Studio Notes no.170

Always experimenting, spring painting & small stories

Hello Everyone,

photo: storyteller in a garden - a larger embroidery brooch

I hope you have had a good week. The sun has been shining - it definitely feels like spring and April showers are staying away, for now.

This week I have been working on an eclectic mix of work - a little stitch, as Margery seemed to be looking a little forgotten in her stitching corner. We spent a few mornings stitching and I have a new trio of brooches (one of which is shown above)

I’ve also been painting - I have to admit I just love painting on a small scale. But I have also made a few landscape paintings on a linen that are larger than tiny - these are 14cm x 10cm - so just a bit more than double the size/painting area. They give me the opportunity to explore a little more detail, playfully.

photo: spring walk with rainbow - gouache on linen/handmade support 14cm x 10cm

photo: the painting with two tiny still life paintings - thought I would give you a size comparison.

photo: a rabbit in the garden - a spring landscape - gouache on linen/handmade support 14cm x 10cm

No drawing this week - but I hope to get back to my pencils and pens next week. I’ll also share more sketchbooks next week too, hopefully.

Shop News

You can preview all my new work now and it will become available at 7pm UK time. There is a link to my shop at the end of these notes. Thank you always for your kind interest and support.

Please note: a bit of advance notice - I am taking Easter weekend off - there will be no studio notes and no shop update.

It’s not that often that I take a break but this year it has been decided. I am actually going on a reading retreat - I am excited about that. I’ll be semi-hidden behind a stack of books for the long weekend - not going far, though - retreat does suggest I am going away - but no, I shall be in my sitting room with occasional visits to the churchyard for ‘fresh air’, if the weather is allowing.

If there is anyone else out there who wants to join in on a reading weekend over Easter and might like to read one or two of the same books and/or nudge each other to remember to read and not just daze out of the window eating chocolate - then you are welcome to email me.

On a more serious note - this winter has set me back a bit, energy-wise. Though the sun may be shining, I am still a person who is melancholic by nature. With a glad heart I can say: I am not a problem to myself or the people around me - I have learned to live with a tendency toward melancholia and understand it more, decades on. I say this not to garner any sympathy but because I know many, many other people are just like me and I want you to know you are not alone - yes there are tough days, but gentle days help. I am grateful to people who check in with me now and then, just asking if I am ok. That means so much to me.

photo: washing day with spring blossoms - a new tiny painting

Always experimenting - with paint

When I started on this journey - my attempt at becoming an artist of some sort - I realised the only way I really learn is to make plenty of ‘mistakes’ and to experiment with materials, to find my own way of working with them. Over time I have painted on many different surfaces, from conventional papers, to found paper like shop paper bags, pages from books, fabric scraps, clay. I have tried and failed on many other materials. I have my favourite surfaces for paint - I like the texture of working on primed linen. The paint gets slowed down and I get to build up layers.

Ever since I created a mouse house in a flowerpot about forty-something years ago, I have alway been into making things from found materials. I often collect packaging and think this might be useful for something, only to find stuff at the back of a cupboard, six months later, with no knowing what I was thinking. Recently, I noticed how some cherry tomatoes were being sold in sweet little cardboard boxes rather than plastic. Of course, as soon as I could I had ideas. I tore open the boxes and saw a possible composition - a central figure and niches/alcoves - and so started to paint.

I’ve painted two portraits on opened boxes - the card is smooth, not corrugated, and seems to take the gouache paint really nicely. I’ve not mounted these on any backing - as I want to see them at a special price and give the buyer the opportunity to decide what kind of backing (size/colour) they might prefer to add for themselves. I hope someone might enjoy these playful paintings - no doubt, I will be experimenting on other found materials as and when.

photo: portrait of a woman in teal - painting on found card -

photo: portrait of a woman in scarlet - painting on found card

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Small Stories

my gentle disclaimer - these stories are based on my day-to-day creative life and should be read as short fictions

Early April notes from the churchyard

There are cowslips by the church porch. They have grown in a higgledy-piggledy way on a tiny hillock and remind me of dancing imps. I like to think imps, fairies, pixies - pick your own fae creature - live in churchyards. Their job is keeping the spirit of ancient land and the green man alive. Many of the trees have yet to see leaves; on this bright day the churchyard is filled with much more light than it will be on a sunny summer’s day. I sit on a bench to read for a while, though a family nearby is having such a sweet conversation I am not really engrossed. A small child comes up to me and asks why I am reading a book with ‘skellingtons’ on the front*. I tell them I like to read books about things that happened a long, long time ago. They toddle back to their parents; I get a reassuring smile from parents. A short while later, I hear the child and their sibling talking about why you should or should not stare at the sun and moon. Apparently the sun can close up your eyes forever - and the moon cannot be seen in the sky right now because ‘the moon has gone to the shops’. I hold on to this thought for the rest of the day and the next day when I see the moon in the early morning sky I tell it: have fun at the shops today.

*The book I was reading: Crypt by Alice Roberts

Joy

My friend and I are attempting to think of something good to say about everything we see today - here in the gallery. The varied materials on display make my hands itch to work. We might not like the whole of a painting but can like the scratches, the sgraffito. There are clay vessels that remind us of curvaceous bodies more than the pebbles the maker might expect us to see. We are being ruthless with our opinions, imaginary clipboards taking many invisible notes. Made giddy by the skills on show, we admire the variety of ideas. We can see something good in everything we see. But it's fine, good, to not like everything. My friend tells me she has come to realise that she wants her own work to be about joy - joy in creation, in the world - I agree. In this hostile, mean world, joy must be shared.

Nothing Added

An older couple in the supermarket are contemplating bread. She wants to buy just a decent wholemeal loaf without anything more - nothing added. What does she mean by nothing added? He really cannot understand, he admits he has never understood anything she has ever said. You don’t need to be so dramatic on a Saturday morning, the woman says. They go round and round the bakery section and in the end she picks up a plastic pack of pitta breads. Why? He asks. Just why do we always end up with something completely different? It’s like saying you want apples and then buying onions! She sighs. Her eyes smile up at him.

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