Studio Notes no. 214
Quiet medicine, sketchbook, paper vessels & more
Hello everyone
I hope you are well. It has been a few weeks and I have several things I would like to share with you.
This week I am sharing some in-progress photos of my sketchbook so you can see how a page may be developed. I’m also sharing here some notes on the power of quiet. Shop news. A new tiny painting. New poems. More progress with paper vessels…..
Sketchbook
let me begin with the completed pages
In this new handmade book I want the pages to be quietly ‘rough and energetic’ with a simple palette of mostly blacks, whites, burnt sienna brown and a little green with spots of other colours here and there. I am going to work on bits of this and that - scrap brown paper, fabric and so on. I’ll be using gouache paints.
I began with finding scrap brown papers - already with marks on, as I used this paper to work upon previously. But I don’t like waste and especially don’t throw away sturdy paper if I can work with it more.
I dug about in my sketchbook basket of bits and bobs - and found some calico I had painted months ago. I added a few pieces to the pages. Already I am thinking the left page will be a still life with the brown painted fabric a table surface.
And then to paint - and already I am seeing something - someone but also, having second thoughts about that green painted fabric on the right page. I can’t quite work with it and the girl coming through the paint - so I move the fabric.
The girl needs a collar/ruff - oh certainly that happens. I find I like the marks on the brown paper seeping through. The whole thing feels old-hearted and yet modern. I like that playfulness. My work is all about time travel, you might think. Yes, I managed to get that fabric scrap moved over to the left page and now I’m seeing things better. Of course, there are many stages, marks and moments of indecision along the way here - and I can only show you so much via a few photos. But I hope you can see how things are coming together - though keeping it loose.
And here we are at the completed pages again. I look forward to sharing more of this book with you here in the coming weeks.
**
The Power of Quiet
I had a few quiet days at the end of last week - much needed. I was feeling exhausted, physically and mentally, and knew I just needed to stop. Frankly, I am not good at stopping. I love what I do and feel fortunate to be doing it, but at the same time my creative drive can become too much (and I am getting older, I have to admit that I need a little more rest than my twenty-something self might have needed).
So I had a dose of quiet. No work. Stillness. No radio, no YouTube (I don’t watch or own a tv). No CD’s. I listened to the ambient sounds of town especially the gossipy birds. I had conversations with the people I live with. I read a variety of books and articles/essays all on paper, no screens. I checked my phone for brief social media moments only a few games of Scrabble online with friends. I was too tired to go for a walk, which is a sign, of ever there was one…
No knitting or stitching for ‘pleasure’. I have noticed recently I have this tendency to allow my hobbies to become work projects - to the point that I will stop painting for the day and then I begin on my ‘other work’. I want my hobbies to be relaxing - not work. So a break from them has allowed for a small reset.
The change in me from having a just a few days of quiet is remarkable. It’s not just about energy levels or mental state. The power of quiet as a medicine is extraordinary.
As someone who has got into the habit of always listening to something beyond the ambient sounds around me, who would often multi-multi task on things - I can tell you, there is a remarkable difference when I just stop overloading on everything.
Nothing at all remarkable in being quiet for a few days, you may right say. But I found the experience quite remarkable, revealing - and will repeat as I feel required. Until then, I will be just a little quieter, generally.
**
Here’s a new tiny painting to show you. Two friends in conversation. I am particularly fond of the left figure’s yellow legs. It’s a look I don’t think I’d ever be able to pull off, personally, but painting figures allows me this opportunity to dress up without having to - if you follow me… I love the texture of these tiny paintings and a big part of them comes before I even start to paint - that is making the support. Using mount board, linen scraps and gesso, I can create a unique combination of textures and shapes to paint upon. Then the paint happens and the possibilties for storytelling….
Shop News
I am grateful to everyone for all your interest in my artwork and recent sales. I look forward to working on more tiny paintings in the coming days. I hope to have a new selection in my shop this coming Wednesday - including the one above. I also hope to have a few new book page artworks available.
Next shop update: Wednesday 13th May at 7pm UK time - with preview from 4pm
Free postage within the UK continues.
There is a link to my shop at the end of these notes. I currently have just one painting currently looking for a home.
New Writing
Here are two new poems - I hope you enjoy reading and thank you always for your encouragement. These are poems that may still yet be revised, changed.
Bats!
My spring evenings:
chamomile tea and watching bats.
Standing in the attic kitchen in duskiness.
They’re quick inky darts and then nothing.
Specks of dark on an old cine film.
Drift, lift and sink to never-was.
As if on invisible wires, yet feasting.
Odd flickers from odder-still neighbours.
Could it be they’re dipping through
not just insecty air but time itself?
Doing this night, after night, after.
A pause. Dead ladybird
on the windowsill, the colour
of cherry brown shoe polish.
Just one more bat, I whisper,
sipping flowery tea.
Don’t blink,
you’ll smudge them out.
**
Blackbird in the Churchyard
The blackbird trots out from beneath
hedge but looking with one circled
eye seems to be looking
right through my shape and I remember
to a blackbird everyone here is not really.
We’re all tricks of the sun, phantoms.
And so he does not mind
my shadow lingering over his patch.
I ask, Mr Blackbird, are these Welsh
or Californian poppies? But he has
so little opinion on the matter. They are
tugs of colour becoming rattles.
What do you think? Are these Californian or Welsh poppies? I think the latter. I love the churchyard all year round, especially though when there are so many wildflowers as there are in May. Just in this photo I see, poppies, buttercups, daisies, dandelions, plantain, that blue flower I think is not a forget-me-not so might be? What else?
Meanwhile, I am continuing to explore my love of paper from old books - in vessel forms. Here are several at various stages of development.
And here’s one completed. I decided this jug would have a cottage landscape. I like her way of leaning and old lady posture.
If you would like to watch me painting (and faffing) a cup - then I shared a 15 minutes video with paid subscribers this week. I send my midweek notes most Thursdays to all paid subscribers and share a variety of more behind-the-scenes and side projects.
Thanks always for reading here and for your kind support
The blue flower is a Speedwell I think...Germander Speedwell perhaps...such a beautiful blue; and the poppies do look like the orange variety of Welsh Poppy.
I'm so glad you had a few days of quiet, and how you spent your time sounds perfect. Quiet is essential for my mental wellbeing. Living on the road, with everyone around us travelling at high speed makes it hard to achieve, but we do find pockets of peace here and there which we are so grateful for.
I LOVE your poems, and the progress you share of your art pages, and your book pages sculptures.
May your week be as quiet as you wish it to be. xx
I love your poems here. The bat one is so delicate in its imagery. I always loved Bat by DH Lawrence too but not its ending. We used to have bats in the roofspace in my childhood home. My sister and I rescued a mother and baby once. I always enjoyed hearing about your process and how the pictures evolve themselves and point the way for you. It’s also interesting to hear you talk about energy levels and the benefits of silence. It’s the most healing xx