Winter Reflections - A Hazy Shade of Winter

Winter Reflections Exhibition This is “A Hazy Shade of Winter” all framed up and ready for our Winter Reflections exhibition. A mixed media piece including painted glass…Hope you like it! :)

Please feel free to share this post with your friends, we’d love to get as many people along to the exhibition as possible & stay tuned for details of where you can get a sneak preview of a couple of pieces before the 15th!!! :)

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Our Winter Reflections exhibition this year runs from November 15th until December 20th It incorporates the Oxfordshire Artweeks Christmas Weekend of November 22nd-23rd. We will be showcasing a new group of paintings by Graham Rice which depict the enchantment of a winter landscape. This series of work is based on figures of children in evocative woodland scenes - skipping across stones, hiding behind trees, watching the fall of leaves. Reflections of figures in the water and shadows against the snow add to the nostalgic and narrative feeling in these pieces. The paintings are all created in mixed media in cool and subtle wintry colours, featuring new three-dimensional devices such as trees and snowflakes painted on the glass itself, in the forefront of the paintings. This creates a unique eye-catching and subtle layered effect.

The exhibition will also feature new winter jewellery designs by Sheila Raven, inspired by the leaves and berries found in a forest in the winter. The collection includes beautiful textured silver oak, ivy, holly and mistletoe leaf earrings, with matching pendants made of complimentary leaves in both silver and copper with acorn or berry embellishments. The saw-pierced and beaten leaves create a stunning natural look.

All of the artwork in the Winter Reflections exhibitions is inspired by our rural workshop setting in the woods and fields of the Cotswolds landscape.

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Green Forest - Finished

Here’s the commissioned painting all finished & framed in a black lacquered frame with silver insert :)

Green Forest...

The painting stage of this commission piece is all finished now...onto the gilding next :)

Green Forest Two...

Here’s another painting I’m working on at the moment. A customer bought the piece on the left from the SOTA gallery in Witney and wanted a second matching piece to go on the other side of their fireplace. I should get the painting part of things finished over the next few days, then it’ll be onto the gilding. I’ll post a few snaps as I go :)

Portrait of Jodie - Finished

Here is the portrait of Jodie all finished. I’ll get it framed up next week then it’ll be up on the wall :) I’ve added a photo of the palette i used, for anyone who’s interested.

Many thanks again to Jodie for posing. If you’d like a portrait just get in touch :)

Any questions about the painting, just type them below or message me :)

Portrait of Jodie - Stage 1

Along with the Framing and Jewellery…we also paint pictures at The Cuckoo’s Nest..its all very renaissance here ;)

This is a portrait of Jodie who runs Illustrate My Name over here at Cuckoo Lane. I’ve just done a first pass on the face, lots of refining to do, but you get the general idea. The background and hair are ‘probably’ finished, I say probably as I may well change my mind when I next look at it :)

I wanted to get an example of the kind of portrait commissions we can do, so many thanks to Jodie for volunteering to pose…I hope you like it when its finished :) The plan is to get the painting all finished and framed in time for Artweeks, so if you’re interested in getting a portrait done, call in an take a peek :)

…now back to the framing :)

Yachting

This very dramatic yachting piece is acrylic on canvas paper and our customer wanted to do something extra special with it. We selected a classic scooped moulding which we added some extra depth to and then painted off-white. The painting was then double mounted and a matching blue sidewall was used to set the piece back from the glass, the glass itself was ‘invisible’ Artglass which removes 99% of the reflections. The end result is really spectacular and would look wonderful hung in a traditional or contemporary setting. A lovely piece to work on :)

Nelson Mandela

This morning I've been in a parking garage at Rhodes House in Oxford, varnishing the speed painting done my M.Raivard on Thursday evening. Not as impressive a location as the hall where he painted it, but that's why he's the famous artist, and I'm doing the varnishing ;-) It's a spectacular portrait of Nelson Mandela, a little over 2 meters tall and 2.5 wide he cuts a most impressive figure. The painting has a beautiful kaleidoscope of colours and the energy with which the paint was applied is self evident, very dramatic. However the warmth and calmness of Mandela's smile still shines out of the picture...and amazing painting of an amazing man...

Rollright Stones

These beautiful paintings of the Rollright Stones are by Mandy Selhurst. We framed a set of three in these hand painted white frames for Mandy and they are now hanging in the SOTA gallery in Witney. I'd imagine they'll sell very quickly so head over to SOTA and take a look at them before they're snapped up.

