Studio Notes no. 220
New work & Jane Eyre Goes To The Seaside
Hello Everyone
I hope you are well.
Here is a jug sculpture I finished working on yesterday. I began work on it some weeks ago, making the jug form using card and book pages. This takes time. I’ve nearly always got a small collection of vessels ‘on the go’ and anyone visiting the attic will see completed jugs and cups scattered about amongst my ceramics collection.
But I decided to make this piece and offer it for sale. So I took particular care in making the shape and feel of it just right. Then began the painting.
The jug sculpture is titled: ‘A Portrait with birds’ and measures 23.5 cm tall by about 15cm including handle.
As you can see, one side is a portrait of a woman in nature and the other side is birds. That’s the beauty of working on a three-dimensional form! You get at least two views. And I can imagine how this jug sculpture would look rather eye-catching displayed with dried grasses, flowers, or feathers… or simply as it is.
Here’s a closer look from the top. It’s definitely a sculpture and not a functional vessel. It took me some time to complete and so I will have to think carefully about pricing - but I always like to think carefully about how to offer my work. It’s never an easy process. I often talk with my daughter and we have a discussion about how much time, materials, etc… A piece like this, made over a period of time, is rather special.
Thank you so much for all your kind comments on last week’s brief note. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I’m currently working part-time as my energy varies - and that’s not easy for me, as I have got used to enjoying long hours of making. My brain wants to keep going, but then again even she gets tired eventually. So, moving through the day at a gentler pace with thanks to my family for helping steer me. (Gawd, now I make myself sound like an old boat…..!)
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Therefore, my plan is to add work to my shop on Wednesdays and not pressure myself into making x,y,z. I’ll go with the flow and do the best I can - as always.
A new painting - in my ongoing bird series - this is titled: three birds in a shady summer garden.
Things are looking quite scorched outside right now, following heatwave after heatwave, with little to no rain. But in shadier places there are still signs of green and though wild plants may be struggling, things have a will to survive. I’m hoping for all the gardens and wild spaces and wildlife we get rain soon.
I am looking forward to getting back into longer walks again.
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Shop News
So my next update will be Wednesday 22nd July at 7pm - with a preview from 4pm. I will be including the two artworks you see here and anything else I may have completed. I would like to paint another bird/landscape scene but we shall see…
Also, please note - my lucky dip drawing offer will be ending after this month. Thank you to everyone who purchased a drawing. For a modest price, you receive an original pencil drawing and I always include a little bird thank you.
I’ll have a new lucky dip starting in August, but have yet to fully decide what that might be yet!
Link to my shop at the end of these notes.
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Poem and Story
Thank you to everyone who emailed me their poetry jar slips. I have put together a version of a group poem. This feels like something that may be forever in flux, with different voices and ideas making it happen.
A Group RecipeShall I go first?Floating in blueThe same old pretty nonsense.Life is just a bunch of frittersA pyramid of rapsAs ifYou mightautocorrected message - on my way home toonly way homeLamps hastily lit.I’ll follow alongYour yellow yarn hairBut some recipes are better than others.I’m waiting for my early morning acupunctureAnd the weather stays the sameIn the grip of nameless days.A collaborative poem pieced together by Cathy Cullis and including words from: Marilee Reyes, Kate Fernyhough, Patty Leight, Helen Lee, Jeni Hankins, Jane Whistler, Richard Hughes, Cathy Cullis
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And now for a fictional story… one from my archives - I do hope you enjoy reading. This one may end up in the book collection I am currently working on.https://cathycullis.substack.com/p/midweek-notes-903
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Jane Eyre Goes To The Seaside
The boxes were so heavy I had to drag them from under the bed, and the effort in a heatwave was exhausting. But I wanted to find that one story, one of many about Jane Eyre. I had written it as a young teenager.
Jane Eyre Goes To The Seaside
Jane Eyre left Lowood, her escape quite a surprise, but good things can happen in sad stories. Little chinks of hope, if not the real thing. She got on a train (?) and went to the seaside (maybe she had had a letter from a distant cousin).
