A happy Christmas card for Harveys Brewery, Lewes

Happy Christmas...here are the Harveys Christmas views

creating a commissioned corporate card - for Harveys Brewery

I was excited to be commissioned by Harveys Brewery this year to paint their Christmas Card.
I had a personal tour in the spring and took lots of photos and saw several of the staff in action!

The challenge was to try to include everyone that works there, enjoying their annual Chrismas Hog roast in a snowy Brewery Yard.

Hard to decide which is the best angle and how to include anything, so we decided on back and front views, for both sides of the card.

Here are my very first rough plans...we wanted snow, all the people, the buildings and the vehicles.

Then it was time to draw them out again, larger and to put all the people in... First in pencil, and then overdrawn with the pen, and time to clean up the paper!

It is so exciting when I have the clean paper at this stage ready for the very first washes of paint.
I will share those with you soon...

Bradleys sweet shop - Sweet Memories

Here is the finished painting of Bradleys sweet shop in Burgess Hill...as I remember it!

Many a visit was had back here in the 70's!

My painting wins The Weald of Sussex Art Club Trophy

Last week I took part in the Weald of Sussex Art Club exhibition at The Martlets Hall, in Burgess Hill. This is an annual exhibition by an art club that has been running for over 40 years, in fact back in the seventies my dad was a member and I would go along to his exhibitions there! Anyway, on Saturday when I went to collect my remaining works I was really happy to receive the Weald Trophy for the most votes for visitor's favourite painting.
My painting of Eastbourne beach received the votes, and sold.
I blogged about this painting in progress, a few months ago. It is now being sold as a Christmas card to raise funds for SASBAH and is available from Cards for Good Causes shops in Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Lewes, Eastbourne, Uckfield and Hastings. I think also Brighton. Already 200 packs have been sold in the last week so it looks like it should earn the Charity lots of money : )
A jigsaw will also be available for Friends of Eastbourne Hospital, but you may have to make a trip to Eastbourne if you want that.
Thanks so much to anyone who voted for my painting, you made my week : ))

Sweet memories - Burgess Hill

sketching out a plan

All drawn up

when whites really aren't white

getting the blues on

when the sky and trees go in the lights go on!

nearly there, working on the sweet shop

I will be taking part in an exhibition with the Weald of Sussex Art Club later this month, in Burgess Hill. I grew up in Burgess Hill and my Dad, an artist too, was a member of this art club back in the seventies.
He would encourage me to draw and paint, buying me the Disney magazine to copy from, and calling me to watch cartoons with him...and sometimes letting me have a go with his oil paints.
This painting is of a favourite sweet shop near my home, which I often visited, and my Dad used to collect my magazine from. It was so exciting to hear him come home from his commute, having collected the magazine on his walk home from the station,  and hear the clunk clunk, as he undid his briefcase, it would send me running down the stairs!

Nearly finished this painting now, just working on the seventies feel clothes and sweet shop windows

Duke Street Rendezvous

initial sketch

from pencil plan to ink

ready for colour 

 finished!

 In the vacated home of Choccywoccydoodah a wonderful little coffee shop with gallery has opened up with three floors of art by local artists and lots of edible treats too!

I love the building with the decorative plaster work, the growling lions on the pillars, the awning and the tables outside, all present a really inviting view.

It would be nice to paint this at night time too, with the glowing fairy lights. Ah well, a project for another time!

The story of the Lewes Christmas card for SASBAH

I sat and painted in the field on a sunny spring day

sprinkle a little snow with my imagination

For the last 4 years I have supplied the charity SASBAH with one of my paintings of Lewes to be produced as a Christmas card.
Here is the development of this year's.
Baxter's field is a piece of land that is privately managed for public use. It has some nice slopes that are just right for sledging so is the place to be when Lewes does get the rare amount of snow needed!

I went and found the field on a sunny spring day. It was lovely and warm and I was full of the promise of summer to come when I sat there and sketched the view to the castle. A few people were sitting around and sunbathing.

At home I worked from my sketch and imagined how the view might look when it was snowy and people were sledging.

Once I had the rough sketch sorted and had chosen my colours I worked it up again. Had to change my dog to a cat though, no dogs allowed in the field!

It has been to the printers now, so hopefully the Christmas cards will be in packs in Cards for Good causes on the High Street later this year.
My original painting will go to Chalk Gallery in November.