Hello! Some extraordinary things have been happening around here.
First of all, and this is still causing me to catch my breath when I think about it too much, the Lilford Gallery (www.lilfordgallery.com) chose three of my paintings to be in their Autumn Show. If you don’t know them, they also stock work by art world superstars like Tracey Emin and Sir Antony Gormley, so it’s a real honour to have been chosen and included in this show of new artists.
Sailing on a Summer’s Evening - to learn more about this painting and see the others they chose, have a look here: Autumn Show at the Lilford Gallery
The show is on until Saturday 12th November at 5pm so do go and have a look if you’re in Canterbury. There’s some serious new talent on display.
Between England, the UK and Germany, I’ve been travelling a lot this past month - by car rather than by boat, for a change. After several trips back and forth to northern Germany and to the UK, I am now holed up in my studio on board the barge in the Netherlands to complete a series of commissions.
Dietmar ogling the tall ships in Enkhuizen
The first is a portrait for which I have done a lot of preparatory work, and the second is a big triptych for which I have had to put in a special order for the canvasses (I have no space to stretch them myself here!). Then I have a beautiful nude to paint, about which I am very excited, and then two more portraits. I have my work cut out!
The triptych in particular is a really interesting project. The person who has commissioned it bought a beautiful apartment on the top floor of a building in the glorious German city of Lübeck. He wanted to buy the apartment at the other end of the building as he preferred the view but it was already sold. He now has a blank wall where that view ought to be, so he has commissioned me to paint the view. Getting reference photos involved knocking on the neighbour’s door on a fine day. He was a bit surprised, but surprisingly friendly (thank goodness!)
That part of Germany is really interesting. The Hansa league towns still have so much history on display. If you don’t know the area, Lüneburg, Lauenburg and Lübeck are all well worth a visit.
And in the meantime, I’ve been painting Dominica - I’ll share those paintings soon.- and Dietmar and I are both dreaming of getting back out there on the ocean again.
If you’re crossing the Atlantic this year, we wish you all the luck and some beautiful following winds. Needless to say, we’re a bit jealous!
That’s all for now. I’ll leave you with my most recently sold work - Slipping By, By Moonlight - see below - and a promise to try and share these commission works in progress here as well as on Instagram and Facebook. If you are not already connected with me on social media somewhere, try any of the following links:
Slipping By, By Moonlight - oil on reclaimed boat project marine plywood, 35cm x 50cm, Sold.
Talk to you soon!
Em
xx