Studio Update
30 April 2026
Also latest exhibition news and youTube video information
Let's start with what's happening in the studio...
Today's view!
For Open Studios in September, as well as opening my studio (details to follow in next month's news), I'm also taking part in a group exhibition at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery. I'm so thrilled to have been chosen. So now I'm busy making new work to show there, alongside some of the Morocco-inspired paintings that are currently at the Three Hares Gallery.
As I was discussing with a friend yesterday, there's a lot of work that happens 'behind the scenes' when developing new ideas.
Here is a compilation of photos that I took of pages in a sketchbook I work in daily. I haven't spent every day exploring this current theme - which is based upon the Cube houses, Kubuswoning in Rotterdam - but it is something I keep coming back to for working out ideas: colours, composition, materials, memories of shapes and textures.
Also known as the Blaakse Bos, they are 38 connected cube- shaped houses with distinctive yellow facades on "trunks" (the stairwells) and 13 larger cubes for businesses and community use. They kind of look like a forest of trees. The kubuswoning website seems to currently be down, so you can find out more about
them on the Rotterdam Tourism site.
As well as using my sketchbook, I have also been bringing images into the iPad to explore ideas based on my own photographs combined with photos of a painting in progress and sketchbook pages. I really love how the multi-layered digital images turned out.
Working digitally also helps me explore colour. For example, the yellow facades are a much deeper yellow than my memory tells me. This helps me to select colours in paint and pastels
and discover which compositions I'd like to take onto my canvases and boards.
There will be more about this exploratoriation and new work in my next youTube video, out in June.
Exhibition Update
My exhibition with Susan Webb at The Three Hares Gallery was originally due to be taken down today, but it has been extended so you still have time to go and visit!
📍 Three Hares Gallery, Cowper & Newton Museum, Olney, MK46 4AJ
🗓 1 April – 5 June 2026
🕚 Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11am – 4:30pm, Free Entry to the Gallery
Open NOW until July I have a selection of paintings in The Stables Cafe at Lamport Hall.
This is a wonderful cafe in a lovely setting, with delicious coffee and food; the sausage rolls and the cakes {all of them} are my personal favourites.
📍 Lamport Hall, NN6 9EZ (sat. nav. postcode)
🕚 Wednesdays to Fridays, 9.30am - 4pm
New youTube video
If you have ever tried collaging with delicate papers like gift tissue, napkins or rice paper and they turned into mush or ripped easily then my latest short youTube video might be just for you. I show you how I use my gel plate to perfectly collage some delicate tissue onto a canvas board.
Bye for now,
Lucy
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