CTArts | Paintings and Drawings

Paintings and Drawings

So, everyone had a paint box when I was a child and I loved messing about with colour. Painting by numbers used oils and produced careful, formal, stylised pictures that anyone could do. It wasn't until much later that I started using watercolours and produced nothing worth bothering about, culminating in failing my Art O Level. That told me I couldn't do art.

It was a long time, well into my 40s, that I picked up a paint brush and started again. I was always a good copier so loved trying still life and reproducing pictures from holiday snaps, learning about perspective and shadow as I went along.

I then decided to try oils and loved them! The way you could leave it alone overnight and come back to it, sometimes it had changed or settled, sometimes it needed rubbing off or adding on and the colours were deep, full and lush.

My best were of still life again, or from photos of flowers in people's gardens, or reproductions of scenes and people that meant something to me. I love fruit in stalls, piled high and neatly, full of colour and fecundity. I have a selection from Greece, Hong Kong, Singapore, Majorca, Spain, Settle, all waiting for the time I have an oil painting rush on again.

Some of my pictures are on friends' and family's walls, some on ours, a lot in the loft or in my leather art folder not knowing what to do with them. I rotate them by season to give them a chance to be out in the land of the living. I don't sell them, they aren't good enough, especially round Settle. There are so many excellent artists in this part of the world, I daren't try and compete.

I began to draw in pen on holiday as I wrote about what we had been doing especially when we started going abroad more often. They were little books to add to my main diaries. But then I saw what Angie Jordan did on her Greek holidays, larger quick watercolours with diary entries to go with them. So, I bought a bigger book and took it along with me to fill in the time, embelished with thoughts and observations of places, people and pleasures And now, My Painting Diary has become so valued a treasure I dare not take it away with me any more in case it falls into the sea or gets lost. I now take photos and notes and fill it in when I get home. I have about ten pages left in it and then I will not begin another.

So, here are some of my better pieces of work from over the years, often with hallowed memories for me.

Books on a Table When I started practising my skills in watercolours I used study pictures to copy for colour, shading and perspective. A few became well loved.		Fruit study I love doing fruit and vegetables. This was another early practise study.

Auntie Cath's memories I began to do my own still life watercolours. These evocative items of a bygone age I have from Auntie Cath please me.		The Wood's Table in France I began to take my small watercolour box of paints on holiday to fill in time and this one evokes going to stay with The Woods in France - lunch under the walnut tree.

Rosie on Crete And so the pictures grew in number and complexity and skills developed.		My Painting Dairy Going up to Skye every year is catalogued in 30 years of daily writings and then in 2009, this diary was started there. This is the little posy put on my bedside table by Isabel for me that year to welcome us again. It shouted at me to be painted.

The Cuillins, Skye Sometimes, the diary is just jottings of my thoughts and free hand pen work, coloured in watercolour. But, sometimes I do a scene of splendour, as this one which moved me to write in more than jottings.		New Zealand Some pages are jam packed with details I would have easily forgotten. In 2010, we took the family out to visit Babs and Trevor and 'do' NZ to celebrate Philip and me reaching 60. It is there in tiny jottings and asides, every day to savour.

The Ribble Valley Now living in Settle, I can't resist putting down in paint and words some of the truly stunning sights we have come to love. This is just 5 minutes away, up the back over towards Langcliffe where the Ribble Valley opens out to reveal the 3 Peaks and the limestone scenery. Magic.		Yorkshire Tour de France What an extraordinary weekend that was. We joined in, and it is recorded for ever in my little diary.

From Angie and that Vase I took to loving glass vases, seeing the shading and how water behaves in them, as well as wanting to paint flowers. This is a vase we were bought for our wedding with Angie's bunch of flowers on a visit, years ago. She has just been again, and brought another bunch just like it. She likes the colour of them. So did I.		Jill Gadd's Dahlias and Vase Jill left me to enjoy the flowers when she was going away. I was captivated by the way the water affected the stalks, so I painted them. She wanted the vase back, sadly!

San Fancisco for Rosalie This little flower that grows in San Fransisco was on a postcard. I gave the picture to Rosalie to remember the wonderful 3 weeks we had there together in 1990.		Hilary's bouquet When Hilary was presented with this bouquet on leaving Heathfield, I offered to do her a picture of it. I hope she framed it.

Three Victorian Flower Prints I loved the detail of the Victorian painters in a catalogue of flowers so I put three together in one painting to capture the fine details myself. It hangs in our bathroom now, reds and browns.		Life and Death in an Orchid in oil One of my class gave me this, my first orchid, as a leaving present. I thought it exquisite. I put it in one of my favourite white Johnson Heritage bowls as I began to dabble in oils. It seems to represent life and death in an arc of beauty. And as I look at it on my bedroom wall, I also remember that little troubled, gifted boy and wonder where he is and what he is doing now.

