Happy Painting with Colour!

I've been working on the second, of what may turn out to be a series of paintings about where I live.  'The Barn' is a social club down the valley road in Marlow Bottom.  You're always sure of a welcome there, and during the Covid lockdown, Shelley Robson and her team have been feeding vulnerable members of the community each Sunday.  Lots of wonderful inspiration for a painting.  Now summer is here, outside the Barn hanging baskets and planters are overflowing with gorgeous begonias, which I just had to include of course.

Please contact me for price and further information if you'd like to purchase the original painting.  Limited edition prints will shortly be available to buy via my website www.beeskelton.com

Here's an impression of how a print could look framed:

My commission order book is currently open for a limited period.  You're welcome to contact me if you'd like me to discuss a painting personalised for you.

A murder of Magpies - mixed media art

Mixed media painting by Bee Skelton

We only saw one or two magpies in the garden when we first came to the house last year, but since then my husband has dangled several bird feeders from every tree and the magpie population has soared, as have all the other wild bird species we attract.  But I really am in two minds about them.  It seems to me the collective noun for magpies is quite apt;  a 'murder' of magpies.  The magpie diet is incredibly varied and as well as the seeds and nuts we give them, they're quite partial to picking off other creatures in our wild life garden.

Nature really is red in tooth and claw and the bloody colour and these birds inspired my latest painting.  It's a mixed media collage piece on gessoed board and I used ripped pieces of one of my printed papers for the background, then added the birds and details with acrylic paint and inks.  You can see more information or buy the finished painting by clicking here.

Cat coat of many colours - folk art

MM6 Cat Coat of Many Colours

I love my three cats but still struggle with their complex personalities.  One minute they're like furry angels, all snuggles and purrs.  The next the blood-thirsty little brats are stalking wild birds and field mice in the garden.  And they're not exactly underfed.  Just another of nature's mysteries.

George - sketchbook

 This drawing of Gorgeous George crept into my sketchbook a while back, lord of all he surveys from the kitchen window.  He rarely stirs from the house, but even he's waylaid the odd feather now and again.

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DRINK ME Alice in Wonderland inspired collage

Alice in Wonderland and the bottle that says 'Drink Me'.  Decisions! Will she? Won't she?  Of course, if she hadn't, it would have been a whole different story. 

As you can see, I've again been playing with a collage background and painting folk art style imagery onto it.  I'm liking this Alice with her wide eyes and indecisive mouth.  Her squiggly hair is kind of cool too.  

For more information please click here.

Home Sweet Home mixed media painting

I'm back working with the collages I made recently.  They make interesting backgrounds on which to add folk art drawings and paintings.  With this one I took a drawing of a little house from my sketchbook sticking it to the background, then painting it to look like a stone built rustic cottage.  To me the background looks like a fantasy abstract landscape. 

For more information click here.

Girls best friend

I've painted this happy little dog-walker, with green striped top and red shorts, onto another collaged background.  I like her skinny legs and equally skinny dog.  

If a man's best friend is his dog, then I'm four times blessed.  I didn't set out to have a dog pack, but that's how it's turned out ... and as for the 2 inside cats, 1 outside cat, with one pending.... just don't go there!


Each have joined the family in a variety of circumstances, but all were following their near death experiences.  As each one arrived and wrapped themselves gratefully around their first meal chez Skelton, we avowed each time that they were absolutely the last four-legged additions the family would be getting  ....  till next time ;)


Teddy we rescued as a tiny traumatised puppy from the centre of a main road 8 years ago.  We suspect unbelievably, she'd been dumped from a car.  Choo Choo was found in almost similar circustances a few months later;  Sally was found senseless on the motorway, after being hit by a car, and Daisy was dumped by hunters on the mountain where we live....  I won't describe or publish photos of the thick metal collar she was wearing when found, nor her festering flesh protruding through the gaps in the tight links, it's too sickening.  Suffice to say these horror stories have happy endings, their lives have been transformed for the better and so have ours.

Mummy Angel folk art

Yesterday I played with more little whimsical folk art characters in my sketchbook. This Mummy Angel, patiently presiding with folded hands and extended wings, spoke gently to me, so I painted her onto a collaged background.

For more information you can click here.




The sketchbook is becoming steadily more populated with other wee folk, all jockeying for attention and loudly calling for their turn to get gussied up with colour and a fantasy life of their own. Fun stuff! :)

Alice in Wonderland - Art Workshop

You may remember a few weeks ago, a friend and I had a ripping time making collage! Yesterday, I managed to push enough of the studio-mess towards the walls, to squeeze 2 of us in for another workshop. A different friend this time, who has never in her life considered making art. I don't think she really believed me when I promised she'd be making art to be proud of.

She is a mathematician/physicist and, she won't mind me telling you that her only memory of art classes at school, was when she was required to draw a chair. As she was only able to actually see 3 chair legs from her viewpoint, her logical mind got totally banjaxed, was unable to deal with the invisible other leg, and that was that.

I could have explained that Picasso would have understood her dilemma, and if we hadn't had other stuff planned, we could've Googled some of his paintings to demonstrate how he dealt with showing things from all angles, all at the same time. Instead we helped ourselves to some seriously colourful self-expression of our own, with acrylic paint, paper ephemera, gloss acrylic medium, heat transfer printing and handmade papers.

We had such a good time. It was so brilliant to see my friend's excitement when she realised she'd created something really stunning! Next week she's off to the framers.

'Alice in Wonderland' is one of my original whimsical folkart collage paintings inspired by the book / film. She's a character with a funny little face, who started life as a sketchbook drawing, and was then applied to a collage background, where she stands very prim and proper.