Fishy fabulousness at Skyeworks Gallery

It’s been a very busy few weeks, getting ready for several exhibitions. I was lucky enough to be invited to submit some work for the recent fish exhibition at the Skyeworks Gallery Now that I’m painting in oils so much of the time I have to prepare much earlier than I used to as oil paint take so much longer to dry.

I’m very lucky to live in a part of the world where I have access to the most wonderful fresh seafood and I couldn’t resist painting some of it for the exhibition. It was also great to be able to eat my subject when I had finished painting!

I really enjoyed painting the sushi paintings, I loved the bright colours and patterns that this sort of seafood creates. I loved arranging and rearranging them until I was happy with the layout and adding crockery and chopsticks, both of which helped add strong elements to the compostions.

I also loved painting the mussels and the langoustine. One of my favourite objects to use in my still lifes is the old wooden chopping board, I love the shape of it, the colour and the colour of the wood. In this case I loved the way that it acted as a frame for the mussels and echoes the shape of the langoustine

I also couldn’t resist painting two decorative pieces, a fish tray and a cat chair, complete with a toy fish mouse