Three Hares chase each other around and share three ears (not six) so it's a bit of an optical illusion. It's one of the many symbols that contain a trinity, like the triskelion (the Isle of Man symbol) and the Celtic symbol of three interlocking spirals. The symbol could be connected to the lunar cycle. Or perhaps not. No one knows. I've put moons in the painting anyway because - to me - it represents the cyclical passing of time which both races by faster than we can catch it and repeats at one and the same time.

For those straining to read the upside-down writing it says:

In time take time while time doth last, for time is no time when time is past : Anon

And

The passing minute is every man's equal posession, but what has once gone by is not ours : Marcus Aurelius

This is my second pass at this painting. I got a long way with it while I was having my boiler replaced (in an attempt to ignore the awful destruction) and made some ghastly errors. Never paint when your whole house is being turned upside down or you end up with the bin as your critic. Heigh ho.

Exhibition Extra

2009-06-25T17:43:00.008+01:00

Well, the exhibition is over and it's gone very well indeed. I've really enjoyed sharing the venue with Steph, Emily and Adele, the other three artists, and I think we all had a wonderful time! I especially enjoyed my day manning the exhibit and talking to all the visitors about all the art on display. I think the combination of watercolour (me), mosaic (Emily Wilde), crochet (Steph Phillips) and mixed media (Adele Vallance) made for a very interesting and varied exhibit and I had a lot of positive feedback about all the work. I do it again like a shot! I'm very glad I invested in a giclee printer as prints have proved very popular and it's a great way to have some affordable art. The cards also went down a storm!

Everyone was fascinated by Steph's work. I think it was a shock to most visitors how beautiful and inventive crochet can be - especially the delicate metal crocheted jewellery. A lot of the work was very knubbly and three dimensional and people got very touchy feely with it, tracing the shells and starfish on the bags.

The trouble with manning the exhibition for the day is that I started to get so attached to some of the items there that I could have blown any profits just buying stuff. I think Emily's mosaic in the middle of the photo would look fabulous in my bathroom but I had to keep reminding myself that I was there to SELL. But it would look fabulous...

You can see some of Adele's work in the photo above. Adele sees the accretion of paint and debris on studio floors and tables as abstracts which show the passage of time affecting the surface of physical objects. She lifts these surfaces using very strong PVA glue and her series of 4 pictures were successive liftings from one area, getting lighter and lighter as there was less surface left to come away. It was interesting seeing people spotting the traces of ring marks and scratches on the surface and realising the random way in which they'd come together to form a design.

Thanks to Steph, Emily, Adele and Gallery owner Myra for a really fun four days!

2009-06-19T12:42:00.002+01:00

The exhibition at the Purple Poppy Gallery is finally up and running and I've discovered one of my fellow artists is also a fellow blogger. You can read her report about our rather exhausting hanging (I'll know just how much work is really is next time) over here on her blog Hook and Scrumble, and see some of her inspired crochet work. It's come a long way since my mum used to do doillies. I urge you to take a look and see how inventive it can really be!

I shall be covering the exhibition on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it. Maybe I'll actually remember to take my camera this time and give you some photos!

Exhibition

2009-05-20T12:28:00.003+01:00

I have an exhibition coming up on the 18th-21st June at the Purple Poppy Gallery in Ampthill and am in a frenzy of activity framing paintings and putting all the finishing touches to some prints and cards. I am starting to see cello bags in my sleep ;-). I'll be sharing the venue with three other artists who work in mosaic, crochet and mixed media so it will be a really interesting and varied exhibition, as you can see from the flyer above! The Gallery also has a wonderful shop featuring the work of local artists; everything from paintings to stunning jewellery and pottery, so it's well worth the visit out to Ampthill. I'll be manning the Gallery on Sunday 21st. Maybe I'll see some of you there?

Standing Stones and stuff

2009-04-28T11:04:00.007+01:00

Another Sacred Landscape painting, this time inspired by those mysterious cup-and-ring markings found on so many old stones dotted around the country. I've cut away the hill to show the ground water beneath the stones and tried to make the whole painting pulse with energy. No idea what the markings really meant to the people who carved them but it's fun speculating!

