Photo: sketchbook pages from 2018 - although I made these pages in the January of this ‘18 these have a ‘November’ quality to me, somehow.
Hello everyone, I hope you are keeping well. We have had another week of rain (and sunshine, fleetingly) here. I have been incredibly busy making and sending, but am mindful to make time for walks, seeking inspiration and just resting. Gone are the days when I might push and push, mentally and physically, anxious to please and at the same time draining myself of all energy. I’ve learned to avoid burn-out, if at all possible. At this time of year it is too easy to say yes and yes to everyone, but I now know I have my limitations.
I recognise the need to keep learning and widening my understanding of the things I love. Books are a huge factor in this. Books are a big part of my home and are loved, read and re-read. I can’t imagine a home without art books and feel privileged to be able to have amassed a modest collection, mostly secondhand, over many years.
Getting to exhibitions is not something I do very often. The cost is a big factor. I sometimes see a show that’s in London, but there are times when I have to decide to spend my money on the book of the exhibition rather than go in person - it’s either one of the other - I can’t afford both. The book might never replace the experience of seeing art in the flesh, but it can be a very wise and giving investment.
photo: some of my art book shelves
I often look for art books in local charity shops, any secondhand book shops. I am fortunate to find books, sometimes in new condition. Other books are old and fragile, with reproductions of paintings that are not the best quality, but there’s still something about the book as a whole that I know will be worth investing in.
photo: recent finds
I recently found some older (80’s, 90’s) RA Summer Exhibition books/catalogues in a charity shop. These are fantastic finds, showcasing such an eclectic variety of art. They are a record of what was ‘in’, what made it that year, taste of the time and so on. I’ve mixed feelings about the RA Summer show - possibly it is my feeling that shows of this kind are really not open to all (cost of entry, delivering work a big factor). But it’s a cultural institution and all that.
photo: a Mary Fedden painting featured in the 1994 Summer Exhibition book
photo: a painting by Ruskin Spear in the 1987 RA Summer Exhibition book - the book is mostly black and white reproductions. The adverts at the back are so Eighties!
I spend many hours re-reading my collection of art-related books. I might not read from cover to cover - but will dip in randomly. I’ll go to my dedicated art book stacks/shelves and pick out a few books at random, sit with them for a short while. They are also very useful for flattening paintings and other works on paper. I sometimes find old work in books - things I hurriedly slipped between pages and then, for what ever reason (me) forgotten. I like this rediscovering of old work. Occasionally it’s not my work at all but a drawing one of my children made (when they were much younger). Bittersweet.
I keep letters from old friends, past acquaintances, in some of my books. I know a letter written to me from so-and-so is in a book on the Pre-Raphaelites, for example, and will always be. It is as if the book and the person, the time, the sentiments, the emotional connections, all go together.
Then of course when you buy secondhand books one can often find something left between the pages by a previous owner/reader. I’ve found essay notes, cloakroom tickets, exhibition reviews. Have you found anything in a secondhand book? Please leave a comment and let us know.
photo: a few favourite books
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Shop News
Just a few important notes to share briefly as there’s quite a lot going on:
Next update is today (Sunday 5th) at 7pm UK time - a selection of new larger paintings on paper and tiny paintings. And a new postcard set - very limited edition.
New winter tiny paintings ‘lucky dips’ - available to order from Tuesday 7th - I’ll add to my shop early in the morning. Please allow 3-5 days for me to put your order together, thank you.
My next embroidery portraits update is Wednesday 8th - note the time will be 12 NOON UK time. I am varying the time from the usual 8pm slot as I have had a few requests from people, particularly those of you who live in different time zones.
Over the next weeks ahead I will keep you informed here about shop updates but you can also always take a look at my shop news (in my shop!)
Thanks always for your interest in my artwork.
photo: one of the larger paintings on paper coming to my shop
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A few small stories
Fancypants tea bags with strings and little tags - I don’t mind them at all but sometimes the paper tag is stuck to the bag and I clumsily tear a tiny hole. I could use a tea strainer (or throw the tea bag straight into the food waste) but no, now I have a ‘better’ solution. It came to me recently. I have needle and thread and stitch the tiny torn hole. It takes just a minute. Fortunately, I have to only walk across the kitchen room to my sewing table to get said needle and thread. Then I test my repair skills. And so it was I was standing by the window, making tiny black stitches in a tea bag and looking out at the world when I realised how easy it is to stitch your blouse cuff to a tea bag if you are not paying good attention.
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I lost my library card and for weeks was too afraid/proud to admit it. The experience sent me right back to childhood and a fear of getting in trouble versus my deep love of libraries and thus awe in librarians. When I finally give up searching bags, the flat, for my plastic library card I go to the library to make my solemn confession. I just cannot find it. I will need to pay two pounds for a replacement. Thankfully the librarian does not attempt to chastise me but merely sighs at the computer screen because the system is so slow. My only shock is not returning home to find the lost library card sitting on the kitchen counter.
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It has stopped raining, the sun is out, so daughter and I go to the park. We walk a loop, through a favourite avenue of mostly beech trees where all the fallen prickly beech nut shells have made a natural cobbled path. But it is still very muddy. I dawdle, picking up lichen twigs and remembering if I take them home they will fade and the lichen will die. There are squirrels playing hide and seek with boisterous dogs. A gang of magpies hang out in the empty-of-kids play area. We tramp on. A golden dart of a leaf flies directly above my head, but instead of thinking it a leaf I imagine it is a feather. A feather sent to remind me of something - to make the most of the sun, times spent wondering/wandering. This time last year I could not walk at all. How glad I am to be here now, slipping about in the mud.
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Thanks always for reading here, for your kind comments. Please do leave a comment and share your thoughts on books or anything else related. If you would like to support my writing you can buy me a coffee. Thanks always.
I could read volumes of your little stories. The fancypants teabag had me in stitches, bad pun intended. I’m lucky to have a few pieces of your work, both stitch and paintings. I have always loved your snowy scenes. That one looks beautiful. Deb McD
Such a delight, Cathy! I, too, love my art library and spend countless hours absorbing the images within. What I create bears no resemblance to what I study and yet it feels like it has all informed my work in some inexplicable way. This makes me happy.