The Blackbird Sings

Art 7 Exhibition at Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

As I'm in the middle of preparing for this show - it's a last-minute mad rush as usual! - I just wanted to stop by quickly to let you know that I'll be exhibiting some new paintings on canvas, fine art prints, and painted stone collections at Art 7 next week. It promises to be a varied and interesting show in a lovely gallery space, so please do come along if you're in the area. I'd love to see you there! I'll be attending both of the Private Views, and I'll also be in the gallery occasionally throughout the week.

I'll share the landscape paintings I've been working on for the exhibition on the blog very soon. In the meantime, please check out the artists featured (links below).

Natasha Newton: www.natasha-newton.co.uk

Emma Green: www.emmagreen.co.uk

Nicki Holt: www.nickiholtprints.co.uk

Ray Burgoyne: www.replusnew.com/artists/ray-burgoyne

Ken Kempley: www.kenkempleyart.com

Studio Tour

The Blackbird Sings Studio /// Photographs © Natasha Newton 2013

 Over the weekend I decided that the time had come to have a bit of a change-around in the studio. Frankly, it was a mess. It needed to be thoroughly cleaned, stuff needed to be thrown away, everything needed to be tidied, and I was longing to rearrange the furniture.

I moved into my freshly-redecorated-and-furnished studio back in late Spring 2012, but didn't add the finishing touches to the space until the Summer. You may have seen it in this blog post here. Anyway, having worked in the room for several months, I decided that - as pretty as it looked - I could make better use of the space. I've also been having a lot of migraines and migraine related problems over the past few weeks and I know a lot of it stems from tension in my shoulders and neck. When I'm working at the table on flat watercolour paintings, I tend to hunch over and hold myself in a certain position for hours. If you're an artist or illustrator, you may have experienced this problem.

I bought a great tilted drawing board a couple of years ago (this one) but, in its previous location, my studio table was never fully extended (I bought this Ikea Bjursta table in white) and therefore was always too cluttered to make room for the drawing board. After months of suffering, I'd finally had enough. It became clear that I needed to find a new place for the table so that I could fully extend it; to make room for the drawing board and also make use of the great natural light coming in through the window.

So I moved the table into the nook between the wardrobe/storage cupboard and window, and the easel (for larger canvas paintings) and office chair moved to the other end of the room. The long metal cabinet was relocated to where the table used to be. It took the best part of a day to totally clean and rearrange the room, but it was so worth it! It's much more practical, and the space feels larger, which is an unexpected bonus.

In other news, I'm off to Aldeburgh with Leon for a week-long holiday (we'll be working as well as relaxing) on Wednesday. The cottage we're staying in should have an internet connection, so I'm hoping to be able to blog from there! I can't wait...

Related articles

Images from the studio...

A Quick Update and Some Recent Pieces

Getting Into the New Project

Recent Press

My work has been featured in a couple of magazines this month, so I thought I'd share them with you. The first is an article in this month's Suffolk magazine (the December edition), called 'A minimalist take on nature', and secondly my painting 'Under Starry Skies 1' was chosen by the editor of the Ufford Punch (a little local monthly magazine) for the front cover. A big thank you to the editor of each magazine for featuring me!

Related articles

Ground & Sky Exhibition: Gallery Photos At Last!

Creative Business: New Ideas and Moving Forward

Two Different Worlds

I'm so sorry I haven't posted anything on the blog for nearly a month. Yes, a month. Where does the time go? It's pretty scary. As you may have guessed, I've been working hard on my upcoming solo show at Snape Maltings Gallery (now called Ground & Sky), and panicking a little here and there because the work wasn't coming along as quickly as I'd hoped. I've also had to deal with other distractions too, but I now have ten pieces finished with more in progress. I've also completed the collections of painted stones for the show, so that's another job done!

With less than three weeks to go until the opening, I still have to send out the invitations to the people on my mailing list - thankfully the gallery designed and printed the invitations for me, as well as sending them to all of the people on their list - and I have to do an interview for the EADT Suffolk magazine who will be featuring an article on me in their November issue. I also need to finish maybe another ten paintings, and then transport the paintings to the gallery and hang the show. Not much then... ;)

By the way, if you'd like to come along to the opening, please do so - it's on Saturday 20th October at Snape Maltings Gallery, and I will be there between 12-3pm. Come along, have a drink, have a chat, look at some art - it would be great to see you there!

My two worlds: Suffolk, UK and Paris, France.

Photographs © Natasha Newton 2012 (via Instagram)

Another reason for my blog-silence is that I went to Paris for 8 days between 18th-26th September, so that involved quite a bit of preparation / travelling / general busyness and upheaval. We had a wonderful week though, and even managed to visit my favourite Italian restaurant in Leon's neighbourhood before I left to come back to Suffolk. Onion pizza, green salad, and penne arrabiata. Sooooo good... (Given the choice, I'd quite happily eat Italian food exclusively for the rest of my life).

Anyway, as it's time for me to get back to work, I'll say goodbye for now. Have a good week! x

The New Blackbird Sings Studio (Photos - at last!)

This week I finally finished my new studio space! As I mentioned in the previous blog post, I'd had to put it on hold for a little while so that I could concentrate on meeting my art deadlines by the end of July, but I was keen to complete the studio this week because I'm now making a start on the work for my upcoming solo show this Autumn. I wanted everything to be organised and tidy before I start working like an absolute maniac over the next couple of months or so - I've discovered from experience that if my workspace is tidy I can actually work more efficiently and not feel quite so overwhelmed. That's the general idea anyway. ;)

I also recently found the final piece of furniture I was looking for - a metal cabinet / sideboard, which is now providing much needed storage and display space. So without further ado, let's get on to the photos - I've added little notes to a few of them in case you're interested in knowing where you can get something similar. If you'd like to ask me any questions about the organsation of the space / what I find works for me / or if I've missed anything out, just ask in the comments section below. I will say just one thing though: IKEA is the most fantastic place for kitting-out a studio. Many of their everyday pieces of furniture are perfect for studio use and storage - I don't know what I would have done without them!

Photographs of The Blackbird Sings Studio © Natasha Newton 2012