Hello Everyone,
I hope you are well and have had a good week. This is a shorter version of my notes, as it is Easter Weekend here and I am enjoying time with family. I would like to wish you all a happy Easter, if you celebrate this season, and/or indeed a happy spring. We have had a week of tremendous rain and some blue skies.
Over this past week I have been unsurprisingly busy, especially with painting lucky dips - thank you so much.
Time has also been spent with sketchbooks, though perhaps not as much as I might have liked but let me remind myself it is worth focusing on quality time with a sketchbook rather than hours and hours. So here I will share a few photos.
Photo: Sketchbook pages - these are pages in a larger book - the pages are A4 in size - so open the book is A3. (That is about 16.5 inches by 11.7 inches - if that makes more sense to you). I really enjoyed working much larger than usual! The pages are layered with brown paper, including found bits and bakery bags. The paint is gouache. I see this as a diptych of cottage studies. I look forward to sharing more as I continue to work in this book.
photo: new pages in my Linden Green little artist book / sketchbook - I have more work to do in this book until it is filled - these things take time.
photo: a new artist book I am putting together - this one has pages made from folded vintage postcards. I am layering up with found papers and adding fold out pages. This is small in scale and will be quite monochrome. I look forward to working in this one as and when.
Shop News
I have also been stitching, making a few special pieces for my first April embroidery update - this will be on Wednesday 3rd April at 8pm UK time, so yes this coming Wednesday. I will preview everything from at least 5pm, if not earlier. I hope you may enjoy seeing these new embroidery portraits. Here is one:
photo: a new embroidery portrait - with yes new colours for spring. This is designed as a larger brooch to be displayed or for occasional wear.
My next painting update is planned for Sunday 7th April at 7pm UK time.
Please note, if you are outside the UK - our clocks changed here this morning to British Summer Time - and we are now an hour ahead. So please do check timings.
Thank you to everyone who left kind comments and emailed me following last week’s notes. In particular, it seems I am not alone in my mixed feelings regards Instagram. Over this past week I took a break from my main account and enjoyed having extra thinking space. I generally felt less anxious. Instead, it has been good to stay in touch with friends and acquaintances via my personal account (@phaedraspoon). I will write more on this another time. I will be posting to my main account (@cathycullis) - but spending less time there.
I look forward to sharing more notes and stories next week. Until then, take care and have a good week ahead.
Happy Easter. Could we please see the back of your postcard book. I’m intrigued how you are putting it together. Lovely post. I really look forward to reading them and seeing your art work 😊
Love your work so much but those cottage studies, oh my! And of course the linden green...love it all!