New, old chair

I saw this outside my favorite antique shop, did a u-turn, and bought it. £10. Bargain!!!!! Isn't it beautiful. I want to strip it down and wax or varnish it with love and attention. Then I need to tidy my bl##dy studio.

Everyday things

This is the view from my kitchen door into my back garden. It's a dull, drizzly day this morning, but at least my water butt will be re-filling after the last two fairly dry weeks. In addition to being a working mum and trying to be an artist to boot, I also garden a fair bit. In the front of the house is my vegetable and fruit garden, and in the back is this secluded, shady courtyard where I feed the birds, and sit and read, and enhance my calm!!!!!

The tin is one I painted when I was running a small business selling 'canal ware'. Oooh, it was about 18 years ago, and most of my family have bits and pieces left over from that endeavour. I called it 'Off the Barge' and it was fun attending craft markets and canal events in Manchester and the surrounding area. This is my tea caddy, full of whatever bog-standard bags I'm using. Coffee is for mornings, tea in the afternoon for me.

Yawn!

What a difference a good night's sllep makes. Time for breakfast I think.

Chris Bolmeier, has generously added this image of 'Spring Climbing' to her blog in a format you can copy as a screensaver or print it. I'll be printing it for my kitchen calendar. I love having images of friend's works on there.

All I want for Christmas is.....

..... postcards, for my Tate Modern eternal calender, please. The pack came with lots of postcards to use, including some on the back of the months and numbers (there's a funny story about that which I'll tell another day). But they're not all my cup of tea. I already have a postcard from Gesa of her own artwork (bottom left in the calender) which is very special to me.

So I'd love more cards to use in the New Year. I'll put the address in the comments.

A few of my favorite things

Including a reproduction of Poseidon from Dublin, a Jessie Marion King repro tile from Glasgow, two turquoise scarab beads from the British Museum in London, the Lincoln Imp from Lincoln Cathedral, a wicker fish my son and I made at a festival at Souther Lighthouse, the tin of candles from my annual subscription to Elle Decoration magazine, a turned bowl from teak taken from the Trincomalee frigate now restored at Hartlepool, photos of my wedding day taken at the promenade by our house, and my beautiful children.

Domesic Goddess

I'm home from our holidays and I'm back at work, the kids are back to school and it's time to get back into painting. I had no idea that it is the routine I have at home that allows me time for my art. While travelling with the kids, visiting family, day trips and picnics there's been little if no time to myself and for drawing or painting. I thought it would be otherwise, I imagined afternoons sketching while the children played, but we had a full calender and the five weeks have flown past.

I've had a fantastic time and I have great plans for our summer break next year.


BUT, it's time to get back into my routines at home, and to dust off the drawing table.

What's to come? Well, I've been working in the Moleskine exchange books, I want to make notes about the exhibitions I've been visiting over the summer, and I'm determined to resume daily drawing and painting. I've enjoyed the break from it all, but goodness - it's good to be back.

Wordless Wednesday

Scrap sketchbook

During June I pledged not to buy anything new, except food & drink, just to cut down on my consumer habit to help save the planet etc...Anyway, it's started to change the way I do things, and I've made myself two sketch books from scrap paper. One is all watercolour paper, which I've cut square and glued inside a stiff card cover for protection in my bag and held closed with a bulldog clip my dad must have got me from his old school years ago (thanks dad).

The other is just oddments of paper which I've punched holes in, and secured with a modified old A4 ring binder which was in the bin. In WH Smiths a small sketch book is anything from £3 to £6, so I've saved some money (which will be spent instead on either oil paints or red wine) and I've also helped to save the planet in a small way.

I intend to keep at least one of these sketch books in my bag at all times, along with half a dozen pencil stubs, which again nearly got binned. Hopefully I'll start sketching on the bus, at my desk, and at other odd moments while other things in my life give me a chance to pause for a few minutes.

Today I spent the morning with my little girl, while hubby & son went to the Barbers. I took my scrap sketch book, and drew our house whilst waiting for the bus, and the park on the way home while she had a snooze in a friend's buggy (thanks mate). I suppose sketching is like practicing a musical instrument. The piece isn't like a polished performance in itself, but each time I'm concentrating on a different aspect of drawing, or playing. Unlike practicing playing, when I sketch I can look back at what I've done, what I've learnt & how I've progressed.