A stitched portrait from 2010 - Queen Bee
I have been noticing the waking up of things, bees especially. It seems like every time the sun comes out for a few hours there’s a bee gliding across the garden, or flying at her reflection in the window.
Early Bees
Dark fur glides above a daffodil
as if quite lost, bouffant and bobbing,
blossom too rain-sodden to delve between.
She yields toward the mirror of herself -
circles, dazzled.
Another day, another bee,
as big as a tiny bird,
an entire world in the whirl of a daffodil
and she levitates for hours,
waiting for her summer lovers.
And then this queen, like a child’s drawing
of a bee, perhaps wearing a tiny crown because why not,
wriggles the cold flower
whilst a cat in the rain, shipwrecked in violas,
watches with yellow rimmed eyes,
forgets its next move.
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A recent sketchbook page - recording the morning my daughter and I went into the woods to collect blossoms.
They have featured in recent paintings but have now faded. And just as they fade so new blossoms appear in the neighbourhood. And so spring is just about here, almost, maybe. Yes, it’s that almost, maybe time of year. March has always been a month of hope and caution - don’t sow seeds too soon, keep a variety of coats (and hats and gloves) in use, don’t expect to see the sun every day. Almost, maybe time to look ahead to brighter days - but - this year spring will have a serious slant, with thoughts of elsewhere - and how we can help people here.
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HOME is a small artist book of gouache drawings, paintings and collage. I have made it with the hope of raising money to donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee - an organisation of charities helping the people of Ukraine (and others elsewhere). I am asking for a donation of £5 per entry for a chance to win the book in a draw taking place next Friday. More details and photos can be seen on my Instagram. If you don’t use Instagram you can still see here. Everyone interested is welcome to donate and have a chance to receive this book (I will pay the postage).
To enter the draw please visit my justgiving page. Many thanks. And thanks to everyone who has already made a donation / shared.
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Making progress on my new collection of mixed media dolls. Still a lot of work to do. I have eight or so little and larger dolls. Needless to say they take time. Hoping very much to give them yet more time in the week ahead and then a collection will be available to see toward the end of the month.
Taking photos of dolls in progress feels a little odd - strange to see blank canvasses in human shapes. But soon enough they will be their own little personality and somehow offer stories to tell.
The dolls begin life as simple cloth shapes stuffed with scraps. I then cover them with wet gluey paper, pages from yellowed novels. The paper is carefully torn into ribbons and blank paper is used for their faces. I roll pages to make arms and legs. It is a fiddly-diddly process with sticky fingers, sticky limbs and the hope that eventually the doll will become her own self.
If you would like to know more about how to make these dolls yourself, I will be offering a downloadable PDF later in the summer. Until then, I hope you may enjoy seeing the dolls once they are completed.
Alongside the dolls I am making new mixed media stitch works - so happy to tentatively be back using my sewing machine as a drawing tool. I am not going to attempt to stitch anything very intense, labour-intense that is - like a hugely detailed stitched piece (similar to the one at the start of these notes, for example). I will work my way toward that, possibly. For now, I am interested in mixing things up with collage and stitch, using abstracted lines and motifs rather than dense stitches.
I am also continuing on with new still life paintings, happily so. I find one idea leads to another and am most grateful to have that.
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The picture of your daughter and flowers is so pretty.
We have no bees around yet but I did see the first fly yesterday, not quite the same feeling of celebration. I’m very glad to hear that you are getting back to your sewing machine. I’ve always been a believer in the creative possibilities that limitation can bring if we allow it!