Novembers Artist in a Window Kate Beinder.

 Novembers Artist in the window is Kate Beinder read more about her artwork and inspirations below:

Who are you and what do you do?

I am Kate Beinder and I paint in acrylics on canvas and, more lately, in watercolours. My subjects vary from portraits and animals to landscapes. As my lifestyle has changed over the years, my time for painting has increased as has my passion for it.

How do you work?

I am lucky to have a conservatory that is really my studio. The light is great and it is my space! However, when the weather’s good, it is really too hot to work in watercolour so I move to our kitchen table.

Time for me is tight so I often neglect the planning stage although I am trying to be better about that. 

How has your practice changed over time?

I am a great believer in there always being new things to learn so my practice is evolving all the time. Although I haven’t had any formal training in art (not since a long forgotten A Level!), I love attending workshops and demonstrations to see how other artists work and learning from them. As well as dvds, books and the never ending source of advice and help that is YouTube, I attend Clay Cross Art Group. It is good to work in a supportive atmosphere with other artists.

What work do you most enjoying doing?

This is difficult for me to answer, as the disciplines of watercolour and acrylics are so different. I only started doing watercolours a couple of years ago after attending a workshop by the artist, Bil Lupton. I had always believed that I couldn’t paint in watercolours but I was encouraged by the loose style that he used and became interested in the way that watercolour paint behaves (or doesn’t behave itself!).  I am definitely still learning on that score.

However, I do like painting in acrylics as it gives me more control and the chance to go back and change things that haven’t worked. I am very interested in tone so the monochrome paintings that I do are especially enjoyable.

What themes do you pursue?

In my portraits, I like to know a back story so that I can try and capture more about the subject. I generally work from photographs and haven’t done any live sittings since school. I like to see the relationships between people in the painting I am doing.

Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?

The monochrome painting of the Afghan man with his daughter is based on a photo in a Sunday magazine about the devastating effects of malaria. I wanted to capture the father’s desperation as well as his love for his daughter. A donation from the sale of the painting or the prints goes directly to Oxfam to buy mosquito nets.

What jobs have you done other than being an artist?

Too many to list here

What inspires you?

All sorts of things, really.  Beautiful skies, the tranquillity of a place, people’s faces and their interactions with each other, a good story behind a photograph or painting. As I am sure any artist will tell you, you do start to look at things around you in a different way.

Is the artistic life lonely? What do you do to counteract it?

As my job is fairly hectic ( I am a teaching assistant at Highfields School), painting is a peaceful time for me, so loneliness doesn’t really come into it. However, Radio 6 music and Radio 4 are often my companions.

Favourite or most inspirational place ?

Although I live and work in Derbyshire, which I love, my favourite place has to be the Lake District. Childhood holidays there forged a strong link with The Lakes and now that my brother, Steve, lives in the Newlands Valley, I spend as much time there as my job allows! Painting outside in The Lake District can be a problem… as I sit here writing this, in Steve’s living room, the rain is absolutely lashing down outside… again. So I often work from photographs that Steve (an excellent photographer, by the way) has taken.

Thankyou kate!

The gallery is always open Tues- Sat 10 -5 and  some Sundays 11-4 but check our facebook page first to be sure. http://facebook.com/www.studio61gallery.co.uk  

Novembers Guest Artist Interview Caroline Appleyard.

 Novembers guest artist is Caroline Appleyard and we have a bumper sized interview with her below, her work is fun and full of little details that will leave you wanting more,

Who are you and what do you do?

 Caroline Appleyard, I'm a painter.

 Why do you do what you do?

 I paint because it makes me happy and I love to paint.

How do you work?

 I paint all day and into the night using acrylics on canvas.

What’s your background?

 I'm self-taught with no art training

 What has been a seminal experience?

Seeing Alfred Wallis paintings at the pier arts centre in Stromness, Orkney. I always go to see them whenever I go to Orkney.

 How has your practice changed over time?

I never use to put faces on the people, but I do now.

What art do you most identify with?

 Naive art

What work do you most enjoying  doing?

I just love to paint places, animals and people all one canvas.

What themes do you pursue?

Bright, colourful, happy, fun.

Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?.

I love to add underwater as I scuba dive, so often when I paint a place and add the underwater, I'll add creatures that I’ve seen. One of my favourite paintings that I did is ' the Two Fleets of Scapa Flow'. It has the dive boats on the surface and the German fleet on the seabed. Me and Chris are on my favourite wreck, the Karslruhe with a seal. I've dived there many times, but on one dive a seal stayed with us for most of the dive. So diving my favourite wreck, with my hubbie and a seal was brilliant and it is part of the painting.

What jobs have you done other than being an artist?

Driving a tractor, accounts clerk, swimming teacher, fork truck driver.

Why art?

 I always wanted to paint and study art, but wasn't allowed to study art and I had to get a

'proper job'. I'm happy when I paint, in my own little fluffy, colourful world. It's what I love

to do. When I wake up I can't wait to get to my easel with a big mug of coffee and just paint.

What memorable responses have you had to your work?

I've overheard people laughing at my pictures and looking at the people and creatures in the pictures, which are part of the places I paint. It's great when my paintings make people smile and make people happy. 

What inspires you?

Animals, people, places, underwater, just life in general.

What research to you do?

I visit a place and walk around, taking hundreds of photos, and sketching where I go. Then I get a picture in my head and I paint it my way :-)

Is the artistic life lonely? What do you do to counteract it?

