Coffee and an Exhibtion

Oil on Box Canvas  10x10"

Oil on Box Canvas  8x8"

Oil on Canvas  8x10"

Print available

My friend Margaret Law and I are taking part in a joint exhibition at a venue in Mauchline, Ayrshire.  It's a new local gallery which started out life as a gift shop. It's now a Coffee Shop and Gallery and well worth a visit for the cakes alone. 

Carol, the owner, has started evening craft classes there too and, from what I've been told, I hear these are very popular.

It's great to see a new local Art Gallery becoming popular.

Above are 3 of the paintings and prints I'm exhibiting.

Red, Red, Red

Poppies Red

Oil on bard  12x10"

Bridget Hunter 2014

It's hard to believe it's half way through June and the summer solstice is just 4 days away. 

It doesn't get dark here until 11.30 pm and the birds are still singing, then they restart at 3.30 am.

It's the time of year I love the best and that is partly due to the splashes of garden colour.

I've a clump of the brightest red poppies, that started out in my grandma's house in southern England but bloom just as happily here on the West Coast of Scotland.

This year I've decided to try painting them, and because I love using and mixing red its become a series of poppy paintings.

Oil on Canvas paper  12x12"

Oil on Canvas paper  12x12"

I've used 2 reds - Cadmium Red Daler Rowney

and Permanent Rose Windsor and Newon.

And the dog came too !

My home with the Open Studios Banner and a visitor at the door.

It's been a week since our Open Studios event and I think I'm still recovering from all the painting and tidying and welcoming and talking.

It was extremely busy and I think most people had a successful time .

Here are a few photos of inside my house though they don't feature the studio which is up a few stairs and was also open for browsing thfough. 

Most works are oil paintings though there are a few gouache too.

I didn't have greeting cards ready nor prints as I ran out of time and realise this was 

something I should have organised.

Ah well, note to self for next year.

The Red Corner

Lemons on Red

Oil on Board 20x20"

This is the latest painting combining that wonderful Amaryllis with the cool yellow of lemons. 

I used this other painting below as the resource reworking the idea in a different format and enjoying the mark making and the rich warm and cool reds.

Amaryllis with Red

Oil on Board 30x24"

I've now got a red corner in the back room and it's a great place to sit with the morning coffee.

So, more work ready for Open Studios and also another exhibition in May, one red still life for each.

Amaryllis and Red

Amaryllis and Red

Oil on Canvas  30x24"

Bridget Hunter 2014

I've wanted a painting for the corner of the back room and always had in mind that something predominately red to hang near a favourite blue chair would be good.

In the end I decided to base a painting around two amazingly red Amaryllis I got at Christmas.  

 I've no confidence in arranging a still life so I thought I'd try to limit the number of elements and just enjoy playing about with lots of different tones and shades of red.

I think this has worked better for me and I'm going try this simple type of arrangement again.

Small Works in a Basket

Small oils  on canvas  4x6"

Sometimes I really enjoy making small studies in paint as opposed to the larger landscapes. 

These are usually little subjects found in and out of my house and 

this year I've been painting them on very small canvases 

and popping them into a basket for sale at the Open Studio event.

Cyclamen with a Samba Look

Cyclamen 

Oil on board 6"x6"

Bridget Hunter 2013

I just love the Samba sway of these miniature cyclamen .

Painting for Myself

Cyclamen in Miniature

Oil on Board 6x8"

Bridget Hunter 2013

I enjoy doing small studies and these cyclamen form a wonderful umbrella above the blue/green leaves.

The overall shape has proved fascinating to such an extent that I think I've now painted the plant 4 times, from different angles and on different shaped boards, though all quite small.

I'm now painting for me, myself and enjoying just looking and recording and using paint for it's qualities as "a visual language" to express an idea.

The painting "The Coastguard's Garden 1" is trying to show what it was like to be in a partly neglected garden behind a wall but where sea breezes were causing ripples of movement.

And I like adding the "1" in the title to show it's the first of a group of paintings, a series, which is another new way of working for me.

It's wonderful to feel free to paint what I want 

rather than be under pressure to produce.

The Coastguard's Garden 1

Oil on Board 20x20"

Bridget Hunter 2013

"Lilies in Purple"

Lilies in Purple

Oil on Board  18x14"

Bridget Hunter 2013

The inspiration

Framed but tweaked with a leaf crossing flower at rght. It was only after I saw the photo that I thought it needed this.

I had some friends over for lunch and was given beautiful flowers and a stock of wine. How wonderful. These lilies just cried out to be painted. Do we painters always see still life in everything, eyeing up shapely pears and ripe colored mangoes while getting suspicious looks from shoppers?

Spring Yellows

Spring Yellows

Oil on board  6x6"

Still painting flowers from the outside pots for potential card designs to use at the soon to start Open Studios Ayrshire event . And it's been snowing again ! March - duh

Thinking Spring

'Thinking Spring"

Oil on board 6x8"

"Spring Purple"

Oil on board 6x6"

Spring emerging, longer daylight hours and shops full of daffodils. But the buds are still tightly closed in the garden. Maybe they know it might be back to snow next week. March is so unpredictable.

A small work

Lilies in Black

Oil on Board 8x8"

Bridget Hunter 2012

A small painting now hanging in The Beresford Art Gallery, Ayr.  The usual dithering over a title

but eventually called it Lilies in Black simply because it's in a wide black frame!