Fimbrethil

2009-04-22T17:37:00.006+01:00

I've finally got around to posting Fimbrethil, who is busying herself with the 'lesser trees', the 'meads in the sunshine' and the fruits of the earth. I've painted her, as Treebeard describes her, 'bent and browned' with hair 'parched by the sun to the hue of ripe corn' and cheeks 'like red apples'. Underneath the painting it says:

When honey spills, and apple swells, though wind be in the west,
I'll linger here beneath the Sun, because my land is best.

If only we had the entwives tending the good earth and nurturing it for us still.

Happy Earth Day!

Amon Hen and Mallorn

2009-04-16T12:38:00.004+01:00

One of my paintings - Gandalf the White - is on the cover of The Tolkien Society's Bulletin 'Amon Hen' this month and has come out looking very well given the humungous amount of detail crammed into a very small space. I also designed the leafy writing, which was great fun to do - I'll now have to try and come up with an entire leafy alphabet! Many thanks to Andrew Butler for letting me do another cover and scrawl leafily all over it.

The Tolkien Society's Biannual Journal 'Mallorn' also came out this month and is so unexpectedly full of my paintings (I expected 2 and ended up with 4 full colour illustrations and 2 pen sketches) that I really think that I'll have to kiss Henry Gee's feet the next time I see him. A great boost for any artist trying to get their stuff 'out there'. I hope everyone enjoys seeing them as much as I enjoyed painting them!

I have two more Tolkien paintings coming up which I will post when I can get the scans done. I've finally got around to painting Mrs Fangorn AKA Fimbrethil who - due to an unfortunate combination of spiky twigs and cheery red cheeks - went through an totally uncalled for Mrs Tiggywinkle phase before I managed to rescue her. Now she looks like an ent should and not as though she rolls through the grass collecting leaves in her spare time. Plus I'm in the middle of wrestling with a colour version of Glaurung and I think Glaurung is winning. The painting is, at the moment, horrendous and unless Turin comes along (AKA my muse...) Glauring will have the whole painting in shreds in the bin. At least he doesn't look like Mrs Tiggywinkle.

Prints now available!

2009-03-16T20:19:00.005Z

Success! I've struggled through the technical minefield of setting up my new large-format printer and can finally produce my own prints. These are giclee prints produced on archival fine-art paper. They should outlast us all without withering and fading (would that I could say the same for myself) and I can hardly tell them apart from my originals. Which is a bit disturbing, really.

So... I can now provide prints on demand for all my paintings (and drawings too, I suppose, I haven't tried that yet!). All the paintings above and those posted here in the last 6 months are already available and I can easily set up others on request if I haven't already got there. All the details are on my website at www.galleyhillart.com.

Talking about the website - all I have to do now is figure out how to set up the international shipping options, which are so awful all I ever do is take a peek at it's inner workings and run. If you're out there beyond Britain in the wide, wide world and want a print, just email me on the contact page while I work out how to wrestle the shipping options to the ground.

I do love a good dragon...

2009-03-12T17:57:00.004Z

Like Tolkien I love a good dragon and as dragons go Glaurung is right up there at the top of the treasure heap. I've been trying to capture that most terrifying of all dragon encounters - waiting for one to crawl right over you: 'the watchers from beneath could see the huge shadow of his head against the stars; and his jaws gaped, and he had seven tongues of fire.' The Children of Hurin. I've drawn the moment when Turin has buried Gurthang in Glaurung's belly and the dragon is just beginnig to roll away. I think there is a very scary painting in here somewhere but, for the moment, I quite enjoy the extreme contrasts between dark and light that you can get with a good old pencil drawing. Sometimes it's nice not to think about colour!

New paintings

2009-02-18T14:43:00.004Z

I've finally completed the colour version of the Raven with the Sun after posting the sketch for this in January:

Here a raven has the sun in his beak (as in the Native American myths where Raven gave light to the world), but the light is at the heart of a maze - in other words in the heart of us, at the centre of our journey. The feathers are souls that the raven is guiding inwards.

Ravens can have a lot of negative associations (Poe, anyone?) but I see them as a positive symbol, a guide through difficult transitions.

