Katharine Rowe

We have moved house in the past few weeks which is why I have not been blogging as often as I might. Here is a picture of my new studio – a lovely room that gets afternoon sun. Toastie, the dog is fully acclimatised and snoozing in her bed. The house needs a lot of work – in my studio the posters are strategically placed over the peeling walls! The studio is very low on the pecking order of rooms to be redecorated which suits me fine.

You can just see on the easel, the first painting I’ve made in the new house, an oil sketch of some freesias in a green glass.

My lovely neighbour, Yvette, lent me her gourds to paint last week.  The patterns and colours of gourds are so vibrant and feel so Autumnal, they were a delight to paint.  I prepared the canvas with a yellow ground and decided to leave some of it showing. I also purposefully composed the still life so that part of the gourds were ‘off canvas’ so that it didn’t look too neat and tidy.

This is the second in my series of paintings from Costa Rica.  The mangroves were so still yet so full of life and lush foliage.

We took our first big adventurous family holiday this year to Costa Rica. It was so exciting to take the children somewhere so different from the UK and see such an array of fabulous animals (sloths consistently winning the ‘best animal seen today prize’). I was really inspired by the vibrant colours of the jungle and made several watercolours and took many photographs of the flora. I now plan to work on a series of Jungle paintings. Here is a step by step record of my first one.

Costa Rican Jungle, 85x45cm framed, £800

I’m making the most of peonies being in season and have used three glass vases here to explore the different play of light on different shapes of glass. The painting is not currently framed but I am going to frame it in a moulded pale grey frame with a white slip.

Today is my last day in Sprout Arts. It’s been a fantastic 10 days in this lovely gallery.

Many thanks to all those who have come to the exhibition.

This is one of the paintings on display in my exhibition at Sprout Arts in Furzedown. It is so lovely that peonies are back in season, my favourite flower.

Pink and white peonies in enamel jug, 60x80cm framed, £850

I am happily exhibiting again at the lovely Sprout Arts gallery in the Furzedown area of Tooting.  I opened this morning and will be open until Thursday 25th May. Do pop in if you are in the area.

74 Moyser Road, Furzedown, SW16 6SQ.

I have been working on a fabulous and unusual commission over the past few weeks; two baby elephants on a pink background. Here are the steps that I work through for a commission, starting with a watercolour sketch and then the oil painting in 5 steps.

Congratulations to my friend Laura Culpan for curating this fantastic exhibition and sale of gorgeous cubes filled by over 50 different international artist in aid of The Cure Parkinsons Trust. The sale opened at 8am yesterday and by the time I had visited at 10am half the works had sold. Not surprising as there were some gorgeous pieces included.

On until tomorrow at Bonhams, New Bond St. London.  https://cure3.co.uk/artworks/