A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!

Up to my armpits in boxes, wrapping paper and sellotape, as so many of us are at this time of year. I really enjoy Christmas but there's no getting away from the fact that it's a strain, on stress levels AND on finances! And SO busy.
Anyway, here's wishing you and yours the BEST possible Christmas! May the big day and all of the coming New Year be as peaceful as you could wish.

Happy Christmas!!

A great year for the sale of Lizzy's paintings!

It's been a great year for me at Cank Street Gallery! The sale of three major paintings has been a real achievement! I'm grateful to everyone who's been involved in exhibiting and selling my work; more next year, I promise!
Cank Street is a lovely place to exhibit - the staff are welcoming and helpful to artists and public alike. Owner, Dayle, continues to put her efforts into encouraging local artists, holding shows & exhibitions and inviting those interested along to artist's talks. This year it's been especially nice to meet up regularly with others and to become a consistent part of the art crowd.
I'm indebted to all the collectors of my work and to everyone who continues to support me. You know who you are. Thank you all so much!

Sue Graham chats at Leicester's Cank Street Gallery

Sue Graham with her paintings at Leicester's Cank Street Gallery, 22 September 2016

Artist talks are useful and occasionally highly informative events so I was particularly glad to be invited along to a presentation by acclaimed LSA (Leicester Society of Artists) featured artist, Sue Graham.

At Leicester's Cank Street Gallery on 22 September, I discovered that Sue aims to capture light, time and place in her pictures, using Britain's coastline from Norfolk to Cornwall, and in all weather conditions.

Thornham in the Mist by Sue Graham,
oil on paper

Sue paints in oils, an ideal medium to convey mood and demonstrate changes in light. I particularly appreciated her use of the texturing palette knife, and some of her more dramatically dark and moody pictures, which work well, even on a small scale.

To obtain the atmosphere she seeks, Sue sets off very early in the morning to complete at least one picture in a day. Often she uses board instead of canvas, which she says is good for quick work. Sometimes she soaks up the atmosphere before heading to a beach to set up. Once a painting takes off she will stay long into the evening to take advantage of the light and her creative mood.

It was a real pleasure to meet Sue. Check out her recent artworks at sue-graham.co.uk

Having fun in oils!

Warning! New artwork experience! 

I've been doing some painting in a new medium. Oils! 

Strange as it may seem, I never, ever, worked in oils before, even during my fine arts degree course in Derby. I was probably always too keen on watercolour & acrylic... it was a long time ago & I can't remember for sure.

Anyway, with the help of some friends I decided to have a go and the image under is the result! It's based on Leicester's Victoria Park.

The painting has already been through a number of transitions so I doubt it'll look this way for long! Depending on how pleased I am with the end result, when it's completely finished I may post an up to date version of the work. 

Having lots of fun so far!!

Leicester's Vicky Park. By Lizzy Hewitt. Oils. Sept 2016.

Imminent performance by CHURCHFITTERS! Saturday 17 September in Hose! Do go along!

I've been made aware of the imminent appearance of the wonderful CHURCHFITTERS folk-rock outfit at Hose in the Vale of Belvoir at 7pm on Saturday 17 September. Performing LIVE at St Michael's & All Angels Church, Hose, tickets are £12 from Hose Post Office on Tel 01949 869168.

The Churchfitters, appearing in Hose on Saturday 17 September. 

The CHURCHFITTERS have appeared all over, including at Fairport's Cropredy Convention, most recently in 2014, where Fairport's Dave Pegg says they received a standing ovation! I can vouch that they're FANTASTIC live so if you can, do go along!

Watch the CHURCHFITTERS on YouTube or visit www.churchfitters.com.

Some of you will know that I supported ValeFest, the Vale of Belvoir Festival of Live Music (and community arts!) a few years ago, a BRILLIANT concept and one which raised the bar for live music in the area which encompasses Melton Mowbray & Grantham, taking in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire & Lincolnshire.

The number & variety of genuinely excellent performers that came out of this area & the nearby cities of Leicester & Nottingham to take part in ValeFest over a period of three years, was amazing!
Alas ValeFest is no more but village festivals invariably include live music and there remains an enthusiastic audience for occasional concerts. It's good to know the legacy of ValeFest continues :)

Photos from the 23 June CANK STREET GALLERY Prize Giving Party!

