Studio Notes no. 192

so much to share & stories too

Hello Everyone

I hope you are well. I missed writing to you last week but needed to take a break. In these notes I have drawing, sketchbooks, collage, embroidery and new tiny stories. To begin with let me tell you:

My next shop update will be Wednesday 22nd October at 7pm - with a preview from about 4pm. I will have a mix of new artwork. See below for more info.

Thank you for all your recent support and interest, it is much appreciated.

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Drawing

photo: my new old desk

If you follow me on my personal Instagram account (phaedraspoon) you may have seen a recent purchase I have made. I discovered a dainty bureau/desk in a local charity shop with a very modest price tag. I just knew this was a piece of furniture that could help me and I also knew I would use it for the quiet pencil drawing I love to make. It was interesting to carry it up here to the attic! One step at a time, working that fabulous upper body strength I never knew I had. I guess daily grocery shopping has given me the edge when it comes to getting up the stairs with something to carry…. Anyway, we made it up here in one piece. There followed a certain amount of shifting furniture, tidying, sorting of books and finally I made myself a cup of tea and sat down to draw. Such a treat.

photo: the first drawing I completed whilst sitting at my new/old desk - this and other small drawings will be included in my next shop update.

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Embroidery

photo: an embroidery brooch in progress

As you may know, following an intensive period of embroidery-making, earlier this year, I decided to take a break from working with Marjory (my sewing machine).

Taking a break from embroidery felt overwhelmingly the right thing to do. I was pleased with the embroidery pieces I had made for a group exhibition and needed time to reflect on their making. My embroidery work has always been a particularly special ‘department’ within my studio making. There is a strong intuitive element to the making and the intense detail often reveals things to me in small yet remarkable ways. There is personal as well as universal meaning in each piece.

Over the past several months I have sat down and stitched, just to get a feel for how it might be. But each time I did this, it just did not feel right. I knew I was forcing it - and to stitch my best, I have to let go of my overthinking so that I can go with the flow of stitch.

Recently, a change of mind and heart came to me. A few signs and taps on the shoulder, you might say. But still, I was cautious. So I sat down and began to stitch. After just a short while, I got into the flow of it once again. Now, I asked myself, be honest about this. Are we ready to make new pieces?

I think the answer is I very much want to go with the flow. And so I am stitching again. For how long, I cannot say. My plan is to take it one small piece at a time. I am not going to aim for a certain number of pieces, or to make a large collection of work. For now I am going to focus on creating brooches. I will offer these new pieces to UK buyers*. There will be a small selection of brooches in my next shop update - this coming Wednesday (see below).

* As I will have a modest number of pieces I would like to offer to people in the UK only, at least initially. Then, I will possibly open a waiting list for people overseas who may be interested.

Let me just share these new beginnings and hope they lead to more…

photo: a new embroidery brooch - in progress.

I often work areas at a time, starting with the central figure and finding her audience/companions, in stages. For these new pieces I am taking my time, working in small bursts of stitching so that I do not feel overwhelmed by the intense work.

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Sketchbooks

I have two new small books - one dedicated to more figurative work and the other dedicated to more abstract collage. Here are the first pages.

photo: pages in my figurative painted sketchbook

photo: pages in my collage book

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Collage

Alongside my sketchbooks, I have been making ‘stand alone’ collages. These are small in size and are very much a continuation of my sketchbook ideas. Inspiration comes from looking about my own space and looking into the spaces of other places, including dreams. I am mindful of just how ‘different’ my collage work, being so abstract and quietly geometric, might be to someone who is expecting my work to have a strong figurative and storytelling stance. Nevertheless, I am enjoying myself! I hope to continue to make these collages and just go with it.

photo: a recent collage - about 21cm x 14.5cm

Eventually, I may offer a selection for sale. I’m thinking about having a pop-up shop event for this. But for now they are just living on my wall.

photo: a recent collage - about 21cm x 14.5cm

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Ten Tiny Stories

The tiny stories are back! Inspired by my creative day-to-day life, these snippets are my way of recording events and ideas.

Thank you for reading. (copyright, Cathy Cullis 2025) - but you are welcome to share with credit).

1. In a busy street, I walk alongside a small pram and peek down to see two small dogs, dressed in coats, lying on their backs. And wedged alongside them is a stick of French bread. How good they are to resist the scent of the warm bread. They gaze up at me as if to say: go on then, be surprised!

2. A small child sits on the ledge by the library entrance, watching the garden, the drooping, dying sunflowers as they sway in the breeze. The black heads of the sunflowers like something made from wood and smoke.

3. Early, too early - 2.53. I should have checked the time before so confidently putting the kettle on. I will have to go back to bed, but whilst I drink my tea I look at the story I have been writing, this story of long-ago whispers that has come and demands to be written. I write of tall angels until almost five, then put myself back to bed and dream of something completely different.

4. The man sits by the library window that looks directly at a water fountain. He is typing, furiously. He mutters at his laptop: why can’t you accept how it is spelled! His irritation distracts me from glancing along the shelf of horror books. I wonder what word it is he is trying to get his laptop to accept. I wonder how he can sit there by the water fountain, without constantly needing to pee.

5. I cannot draw a straight line, it will always falter, ever so slightly. How I love this. Who wants to draw a perfect straight line? This reminds me of our primary school headmaster who said: lines are invisible, what you see I am drawing here is not a straight line, it is a rectangle. He made a whole lesson out of that. Having to step into the breech at short notice.

6. In a bookshop, there is a queue, of sorts, but a woman steps ahead and in a loud voice asks: Have you the Book of Secrets? The person at the counter politely explains she does not know and will deal with her request just as soon as she has helped the other waiting customers. The woman, obviously in terrible need of this Book of Secrets, stomps out of the shop.

7. Shy Neighbour and I standing by the road, talking earnestly about the cobbled street as if we are both experts. He tells me the wall across there is a protected, Listed, wall. One hard shove and the wall would fall down. I am glad to never need to go near the wall, or to park a car by it. We watch as another neighbour, who owns a nearby shop, carries a large coffin-shaped box.

8. In the supermarket, I try not to stare at the man who is a taller version of my father. Daddy, who would be so much older. I turn my head and become particularly interested in Greek yogurt. The man talks on his phone in a posh voice. He is too obviously not my father now. I am realised from the grip of something and can move on to the next aisle.

9. This time of year - it’s always been the same - my sleep takes time to adjust. The singing, playful poetry-loving child nudges me awake and, as if all in one breath, gets me to write:

Something is happening to Harriet de Winter,

Now it is autumn, her days are now trickier.

Seeing a world that’s beyond what is there,

Harriet feels someone, something pulling her hair.

10. The dainty desk sits by the window. I have waited two years to find it, but all of a sudden here we are. Sitting down to draw, I grasp my pencil as if I haven’t held one for a very long time. It does not surprise me that something, almost the side of a face, flickers a few steps away from me. It is attempting to look over my left shoulder. I continue to draw and let go. Anything, or anyone, who might have a claim to the desk has now seen I am with it and is satisfied it will be used in an appropriate manner.

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