Small Paintings and New Shop
So we’ve reached the end of January. A month I used to dread for the usual reasons the cold, the dark the overriding greyness of it all. For decades I escaped to Spain, or Bali or Australia, anywhere where the sun shone and the days were longer. For the last three years I’ve been here in the UK and have grown first to accept and now to enjoy this time of year. It’s how life works there are resting times and growing times and once I stopped wishing for an endless summer, winter’s sparse beauty showed up in abundance.
The news from around the world continues to be heartbreaking and finding joy anywhere is a great blessing. One of the joys of this month for me has been accepting the limitations the bad weather imposes. My studio is small and my paintings are usually large! This isn’t a problem when I can work outside. The wet weather in December put paid to that. Instead, I’ve been embracing sketchbooks and this is the latest being appreciated by a small art fan… who is a source of great joy to me!
Small Paintings
These experiments on paper have led to a series of flower paintings. The flowers have brought me a lot of pleasure and filled my studio with colour and fragrance. The challenge of approaching the same subject on a daily basis and finding something new to say was intellectually engaging…and I didn’t get soaking wet and freezing cold so that was a definite bonus!
When I started these paintings I had no plan for them. Small paintings on paper or board have always been a warm up type of exercise for me but I didn’t finish all of them. These have been carefully finished with three coats of varnish and a layer of polished cold wax which gives them a beautiful soft shine and a gently aged patina.
New Shop
As the paintings accumulated…I painted 25 in January a new plan formed. What I have done is open a shop! It’s here on my website https://sallystafford.com/store you can see the paintings I have available and safely buy online. It is very important to me to make the paintings affordable…though of course that is relative. They are all the same price £220 which includes UK postage and packing.
Please get in touch if you are not UK based and/or if you would like to buy more than 1.
As a thank you to people on my small but valued mailing list I’ve offered them a 10% discount. Sign up below and I will send you the discount code too.
More from the blog …
Concertina Sketchbook
Sunflowers and small paintings