Merry Christmas Everyone and a happy new year!

How lovely it is to have a few days just doing nice things like eating good food, having lazy mornings in bed and giving and opening pressies:D

My gorgeous man, Matthew, has bought a new laptop for me and I'll be moving house again soon to somewhere less expensive, so i'll be able to afford to be online at home and keep up with my blog and stuff much more easily!

I think I've mentioned before how I usually really struggle in the winter, I hate the cold and the unrelenting greyness, but so far this winter I'm feeling very positive and excited about the upcoming new year, maybe I'm finally suceeding in changing my habitual thinking patterns, wouldn't that be great :D

Christmas day at Matthews sisters house. Me cuddling their new dog, a gorgeous cocker spaniel called Bruno.

Some new work, Falling Cherry Blossom at a shrine in Kyoto.

 Details from Falling Cherry Blossom at Heian Jingu, one of my fave shrines in Kyoto.

The full painting, it makes me feel happy but nostalgic for my year in Japan as cherry blossom season in Kyoto is one of the beautiful things I've ever seen. It rendered me into an excited little girl who finds herself suddenly transported into her favourite fairy tale. I intend to do a whole series of falling cherry blossom paintings just for the fun and beauty of it all.

xxx

What a lot of beautiful pictures!

 My Spring Flowers in the entrance to the gallery. This piece had a lot of admirers:D

 The hallway that Michael Howard and I shared.

Still-Life with Cyclamen and Azalea. One of my paintings that I'm most happy with!

The room I shared with Michael. I think our work really complements each other, we both love to paint within the still-life genre but we have very different styles.

 The wonderful Ghislaine Howard in the kitchen part of the gallery.

 A new friend taking part in the art trail for children, more on that another time.

 Michael Howard in the big room, no doubt creating a wonderful piece of writing.

Mombreesia. This is another piece of work by me that drew many postive comments, everyone loves that blast of colour against the blue.

 Paintings by the very talented Ian Mood.

 In the kitchen.

The big room.

I've had such a fabulous time being involved in the exhibition that has just ran at the Ghislaine Howard Studio Gallery. I feel very priviliged to have taken part in this and I loved every minute, I'm just sad that's it's finished now. 
I shall hopefully be exhibiting there again in the Derbyshire Open Studio Weekend in May though:D

I'll post again soon.

xxx

Getting Closer!

This is the corner of my living room where I paint and generally make a mess:D I love having lots of my favourite images up around me for inspiration. I tend to put unfinished things up too, it's good to live with them for a while and allow time for them to suggest what they want me to do to them next!

My friend thought this should be the other way up, but it's a weeping cherry tree in front of one of the many beautiful vermillion shrines in kyoto, so it is actually the right way up!

I've been very busy creating new work and I'm loving every minute of it, I feel like i'm on a roll and it doesn't always happen like this so I'm enjoying it while I can:D
The exhibition at the Ghislaine Howard Studio Gallery starts this weekend and I feel like a little kid I'm so excited.

Ghislaine now has a fantastic new website, take a look:
http://ghislainehoward.com/

I have a small section on there now too with a few of my images from the show:
http://ghislainehoward.com/tracy-cupitt/

Love and light on this snowy day, I'm off to get warm and to do some more work....

xxx

Exhibition at the Ghislane Howard Studio Gallery

Card for the exhibition

Red Berries, White Vase

Spring Blossom in a Milk Bottle

Spring Blossom

I'm very excited to be exhibiting in the Ghislaine Howard Studio Gallery in the upcoming winter show! 

It starts next weekend on Sat 4th Nov.  Today we've started putting some of the work on the walls of the galley, trying to get a sense of where things are going to go. It's really satisfying to see it all coming together now. I have 4 paintings still at the framers, I get those on Monday and then the work of hanging the show, and getting the space ready can really begin:D

Also exhibiting are Michael Howard, Cordelia Howard and Ian Mood.

Not only is Ghislaine a fantastic painter but she makes great cakes too. I don't know where she finds the time but it's going to be a wonderful exhibition.

