Christmas

Well it's New Years Eve and one of my resolutions will be to ensure I keep this Blog updated! Things have been quiet painting wise because the children have been off school and it's impossible to get down to any serious painting when they're around. Having said that I've managed to do a few hours a night of drawing when they're in bed. I'm working my way through the 'Charles Bargue' drawing course, which is a lovely thick book full of brilliant drawings. It takes you through increasingly complicated drawings until in theory you are ready to move onto life drawing.

One of my bogey's has always been drawing hands and feet, they never looked right. But this books shows you how to break things down into simple angles. If you can get the big shapes correct, the smaller ones just slot in.

One of the habits I got into last year was keeping a small sketchbook and pen with me all the time to try and sketch at any opportunity. It's really interesting to look back over the year and see how my drawing has improved. I love working in pen because it gives you the freedom of not worrying about any mistakes - They can't be rubbed out! It's a way of keeping a visual diary and is something I wouldn't be without now - It's become a habit.

Lovell House Nativity

Anyway, just would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

Best wishes

Hannah x

Just a quick one to let you all know that I now have Limited Edition prints available of my painting 'Morning Light, Porlock Weir'. There are so many beautiful paintings of the cottages at Porlock Weir, but this morning it was the boats that interested me and in particular the light shining off the water. It was so peaceful and idyllic.

The prints are A3 Giclee limited to 250 and individually numbered and signed. They are £55. For more details give me a shout or see my website: http://www.hannahmerson.com/

Best wishesHannah x

Royal Stud Sandringham

Was incredibly lucky to get the opportunity to paint at the Royal Stud Sandringham yesterday. Thankfully the weather wasn't too bad and we only had to run for cover a couple of times!

Royal Applause

The stud is absolutely beautiful and immaculate and we were so lucky to see 'Motivator', 'Royal Applause' and so many foals.

Sketch - 1



Sketch - 2 Royal Applause

10 min colour block of the stud before it chucked it down!

Hope everyone is having a lovely summer (although it's currently chucking it down here in Nottingham!).

It was the Society of Equestrian Artists annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London last week and I'm over the moon to have won the prize for the best sporting painting for my painting 'Huntsman & Hounds'. The painting was subsequently sold which is even better!

Now I'm working on paintings which will hopefully go to an exhibition at the Sally Mitchell Gallery in Tuxford (keep my fingers crossed they get in!). Hot off the easel is 'The Conversation'. A painting on one of the Masters of the Quorn hunt at their boxing day meet. It was a lovely bright day and I love the colours in the shadow of the chestnut horse.

It's the school summer hols so don't have a lot of free time, but will hopefully manage to get a couple more hunting paintings done in the next couple of weeks!

Best wishes

Hannah x

Sketchbook notes

Over the last year I have gradually increased my use of sketchbooks. Not only for sketching but also for planning paintings and trying out value studies. I use the Moleskin books which come in a range of sizes and the smallest pocket book is great for keeping in my handbag and sketching whilst waiting for the children to come out of school.

Here are some pages from my sketchbooks:

Master Drawings taken from numerous books I have on painting and drawing. I'm trying to re-create their drawings and learn how it was done.

SEA workshop on the 21st May 2011 - Quick pen sketches

Numerous small value (Notan) sketches to try and determine good abstract design for paintings

School run sketches! - Quick 2-5 min pen and ink sketches in my pocket sketchbook

Sketch done out on Barn Hill on Dartmoor. Pen and ink with washes.

None of the sketches are master pieces and some of them are pretty poor. But it's all good practise and it's lovely to look back over the books and the memories they evoke.

Galloping Horses

Have just finished my last entry for the SEA (Society of Equestrian Artists) exhibition at the Mall Galleries. Not sure whether this one will be classified as equestrian related or not, but will keep my fingers crossed!

I did get quite carried away with the thick paint and lovely bright colours. You don't normally get to paint such bright yellows and reds in the landscape.