The house was built into a cliff so that it might never fall into the sea. Aunt X (too much crossing out to decide on a name) welcomed Jane to sit in the sea view parlour. ‘I was not expecting you until tomorrow,’ Aunt said. But she did not frown. ‘I will make a room up for you!’ Aunt left Jane alone but Jane was happy alone and stared out at the strange blue sea with its furry waves.
Jane pictured her Aunt making a room up for her. Aunt X was making a room with what she could find: a metal bed with a scrap quilt, a matchbox wardrobe, a stick chair. Yes, she would walk into a doll’s house room. It would have large flowers on one wall, stripes on the other, with a window and glued-on curtains you could not close. There would be no view of the sea from Jane’s new room. Or, it might be a painting. Yes there would be a painting of the sea that never moved.
I read the story aloud in a strange high voice and then quietly to myself. It was not the story I remembered, not at all. I had written several stories about Jane Eyre, all of them alternative routes toward happiness for Jane.
But this story was supposed to be a tremendously brilliant thing. Now I was angry with my thirteen-year-old self. That summer, with my sister, I had spent hours writing stories and no one else minded. Granny had always said I was going to be a storyteller and would one day write her story (she often told me harrowing details of her childhood).
Jane walked along the edge of the cliff. It was a rainy day and she watched the seagulls, worried they might steal her bonnet.
Oh dear. Oh Jane. I took you to the seaside - and then what, and then!
Nothing much happened to Jane. She lived in her doll’s house room and waited. Yet again, she waited for rescue.
I crammed all the stories of Jane Eyre and everyone else back into their dusty box. I could not bear the stories any more than I could bear looking back for long. There was only one thing to do now: re-read Jane Eyre and stick to what Charlotte had told the world.
pages from an artist book in progress - a simple handsewn booklet of gouache portraits - I am enjoying working on these pages very much. I think this is one of my favourites so far.
Thank you for reading here - if you enjoyed reading please ‘hit the heart’ button as it helps me reach new readers. Please subscribe if you do not already.
I send midweek notes to all paid subscribers - I have made this week’s post available for everyone to read but only until Monday evening. So do take a look if you like and there’s another story to read too.
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What a wonderful post Cathy. I do love your vessels and appreciate how long they take. I think this is quite a dilemma, pricing. I could really do with your daughter helping me with that, I find it hard, pricing correctly, but I am getting better. Thanks for the story I loved it and the poetry. I am so glad to hear that you are doing OK and pacing yourself. Im coming to realise I have to slow down and its one of the hardest things I have had to deal with. I too yearn for the rain, we dont yet have a hose pipe ban here, but its happening soon. I try to collect water from the bath and everywhere I can. I have dishes out in the garden of varying depths for the animals and a large pond, however it is half full atm. A rain dance is urgently needed. I am looking forwards to autumn , it is around the corner. Wishing you a speedy recovery and sending love xxx
I'm hoping you are feeling well. I think our rain-days have ceased until October, but the Spring has been mild until just this past week when we hit 90F. I banged up my knee and am in recovery mode, so my sister, being the still-mobile one in our household, is making sure there's spots of water around for the wild things. We had a nice fishpond for a few years, but the darn racoons, being clever and persistent, finally found a way to get through the guard and dined on goldfish sushi for the last time. So now we have a bubbler and of no interest to the racoon family. I do miss the goldfish. Not much personality, but they were lovely splashes of orange and gold zipping amongst the water plants, minding their own business until one dark night it all came to a messy end.
I love the pitcher. Your creativity is always inspiring. And being a part of the group poem was fun. More cleverness. Plus, I also liked the idea of writing an addendum (is that the right word?) to an author's work. I sometimes, in my mind only, will rewrite the ending of a story to my own liking. You are braver than I.
Stay cool. Autumn is on its way.