I'll post more over the next couple of days, Ghislaine's getting a new website and I've been working on some new paintings, a couple of which are above.

Love and Light

xxx

Autumn colour and excitment:D

Exciting times are ahead, and indeed are happening now, I can feel it in the air!
It's autumn and I've been made redundant, but strangely I feel really optimistic. One thing has come to an end and that can only leave space for new things to enter.
In-between searching for jobs I'm enjoying having the time to go for walks in my local Manor Park, the colours have been beautiful this year.


Also, I have an exhibition coming up in a few weeks so I'm doing some new work and feeling very creative. I'll post it here first of course, just as soon as it's finished and scanned in. I'll post the flyer here too when I get a copy of it.


For now here's some of my favourite pics from the park.

Love and Light
xxx

Mythic Coastline Competition

Formy shipwreck, with more than a little help from my imagination.

Mirabel in the Autumn Forest

Well, what a frenzied weekend of paper, paint and a very messy flat as I worked very hard to do 2 new paintings for a competition. A friend told me about it just recently and I only had the weekend to get everything done. I really like working to a deadline though, and I like having some kind of brief to work towards. Too many possiblities sometimes end up with nothing getting done, as I think I've said before.

Of course it would've helped if my scanner had worked when I came to scan them in! As it was I used my trusty new camera to take a (slightly less than sharp) picture. They were a bit dark as I didn't finish till late last night but I'm hoping they're acceptable to the judges. When I get my scanner working I'll post some better quality images.

The competition is to illustrate a childrens book provisionally entitled 'Between the Moon and the Earth'.

xxx

A few pics....

Me with some ongoing work in the background.

This is an older piece of work that I like and that a lot of people commented on the Derbyshire Open. It was inspired by Japanese screens. I produced a lightbox using this image that hangs in Blackburn Hospital in the waiting room. I'll try and find the picture from the paper and scan it in and post it here. A lot of people that see my work say they love my sense of colour, that it very healing! That made me feel good:D

This is my stencil design after I started using it for some small paintings. They should be finished soon so watch this space.

Love and light xx

Finally....

Wow, I have finally managed to create my own website and Etsy shop:D For someone who loves using good old fashioned materials, pens, pencils, paint and paper, this is quite an achievement!

It's meant to be easy using an online site builder but the first one I tried, 123, I just couldn't get the hang of, so I switched to vista print and their process was really straightforward thankfully, even I managed it:D Can you tell how pleased with myself I am? It's 8.45 in the morning, I'm at work, and I'm grinning.

Please take a look and let me know what you think.

http://www.tracyemmacupitt.co.uk/

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TracyEmmaCupitt

Love and light xxx

New pics and ideas

Ok, I have a plan! It's been a bit of a stressful time lately really, I've moved house, again, (the last place was too cold in the winter and I detest being cold), also, there is looming redundancy due to Government cuts in the public sector, my job finishes at the end of September and there's not a lot out there to take it's place.

After much reflection and procrastination (one of my key skills!), I've decided to take a part time post with a drop in wages but also finally get myself into gear and open up my etsy shop and create a website for myself in the hope of actually reaching the people out there in the big wide world that would love to buy my work. I know you're out there somewhere! I have beautiful work to offer and it will will be just right for some people, so I just need to start believing I can do it and just do it. I'm going to try at least, and not only am I going to try but I'm going to enjoy trying, I'm feeling really positive about everything despite the fact I shall be very poor for a while!

So, I'm currently sat designing my website and uploading my pics, I'm not a professional website designer so I'm using an online tool, it will be suitable for my small needs at this time, and in the future, who knows?

I'll keep you updated.

meanwhile, some more pics....

This is how the triptych looks as a whole on my wall, I do believe each piece stands on it's own too though.

My beautiful new Buddha statue in my living room, I found it in a local charity shop and I can't tell you how happy I am with it, he's just perfect:D

Detail of the Japanese Obi fabric I have hanging by the side of my window (to the right of Buddha), so pretty:D

Much Love XXX