Wearing the most sequined dress I could find (and leaving the shiny things all over the gallery floor!) the Cank Street Gallery Prize Giving evening on 23 June was a FABULOUS success. OK it was a couple of weeks ago now but better late than never! 
Here are my pics (thanks to Mark for taking photo instruction so well!) and THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO CAME ALONG! Thank you all for your support, now and always!

Summer Open 2016 prize winner,
Christine Johnson-Hume

Lizzy with musician Paddy Hodgkinson

And with local artist Paul Hainsworth

Lizzy with Cank Street Gallery's Stefan

Maryam (L) with Dayle Flude, owner of
Cank Street Gallery, with Lizzy

Maryam, Dayle Flude, Lizzy & artist Jude Morrisroe

With Lizzy are L-R, Mark & Sharon Gooch & Anetha Hunte

Brother Mark took all Lizzy's photos!
(Thank you Tim for taking this pic!)

More family support: Lizzy with mum Christine
& her husband John Denoon

Leicester artist Louise Ellerington with Tim Noakes & Lizzy

Cank Street Gallery was FULL for the Prize Giving!

Journalist & drummer, Michele Witthaus, Lizzy Hewitt
& singer Anetha Hunte

Maryam & Stefan announce the prize winners!

Singer Anetha and musician, Calvin

Lizzy with Leicester artist Michelle Harrison

Calvin & Lizzy

Mark Hewitt with laughing Calvin!

Anetha, Calvin, Lizzy Hewitt & Paul with daughter Nicole

Cank Street Gallery Summer Open Expo & Prize Giving Party, 6 - 8.30pm, Thursday 23 June

It's that time of year again! Summer means gallery exhibitions & competitions and Leicester galleries are no exception!

The Cank Street Gallery has its Summer Open Exhibition from 7 June to 30 July and BIG news, my work's included! In fact (BIGGER news!) my work is featured in the Gallery window!
How cool is that?!
I was SO chuffed that I took a photo... or two...!

But before I show you the photos and my paintings included in the show, I'd also like to tell you about the Invitation Only Prize Giving Party at the gallery, 6 - 8.30pm on Thursday 23 June. So once you've voted (you are going to vote in the referendum, I hope!) come along and meet me and all the other artists featured in this year's expo!

Info about the Summer Open at Cank Street Gallery, 
                      44-46 Cank Street, Leicester LE1 5GW 
is available at www.cankstreetgallery.co.uk

And now here are the promised photos;

Cank Street Gallery, 44-46 Cank Street, Leicester LE1 5GW

Kenny Jackson of Nottingham - & yes, that's MY picture he's looking at!

Here it is again - 'Hot Turkey Night' by Lizzy Hewitt! (If you look
closely you can see the reflection of yours truly taking the photo!)

'Hot Turkey Night', a painting of Leicester's Turkey Cafe by Lizzy Hewitt, 2016. On sale at £195.

Leicester City's Jamie Vardy prominently positioned in the window.

'Turkey a la Art Nuveau' by Lizzy Hewitt, 2016, can be found inside the gallery. £195.

It'll be TERRIFIC to see you at the Summer Exhibition - so DO COME along! All the details you'll need are on the Cank Street Gallery website, which also features a WONDERFUL sketch of Leicester City supporters at the King Power Stadium!

'As Yet Untitled' print by Simon Farrow, 2016. Featured at Cank Street Gallery, Leicester.

The Foxes win the League! Leicester City FC team heroes!

The people of Leicester city (which now includes the entirety of Leicestershire, if numbers are are anything to go by) were all out celebrating the AMAZING win by the Foxes of their first top-level football championship, the 2015-2016 Football League! 
It was an historic occasion so I joined the tens of thousands of enthusiastic fans watching the Champions arrive at Leicester's Victoria Park on their open-top bus, League cup, goal-scorers, managers, sponsors and all. Even the sun was suitably impressed and shone throughout a glorious day! 

WELL ACHIEVED LEICESTER FOXES!!!

All photos © Lizzy Hewitt.

Leicester's Turkey Café - experimentation with paper & paint

Leicester's Turkey Café by Lizzy Hewitt © 2016

For the longest time I've been seeking to develop my watercolour technique. It's possibly the most difficult of mediums to apply well and I've known many artists give up and turn to another!

