About Me
Mary Sumner 1957 – 2016
I saw this book for sale recently and on buying it I discovered that the artist Mary Sumner had very sadly passed away: 1957 - 2016.
I was really miserable - she was such a talent and to think there will no longer be anymore of her wonderful art in the world put a cloud over my day.
She had such a unique eye for composition and rhythm in paintings; coupled with her textile background which brought pattern to everything.
She was an amazing colourist too, layering up paint and colour with texture to create images that pulsate with an energy from colour.
I connected with her textile designing view for painting, her colour sensibilities and choice of content. It's given me pause for thought that the art we make is our legacy and what that might mean.
I have poured over each page of this book; looking and learning and would highly recommend it for its abundant beauty and charm. It's very picture heavy which makes for a good study but and I was also left wanting to read some more about who Mary was, her journey through life and her thoughts. So sad for such a talent and life-force of an artist not to have years and years more to live and time to make art to share with us.
Birmingham art classes
If you hang out on my other social media or get my newsletter at all then you will already know how much I flipping love teaching art and running art groups.
I currently run two: one called Painting & Drawing Flowers at Winterbourne House & Garden on a Tuesday morning and on a Wednesday morning at Warley Woods called Painting & Drawing Nature.
Both classes share a similar structure in that each week we focus on using a different medium : charcoal, watercolour, acrylic, pastel, oil pastel and mixed medias.
Then I might throw in a wildcard by incorporating something like collage or print too.
One participant described it like a box of chocolates with a new flavour every week - I love that.
At Winterbourne we focus on floral items, leaves, seed pods etc. And of course you can visit the beautiful gardens and enjoy the tea room for lunch too.
At Warley Woods we look at drawing and painting things from the broader spectrum of 'Nature' and this can include landscape, mushrooms, shells, vegetables, butterflies etc. Then take a walk round the 35 hectare parkland and get your steps in.
Those who have experience and confidence can fly free from the programme as much as they like and use the time to shape their own artistic journey.
I find it really gratifying to nurture peoples creativity as it is so often also linked to self-confidence, socialising and good mental health.
Drop me a line hello@claireleggett.co.uk if your a Birmingham local and fancy coming along.
Adrian Berg
Adrian Berg is a recent discovery of mine. He was a painter living and working in 1929-2011. One of his first big bodies of work was the view from his flat window of Regents Park which he painted multiple times. These paintings show variations in playing with colour, pattern and composition and interested me because I look out over a wood and I wonder why I've never thought to do similarly.
As he developed and worked he distorted perspective and patterning to sometimes abstract effect which also caught my eye - as a pattern designer I'm aware that I too see the patterning in the world around.
I've read the book from cover to cover and poured over image like the one below. I love how he has reduced shapes to patterns and adore the treatment of the water reflection - lots to learn.
Japonica
The other day I came home from teaching my class at Winterbourne House & Gardens with some lovely Japonica blossoms that they had cut for us to paint. I spent a lovely, soul-repairing quiet hour painting these and catching up with The Archers.
You may not know that I’ve been selling my surface pattern design licences on @patternbank for a little while now.
It’s what I originally trained to do back in 1990 and is still a part of my studio practice that I love to find time for.
This is my recent Japonica painting put into a pattern repeat and some of the cool mock-ups that #patternbank use.
6 month catch-up
Oh poor blog - I do mean to love you more. I always intend to keep you full of what I'm currently up to, the things I've made, the events I want to remember and then (because you're old fashioned and not a quick app on my phone) I put it off or forget to do it. I'm sorry.
Here's some things from the last 6 months that I want to keep here:
I went to Bruges and looked at so much art that I came back bursting to paint again.
I took part in Birmingham Open Studios for the second year - lots of very supportive friends, neighbours and students came to visit and have tea and cake and all in all it was an enjoyable couple of weekends.
This cyanotype print on paper had been knocking about the studio for aaaages as I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Then one day inspiration struck like lightning and I realised it just needed filling in, in places with paint.
Went to Copenhagen in January and ate a lot of bakery products, walked miles and just happened upon my favourite Matisse painting ever- Pink Onions - delighted.
Again, looking at art made me want to make art. Also I resolved in 2024 to make more art and do less admin so I guess that brings me full circle to the dichotomy of keeping my blog up to date whilst also staying off the computer to paint more!
You can find me more often here and here (instagram and facebook respectively) but I do promise to try and be a better blogger because I do still value it - so see you again in less than 6 months ;)
