Well, it has been a funny old year hasn’t it? Since the cancellation of Open Studios 2020, much of life has seemed pretty flat. So, at least, this year, we have an on-line Open Up – for details please go to Open Up Sheffield – Sheffield & South Yorkshire Open Artists Studios. This Painting Malarkey rides again, though as individuals for the purposes of Open Studios

For me, the year has been momentous in one respect in that we are building (well, having built) our new house at the end of the garden.

Day 1 Craig arrived with a big red digger and a portaloo

Much mud ensued – for many weeks

at last, foundations laid…

and a splendid looking drive (with Mick and Dave, the Site Manager)

the new turning head gives an impression of the walls.

The combination of Covid and building works has rather curtailed my painting activities, but there is some new work that I hope you will like. luckily, the new house will hav studio space for me

An up-coming exhibition of new work by This Painting Malarkey.

The exhibition is at Dronfield Hall Barn and runs from Monday 8th October until Sunday 14th October and is open every day from 10.00 until 16.00. Admission free.

With less than ideal timing, we left for Sri Lanka a couple of days after the opening of our Dronfield exhibition.   This was our second visit and served to confirm our attraction to this delightful country and its people.

The highlight this time was a trip to Anuradhapura and the Wilpattu National Park.  We had visited several of the ancient cities on our first visit, but had not seen Anuradhapura – the oldest (I think) and certainly the largest.  What a wonderful site and what a wonderful place it must have been.  Temples, carvings, pools and in the most tranquil setting!

It was the run-up to the Buddhist new year and there were stalls selling lotus blossoms as we left the site.

We moved on to Wilpattu where we took 2 safaris by Jeep into the National Park – one at dusk and one at dawn.  This Park has only fairly recently re-opened after the civil war.  It was a stronghold of the Tamil tigers and, sadly, wildlife tends to come off second best when faced with hungry soldiers.  However, the wildlife is now returning and, although we did not manage to see a leopard (only its footprint!), we saw an amazing variety of birds and other animals. So the paintings this time so far have been all from Wilpattu which was indeed a most enchanting place even without the animals.  A region of “willus” which are very shallow lagoons a haven for birds of all kinds and often sporting a coverlet of lotus blossoms.

We then headed for a couple of nights on the Indian ocean – a charming (if exceedingly hot!) place where the locals managed a vigorous game of handball? as the sun went down.

After this, things did go a bit pear-shaped as Mick fell ill with cellulitis and, after a few days in hospital in Kandy, was effectively grounded for the rest of the holiday.

Luckily, we were staying with old friends Jerry and Sally who were extremely helpful and their beautiful guesthouse was a very good place to be stranded! 

If you would like to see the paintings I have done – please go to the Landscapes (Sri Lanka) section of this web-site.

By all accounts, the exhibition in April went off well.  Dronfield Hall Barn is in the centre of old Dronfield and it had been recently renovated and extended.  Our gallery space was in the new addition and proved a very successful venue – very well-equipped for hanging paintings and with good lighting.

The availability of wondrous cakes etc in the adjacent café made for some very contented visitors!

We are shortly off for our second visit to Sri Lanka visiting old friends who have recently moved there. On out last visit in 2012, I found lots of material for painting – the colours and the heat and energy of a tropical island were most stimulating.

I am currently preparing for a new exhibition called This Painting Malarkey (www.thispaintingmalarkey.com) which will be at the Barn in Dronfield from 2^nd to 17^th April. There are 5 artists with a variety of styles as shown on the web-site. This is an exciring new development for mw and I am delighted to have some of my work in thisgreat new space. The Barn is newly opened and there will also be an exhibition of quilting. With a cafe, too, it should be a pleasant outing with much to see.

Took some paintings to printer – should be ready for Open Up.

I am taking part in Open Studios this year.

More details can be seen here