When 2023 began, I didn't expect it to be a year of such artistic change.
Early on, a bump in the road took me completely by surprise and almost derailed my long-wished-for solo painting holiday. But I went, and because I did, I have plenty to celebrate this year, from launching two collections of landscape art to some wonderful travel experiences to a highly successful art fair.
In 2023, I have:
created over 40 paintings, plus countless sketches and concepts in my sketchbook
launched two landscape painting collections: Heather & Highlands and Woodlands & Walks
launched a collection of hand-painted art bookmarks
spent a week painting and immersed in the beauty of Edinburgh and the Scottish landscape
visited London, explored its art and parks, and changed my mind about the city
re-launched my Etsy shop
participated in my first art fair in many years, which was a resounding success
I'm not writing this to boast, but it helps me put things into perspective and reminds me of what can be achieved with the right focus, motivation, and inspiration. I can't wait to see what 2024 brings. Plenty of new collections, new products, and who knows what else?
May - Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands
What is it about a certain place or a particular corner of a landscape that grips the imagination? A few key places I have seen on my travels have left such a strong impression as Scotland. My week spent painting plein-air and within the confines of my intimate little Air BnB transformed me from struggling creatively to painting almost daily, producing a whole new collection of small works on canvas, embracing the landscape fully, free from my previous hesitations and putting landscape to the fore, instead of being the spectator to my art.
June - Creating the Heather & Highlands collection
Almost as soon as I landed back home, I started work on a new collection of landscape paintings. They are small 8 * 10 works on canvas panel or paper, and serve as a visual memory of my trip to Scotland. These paintings each tell their own little story and capture not necessarily a moment in time, but a moment in feeling.
July - Under the Same Sky
After a month or so of finding my rhythm painting small, I decided it was time to tackle the elephant in the room - larger paintings had been one failure after another in 2022, so to say I was skeptical was an understatement. As these paintings were for my own home, I had nothing to lose. So I started big, bold, and expressive, and wanted to ensure that these early marks carried through into the final painting.
After lots of layers, they were complete. Am I happy with the results? They're hanging, so I must be! You can read the blog and view plenty of in-progress shots here.
August - New series beginnings
As the long, hot summer wound ever on, I started thinking about a new series of landscapes. I was ins0pired by my homeland - the UK - and wanted to paint the stories of the many landscapes I grew up with. So, Woodlands & Walks was born. A new sketchbook, and a new collection of mini UK paintings.
September - Woodland & Walks
What initially started as a fairly simple idea of painting woodlands and pathways and storytelling in painting became a more emotional idea that we're tied to the landscapes that we grew up in. Those places that we think we've forgotten about, those hazy memories and snippets of sensory information follow us into adulthood, to emerge in surprising ways.
October - Into abstraction
Just before setting off for our two day trip to London, I threw away my painting rulebook and went daringly abstract for several days. These were experiments in brushmarks and bold colour, and I was very happy with the results, keen to add what I've learned into future paintings. I can't wait to take some of this boldness into 2024 too.
October - A trip to London
My husband and I had long been skeptics of the capital, he because of his provincialism, me because I'm from much further north in the UK. But we decided to give it a chance, to take two days off just for us, to explore the National Gallery, the parks and hopefully come back brimming with inspiration. We did, and we changed our minds about London.
November - Plein Air and Painting Big
As the weather finally (finally) cooled in Malta, we got outdoors as much as we could. There's not a whole lot of nature on this little urban island, but there are some pockets of woodland, gardens and coastline that are little gems in an otherwise concrete landscape. I painted outdoors on several occasions and felt brave enough to try something much bigger, back in the studio.
December - Painting Beautiful Bookmarks
From very big, to very small. I transformed some of my favourite paintings - and some brand new scenes - into unique, hand-painted bookmarks. Perfect gifts for art and book lovers, don't you think?
Thank you for reading to the end, and for your constant support!
Until next year.
Chloe