The Joy of Painting-Buddies

On the phone she said, "Can you pop round? I'm swithering."

Yes, I was swithering too. We were each undecided about which two of our paintings to put in an exhibition: she with three abstracted landscapes behind glass and me with two framed life studies plus an abstracted sea/landscape. Thankfully my impartial view when I 'popped round' was enough to help her decide which two paintings to take; and later when I showed her my dilemma she helped me in the same way. Discussing titles made a big difference too.

I am so lucky to have several artist friends with whom I can swap ideas, share disappointments and best of all, discuss the best way forward.

These two paintings were the focus of this discussion and they are now queuing up for the Winter Exhibition at The Meffan Gallery in Forfar. They want 'new and exciting work' and compared to many conventional pictures, I think these come somewhere close - and so do the paintings of  my friend who helped.

 This first one is entitled 'The White Gate' and is a heavily textured oil painting. I leave you to look and ponder.

This painting is entitled 'A Model for Matisse' and is now framed in black with a recess, which accentuates it rather well. It's also an oil painting with some heavy texture in places.

Taking our work to The Meffan was quite a stressful event as it's a long way to drive when you're getting over the 'flu but doing it together made it fun. The exhibition opens on 23rd November and the hanging team have a big job on their hands: there are some marvelous and extraordinary pieces of artwork to go up - if last year is anything to go by - and somewhere along the line there is some judging to do for prizes.

Help with decisions and titles, quality support, a good giggle and coffee at a strategic moment. Good.