Margaret's Blog - Page 16 of 16 - Margaret Hall Fine Art

December 19, 2019August 29, 2020

Christmas Paintings in Acrylic on Canvas

Ideas for Christmas Paintings

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Here are some ideas for Christmas paintings.

Small box canvas Christmas paintings in acrylic- Robin, Christmas tree and snow covered village scenes. — The **box canvas Christmas paintings**

I love this time of year but the downside is not having enough time to paint as well as get the house Christmas ready. Of course you have to buy and wrap the pressies, decorate the tree and so on.

So it’s a good idea to : 1] Paint Christmas paintings and card designs the year before and then have them printed in time to send this year.

A watercolour painting of a boy dragging home this year's Christmas tree in the forest. A forest landscape. — **This year’s tree**

And the second strategy is to recycle artwork from previous years, dust them off and arrange them somewhere different in the house.

Mother and child walking through the snow to the Christmas service at church — **Going to Church**

Last year, I took part in the Angel Festival of Hoylandswaine church with my art group. I must say, the church looked brilliant – full of beautiful angels.

A traditional angel walking down the path from Heaven to Earth . — **Angel of Peace**

Do you know , I got so enthused this year that I arranged an angel painting evening at Barnsley and District Art Society. And it was great fun. See more angels in my January post ‘ Mythical Creatures – Including Dragons ! ‘ here

And I did it all before the festive season to cut down on creative stress.

Merry Christmas everyone!

December 5, 2019August 26, 2020

Bright Nights – Light Installation

Christmas Lights at Barnsley Town Hall 2019

Barnsley Town Hall at night with red, purple and blue light installation - our Christmas lights. — **Moody Blue and Purple**

I went to Barnsley Bright Nights Festival at the weekend . The Christmas lights were very spectacular – there were lots of installations around the Town Hall area. Barnsley Town Hall itself was used for a stunning laser light display, focusing on the windows in this splendid building. My photos don’t really capture the beauty of the changing colours but, even so, they gave me some inspiration for Abstract Art compositions. The two photos above made me want to create a painting based on the idea of extra bright blocks of colour against a jet black background. ( Keep an eye on the Abstract section of my Gallery – you never know what might turn up ! )

The Unknown Soldier against the blood red light — **Blood Red**

The tower of the Town Hall in silver and the Christmas tree in blue at Barnsley Bright Nights . — **Silver, Red and Blue**

The floodlighting of the building in a deep red was particularly effective. The idea of blood dripping down over the scene was quite moving. Especially so as the First World War monument, showing the Unknown Soldier on a tall plinth, was silhouetted against the red.

I think I might combine some of the elements of both of the photos above into one painting. So many ideas, so little time ! But I really ought to get a painting of Bright Nights down on canvas .

The Gaia Installation at Barnsley Bright Nights

A photo of the Earth in the Gaia installation at Barnsley college , taken from the balcony above it. Part of Barnsley Bright Nights . — **The Beautiful World**

The Gaia installation in the Barnsley College was ‘out of this world ‘ if you know what I mean. In fact ,it was suspended in space from the top of the huge atrium. As we walked up the winding staircase, we could see it from all angles. And if that doesn’t convince people of the urgency of our situation, I don’t know what would.

But quite apart from climate change worries, I started thinking about painting an abstract , I was inspired by the beautiful globe of green, blue and quite a lot of brown ( taken from NASA photos ) . I imagined a composition of swirling shapes, wispy clouds and the Deep Blue. Quite a lot of inspiration for one day.

November 24, 2019September 16, 2020

Art Cafe Exhibition of Acrylic Paintings

Acrylic Paintings in an Art Cafe Exhibition in Rotherham

A photo of my oil pastel painting Apples and Fantasy Apples showing bright red apples in the art cafe exhibition . — **Apples and Fantasy Apples**

My acrylic painting Harbour Lights on the wall in the art cafe.A coastal landscape — **Harbour Lights**

This is the first post on my new blog. That is to say , I’m just getting this new blog going. Stay tuned for more. Meanwhile , this is my Art cafe exhibition !

When I was in Rotherham for a meeting on Friday, I popped into a lovely cafe Fitzwilliam and Hughes to have a look at 2 of my paintings that they have very kindly displayed – one right next to the counter! Actually, the cafe is close to the impressive Minster and you get really good views of it through the large windows.

A photo of the arched doorway of Rotherham Minster - great artists' inspiration. — **Rotherham Minster**

A photo of the art cafe doorway in Art Nouveau style - inside you can see my artcafe exhibition. — **The Art Cafe**

The Floods in South Yorkshire 2019

After enjoying good coffee and seriously good brownies, we walked back to the car parked next to the mighty River Don. Thankfully, the river has now gone down after last week’s floods. But it still seems to be flowing at a slightly alarming rate.

A photo of the River Don in full flow after the floods, taken in the town centre — **The Mighty River Don**

A photo of counter, the till and my painting of apples in the cafe — **Art Cafe**

There was lots of lovely artwork on the walls in the café, so I felt very pleased to be included in their current exhibition. And you can see these 2 paintings along with others in my Gallery

In fact, there’s loads more of my acrylic paintings on show now in Skelmanthorpe Library Gallery – have a look at the ‘ My First Solo Exhibition ‘ post here