It's now mid February and quite a while since I visited my blog .  

Winter's been dreary , wet and sadly very uninspiring .

 No walking as the paths are boggy and the rain is relentless ! 

I've been reflecting on things  in my art world recently. So much has changed over the past 5 years . I see galleries closing and artists like myself struggling to make sales.  Once I was selling 1-2 paintings a month which kept me nicely ticking over . Now it's one every 3-4 months which makes it very hard and I wonder how long I can continue. 

The online galleries have always been a good sales platform for me but many are now raising their fees, commission rates etc .  On average you only get  around  50-60%  of the selling price of a painting  and that has to cover materials , overheads and gallery subscription fees.  Being an artist is NOT an easy life ! 

Many artists supplement their income by teaching which keeps them afloat. It's something that just wouldn't work for me though   , I'm just not a teacher . 

I'm really not sure what the future holds .

 I love painting, it's what I do . 

With that in mind I have been "escaping" the dreary weather by forward thinking to the brighter days of Spring  . 

Firstly a small painting (35cms x 25cms) of the Cow Parsley and fields at the bottom of Ditchling beacon , lots of lovely Spring greens! 

                                                    Spring Pastures

Original acrylic painting of the  Spring pastures and fields  at the base of Ditchling beacon  

 Next came the Bluebells , wonderful memories from a forest walk last year at Warninglid . 

    

 "Let's escape this dreary day and walk along the forest path, .

where Bluebells flower ,

in scented breeze,

 

where leaves unfurl among the trees. 

 

Let's escape this dreary day and walk along the forest path,

 

in sunlight haze,

 

whilst songbirds sing ,

 

where we'll delight in days of Spring. "

 

                                           "Forest Ways and Bluebell Days" 

                                                             Acrylic on canvas 24" x18"

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Original acrylic painting of a forest path  through the Bluebells . 

 

 

 

 Paintings for sale

For a while it seemed as if Summer  was going to go on forever, but all good things come to an end and Autumn  has arrived .  

Autumn in the woods 

 

This year the trees and hedgerows are a mass of berries, nuts and seeds . Nature's colourful jewels . 

  They call it a   'mast year '.  My  paths on  recent walks have been covered in thousands of acorns !  It's made walking rather slippery underfoot and with so many falling I've been hit on the head a few times as well ! I think I need a hard hat ! ha ha! 

Acorns on the footpath 

It's been a long, long time since I have painted a still life composition but with such an abundance of wonderful subject matter I couldn't wait to get started .

I gathered plenty of bits and pieces so that I could try various arrangements . 

My colourful selection of Autumn fruits, nuts and berries 

  I put a selection into an old Sussex earthenware mug and the colours worked together really well . 

It took a long time to paint but I loved every minute and now I get to see the lovely colours of Autumn every day . 

 

Hedgerow Harvest 

"Hedgerow Harvest" Autumn still life painting 

                                                                         

 As usual the weather is rather unsettled which makes planning walks difficult.  I've explored some interesting old woodland where the streams run orange because of the iron ore in the soil 

Woodland stream coloured orange by iron ore 

I also met a vey friendly tree ! Just for a moment I thought it was going to speak to me . Thankfully it didn't as I'm not good at running theses days  

A vey friendly looking tree! 

 I've been on some great walks but It really needs sunshine to see the Autumn colours at their best. 

Fortunately I was blessed with one such day. A day when the sun breaks through the trees resulting in golden highlights ...magical ! 

                                                       "Autumn Alchemy"  

"Autumn Alchemy "  woodland  acrylic painting

                                                            

                                                   "Autumn Amble" 

Painting of horses along the bridleway 

             
                                                                     Paintings for sale

 More photos from my walks can be found here My inspiring walks

 

 Sadly I seemed to have missed most of the Autumn colour this year. Day after day was shrouded in thick mist and fog ! Not the best weather for landscape painting . 

A lot of my time was spent watching the Magpies . They really stood out among the  glorious colours of the leaves on an old Beech tree that stands at the bottom of our garden . In this tree the Squirrels have built several dreys . There are three Squirrels and they spend  all their time running around everywhere gathering nuts etc . They just don't seem to stop !   Whilst they are out and about the cunning Magpies go and forage through the dreys , masses of leaves get thrown out in their quest to find all  the hidden food .  It amused me to see just how smart the Magpies are they became the subject of my latest painting .

                                                             "Magpie Morning " 

                           

Autumn woodland painting "Magpie Morning" 

    This is now available from my Artfinder shop https://www.artfinder.com/artist/paula-oakley/   

I also have a good selection of artworks for sale as prints, cards, bags etc Here

My next walk took me to Firle beacon which gave me views north over the Sussex weald and south towards the sea. For painting inspiration I was rather spoilt for choice! 

Views from Firle beacon

I have walked here many times but today I wanted to spend some time exploring the access land.  

I started at the car park, making my way through the cows that didn't seem to be bothered about anything much, they were just chilling out in the sunshine.

Then as I approached the beacon I spotted a Kestrel . I sat and watched it hover in the air for what seemed like ages before it swooped off down into the long grass way below . It's moments like this that I love about the South downs.

Reaching  the access land I discovered just how steep it was . It wasn't an easy walk but the views made it all worth while. In fact it was so steep that I had to hold on to tufts of grass to help me climb back up ! The older I get the steeper the hills get !  😂😆

I was glad to reach the gate at the top of the path . It's obviously not walked very often as I then had to beat my way through overgrown Gorse bushes and Stining nettles . I felt like the Indiana Jones of Sussex ! Ha ha!
It was all good though and my walk down to Firle was edged with beautiful Orchids .

I have several views to paint from this walk,  but I thought the first would have to be the stile that I struggled to get back from . It just  seemed to perfectly  capture my day .

                                                "The Path Less Trodden"

Painting of the view from Firle beacon . Acrylic on canvas