Lemon Meringue Pie with Cream

Acrylic Painting on wood panel with water-soluble crayons (in progress)

Funny title, eh? Let me explain:

I've been using a very limited palette in my recent mixed-media paintings. To help me remember, I've come up with this phrase:

• Lemon = Lemon! (no prizes there!)

• Meringue = Magenta (my paint tube is Quinachridone Violet but I think of it as magenta)

• Pie = Payne's Grey (an indispensible alternative to black - it's softer with more blue in it)

• With = White

• Cream = Cyan, a cool blue that mixes well with lemon to make clean greens.

All of the work I've done on this page uses these five colours with a couple of small exceptions. (An artist must always feel free to break their own rules!)

Close-up detail of the painting above

I recently attended another great course at Lund Studios with the lovely landscape painter Freya Horsley. It was called Exploring Landscape in Mixed Media From Sketchbook to Studio. On the first day, our group went to Yeardsley Woods to sketch beside a small lake there (or large pond?) Over the next two days we worked on a number of larger pieces using mainly acrylic paint.

Freya showed us how to prepare an interesting textured surface to work on - the detail above shows some of the 3D qualities. I really enjoyed pushing paint into the grooves almost as though I was inking up a collagraph plate for printing. For the painting above, I introduced the white horizon line late in the process to loosely represent the water's edge and began introducing some lines with crayons but I have more to do to bring this to completion.

Acylic painting loosely representing the view through the trees of the lake

For all these pieces, I used the limited palette described above. Why did I do that? Well, I thought the colours I could mix from this selection were very apt for the subject matter and, because I'd been mixing them extensively for other work, I felt more confidant to use them. It reduced the number of choices and helped me to focus on other things like the composition, mark-making and layering. I'm really pleased with the soft glazes in the one above. It's fascinating to see how colours change when you layer one clear glaze over another.

One of the sketches I made whilst sitting beside the lake, looking through the trees

The lake as Yearsley Woods. I made a sketch from this angle and another looking through the trees on the left. Yellow flag iris in the foreground

The sketching day began quite overcast but in the afternoon we enjoyed glorious sunshine. I love making new creative friends on an art course. We all understand one another and think it's perfectly normal to sit quietly and draw all day! You can talk or sit in companionable silence as you work. We share our efforts and offer help and encouragement to one another.

Acrylic painting with inks and marker-pen

The one above takes a more traditional approach to drawing the trees and branches whilst for the one below, I went a bit more expressive using a bottle of fluid paint to draw with. There's no room for hesitation working like that so it's best to go with the flow as they say!

Acrylic painting - view through the trees with reflections

This is a colour chart I made showing colour-mixing possibilities with the five colours plus yellow ochre. This is fascinating to do and I really recommend it if you're starting out with painting. Remember to note how you mixed the colour so you can mix it again!

Following on from my Animal Magic mixed-media paintings, I've been creating more collage papers and backgrounds using my "Spring Palette" as I call it. By keeping the range of colours restricted, it should mean that all the pieces co-ordinate and have strong colour relationships with one another. I got this idea from Louise Fletcher on her YouTube channel

A selection of painted papers that I think will work well together. I can see a tiger in the forest...

I've been working on backgrounds and collage papers simultaneously with around three layers of colour and a variety of techniques. I then shuffle through the piles and start putting together papers that seem to work well next to each other. Next, I have all the fun of cutting and sticking shapes. I hope to create more animals in the landscape. This is an approach I've only been working with for a few months so I'm not quite sure where it's all going! I'm just enjoying the journey!

Details of collage papers which all have the same 5 colours in them

Below, is the first composition to take shape in this new series. It came together quite quickly using collage pieces that were just "lion" around! I must confess to you that I used some vermillion ink and cadmium yellow when making the paper for the poppies to give a really powerful colour "pop" so I did break my own colour rules! But, hey, I'm an artist so I can do that!

Tiger with Poppies acrylic painting with collage

I just need to add the "Eye of the Tiger" to complete this piece. It will be offered for sale when I have a nice collection to show you but feel free to get in touch if you'd like an early head's up about it. Sign up for my emails (below), if you haven't already, to be first in line to see my new work and have the opportunity to purchase.