Hello, my name is Sarah Morley. I am an emerging fine artist, now based in Stockport, Greater Manchester. In my fifties and now a professional artist pursuing my 'second career' as an artist. I paint on a daily basis and teach in my studio.
This blog is about my present obsession. Painting outside, or 'En Plein Air' to use the fancy French title for the obvious alternative to painting indoors. For any of you reading this I do hope that you enjoy what follows and that inspires you to 'have a go' too! At the time of writing this - September 2015, I do not know whether this will be a long running blog or whether it will fizzle out as the winter approaches and it gets increasingly cold and rainy in the North West of England.
Where I am now, probably, owes a lot to moving studios last September. I moved out of a tiny windowless room, into a large studio, with huge mill windows on both sides. To afford the much increased rent I started teaching Knife Painting and general oil painting two days a week. I soon found that from that I was asked by several local art groups to demonstrate. As a result I have since had numerous bookings for either demonstrations or workshops. Initially I had to steel myself to paint and talk in front of so many people, but I reasoned that I often demonstrated in front of my students so it could not be that bad. It has been fine, by and large, occasionally someone says they cannot see what I am painting or asks an awkward question, but generally people are enthusiastic and I have had so much positive feedback.
In March one of my students, told me about ad advertisement she had seen for the Buxton Spa Prize. This is now an annual competition held in Buxton, which is only half an hour away from my home. Anyone can enter and you can choose to do one or two paintings. These must be substantially completed outside, at least 3 hours of work outside, and can be finished off in the painter's own workspace. As I read that if you enter one painting you have to paint the location allocated I decided to splash out a bit more cash (£40 entry fee) and do a second painting, which could be venue within the Buxton of the artist's choice.
What followed, from May to the end of June, was very stressful! I went to Buxton to get my 2 canvases stamped and find out where I was to paint. My choice was either St John's Church, Buxton, or The Old Hall Hotel. I would not normally have gone for either of these as subjects, but I plumped for the church, reasoning that it was quite quiet there in the churchyard, I would not be bothered by too many passers by, and there are a great many old trees, so maybe I could incorporate these into the painting. But how to paint the church? It is quite an unusual church, with a lovely dome and tower, which then sits on a rectangular building. Quite difficult to find a good angle. I went around the church looking for a good angle. I started one place, in the middle of the churchyard and then moved further and further back, until I had a view that looked a bit like Constable's Salisbury Cathedral painting. Big trees and a view through these to the church. I then decided I needed a bigger canvas - and started with a huge canvas and did some of the work. Then a little more painting back at my studio.
Then a return to the site for the finishing touches - when I found that the trees had come into full leaf and there was a complete green curtain shrouding my view! I cut my losses, started again with a smaller canvas in a different place. This time painting mainly the dome and tower which I liked, and trying to make the painting look mysterious - this latter was not too hard - it was a chilly grey day. From then on it was relatively easy and the painting was completed. I met three people in the whole of the time I was painting 'on site', probably about 6 hours in total for the two attempts, and felt that I could cope with that level of interaction!
