Colours

New Day Dawning. Oil on canvas 2006

I get my love of colour from my parents. Both painters, the house was always full of colour. Orange velvet curtains in the dining room, bright ceramics everywhere and the walls full of paintings. Monochrome colours were not in their wardrobe. The best advice I ever had from my mother in choosing what colours to wear together - just look at nature.

I still look to nature and it doesn't disappoint. This time of the year it's the summer fruits that glow with intense colour. Last year I was admiring the apricots, the peaches and later in the summer, the plums and figs in the Sunday market in France. In Wales this year it's the redcurrants and blackberries that delight me.

On a larger scale.

In a phone call my brother tells me he's having a very large canvas delivered. He has only one wall big enough to hang the finished painting. I'm thinking that I would like to do the same. I try to push aside all the practical implications. How will I get it up the stairs to my studio? How will I get it in the car to take it to the framers and then to the gallery? None of this seems important. I will get stretchers and canvas and construct the frame in the studio. I'll get fresh supplies of paint from London and if the resulting painting has to remain in the studio it hardly seems to matter. I am longing to do this and I can't think of anything else in the meantime.

Sunshine in August

August. Oil on canvas.  France 2003

It was very hot today and Cardiff was buzzing. The Millennium Stadium is hosting the Olympic Bronze Medal Football game this evening so a lot of the roads around the Stadium were closed and buses re-routed. No-one seemed to mind. A large screen in the centre of the city was showing the Olympic events and the pavement cafes were full of people enjoying the sun. As I came out of the studio into the main street a Hari Krishna procession passed by. For such a small city Cardiff packs it in.

August

It's hot, I have been working in the studio and now I'm sittting watching the bees on the lavender bush. It could be France but instead I'm in my garden in Wales. I haven't spent the summer here for ten years or more and I'm loving it. I savour each and every thing - the walk through the Cardiff streets to the studio, the trip back on the train reading my book, shopping for the evening meal and sitting in the late sunshine in the garden. It's a rediscovery of all things good about August in Britain - I even welcome the rain. And then of course there's the London Olympics to follow!