You can find out more about Mandy’s work at http://www.mandyselhurst.com

…and more about the SOTA Gallery here http://www.sotagallery.co.uk

Oxfordshire Artweeks Xmas exhibition

 

Today we're busy getting ready for this weekends Oxfordshire Artweeks Xmas exhibition.

We've lots of pictures and jewellery on display, so it's an ideal opportunity to pick up the perfect Christmas gift. We're open Saturday and Sunday from 10-6pm. Free delicious coffee and tea while you browse and we might even find a mince pie or two... Hope you can come and join us :-)

 

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An African village

 

We've framed up at least a dozen African pieces similar to this one over the last couple of months. Very evocative pieces that people have picked up on their travels, rolled into a tube and brought home with them to be framed...they present a variety of challenges depending on how the customer wants them framed and what the artist has painted them on....we did one that the customer wanted stretched like a canvas, but the artist had painted in on a very thin bed sheet....that required a delicate touch...:-) This piece was much simpler, painted on a good solid support we were free to frame in anyway we liked. As you can see, we went for a deep oak frame which we simply waxed. A double mount with blue at the bottom and a matching blue sidewall to reflect the colours in the artwork. The customer was really delighted with the end result and the piece can now take pride of place and remind them of their adventures. :-)

 

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Fifty Shades Of Grey

 

 

Here's a piece of my own artwork, a framed tree sculpture, really pleased with the way it's turned out, looking forward to playing with a variety of colours as I work on the next ones. The aim is to build the frame and the artwork as one piece, hope you like it :-)

 

I thought about calling it 'Fifty Shades of Grey'...as there are so many different tones in all the shadows, but I think I'll just go with 'framed tree sculpture'...might increase the traffic from search engines if I go with the other title though :-)

 

Back to customer framing now... :-)

 

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Frames ready for Gesso

 

Here are 'some' of the frames we've made up from that large delivery. One of these is just going to be painted, but all the others need to be gessoed now...

 

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An original by Emmy

 

Something by one of our younger customers here, a lovely flower drawing which we've put in a simple oak frame and added a small green fillet, just to highlight the piece. :-)

 

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Jacqueline Hopkins

 

Two gorgeous prints by artist Jacqueline Hopkins in for framing this morning. We've given them wide black wood frames, beautiful light in both of these pieces.

You can find more of Jacqueline's work at http://www.hop-art.co.uk/

 

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Gesso

 

Here are some of the frames that we're working on this week. They're all going to be coated with gesso, which gives them a beautiful smooth finish. We've assembled the bare wood frames today and mixed some rabbit skin glue up ready to size them tomorrow, they should then be ready for 'many' coats of gesso on Friday. :-)

Clockwise from the top left we have a frame for a comic book cover, a frame for my nephews UK bedroom ;-) and a frame for an artist whose work is heading off for exhibition in a London gallery, so they wanted some extra special...an eclectic mix as always :-)

 

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Artist Lihua Yuan

 

Here we've framed up two beautiful botanical watercolours by artist Lihua Yuan. We've made an inner slip to match the gold frame and then added a double mount and Artglass, all of which sets off the artwork to maximum effect :-)

You can find out a little more about Lihua here http://www.etsy.com/people/lihuayuan

 

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David Shepherd ' Savuti Elephants'

 

A beautiful canvas print by David Shepherd titled 'Savuti Elephants'.

We've used a gold frame with a cloth slip and second small slip within that to match the gold on the frame. A beautiful piece that makes a great addition to any art collection. You can find more of David's work at http://www.davidshepherd.com

 

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A Purple Spacer

 

We've framed up this print of Jericho in Oxford by Mavis Burley today. As with yesterday's framing post we've used a colour spacer to compliment one of the colours in the piece and on this occasion we've used a simple oak frame to finish things off. :-)

 

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Last few days of Artweeks 2013

 

Well the sun is finally shining and we're into the final days of this years Artweeks.

We're open...

Saturday 10 - 6

Sunday 10 - 4

Bank holiday Monday 10 - 6

 

Jennifer Newman, Richard Fox and Mary Knowland are also exhibiting at the Arts Inc Gallery next door Saturday and Sunday, so there's lots to see.

Don't forget if you've made a purchase elsewhere during Artweeks, The Cuckoo's Nest is the place to bring it for framing :-)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone :-)

 

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