My featured painting this week is "Cottage in the Snow" and I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my family and lovely friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The painting itself has been far and away my most successful image in terms of prints and cards sold, so perhaps it touches a chord in all of us particularly at this time of year. I have told the tale many times of how and why it came to be painted but for anyone who doesn't know - here it is again. It was December 2005 and I was working at the original Gallery 49. Merice was the gallery manager and I had a studio in the back. It was a perfect situation to be in - a new thriving gallery and brilliant facilities to paint in. Liz who owned the gallery had organised an evening of folk music and poetry to be held at the gallery one evening. Merice had to be there so I did too. Now I won't tell a lie - I wasn't especially keen on an evening of folk music and poetry, but I thought I would just have to grin and bear it and then have the long drive back to York to contend with. Earlier in the day Margaret popped in for a quick visit. She also exhibited in the gallery and had a lifetime (literally) of experience in the art world. We were chatting and she told me to do a simple painting of a cottage in the snow - "It will sell!", she promised before she left. I got to work. Some paintings just flow and this was one of them. I had only the barest idea of what I was going to do but it began to paint itself. Perhaps I drew on subconscious memories of all the happy Christmas times I had shared with family and friends I loved - wherever it came from, it made me feel happy when I had finished. And guess what - it did indeed sell - that very same night! One of the guests at the function wandered into my studio before the event started, and bought it as a present for her sister - so Margaret was right (she usually is!). And the folk music and poetry? Well to my immense surprise it was brilliant. I knew the singer and expected him to be good but I was knocked out by the poets reading their own work in the exact manner in which they wanted it doing. So enjoy the painting and I hope it gives you nice seasonal feelings of love, joy and peace.
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