On Saturday I attended a SEA workshop at a lovely stud farm near Nottingham called 'Sir Nunn's of Pinewood stud'. Our tutor was Malcolm Coward who is a brilliant horse artist and the weather was lovely. The horses were gorgeous although my painting of them was pretty dire! So I've included a photo instead!

The only painting I did come home with which was ok was a little study of some trees.



For the next couple of weeks I need to concentrate on my monthly assignment from Kevin Macpherson (one of my mentors). We're working on keeping our shadow and light family separate and have six new paintings to produce before the 15th June.

Best wishes

Hannah x

Three New paintings

When I started drawing and painting I always strove for hyper realism and people would often comment that they thought my paintings were actually photos. But as time has gone on I've moved further away from that and would describe myself as more of an impressionist. When I paint now I often completely forget the subject and just try to paint each colour in it's correct place. With this method you should end up with an easily recognisable painting of your subject without having given any thought to what it is you're actually trying to paint.

Blue Anchor Beach

6 x 8 inch

Al Fresco Dining, Minehead

8 x 10 inch


Overlooking Minehead from North Hill
6 x 8 inch

The painting above of Minehead was a good example. It's a really complicated subject and to start with I was trying to paint houses rather than colours. It was incredibly frustrating and the painting was terrible. Anyway, I was just about to chuck it in the bin when I started to forget the houses and just paint colour notes. As soon as I could get myself in that frame of mind everything started to look better and become much more 'real'. Kevin Macpherson is a good advocate of this painting method and his books 'Fill your oil paintings with light and color' and 'landscape painting inside & out' describe it in some detail.

Minehead Beach

This little one was done on a glorious day on Minehead beach. It was really hot and hazy looking out over towards the harbour and North hill.

West Street Beach, Watchet

Just a quick one because want to go and make the most of the lovely sunshine. I've been trying to finish off some paintings for an exhibition later in the year but have been getting a bit bogged down in them so decided to have a go at a small 6 x 8 inch painting instead.



It's of West Street Beach in Watchet, Somerset. It was gorgeous with the sun reflecting off the water and a few people wandering up the beach.

Didn't want to do much detail, just tried to get the right colour notes in the right places!

Hannah x

My addiction

I've never been particularly maternal. Even as a little girl I shunned dolls in favour of farms and all the exciting things that came with them like tractors, cows and horses. So it was with some surprise in 2004 when I was working as a senior Finance Manager for the Alliance and Leicester banking group that I fell pregnant with my son Thomas.

Now much as I love my children to bits and would do anything for them, I was completely unprepared for motherhood. The lack of sleep, the crying, the dirty nappies, the vomiting, the tantrums. Life as I knew it was well and truly over. My daughter Gemma followed on 17 months after Thomas and I'll never forget one particularly bad night. It was 3am and I'd been up hours with her as she was sick. I was exhausted, covered in sick and had to get up at 6am to cope with a hyper toddler! I'm not really sure why, but the very next day I dug out some pencils and started drawing. From then on drawing and painting became my means of coping and preserving my sense of self-worth.

People often ask me how I make time for painting with looking after two children. It's easy, I make time for it! There is always something that needs doing - cleaning, cooking, washing, ironing, school runs etc. But chores really are only as important as you make them. I spend the day with the children and then every evening after I've put them to bed I paint. I can normally get two - three hours in a night. If I have a spare hour during the day when they're at school or pre-school I'll go to our local park and do a small 6 x 8 inch painting.

Thomas started school last year and this September Gemma will be off. Like most Mum's it's not a day I'm looking forward to. Not because I'm sad to wave her off (we're both more than ready for that) but because it means I have to make a decision about my future. Go back into Finance or consider trying to make a living from painting (if that's even possible)? My heart says one thing and my head another. So this really does feel like a 'crunch' year for me and I know I need to focus everything I have on improving my painting if I'm to stand any chance at all. But unlike hourseowork, painting is an absolute joy for me not a chore and whatever I decide to do I'll never give it up. I'm not sure I could if I wanted to, I'm addicted!