Blog | MJHodgeArt Reverse Oil Paintings by Melanie Hodge | mjhodge

Workshop Wonders

Sun, 23 Oct 2016 08:52:20 +0100

My October workshop was a full house with two first time beginners and two returning artists looking to develop their work further. I am so very pleased to have their permission to share their work with you!

Exeter Street Christmas Fair

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 18:23:26 +0100

My one and only Christmas Fair appearance this season will be in Brighton on Sunday, 27 November. Follow the links below for directions on how to find it and I hope to see you there!

www.exeterstreethall.org (includes map for finding the venue)

You can also follow @ExeterStHall…

Meditation: Migration

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 18:40:24 +0100

It was chance and my good fortune that I was born into a family that could look after me, in a country that offered security, with the means and opportunity to follow my dreams at every step.

I know that not everyone is so lucky and with every refugee who dies while seeking the security, stability and safe future for their children that I still too often take for granted - I feel the loss of their dreams. …

Big Heart Charity Auction

Sat, 21 May 2016 10:46:40 +0100

I have donated one of my works, “Cottage by the Sea - 1” to the Big Heart Auction 2016.

The online eBay auction was open from 1-10 July 2016

Opening at 9 pm on 1 July

All money raised during the online auction was split between Chestnut Tree House (80%) and Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival’s Umbrella Club (20%). …

Print Magic

Mon, 16 May 2016 09:11:16 +0100

As I was preparing my prints for the Brighton Artists Open Houses this month, promote them via social media and continue to talk about them to visitors to The Magic Lamp house I have had lots of really lovely feedback and no little curiousity about how I get my prints “looking so good.”

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Staying Local in June

Fri, 13 May 2016 19:08:11 +0100

Coming up next (after my Brighton Artists Open Houses adventure is over and Amberley Museum’s Traditional Craft Fair has come and gone) will be the Burgess Hill Summer Festival and the opening of the annual Burgess Hill Artists Summer Exhibition!

For the second year running we will be at the Woolpack Pub, so fancy a pint? …

Ready, Set & Artists Open Houses GO!

Fri, 29 Apr 2016 17:23:18 +0100

It has seriously been a crazy two months -

and this is just a quick summary to share the journey with you so far, as it ain’t over yet.

In February I confirmed my place in The Magic Lamp (Facebook / Website) for the annual Brighton Artists Open Houses. It was hugely exciting as participating in one of the largest Artists Open Houses in the UK has been a slow-burn project I finally felt ready for.

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Naively Inspired

Tue, 12 Apr 2016 17:57:33 +0100

If you’ve read Ready, Set & Go you’ll understand when I say THIS page is a work in progress!

It is coming though and when it does, it’s going to be a real treat as I’ll be featuring and sharing the work of some of the Croatian Naive artists who have had, and continue to have, a massive influence on my work and creative practices.

Artist Q&A

Thu, 17 Mar 2016 11:58:30 +0000

To help publicise the Big Heart Auction 2016 I was asked to complete an Artist Q&A. As it may not be published in its complete form anywhere else, I am offering my answers here in one, nice and tidy, post ;)

I don’t promise my answers will be the same tomorrow or next year, but for now, here’s an inside look at what I do, why I do it, how I do it and what inspires me when the skies are grey.

Just Letting Go

Sat, 06 Feb 2016 10:06:43 +0000

I teach an art class for Carers once a week and as it’s the dead of winter, with grey clouds looming, lurgies stalking at every turn and unexpected Caring duties interrupting every well laid plan, I wanted to try something different, something that would bring colour to the grey and chase the ‘blehs’ away even if just for just an hour or two. …

Review of the Technique

Tue, 05 Jan 2016 20:17:08 +0000

Originally written as one of the Exhibition Notes to accompany my 2015 exhibition “Through a Looking Glass” this is a ‘better late than never’ blog post! If you’ve already read up on the technique in the About page, then this won’t be needed - but if you’re new to my work then this is as good a place to start as anywhere. …

Painting Time into RagTime

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 16:49:31 +0000

Time-lapse photography turns30+ hours of painting time into 1m 31s of ragtime.

Don’t forget to breathe!

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Click on the play arrow if image doesn’t immediately load.

For more videos please visit my Time Lapse & Video Gallery

The Secret is Out!

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 12:48:04 +0000

Featured below is my first ever Twitter commission - commissioned by her for him, it has now been given so I can share the final artwork with you for the first time!

To catch up on the process please link through to the Diary of a Painting page now,

and to read the Q&A with the commissioning client (and see my own thoughts on the process) then make sure to click through …

“white"

Mon, 12 Oct 2015 12:39:21 +0100

The autumn sunshine casts ever longer and cooler shadows as the season changes and one more summer falls into memory. As the heavy coats come out of hiding, the sky shows a white woolen face that encourages longer lie-ins and shorter to-do lists so that it is easy to feel winter drawing near.

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Traditions @Amberley

Tue, 14 Jul 2015 15:35:13 +0100

I spent a slightly grey day in June out at Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre,

keeping company with a hat maker, a lace maker and quilter in the Hayloft

as we demonstrated our crafts, gossiped and giggled during the

inaugural Traditional Crafts weekend.

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Outside there were ceramic painters, blacksmiths, spinners and knitters,

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Doppelgänger Duality

Wed, 06 May 2015 18:49:39 +0100

I've been preparing a portfolio of my work to show galleries and to include in proposals for future projects. It's the 'Dark Side of My Art' as I like to call it: the administration, promotion, publicity and niggling-iggling bits that must be done, but which are never quite as much fun as the swirly, twirly, and reflective bits I like the best.

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Animal Enigmas: Mullet

Sun, 26 Apr 2015 18:25:14 +0100

Now your dreaming is mullet [fish].

Mullet is travelling ocean to ocean, creek to creek, river to river.

Representing you and I when we travel, looking for our destiny.

Words of Wukun Wanambi - British Museum exhibition, "Larrakitj" - April 2015

In the time it takes me to bring a work from first idea to final brushstroke it's meaning to me can change many times over, often within a heartbeat and back again before I've blinked. It is an endless tidal cycle of revelations and understandings that come and go, pulling and tugging at the differences between what I think and what I feel in any given instant.

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Grounded in the Croatian Naive

Sat, 11 Apr 2015 18:17:33 +0100

It's spring again and every spring I go back to my roots in the Croatian Naive - making connections between the seasonal lives of the early peasant-painters in this tradition and my own studio to garden balance. As such, I have decided to post one the notes for my upcoming …

Photo of the Artist

Thu, 09 Apr 2015 18:40:37 +0100

After over 100 hours of painting, drying, cleaning, photographing and yet more cleaning, I invited my son in to the studio to take a photo of me through the glass.

"Wow, it looks like you found an Old Master after all," my son began promisingly . . .

before he continued, "Actually, it looks more like an Old Mistress to me."

Quote of the Day: "Now . . .

Tue, 24 Mar 2015 15:21:58 +0000

"Now I become myself ." ~ May Sarton

I sent an invitation for my exhibition opening to a dear friend. There was very little likelyhood she'd be able to travel across the Atlantic to be here, but she's gone and done the next nearest, bestest thing. She's sent me this cache of beautiful words: