Studio Notes no.144

sketchbooks & small stories

Hello Everyone,

photo: recent sketchbook pages

I hope you have been well over this past fortnight. Thank you for understanding my need to take a little break. I have been changing my weekly work pattern. More on that below.

When I started writing these notes, a few years back, I really did not want them to be all about shop updates. There is so much more to share with you. I am not sorry for showing you new work - it’s simply I want to make sure the focus is all the other things I want to share with you, whilst giving you some info on how to buy my artwork.

So I am going to put the shop news here now and then you have it before I get on with everything else.

Shop News: I am updating my shop today, Sunday 22nd September at 7pm UK time. You will be able to see a preview of all the new work from 2pm today. A link to my shop is at the end of these notes. Thank you.

photo: a new miniature embroidery artwork - titled: ‘A Sepia Dream’. This piece will be in my shop along with four new embroidery brooches. There will also be two new book page paintings.

**

A Randomness Box

Over the past few weeks I have been mulling over the pros and cons of tidiness. These days, I like to keep the space I live and work in tidy, organised. No longer do I have piles of scraps lingering on a desk because I have no desk. I have one small table that gets cleared entirely at the end of the day. There are good reasons to keep the place tidy, not least the fact that I share the space with my family and I now feel tidy keeps me calm. Putting away time was always my favourite time at school. It meant the end of a certain mindset and the start of another spell of the day.

But I recently came to a decision: I need a studio box of randomness. I need a box which is chaos, quiet chaos, but yes chaos. I have lived off scraps in folders and tucked in books. But now the randomness box is taking over from all that faux organisation. What I might need is a depth of stuff to really dig about in. I do miss the days of simply coming across old bits of ‘tat’ that somehow beg to be painted over or cut into a cup shape. The making of randomness should never be underestimated or sidelined. Hours devoted to simply working rough ideas, building up layers of this and that - it’s all-important to me.

My studio box is its own work in progress. It  is a place to add bits and bobs, the odd idea, a scrap of random paint or drawing. Slowly but surely, the randomness will fill up. There may be some kind of brewing process involved, giving things a bit of a stir, occasionally. Taking the lid off and throwing in a few more random scraps. 

photo: recent sketchbook pages

**

I have re-jigged my working week quite a bit recently. I now have several time slots throughout the week for sketchbook work. I now have a day set aside for writing, which feels like a big deal for me, as a writer who has been doing other things for years. I realise more and more how writing matters to me and am grateful to have this sharing space. I very much appreciate the interest in my artwork that allows me to spend time writing.

As I have mentioned briefly before, I am looking forward to publishing a zine ‘A Pocketful of Ghosts’. My aim is to have this ready and available in early October. It is not a ‘halloween’ book, though ghosts, of one kind or another, do appear in the writing. It is a small collection of stories (some smaller than others) with an autumn and wintry feel to them. 

As always, I will be making the zine myself and it will be a humble little book. I hope you may enjoy adding this one to your collection.

photo: recent sketchbook pages

**

A few Small stories

Secondhand

Ideas for stories tap into my thoughts, as randomly as they please. If I am painting, I will quickly attempt to write a few key words on a scrap of paper, often using a dainty paintbrush and paint: secondhand, little lady, toe nails, blizzard. These words are scrawled and forgotten until later, when time allows and I will wonder at them. I am foxed by secondhand, cannot remember what I was thinking. Why did I not write just one or two more words to help out? Secondhand could lead me in so many different directions. I shall just have to start writing and hopefully the story will find me. This is how it works, or does not.

**

Rain Again

Rain likes to think of itself as some kind of poet, playing about with haiku for the love of brevity. At other times it goes on and on, stanza after stanza, filling pages of the day. 

I prepare to leave the attic, go down the winding staircase and step outside only to discover it has started raining. I sigh, turn and go back up the stairs. I find an umbrella and head back down the winding stairs, step outside and: no rain. Of course no rain. It was just a haiku shower. The epic will come later.

**

Observations

On the train platform, a bright morning for our trip and my son is happy to be going somewhere. We have finally decided on a destination - not too far, but a new place. It has been a few years since he has travelled by train and so is noticing all the small details about the station that have changed since his previous journeys. He says to me how much he dislikes the new digital display showing train details. No longer is it amber - it is now white, or as he puts it: ghost white. I liked it when it was amber, he says. Amber has a timeless beauty. I have to agree. Then he laughs and says: I am just a twenty-three year old grandpa, noticing things and wanting them the same. We both laugh. I look at him as he scrutinises the platform vending machine. I smile and think to myself: we are so alike, so very alike. How is that possible? We spend the rest of our day together happily making small observations that might send other people crazy. It is a good day.

**

Meal For One

A magpie smacks a stale bread roll in half, places half on one side of a roof and half by a chimney. It paces about from one meal to the other, not eating, just admiring.

**

Sound Off

My son and I are on a trip to a new place where there are lots of shiny shops and department stores. We would like to go up a level. My son does not like escalators and we cannot seem to find stairs. He decides to brave the lift (elevator), though he has never liked them, even as a very small child he did not like them and I must admit they make me nervous but this one is spacious and new-looking. We get inside. A whirling, rushing mechanical sound fills the lift and my son takes a firm grip on my arm. It’s just a sound effect, I say, it’s just a sound effect they add to make sure you know the lift is working. That’s all. My son takes a deep breath. Well I wish they would choose another sound effect, he says, as the lift doors open. When it is time to go down we once again brave the lift. I bet they use that sound effect again, my son says. Yes, probably, I say, pressing the button. 

***

photo: sketchbook pages featuring my son as inspiration - from 2019

photo: recent sketchbook pages

Thank you for reading and for subscribing to my studio notes. I am grateful for all your comments and emails. If you would like to support my writing/sharing here then you may like to become a paid subscriber. I sent my first ‘studio notes extra’ to paid subscribers this past Friday - and will be doing this as an occasional thing in the future. Alternatively, you may like to buy me a coffee - and this is also much appreciated.

Link to my shop