Not at all, I'm very lucky. Chris, my hubbie is retired, and my studio is a conservatory at the back of our house. There's a window between my easel and Chris, so I can tap on the window for a cuppa anytime. I also have music on all day, punk, metal, thrash, so often bounce around and have a little dance at my easel. I also paint underwater in my dive gear, and have my music on my underwater MP3 player.

What do you dislike about the art world?

I dislike the snobbery in the artworld. We weren’t all lucky enough to go to art college, but there are many great self-taught artists in the world.  Many galleries close their doors to these artists because they didn't study at the right colleges. Luckily there are also lots of great galleries who will exhibit your work because they like it.

What do you dislike about your work?

If I don't like something, I change it, so I do like it.

What do you like about your work?

The bright colours, little creatures and animals, making them happy paintings.

What is your dream project?

I've got a big painting planned for in a couple of years’ time, it will be the largest painting I've ever done, but it's a secret until it's completed.

Name three artists you’d like to be compared to.

Alfred Wallis, LS Lowry, Dora Holzhandler

Favourite or most inspirational place ?

Orkney.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

My teacher Mr Allen told me in junior school that I should keep trying, there was something about my paintings that he liked, and he always encouraged me.

Professionally, what’s your goal?

To be a well-respected artist.

Thankyou Caroline! 

The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday 10 -5 and some Sundays ring first to check.

A Journey Into Oils

I'm sure other artists have experienced this but for me it was early 2014 when I realised  I wasn't  developing as an artist and I was painting what I knew, what came easy and what was well within my confort zone.  Then I had a light bulb moment...... and May 2014 saw me purchase a set of Cobra oils following the Max Hale demo at my gallery Studio 61 Gallery - Karina Goodman where inspiration kicked in.  

The transition from Watercolours to Oils wasn't an easy one. For a start I have a tube of White and I learnt that in oils you work from dark to light whereas watercolours you start with white, which is the paper and darks go on last. Well weird! Also I had a metal thing called a palette knife!!! A very new learning curve but I am enjoying the journey so much. Still early days but my first one sold before I had finished it and  all my commission customers since want it in oils, so to say I am encouraged is an understatement. 

Looking back the early ones were a bit basic but eh I was having fun practising.  I can't tell you how many tubes of white I have gone through and purple has been ordered a few times but I'm happy to say I mix my own now...get me!  

I struggle to to be disciplined and paint from a photo and prefer to use images in my head .... places I've walked with Bruno, both Peak District and coastal paths.

This is my only painting from a photograph - Beeley Moor,  (did it in the browns and greens  but wasn't me so went over it in my pinks and purples) ..my fave dog walk place and kids and I had many happy hours playing in the brook when they were small.  The original sold too xx

Summer in Cornwall and walking the coastal path inspired quite a few paintings.. this one is called Summer Skies

As Autumn is setting in, my favourite season, my palette has changed and I'm getting braver

This past week has seen many misty mornings and my palette has changed again

It makes me wonder where Winter will take me?

I have lots more to show but dont want to bore so if you are in the Derbyshire area then you are welcome to pop in for coffee and have a peek at my new work...or they are online www.karinagoodman.com

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Thank you for reading .. Karina x

Blog Update plus you can now follow the Blog by email ....

Autumn Arrivals

Hope you've  noticed that the Blog has had a bit of a refresh, albeit a subtle one, and it's hoped to still keep everyone updated about my Guest Artists, Artists in The Window and events. You can now follow the Blog by email, share with your friends and contact me so I hope you will find this useful.

In addition there's such a variety of work arriving almost daily, and,as an artist, I work and respond visually so I intend to keep you more in touch with photos of new arrivals, life at the gallery and what the cheeky monkey Bruno has been up to.

It's nearly a year since we had him and can't imagine what we did before. Our home was alot tidier, the garden wasn't dug up, our food bills weren't as big and I had a pair of slippers that were intact. Having said that I love him to bits and love it when he's with me at the gallery.  He can be found in his bed under my easel chilling to Pink Floyd, The Eagles and other old stuff on my playlist and has become quite a little star. Used to be called a Mongrel but apparrently he's a Cavapom!!

You are welcome to pop in and say hello Bruno x

October Artist In a Window Greenhalgh Glass

With autumn upon us we think we found the perfect artists for our window Joy and Darrell Greenhalgh's stunning bespoke glass pieces really set the mood of the season. Two pieces sold as we were trying to put them in the window so you better be quick if you want to view! 

Joy and Darrell Greenhalgh use glass making processes that are totally unique to them ~"trade secrets"~ developed  through more than 25 years of experience and experimentation. They create exclusive glass art by combining the unequalled magic of these unique making processes with truely inspirational designs . Layers of glass and precious metals~ 24ct Gold, Platinum and Silver ~ are  fired together in a kiln for three or more days at almost a thousand degrees centigrade. This forms rich, vibrant and reflective imagery that is full of life. Moment by moment, interplaying with every shift of  light, the artworks present something new and beautiful to look at .......... always .

The display is on throughout October and we have a couple of events you can come to this coming week so you can view this stunning display of craftsmanship as well as get involved in some art yourself, this Sunday 5th Oct we have two demos in oil by leading artist Max Hale £12 donation on the door per demo, and Tuesday Oct 7th we have the return of The Big Draw, 10 - 12pm come along for this free event and try your hand at drawing here at the gallery this is part of a global charity campaign to get drawing for fun back into our lives no experience needed.

And if that wasnt enough we have the fabulous abstracts by Guest Artist Heather Duncan now on display. For all up to date information follow us on Facebook http://facebook.com/ www.studio61gallery.co.uk