This has gone all colourful - it didn't start out like this at all! It's based on a wonderful 17th century bronze chola sculpture, although I've simplified it a lot. I just loved the shape and simplicity of the design. I've tried to incorporate a balance of opposites into it as the Tree of Life stands at the centre of all things, the place where the one separates into the many. When I finished it I realised that the tree looks rather brain-like, which is sort of cool and rather disturbing at one and the same time...

The problem with Ents...

2009-02-09T16:55:00.005Z

I've been thinking around the whole knotty problem of Treebeard and the Ents (especially the Entwives) for a good while now and am still at the drawing stage, trying to work out what they actually look like. As Treebeard says, let's not be hasty. Tolkien's descriptions really don't help, creating additional problems like how does Treebeard's head work when there doesn't appear to be a neck as such? How do you stop Treebeard's barky 'trunk' with smooth arms from looking like he's striding about wearing an all weather gilet? And how do you make female ents look... well... female when they also must have rough barky skin and 'treeish' proportions.

I've only got as far as Treebeard's head - the rest of his body is still an unknown country - and he has come out very twiggy with peeling bark and lichen eyebrows, owl-like eyes and a circular, knotty effect that looks very satisfyingly like wrinkles and wierd facial tatoos all in one go:

The Entwives gave me a lot of problems. They need to be plainly female but if you make them too barky you can't refine their features and they look rather male, if you make them smooth they look rather naked. I've given them some strategically placed peeling bark that leaves most of their heads and faces clear. Here is a sketch for a Fimbrethil painting. She appears as Treebeard would have last seen her, bent and rosy cheeked, and if it was in colour you'd see the straw like, bleached colour of her hair:

It's not a final version and I've done some more Entwives since which shows them evolving a little so I expect she'll end up looking quite different when I get around to painting her! I have tall thin Entwives and a fat, jolly Entwife. I guess, like Ents and people, they come in all shapes, sizes and personalities. I think the bottom one looks as though she might be rather hasty, given half a chance:

What do you do with an 8 legged horse?

2009-01-07T19:50:00.017Z

Well - with raven references seemingly cropping up everywhere I look and crows divebombing my car everytime I go for a drive, I've decided that it's time I took note and contemplated my inner raven (don't blame me, blame the universe. Sometimes it's just very wierd). So I've been practising my drawing skills by exploring raven folklore and myth, starting off with Odin and his two faithful ravens, Hugin and Munin (Thought and Memory). How great to have a couple of ravens looking after those for you. Actually, ravens are very nice to draw and I could be doing this for a while, exploring those extraordinary beaks and the way ravens change shape - sometimes sleek and slim, sometimes menacing and fluffed up (can a raven fluff?)

Odin, Hugin and Mugin

This finally led me to the basis for a new painting I've just started. Here a raven has the sun in his beak (as in the Native American myths where Raven gave light to the world), but the light is at the heart of a maze - in other words in the heart of us, at the centre of our journey. The feathers are souls that the raven is guiding inwards. Mucho deep stuff there to explore.

Raven with the sun

On another tack, all the Odin related sketching led me to thinking about Sleipnir, his eight legged horse. I mean, how does an 8 legged horse work? After looking at some stuff and scribbling a bit, I came to the conclusion that the old Norse peoples had it right with their carvings. The only way to draw Sleipnir is from the side so you can fudge the massive space where all those legs are supposed to fit. That way he still looks horsey (i.e. elegant and streamlined) as opposed to looking like an oncoming tank that wouldn't fit though a barn door. So I finally managed to produce a Sleipnir I'm (fairly) happy with and had quite a bit of fun doing it.

Odin's 8 legged super horse, Sleipnir

I'd put Odin up on top of him but there is only so much fun one can cope with in one day.

2008-12-19T17:38:00.003Z

Artists are magical helpers. Evoking symbols and motifs that connect us to our deeper selves, they can help us along the heroic journey of our own lives.

Joseph Campbell, Pathways to Bliss

Gandalf the White

2008-12-17T15:47:00.002Z

Finally, another Tolkien painting. I was very struck by the passage below on my latest re-read of The Lord of the Rings. It comes afterGandalf returns to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli in Fangorn. Gandalf has been talking about the Ents and Legolas asks what they will do:

I do not think they know themselves. I wonder.' He fell silent, his head bowed in thought.

