Early Work
These paintings follow my journey through starting to attempt painting again and the path it has taken me. As I ventured back into painting disaster struck with a hand injury which meant for quite a period of time I couldn’t work creating glass jewellery. Sharing my painting and my journey through depression meant I met some wonderful and inspiring people. By focusing on helping others amazing opportunities came my way, and so this wonderful new journey began.
Poppies
Original Acrylic on Oil Paper 20cm x 20cm
This painting was inspired by some beautiful photographs taken by Maureen Furlong who kindly agreed I could use them as reference, and was my first attempt at painting in many years. My father Vernon Mabbott was a superb fine art painter. His work is simply exquisite in detail and light. I always felt by comparison I couldn’t paint at all. It was whilst working my way through depression after losing Dad and seeing Maureen’s photos that I had the desire to try again and paint. This time however, I just wanted to create something really quite carefree and impressionistic. I didn’t want to limit myself by expectation of anything good. In all honesty all of the pieces I have done since that I really love have been just that, painting without expectation. A little like ‘dancing like no-one is watching’. Whilst creating this little painting, I had music playing and was happily singing my heart out. It was so therapeutic and I was shocked how pretty it looked when finished. It is light, bright and very summery.
The Boat Trip
Original Acrylic on oil paper 30cm x 40cm
As painting ‘Poppies’ had made me so happy my family were urging me to paint more, so the ‘Boat Trip’ was my next painting. It was inspired by a photograph I took whilst holidaying on Lake Como. Whilst visiting various towns via one of the lake ferries I spotted this beautiful scene as we stepped off the jetty. It was an exceedingly hot sunny day and the water absolutely crystal clear it looked so inviting and I just adored the colours. It was a real challenge to paint, but somehow came together. I think my Dad was probably helping me along!
Tuscan Lavender
Original acrylic on oil paper 38cm x 30cm
This painting is from my imagination as I had never been fortunate enough to visit and experience a lavender field in bloom before, I also couldn’t find any reference photos that worked for me. I liked the idea of being in Tuscany with mountains on the horizon, being surrounded by rolling countryside and the slightly ramshackle lavender farm buildings in the distance. This painting has special meaning for me as it was the first one I felt brave enough to share on social media. The warm, kind and enthusiastic response was amazing. There was a great deal of publicity about mental health awareness at the time, so I was doubly brave and touched upon the fact that I had come to painting whilst working through depression. This prompted Anne-Marie Gawen to contact me, and asked if I could maybe use my art to help others through promoting the mindful and therapeutic benefits of painting and arts and crafts. I would like to mention that Anne-Marie is an amazing, well qualified and knowledgeable lady regarding mental health illnesses. She works hard helping and teaching others to be better aware and also to train as a Mental Health First Aider. It is through her that I now use my art to bring awareness of mental health matters and where I can, help others too. Painting and various forms of art is so beneficial to well being, I have had a great deal of fun and have met many wonderful people whilst playing with art.
Panda
Original acrylic on canvas 30.5cm x 30.5cm
A beautiful and playful young panda cub. This painting was inspired by a dear friend’s photo. Anne Cope kindly agreed that I could use it to attempt a painting. It truly was ‘attempted’ as this was painted with my left hand as I had badly injured my right hand. In truth I hadn’t anticipated it working out as it did, I was simply having huge fun daubing paint, including iridescent paint in my palette. The original painting is very small but also sparkly (in a subtle way). I don’t use black paint as I adore colour too much and believe that there are hidden colours in just about everything.
Little Panda prints have been so popular and brought so much pleasure. It is quite remarkable the amount of people who have shared their joy and delight with me when either receiving or buying a print. This included a fabulous video message I received on Christmas day as a little girl (who is nuts about pandas) opened her framed print.
Little King
Original acrylic on box canvas 50cm x 50cm
I adore Kingfishers and at the time of painting this I had only ever fleetingly seen them twice in my life. The painting was inspired by a local photographer who sadly is no longer with us, Steve Chadd. His brother Michael had contacted me as Michael had loved my paintings and wanted to show me his brothers passion - nature photography. His photography is gorgeous, I was really honoured that Michael had got in touch and that Steve allowed me to use his photo as reference. I have applied a good deal of artistic licence but I absolutely loved painting this. The limited edition series of this painting is only very small and we are now nearly sold out.
Mr Hare
Original Acrylic on canvas 14 inches by 18 inches
This painting was inspired by a beautiful photograph taken by Natasha Weyers, I just loved the character of the hare and the light she had captured. He looks like he is almost saying ‘can I help you?’ The background has metallic layers which are subtly mixed with other acrylic paint. I wanted to give the feel of a soft focus cornfield behind him. As with all of my paintings (with the exception of ‘Mystique’) I have used deep rich colours to accent the darkest areas of the fur and eyes and not black. This was the first painting back with my right hand again. I was purposely leaving the style a little more loose and expressive whilst trying to achieve a realistic feel to Mr. Hare.
Tall Trees
Original on wood panel 25.5cm x 51cm
This was another piece where I was playing in a impressionistic style whilst painting with my left hand (my right hand was still recovering from a bad injury). The inspiration was an autumnal walk in local woodlands. It is just some fun playing with acrylic paints, I was also using some metallic and iridescent paint - well why not!
The background base layers were a mix of copper and gold paint mixed with gel medium. Many iridescent paints are quite translucent so you can attain some very pretty effects playing with them. Whilst this isn’t a painting I have shared before, it is about just sitting and enjoying yourself experimenting with paint. I had no expectation as to how it would turn out, very impressionistic, I do think it is quite pretty.
More Artwork
Click on one of the images below to see more of my works
