September Musings: As the Season Begins to Turn

There’s something about September in the Lake District that always makes me slow down and notice things a little differently.

The light begins to soften, the greens start to fade, and there’s that very first sense of autumn arriving - not quite here, but quietly making itself known.

I recently gathered moments I’ve captured over the years of signs of this seasonal change, and made a little film from it - capturing the essence of Autumn in the Lake District.

A first look at Woven Echo

There’s a new painting sitting quietly in my studio that I haven’t introduced yet.

Woven Echo began, as many of my paintings do, from feeling and moments from time in nature. It developed through layers of colour, texture, gradually becoming something quite different from the place where it began.

I kept thinking of the feeling of “everything” - I wanted the colour to feel like everything, the mood to feel like everything, all at once.

I always love this stage with a new painting: that moment when it leaves the very private world of the studio and begins to meet other people for the first time.

Woven Echo is 80 × 80 cm, and is ready to join a home - get in touch if you’d like any extra details

A few little paintings found their homes in August

Last month was also a lovely month for some of the smaller works in the studio.

Bramble Silence, Petal Heights and Luminous Rush - three quite different little pieces - all found new homes.

There’s something about these smaller paintings… They may take up less physical space, but each one still holds its own little collection of marks, colours and memories from the landscape.

And one of my favourite things is seeing where a painting belongs once it leaves the studio...

Velvet Breeze, now at home

Last month, Velvet Breeze left the studio for its new home, and I was recently sent this photograph of it hanging in a newly renovated bedroom by the lovely owner.

I think it looks rather happy there don’t you?

Seeing a painting in its new surroundings is such a special part of what I do. After spending so long with something in the studio, watching it become part of someone else's home - and their everyday life - never really loses its magic.

Back to the canvas

There’s a rather different project waiting for me over the next few weeks.

During my artist residency in London back in April, I made a very large piece on loose canvas by throwing paint directly onto the wall, building up a huge splattered starting point.

It was energetic, chaotic and very much a product of those two (wonderfully) intense weeks environment.

Now, months later, I’m going to take that canvas and begin painting over it.

Not refining what’s already there, but transforming it into something completely new.

I’m particularly excited about working at such a large scale again, and about seeing what might emerge from something that currently looks so far from finished.

And finally, I’ll soon be delivering a new bespoke commission from the studio - another painting ready to leave my hands and begin its own story somewhere new.

It feels like a fitting time of year for that: one season gently giving way to another, and things in the studio shifting with it.

For now, I’m enjoying these last traces of summer in the Lakes, while keeping an eye on the first signs of autumn.

Wishing you all the best for the coming month, and I look forward to catching up again next time.

Charlotte x