Celebrating and reaching mile stones

Last Saturday I celebrated winning first in show in the 'Postcards from Christchurch' Exhibition at the  Red House Museum. The Exhibition is on until 15th September and is a wonderful mix of painting, photography, collage, painting on china and textiles in many different styles and of many different subjects. What each art work has in common is the format which is 6x4inch. The way that each artist has approached this format is so diverse and makes for an interesting show which is well worth a visit.

I was in such a rush to get the paintings for this show delivered that I forgot to get a photograph of them. I will update this post later with one.  In the meantime as I hate to post with out any images I thought I'd share a photograph of this wonderful view from the beach at Southbourne. The rain never came but the sky did feel very dramatic.

From Southbourne beach ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

Today I reached a mile stone - 100 pieces of work in my Etsy gallery . An achievement, not just the number but the steps that I had to take to get there. As with everything the first one was the hardest. I like being part of the Etsy community and it gives me a real thrill to be able to personally send work direct to people anywhere in the world.

Thursday will be the 2nd year bloggoversary for Seaside Studios - another milestone which I think is well worth celebrating. I hope to see you then.

Summer Exhibition

A big thank you and great news

End of the Day
acrylic on canvas 50x50cm
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

Chasing the Light
acrylic on canvas 50x50cm
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

This weekend was busy with the craft fair at Hobourne, it was a lovely day with lots of visitors. I'd like to say a really big thank you to Margaret and the CADArts team for all their hard work in organising, setting up and advertising such a successful event.

I've also had some good news today, two of my paintings have been accepted in this years Red House Museum Open Exhibition. I am really pleased as I saw when I handed in the work last week just how high the standard of work was going to be from the entries already there.  The theme for the show this year was Daydreams and Brilliant Colours  and the two pieces I entered were End of the Day and Chasing the Light. What a great start to the week.

CADarts Christmas Fair

It was such a lovely day yesterday at Hoburne, lots of people came for the Christmas fair. (I think people were queueing up outside before the doors opened as there seemed to be a big surge of people at the start) There was such a great atmosphere and it was really nice to see such a good turn out. A huge thank you to all those who worked so hard to organise and advertise the event and make it such a great success you really do deserve a big cheer!

At the CADarts stand there was a display of the calendar organised by Linda to raise money for the new Druitt Hall these were selling like hot cakes. There are still some copies available and if you click here it will take you to the website for more details. The artwork is of a really high standard and the quality of the calendar is so good, I think they make a lovely Christmas gift.

Preview Night of Autumnal Showcase at the Hayloft

 Wow! What a night! I am pleased to report that the preview for the Hayloft exhibition went exceptionally well. We had lots of lovely visitors and some really good feedback on all the work. There was a  good buzz as we greeted our guests and it was really great to see such a good turnout.

We had hung the show the previous evening and it was very exciting to see all the work going up. Whilst every artist has a very distinctive voice the work really gels well as a show. My particular favourites are a series of silver birch by Laura Moseley, a mono print of bamboo by Chloe Weeks, a diptych of sand dunes by Eve Hill and a gorgeous floral triptych by Harriet Schofield.

Out of my work, Burnished, a painting of the reed beds at Christchurch Bay looking towards the Priory, received a lot of attention. It is based on a series of sketches that I did around the end of April beginning of May during the evening. Everything had such a warm glow, there was a gentle breeze rustling the reeds and the water looked like a mirror. It was so tranquil.

It's always nice to see work in a gallery setting, I find it so different to seeing them in the studio, it really helps me to evaluate the direction that I am going in.

When I'm hanging and in the middle of a show I have so many new ideas for new work. In fact whilst stewarding the show yesterday I was busily sketching out thumbnails and ideas for my next series and deciding what references I need to get. I had better get organised, as the weather will be turning colder and damper soon and its quite hard to sketch on the clifftop in the winter wind and  rain. I am, I'm afraid, a bit of a fair weather sketcher ;)