all that glitters...

"Paint what you love" is something you hear a lot when starting out in art. It makes sense. After all, if you're going to spend hours staring at something, examining every detail, how differing light angles work and so on, it helps if it's something you at least like. With that in mind, you will never, ever see a painting by me of a spider! It does stand to reason then, that as I spend such a large amount of my time outside with my horses, that the surrounding landscape is of interest. Being based in the Surrey Hills means I have a wonderful vista of rolling green hills and woodlands to feast my eyes on. Whenever I travel somewhere flatter like East Anglia, or bereft of trees, like the moors, the first question on my lips is "where are all the trees?" No, a spinney of 3 trees in a 1000 acre field doesn't count! So it comes as no surprise that trees often crop up in my paintings when I go for a landscape. The shape and structure, beautiful bark deta...

August is flying and I am already past the halfway mark of my challenge! Day 9: Pastel Day 10: Watercolour Day 11: Ink Day 12: Graphite Day 13: Acrylic Day 14: Graphite Day 15: Pastel You can follow my progress daily on instagram @hrequineart.

So after a diverse start, a rather watery week followed! Day 3: Watercolour Day 4: Watercolour Day 5: Watercolour Day 6: Gouache Day 7: Watercolour Day 8: Gouache Follow me on instagram  @hrequineart for daily updates

The title of this post refers to how I am going back and forth between mediums. The theme between them remains constant though, as I am exploring ways of getting texture into my painting. The trick is to open up the imagination - push paint through material, sand, salt and break all the "rules" :) Back in Black Acrylic on stretched canvass Buckskin Watercolour on 300gsm paper You can follow me on instagram @hrequineart for regular updates on my work

It is well recognised amongst those that know me, that I have a very limited attention span. I am so easily distracted, it's embarrassing sometimes! My latest distraction artistically is watercolour. I never set out to become this engrossed in this medium, but confess to be completely captivated by the freedom of expression it gives me and the fact that I can work quickly, which with my limited attention span, is always going to be a winner! I take influences from what I see around me and my watercolour sketches are a great way to experiment, so I couldn't resit a quick sketch of the new boy in the barn this week: The wonderful photographer, Lisa Mardell has given me permission to paint her pictures.  Her work can be seen at http://www.photographybylisamardell.co.uk/ and I have taken the opportunity and have really enjoyed it. Here are a few inspired by her Wild West series. For more regular updates, follow me on instagram @hrquineart