I have studio in an old factory building in Burns St Northampton. Within the building there are many different creatives, dressmakers, designers, painters , potters and an upholsterer. Today I’m going to introduce you to my friend Angela Stanbridge. Angela and I met years ago (too many years ago) as mature student at The University of Northampton. We shared a space there and now we are in studios opposite one another in Burns St.

I found this old sketch I made of Burns St.

Here is Angela in her studio.

This was a fantastic commission that went off to America.

Angela’s specialism is painting flowers , in particular tulips. (I know this isn’t a tulip!)

We often wander over to The Good Loaf which is close by for a coffee and a catch up! Sadly the Good Loaf has been closed due to COVID , so we are missing our chats.

Angela is also the chair of Network Arts, a Northants based art group that offer workshops and exhibition opportunities, for a couple of years I was also on the committee, which I found really rewarding and I met many lovely people. I definitely recommend volunteering for them.

Here in this image is my friend Cathy Burnett. We met through a mutual friend sometime ago and hit it off straight away. Both of us have a passion for drawing. Cathy is an incredibly talented artist and is very giving with her time and enriches my life with her enthusiasm. Lockdown has mostly been a blessing for artists , many of us work in isolation anyway, so in someways not much changed, well, for me anyway! But recently I have been thinking about how important our relationships with other artists are for our growth and well being.

Cathy invited me to her beautiful garden to draw, we sat in comfortable silence drawing, with the occasion break for a chat and a cup of tea. I cannot tell you how lovely it is to share time in this way, Cathy isn’t the only artist I work alongside. Over the next few weeks I will blog about the artists that enrich my life.

Here I am buried amongst the greenery.

A few of my sketches that morning. I was certainly more productive after a change of scenery and some peppermint tea and hoola hoops!

Well I made it. This painting was done by combining the requested of my Facebook followers. They wanted a snow scene, a cat in snow, tulips and daffodils. The scale isn’t right at all but as it was my 3rd painting today, I’ll be kind to myself! I used references from Creative Commons.

I’ll be blogging about my 30 day challenge in the next few days and I’m planning on exhibiting them sometime in March. I’ll post details on here but please email me if you’d like details of the exhibition to be emailed to you.


Thanks so much for your support. It’s really nice when people see my work and respond to it.

Now where is that glass of wine?!

’Snapchat’ I’ve added a few pounds to my daughter on this one! Oh well, what’s the saying ‘an artist paints himself!’

Oh my goodness. I can’t believe this is the 30th day. To complete the challenge I’m going to paint 3 paintings today. The weather has meant it’s warmer to stay in the house, so I’ll be using gouache for the last ones. I haven’t used gouache before and it’s really good fun. This is a supermarket special,obviously I’ll call it ‘Hyacinth’s promise of Spring’ NFS

Tomorrow is the last day of the challenge and I’m 3 Paintings short, I’ll have to see what I can achieve tomorrow. This is a little different for me and I’ve painted it as a little gift for 2 lovely people who have been through a sad time. Even if they tuck it away in a drawer, they’ll still know why I painted it and what it means.

We’ve been hit by ‘The Beast from the East’ today, which has resulted in very chilly weather, so I decided to stay in the warm and paint in my kitchen. I don’t like to use oils in the house, so this is painted in gouache on board. This one isn’t for sale. I did some sketching in an antique shop at the weekend and this is based on a drawing I did of some red glassware. I’ve jazzed them up with a bit of artistic license!

Another Tulip painting as I enjoyed doing the last one so much. The shapes are so interesting. I let the painting grow on it’s on rather than being a strict representation of life. I’ll call this ‘Two Flames’ oil on board 15cm squared £125 framed.