Force of Nature – the artist and the show!

‘Force of Nature’, my latest exhibition is nearly here!

This weekend has been one of mirror plating and curating – deciding on the final list of paintings – in the end 36 are going forward for the show.

We hang it on Tuesday in Gallery 1, at Castle Park Arts Centre, Frodsham, Cheshire, and it runs from the following day, Wednesday 16th May until Saturday 23rd June, inclusive. ‘Meet The Artist’ is Friday 18th May from 7-9pm. I will be there as will the artists in the two other galleries who are exhibiting their work. I am also painting during the day in Gallery 1, on Saturday, 9th June and there is a knife painting workshop – on painting seascapes – on the last day of the exhibition, Saturday, 23rd June.

Why ‘Force of Nature’ – does this refer to the subject matter or the artist?

Good question perhaps. On looking up the idiom Google tells me it  ‘ means the person is a very strong personality or character — like a hurricane or a tsunami are also forces of nature — full of energy, unstoppable, unchallengeable, unforgettable. In short, a person to be reckoned with’

Well, I like that! What a description to live up to as an artist ! You will have to decide whether that is the case as far as I am concerned.

In truth I chose the name as the one thing that all the works have in common is that the beauty or the energy of nature is what inspired me to paint. Half the paintings come from my month in Scotland last August. I had an amazing two weeks touring the west and north of Scotland – taking in  some of the Highlands then  Isle of Skye, Isle of Harris, Assynt and up to the north, visiting remote Sandwood Bay, near Cape Wrath. Then over to Orkney for a two week holiday with family and friends. There are 18 paintings in the exhibition inspired by memories of my trip.

There will probably be more paintings from the trip at a later stage. There are some images I am still struggling to interpret into paintings. For example on the day that I went to Sandwood Bay – a totally amazing place, near Cape Wrath right up on the northern edges of Scotland, I also went to the Smoo Caves and saw an amazing waterfall inside a cave – but I am still trying to paint this in a satisfactory way – so nothing in this show of that. Sandwood Bay  is somewhere to go back to  – a 4 mile walk through heath land to get there and then a totally unspoilt beach with pink sand, a large pink stack of rock, reminiscent of some on Orkney and the sea – it was green with great waves crashing  onto the rocks as shown in this 76 x 61cm painting.

Another place which has inspired several paintings in the show, was Luskentyre Beach on the Isle of Harris. This is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. It is the mixture of mountains in the distance, turquoise blue water and sand, that varies from white to pink, depending on wet or dry. Here is one of my small paintings of it, 32 x 24cm. There are also two large ones, one a distant view quite similar to this small painting and one showing the beach with the tide going out, and pink sand still wet.

Half of the paintings in the show are from walks in The Peak District. These paintings were featured in my bloghttps://inspiringartwalkswithsarahmorley.blogspot.co.uk/ and were exhibited at my previous solo exhibition ‘Inspiring Derbyshire’ at The Green Man, Buxton, last year. I have sold some of those paintings but the ones featured in this show remain for sale. Below is my painting of Stanage Edge, called ‘The Edge, Stanage.’ This is another large one at 101x 50cm.

So, if you can make it to Castle Park it would be great to see you. No doubt there will be more updates as the exhibition proceeds.