The others looked at him. A gleam of sun through fleeting clouds fell on his hands, which lay now upturned on his lap: they seemed to be filled with light as a cup is with water. At last he looked up and gazed straight at the sun.

It seemed to me to be a very beautiful image for a painting and also a way to depict a more vulnerable side to Gandalf, who has returned from unimaginable terrors in Moria that the others, as yet, know nothing about. It also reinforces the idea that his return is like a miraculous blessing. It's one of those small moments that keep me going back to the book because I will always be struck by something new.

2008-11-27T20:28:00.003Z

And now for something completely different.... paintings that AREN'T SQUARE. I can do it, I really can. I've been mucking about painting standing stones and flinging the watercolour about just for the fun of it. This one has turned out very red and firey, with those strange cup and ring carvings you see on some stones flying up into the air. I don't know where the fire came from, it started out as gorse but it just got redder and redder until the whole painting was ablaze. I like the way it makes it more dynamic and sort of primal.

This next one isn't quite so wild and has got the usual spiral in it because I can't seem to stay away from them, no matter how hard I try. It's an imaginary prehistoric landscape. Very imaginary. I expect any prehistoric shaman happening to wander through it would be wondering what the hell it was all about:

Coming soon - Gandalf in a very unGandalf like moment....no spirals....

2008-11-16T12:07:00.004Z

Finally a new artwork to post - I've been away so much lately that this blog and my painting have been really neglected, but I'm busy catching up.

This didn't start out like this but sometimes these paintings have a way of taking their own path. So a tree on a hill became The Midnight Tree. Don't ask me what a Midnight Tree is or does. I suspect only the Tree knows. But it's got to be something deeply mysterious....

Oxonmoot 2008

2008-09-30T12:51:00.006+01:00

Well, I've just come back from exhibiting some of my paintings at the Tolkien Society's annual Oxonmoot gathering at Christ Church, Oxford. This year's exhibition was really packed with some fantastic art to enjoy. There were two new Ted Nasmith's including a wonderful scene with the eagles viewed from above, a new Ruth Lacon of Mr Bliss in his car with 'exploding' cabbages plus another chance to see the amazing 'Niggle's first site of the Tree'. There was also another chance to see Jef Murray's vividly imagined work (which needs to be appreciated as originals to get the full effect of his use of oils), some amazing blue/green beaded jewellery inspired by Ulmo, new portrait drawings by Anke Eissman (I loved the Gollum) and a lovely intricate drawing from Becky Carter-Hitchin inspired by the Riders of Rohan, plus much else besides. Becky also organised the exhibition, for which I'm very grateful. The highlight for me, though, were two original Cor Blok's brought by their owner 'Fangorn' (lucky man) showing marching ents and Treebeard in his Ent House with the Hobbits. The marching ents were extraordinary - as always with Cor Blok they were totally original, humourous and full of his incredible imagination. An amazing privilege to be able to see them.

I exhibited 'Old Man Willow', 'Telperion's Children', 'Tom Bombadil' and 'Goldberry', which was a quite a weight to lug along with my suitcase! But it was worth it as they were well received, giving me a lot of encouragement. Very daunting to exhibit in such company! I also now have giclee prints of 'Old Man Willow' (also 'Silbury Harvest' - see below) and was able to take a sample. It's great to finally have prints to offer - it's been a long haul getting to this point and finding the perfect place to have them done but they look wonderful, so it's hopefully been worth the wait!

Of course, Oxonmoot is much more than an art show and I'll be writing a much fuller report soon..

2008-09-12T18:16:00.005+01:00

Well - the bidding for the Aragorn portrait finished last week to very little response and didn't make the reserve. Heigh ho. You can't win them all, I guess. I've given it to a very good home.

It's Viggo! Its Aragorn! What's not to like? Oh well :-(

Here's another picture to quickly replace the failed Aragorn at the top of the blog page (sorry, Viggo). This is the World Tree and is an experiment in using Pitt indian ink brush pens along with the watercolour and gouache. Very nice to play with. They've made me go all colourful....

Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn painting

2008-09-04T15:14:00.004+01:00

I've offered this watercolour of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn on Ebay to support the 123 Hi Baby Wheels project. I've painted this totally original representation using several images as reference. This is not a copy of a particular photo or screen grab - unlike most similar artworks you see on the web! Here is a bit about 123 Hi Baby:

'1,2,3 ... Hi Baby! is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to reducing the incidence of infant mortality in the Indian people of the Pine Ridge Reservation by providing services and education regarding healthy lifestyles, healthy pregnancies, healthy children and families, and positive parenting to the entire family.

The infant mortality rate for the Pine Ridge Reservation is among the highest in the United States. Prenatal care is an essential aid in the prevention of infant mortality yet less than fifty percent of women who deliver at Pine Ridge hospital receive the World Health Organization recommended minimum of four prenatal visits. Other challenges Pine Ridge residents are faced with daily are: approximately an 80% unemployment rate, severe housing shortage, transportation shortage, about a 65% high school drop out rate, and prevalent health problems (heart disease and diabetes) with limited access to medical care and treatment.'

This is a fantastic chance for Aragorn fans to own a unique painting. The artwork is 12" x 16" (30.5 x 41cm) and is in watercolor and gouache

Please place your bid and help support this worthy project.

2008-08-13T12:22:00.009+01:00

Check out the cover of the new Amon Hen Tolkien Society Bulletin which features my Lothlorien painting. So nice to be in print. Thank you Andrew!

2008-07-21T18:03:00.000+01:00

Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.

Michaelangelo

2008-07-16T18:04:00.007+01:00

I've had a completely mad week re-painting all the mythical/symbol inspired paintings I do. I've been trying to source a printer and looking at them again I realised that a) they were too small to make the size posters I want and b) they are pathetic and I can do a lot better. So I've reworked every single one of them - 7 paintings in 7 days. A bit like creating the world only with more angst and no Sunday. In the process I've covered everything with paint, lost my dining table (AKA my studio...) under a sea of debris and pretty much forgotten to eat at any time that I should. And I've hardly been out of the house.

Yesterday I thought they were all wonderful. Today I realise that they are all c***. Such is art....

This is ironically called 'Sleep' something I've had very little of this week with all these paintings floating around in my head.

2008-07-06T20:12:00.003+01:00

Well, I've reached the point where I'm trying to sort out the products - posters and cards - that I want to sell on the website. Up until now I never seriously considered that this would be difficult compared to all the techy and business stuff, but I've been in an agony of indecision ever since I started. How big should the posters be? A3 A2? Are they really posters or art prints? What text should go on them? How big should that be? How do I solve the square picture (why on earth do I always paint square pictures) on a rectangular poster riddle. I could of course make the posters square but it's a bit hard on buyers looking for a cheap ready-made framing option. So far the poster design has gone through 4 incarnations and I'm not done yet, but here is how one would look so far....

Watch this space. It could be anything by the end of the week.

2008-06-21T17:20:00.006+01:00

Not only am I still stuck in Middle-earth but I seem to be drawn back to the Withywindle like the poor Hobbits, unable to turn right and north! Here are those Hobbits with Old Man Willow who is singing to them of water and sleep:

I've always wanted to paint Old Man Willow (good practice for the Ents) as, like Tom Bombadil, I've never really seen a painting of him that I really liked or seemed creepy and frightening enough. I wrestled over whether or not to give him a face but decided in the end that a) if he's to look like he's lullabying the Hobbits he needs a mouth and b) every gnarled old tree you see has got a 'face' somewhere, sometimes several!

2008-06-12T16:11:00.002+01:00

So much for easing back on the Tolkien stuff and doing something different. Try as I might I keep getting dragged back to Middle-earth. This time it's Denethor who somehow managed to pop into my head more or less complete. What is going on? Maybe I'm channelling Gondor or something. Anyway, it's another one in the series of cross-hatched drawings. They don't reproduce very well on screen, I'm afraid:

And there is more Tolkien coming soon as I'm working on Old Man Willow. It seems Tom Bombadil and Goldberry can't do without him.