Jane Neville's Vase and Liz Dixon's Lily I put these two together, both presents from friends and just painted them quickly one day.		Tisha Clematis As I began painting flowers in oils and Tisha asked me to do one of her clematis to go in their new sitting room. It ended up being her present for her 50th birthday.

Matt's a la Cesar Manrique Matt loves colour and was taken with Cesar Manrique's work in Lanzerote. He wanted a big, bold version of the mural on the wall of Manrique's volcanic house so I devised this puzzle for him with himself woven into a part of the mural. In it is his name, date of birth, the family number of 25 (keeps popping up ), and a reference to us 5 Taylors. It's my first try at acrylics and hangs in his kitchen.		Raw Head, Langdales We had a lovely Bank Holiday with Tisha, Duncan, Vicky, Christopher and Rosalie in this lovely little mountain hut when they belonged to Furness Mountain Rescue. I whipped this watercolour off, put it in a frame and have had so many people saying they love it! So it hangs in the bathroom!

Generations of Tea Drinking This watercolour I did for Rosie. It brings together her love of tea drinking and Bourbon biscuits on a plate we had at Esholt and the Japanese tea set Dad brought back from his travels in the 1950s and 60s, set out on the table at Heathfield Rise, our family home for 18 years.		Favourite Toys Many moons ago, these toys were gathered together by the swiss cheese plant for me to have a go at a pencil drawing. It brings so many memories back of our three's childhood days but it is rather large so they languish in the loft, waiting for someone to love them again.

Isabel's Soft Toys Sitting on a tall boy in one of the bedrooms at Tormore were these soft toys belonging to her and Arthur when children. One rainy day, I sat and drew them, connecting with a bygone age.		Florence Doodlings A week in a little apartment in the middle of Florence gave us the ability to fly back and rest, watch the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the heat of the day and wander those streets in the cooler evenings. This doodling has so many pointers to that city and Paris and the overnight train journey inbetween.

Being in Hong Kong The first time I went to Hong Kong, Rosalie leant me her bum bag, I discovered how to use their transport system with an Octopus card, took the Rough Guide's advice everywhere and bought a proper Chinese hat from a proper chinese shop up in Mongkok. It was the start of a love affair with that city that is still ongoing.		Rosalie, Uncle Bernard and Tisha 1964 Rosalie, Uncle Bernard and Tisha playing on the steps of 463 Idle Road just before we left for New Zealand, 1964, supposedly for ever.

Mum and Tisha On our way to New Zealand in 1964, we stopped to visit Dad's sister, Auntie Marc and family in Sydney. We visited a zoo to see koala bears and kangaroos and this photo was snapped by Dad as we all watched inside a fence. I just love the intimacy of the moment.		Rosalie and Mum, 1964 On our way to New Zealand in 1964, we stopped in Athens. Rosalie and Mum were feeding pigeons in one of the squares. I loved this picture for the home made dress Rosalie is wearing that Mum made as many of the photos show. She was also a seamstress and knitter of such lovely things.

In Hirst Woods Before Dad's job took them to the Midlands, our family and Auntie Betty's would pile into our estate car, kids in the boot, all unstrapped then of course, up to 7 or 8 of them when little, to go to Hirst Woods or Baildon Moors for picnics. Even as late as this picture is painted from about 1974, Tisha, Mum, Julie, Auntie Betty with little Catherine are seen wandering the Woods in their 'play' clothes, looking so part of another era it is unbelievable. It was such a part of our idyllic childhood, it brings so much back.		Matt, Rosie and Rebecca c 1990 The Silver Beach, Skye, just down the coast from Tormore was a must every year for us to visit. Auntie Cath's jumpers, Christmas presents for a few years, were worn with gratitude and love.

Cyprus Widows and Doorways In the old part of Aya Napa in Cyprus, we sat with our girls and I loved the array of doorways at this corner. I stood up to take a photo and heard an almighty row behind. A group of black clad widows were coming up the path, their rowdy giggles and laughter reverberating round the stonework. I let them come past and snapped them too. I used this lovely moment to try and capture shading in watercolours too.		Fruit in Oils I began to explore using oils. This little collection of fruit began as a doodle of the pear that set me adding to it. I had discovered creating a sumptious image.

Majorcan Fruit Stall Lesley sent Rosie a postcard from Portugal and it extended my love of capturing fruit and vegetables. It hangs in our kitchen, echoeing my love of autumn bounty of the allotment, too.		Rebecca My Girl with a Dangly Ear-ring. After studying Vermeer's The Girl with a Pearl Ear-ring, I just had to have a go at capturing this photo of Rebecca in an unguarded moment in bold, wild oils. It is me being grown up, a proper artist, painting how I wanted to at that moment, just for me. I should do more like this. I'm too conventional, guarded because it shocks others and I can't take their disdain - yet!

Triptich Clematis I did this in oils just when the Pawsons had moved into Mill House. Gill offered to buy it to adorn one of their huge walls. It went into the office of her firm and has now returned to me to adorn the guest room.