Dear all,

Well, January was an exciting start to the year for me! I met lots of new art lovers at the Fresh London Art Fair, which was a brilliant few days. This gave me an insight into how the fairs work, how hard the attending Galleries work at them, and what a diverse array of people come to them. 

To my amusement (and fear) I was painting live on our stand, thankfully no microphone and speakers (think QVC), more just me with my head down painting, occasionally looking up and finding half a dozen curious faces looking at me, and then firing questions at me as to how I do things. 

My friend and colleague Sarah was much more serene about it all, well, until I think she decided portraits were just not happening in a live environment and she painted absolutely beautiful still life of tomatoes and clementines instead. We both lost our minds a little bit after 4 days, I think!

So now I’m back in the studio and gathering my winter momentum in a more usual way. Days getting longer is helping with everything, walking everywhere and noticing life springing back quietly as we head to the change of season.

I’m heading to the sea next week, yes I will be dipping in the Irish Sea, nothing like it! Hoping it will help with the pesky tennis (painter) elbow that I’m suffering from lately.  

Welcome to my new people, I really enjoyed my flirtation with North London in the beautiful Alexandra Palace, but boy am I happy to be back in Wimbledonshire.

I’m working on more skies, taking inspiration entirely from what I see every day. Even the beautiful earthy boggy ground looks good, and the colours are wonderful. I will do my best to get it onto canvas, linen and card to share with you.

Stay warm and well,

Alison