2008-06-05T14:36:00.003+01:00

My Gandalf (see my post of 8th May) has appeared in the latest issue of the Tolkien Society's Amon Hen magazine (issue 211). It's come out very well, I'm pleased to say, despite all the dense cross-hatching. But it's not alone. There is Ruth Lacon's amazing Niggle's First Sight of the Tree in all it's glorious greenness and also one of Jef Murray's fabulous dragon pictures - Glauring with Niënor - and I'm trying hard to not feel too overshadowed by their skills...

2008-06-01T10:45:00.006+01:00

Ditto my previous post - I'm still painting Tolkien, but I just had to paint Goldberry to go with Tom Bombadil. I've concentrated on the first time he sees her, after she's pulled him into the river (what larks...). Lucky for me that my giant yellow flags are blooming in the pond and I could use them for reference before giving them the chop (they really are too big for the average garden pond).

If you look squinty eyed at this from a distance you can see that her body and sleeves form the shape of a large waterlily. Wierdly, it wasn't intentional - it was just there...

I'm intending to exhibit both Tom and Goldberry at the next Oxonmoot at Christ Church.

2008-05-24T17:25:00.007+01:00

I seem to have done nothing but Tolkien art for the last month! I've now tackled Tom Bombadil and tried to capture the moment the startled hobbits see his bright blue eye looking at them through the Ring:

I've also given him the circlet of autumn leaves that replace the hat he wears when the hobbits first see him. Tom is a very difficult character to capture, so much larger-than-life, and I've never really seen an illustration of him that's really satisfied me or quite caught the spirit of him. At least in my picture there are no distracting oversized bright yellow boots!

2008-05-14T19:55:00.003+01:00

Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.

Francisco Goya

2008-05-08T15:45:00.008+01:00

I've been experimenting with some Tolkien inspired pen and ink work - it's years since I used this medium so I thought it was about time I gave it another go. The result is some over-obsessive cross-hatching but it's been fun to try and capture the characters of Gandalf and Aragorn and, at the same time, try to stay away from certain film actors who've burned themselves on my brain!

Here is Gandalf the Grey on one of his many journeys:

And here is Aragorn at the moment of decision when he realises that must look into the palantir:

I'm hoping to add other character portraits to this series. Maybe they'll make nice cards?

2008-04-17T10:28:00.005+01:00

Castles in the Mist Exhibition, Moreton in Marsh

I recently travelled with a friend to the lovely, yellow-stoned Cotswold town of Moreton in Marsh – just north of Oxford – to visit the Castles in the Mist JRR Tolkien and Fantasy Exhibition. This is held every year at the Redesdale Hall, a wonderful mid-nineteenth century building that dominates the market town. The exhibition is organised by ADC Books owner Andrew Compton. This year, as well as art by Ted Nasmith and Ruth Lacon, there were paintings from Jef Murray (familiar to many Tolkien fans for his many vibrant covers for The Tolkien Society’s Amon Hen and Mallorn) and Roger Garland.

We both decided to take the train rather than face a long drive. The Cotswold line is lovely, taking you through everything that Tolkien loved about the English countryside: gentle hills, winding rivers with overhanging willows, old villages built in the distinctive warm, yellow stone of the Cotswolds, little country stations which still had their old black and white station signs, lambs running around the fields on black knobbly legs. It was a great way to arrive in Moreton in Marsh – almost like journeying back in time.

We had no trouble finding the Redesdale Hall which dominates the centre of the town and as soon as we arrived outside we bumped into someone I’d met at Oxonmoot so we got a very friendly welcome. The exhibition is free and there is a sort of genuine fellowship at Tolkien events that springs from the Fellowship and Tolkien himself. I’ve felt it at everything I’ve gone to and it really is remarkable. We went in as soon as we learned that Jef Murray had already started talking about his art. The whole hall was full of colour with Gondorian and Rohan banners hanging everywhere and had a magnificent high pitched wooden roof.

