Carol Phillips  - Blog
Thoughts, progress, inspiration and news....

24th July 2008 - 2:49pm
Have finally sorted out getting my work reproduced as canvas prints. It has taken me a long time to find a company who are able to provide an excellent finish and quality, at a price that allows me to sell them at an affordable price.
Just received my first copy of the Poppy Field as a canvas print, and it looks absolutely stunning!! Almost an exact replica of the original and the same size (60cms x 29cms) on a deep edged canvas with the image wrapping around the edges. These are going to be sold at £60 plus £6 p&p (within the UK), and are available now if you want to order one!

10th June 2008 - 10:34pm
Went to Patchings Art Craft & Design Festival for the first time last week. There were big marquees filled with art suppliers, demonstrating artists and a very impressive display of entries for the annual art competition. Spent quite a bit of time chatting to all the artists and created my own paint colour (a lovely bright purpley-pink shade) free of charge at the Windsor & Newton marquee. Picked up so many bargains (canvases, paints and brushes) from the art suppliers that I could hardly carry them all....
Just finishing off a couple of wedding stationery orders this morning and am going to spend the afternoon in my studio working on my latest piece - a long thin canvas showing Christ Church Cathedral in Cambridge surrounded by trees and daffodils, with spots of different colours - similar to the style of my Poppy Field and Lavender. 
Am very excited that I have finally found a house in Lincolnshire to move to in early September. This is to be a more permanent relocation, after renting in two different areas for the last year, so it was very important to find a place that has enough room, including a studio space for me and all my artwork and materials! It is in a lovely rural position, next to a small farm with chickens and cockerels. A brook runs alongside the front of the house and within a couple of minutes walk I can be out in the fields....definitely inspiring stuff!  

28th April 2008 - 1:24pm
Had a brilliant day on Saturday with artist, Mo Teeuw, who was running a workshop for the Carlton Le Moorland Art Group. I loved her abstract landscapes when I saw a couple of pieces at the Usher Gallery last month, and had misread the details about the workshop - thinking it was 'abstract landscapes' rather than 'atmospheric landscapes'!! An hour into the workshop I admitted my mistake and Mo very kindly adapted the afternoon's activities for me so I could have a go at some abstract work. Using a very small section of a photo I took whilst carrying out a commission in France in 2005 (left) I worked on a series of 6 very small abstract landscapes, using different colours and textures. The result was a bright and interesting series - brilliant for me to push my usual boundaries and try something totally different. I loved the freedom that came with working in an abstract way but realised that abstract work is not as easy as it looks - you really have to think about colour, form and the way that the parts of the painting are interacting together, without relying on the subject to make the whole thing work....very interesting, and something I'm sure I'll do more of......   

18th April 2008 - 3:36pm
Had a really busy month!! - Hadn't realised it had been so long since I had last updated my blog!
The most exciting achievements during the month are that the Harding House Gallery, Steep Hill, Lincoln have invited me to exhibit a small selection of my work at the 'Spring Fever - The Secret Garden' exhibition from May 3rd until June 7th, and that The Collection Museum and Art Gallery in Lincoln is now stocking my greetings cards.
Been working on a couple of watercolours of alstromeria flowers - these are lovely delicate flowers that look a bit like small lilies, with markings on the inside of the petals. My husband brought home of beautiful bouquet of flowers for me earlier this week, and it seems such a shame not to use them for my artwork, so I'm planning to have a go at painting them this afternoon....

17th March 2008 - 9:26am
Decided to take a trip around the Lincoln galleries on Friday afternoon. First of all to the Sam Scorer Gallery - an exhibition of sculptural pieces by a group of artists, then to The Collection - I was amazed by the scale and architecture of the building and I loved the Changing Places exhibition, some beautiful photography with a historical feel. Finished the afternoon at the Usher Gallery - absolutely fantastic exhibition by the Lincolnshire Artists Society - the work was bright, interesting and the standard was incredibly high. I particularly liked the work of Mo Teeuw (abstract paintings, lovely vibrant colours), John Lincoln, David Morris (stunning, Venetian watercolours), Haidee-Jo Summers (bright, fresh oil paintings), Melvyn Petterson (dramatic landscape drawings), Derek Roberts (landcapes in oil) and M A Addison.  

11th March 2008 - 4:33pm
Decided to explore Newark for the first time yesterday. From the outskirts it looks very industrial, but the centre is really interesting, with what looks like a ruined castle as the city boundary. Found a little gift shop called Yo-Yo that agreed to stock my cards, and was pleased to find House&Home Ideas magazine in WHSmiths and see that the latest edition has again featured a piece of mine - the 7th time in recent months that I have had a painting in their monthly art feature. It was absolutely pouring down with rain, and after an hour or so the the rain water had soaked up my jeans to my knees, so I decided that it was about time to head home!
Had an excellent day on Sunday - my first craft fair in Lincoln, at Branston Hall. I was thrilled to have sold 213 cards and a couple of prints during the day.
Busy getting ready to submit my work to Harding House Gallery in Lincoln at the end of the week, and preparing for a meeting tomorrow. I haven't painted for about a week now. My tulip oil painting is at the beginning stages where the initial excitement of starting a new piece is over but it's at the tricky point where I'm not sure where to take it. I find that the pieces I struggle over always have great end results so I need to find the motivation to get in my studio and work on it for a couple of hours until the difficult stage is over!

3rd March 2008 - 4:10pm
Feeling really tired today after all the weekend's social activities, trying to finish off my 'oriental background' paintings with this afternoon, and getting ready for a busy week ahead! 

1st March 2008 - 4:45pm
Had a fun week experimenting with some of the oriental painting techniques demonstrated to the art group on 21st February by Paul Hayward. He showed us how to create interesting textured backgrounds using watercolour paint and Clingfilm, with sugar, salt, coffee and octopus ink! My experiment with the sugar solution and watercolour just left a sticky mess on the paper, but the others went well and I'm now incorporating watercolour paintings on top of the textures to create interesting and different pieces. I'll be posting the results on the site soon....

27th February 2008 - 7:09am
Woken in the night to the house violently shaking by the Lincolnshire earthquake - a very surreal experience! 

23rd February 2008 - 6:41pm
Just finishing off some work before my Saturday evening relaxation! Submitting a couple of images off for the May edition of House&Home Ideas, and completing a wedding stationery order.
Had a great week - joined the Carlton Le Moorland Art Group on Thursday - spent the morning with a bouquet of orange tulips and my watercolours, and felt inspired to start on a large oil painting of a single orange tulip during the afternoon. I very rarely paint flowers from real life, as my oil paintings tend to gradually build up rather than being an immediate finished painting, but I loved being able to really look into the detail of the flower. It's starting to droop a little bit now so I will have to find time over the weekend to do a bit more work on it before it dies!

14th February 2008 - 11:46am
I'm very pleased to finally have broadband connected at my new home, so am now busy researching local galleries, artists etc. Registered with British Arts - there are only 2 other Lincolnshire artists listed, so hopefully this will attract some local interest. Have quite a few new pieces of art to add to my 'Gallery' section - just need a bit of sunshine in order to take some good photos....

6th February 2008 - 11:24am
It's a beautiful sunny morning in Lincolnshire - and I'm feeling very motivated following my move here last week. I've taken the opportunity of a new home to sort out all my files, folders, emails and pictures, and all this organisation is focusing my mind to think about new compositions. My afternoons, since the relocation, have been spent painting in my new studio area - the best time as it's when the light hits the back of the house. It's a great space - large and light, and at the moment free of clutter - although I'm sure it will be filled with new paintings in no time at all!