Practice, using different quantities of water 
on the paper.

When it came to painting one of Leicester's oldest and most historic buildings, the Turkey Café, I decided to treat the subject as a learning exercise. I hope you agree the effort was worthwhile!

I wanted a new painting surface so chose a new paper, an attractively smooth HP (hot pressed) art paper that my dip pen slid around on in a satisfying manner and is ideal for illustration. But a session with YouTube tutorials explained it was the most difficult paper for watercolour work as the paint simply sits on the surface!

What I really needed was a textured NOT or Cold Pressed paper where the paint had something to cling to. Unfortunately I'd already produced an ink drawing and ordered another box of 10 sheets of the HP so I was forced to get to grips with it, no matter what the limitations!

Practice, endless notes on colour matching 
& paint granulation.

Experimenting, I used both sides of every sheet. For my first attempts I did some black and white pre-drawings, glazing with ink to get the tones I wanted, just as one does with watercolour;

'Watercolour is about painting the shadows. The lightest colour in watercolour painting is the light of the paper. The contours are established by your drawing - the glaze is what builds a bridge between the light and the contours'. Felix Scheinberger, Urban Watercolour Sketching.

There are tried & tested watercolour techniques, available nowadays as YouTube videos & tutorials. It's possible to be as traditional or as loose and contemporary as you want, but disregard the basics & you’ll get into a mess (as I did!)

In the early weeks I experienced many problems with my new HP paper, particularly when excess water spread into thicker paint, creating an unattractive cauliflower effect! Another of my initial problems was over-wetting the paper so that I wasn't able to control the paint. It's all trial & error and one leans from one's mistakes.

Practice, using water to obtain the paint 
coverage & hue needed.

The paint quality also needs to be considered. In the past I used Winsor & Newton's Cotman affordable (student) paints but more recently I've invested in professional quality watercolours. You have to know what you want; I went into an art supplies shop for ultramarine paint only a month or two ago and was surprised to see three different professional versions on the shelf! All contained the same PB 29 pigment but because of the range of hue, it's possible to purchase 'deep', 'red', 'green' or 'French'! Totally confusing unless one knows exactly what one wants!

In the end making a painting is a series of decisions; there's much to think about yet one is always trying to be spontaneous. This isn't always easy. For me, one of the most troublesome considerations is deciding on focal points, how best to lead the viewer’s eye around the picture and then linking colour within the image. It takes practice to do this well and the only way to achieve consistently good results is to practice, practice & practice!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Unlike almost every other city in the UK, Leicester has retained a remarkable record of its past in buildings that still stand today" BBC News, Jan 2011.

Leicester's Turkey Café - night version
by Lizzy Hewitt © 2016

One such is the Turkey Café. Situated in Leicester's Granby Street, the Turkey Café was built in 1900. Set over three floors its façade puns both Turkey, the country, & turkey birds, with a stunning Art Nouveau frontage of Eastern-styled architecture plus three large & prominent turkeys, one set to either side of the lower shop front & a third clothed in colourful Royal Doulton tiles at the mid-point of the roof.

Art Nouveau was hugely popular at the time the Turkey Café was built. The façade was constructed using tiles, hollow blocks & a type of terracotta called carraraware, a matt-glazed stoneware developed in 1888 by the Royal Doulton Company. 

Stability was visually implied by arches, the number decreasing floor by floor, from seven on the first to three on the upper, surmounted by the third, final, lone turkey. The building was coloured blue, green & buff, to maximise the appreciation of all design elements.

Opened as a café in 1901, in the years since the building has undergone upgrades and renovations and housed various commercial premises. It is now Grade ll listed, once again a café & bar, with friendly staff & fabulous cocktails! I wholeheartedly recommend a visit!

Leicester's Granby Street & the Turkey Café - early evening
by Lizzy Hewitt © 2016

RIP David Bowie

RIP David Bowie, the Spider from Mars aka The Man Who Fell to Earth.
My beloved Ziggy Stardust left this life from New York City on 10 January.
A talent beyond reckoning, a creative genius whose music changed lives for the better.
Rest in peace, my Prince.

Bob Child/AP