Jef Murray is from Georgia and his work is very vivid, textured and glowing. He has his own website at Mystical Realms. In his talk he explained how he uses oils because he can keep manipulating and blending the paint on the canvas. This is every different from Ted Nasmith and Ruth Lacon who use faster drying acrylic and gouache. There was some chat between Ted and Jef about this technique which was very funny with Jef acting out the panic of trying to get something right before the paint dries. Everyone has a medium that they are personally comfortable with and one they hate. Ted gets round fast-drying acrylic by meticulous planning, Jef goes more with the flow by using oils and seeing where the paint takes him as he moves it about. He described how paintings often go in unexpected directions, becoming things the artist never expects them to be. To Jef, painting is very mystical. He prepares with carefully selected music, candles to create atmosphere and readies himself for the muse to take him – being open to inspiration which may come or not come. But there is a discipline in being ready, giving painting a regular allotted time, so you don’t miss the moment because you’re not attentive or because you’re off doing something else. He likened paintings to a window to another mystical or mythical world, and the act of painting like being in a sacred space which is out of time with our busy lives. He made a comparison with Icon painting (which is done under specific, prayerful conditions with the part of Orthodox Church where Icons are displayed being regarded as a sacred realm beyond our own). To Jef, painting is a spiritual pleasure and you can see from his site that he does, indeed, do some paintings that are in the Icon tradition.

His talk was very inspirational and also funny, describing the moment when you are so absorbed in a painting you completely lose track of time and get brought back to earth with a bump, and the moment when you are so into a painting that you fail to notice some mammothly big error until someone says – ‘hey, is her arm really supposed to be as long as that?’. Ted Nasmith recommended holding your painting up to a mirror to get a different view – which I know can give you the most horrible shocks – and Jef described turning one of his paintings upside down because he thought something was wrong with it only to discover that all the towers where leaning sideways.

After the talk we went around the actual exhibition, heading first for Jef’s stuff as we were so interested in what he’d been saying. He’d completely emptied his studio (his wife had said it was like losing a lot of old friends) and there were a huge number of his paintings on display. They are all quite small in scale and like bright jewels. From a distance they made an impact like a huge stained glass window. I loved his painting of Smaug looking both smug and evil in one go. He does terrific dragons!

We then had a look at prints of Roger Garland’s paintings and it finally gave me a chance to see his fabulous panorama of Middle-earth on a large scale. There was also a wonderful painting of Tom Bombadil leaning over a stream looking at a dragonfly. It was exquisite and detailed, and was one of the many paintings there that I really wanted to own.

Then it was on to Ted Nasmith’s paintings which were a mixture of prints and originals. Most of his newer originals are sold almost as soon as they come out. There were lots of his smaller gouache studies for sale (done as prep for his bigger paintings). His set of new paintings of fantasy castles are just amazing. I was fascinated by them. Ted’s paintings, especially his extraordinary landscapes, are whole worlds I could lose myself in and his technique is simply stunning.

The final artist was Ruth Lacon, who is inspired by medieval art (like Tolkien’s favourite artist Pauline Baynes) and Persian miniatures and carpets. Her view of Tolkien’s world is filtered as though the stories have travelled to far away parts and been retold through Eastern eyes. It’s a very distinctive vision and very, very beautiful. I could look at them for hours and if we hadn’t been fainting from lack of nourishment I probably would have. Her newest painting is a large scale one of ‘Niggle’s first sight of the Tree’. It’s wonderful – even overpowering – with birds of all colours and squirrels in the tree and with every leaf painted in. I think we were both transfixed and it’s just as well the original was already sold otherwise I might have gone completely mad and reached for my cheque book. She left the border at the top left unfinished in the same way that Niggle’s Tree could never be finished. I also fell completely in love with her Mumak of Harad.

It was a fascinating exhibition with a wonderful opportunity to talk to the artists involved. Boy, have I got a lot of work to do and a long way to go!

2008-04-16T18:12:00.011+01:00

Welcome to the Galley Hill Art Blog. After years of painting for myself and hardly letting anything escape the house, I've finally decided the time has come to take it all a bit more seriously, create a website, do the Blogging thingy, exhibit more, sell stuff. How will I get on? Who knows. But I think there is a lot of fun to be had in the trying. So this is a blog about trying. Indeed, it could be very trying....! We shall see.