Studio Notes no.27

Hello! I needed to take last week off - thanks for your understanding. Here’s a lot of rambling to make up for it….

Sort it out

This year has begun with a need to sort - stuff. The actual things we sometimes lose sight of even though we manoeuvre past them each day. A spring sort-out has come early.

I enjoy giving things away, for free, if I possibly can. Things that would only fetch a few pennies if I tried to sell them. For example, I put a pair of wellington boots outside by our front path with a  note attached: Free, size 5, please take. And was delighted to see them gone within less than a few hours. I was then searching about the house for the next thing to offer the neighbourhood. There’s a certain buzz to not knowing who has taken the thing you are offering (and I don’t miss the awkwardness of someone saying thank you profusely, or ‘are you sure?’ over a pair of old boots). It helps to live on a stretch of road that joins up with various walking routes. I am forever seeing people I haven’t seen before and that makes me happy because then I know there’s a good chance someone will want the next thing I put out with a ‘please take’ sign. Believe me, I will not be offering just anything for the fun of it, but I do like the idea of seeing what people will take.

In Character

I’m currently re-reading a favourite set of characters in the novel Mapp and Lucia By E F Benson. I love their world of machinations and garden parties, it’s all so completely silly and yet very cleverly written and entertaining. I can’t help but think what Elizabeth Mapp and Lucia Lucas might put outside their homes to see what gets taken. It would probably be a tale of ludicrous generosity involving a piano in the driveway of one of their homes. The thing with reading a book you love, gobbling it up, is that you find yourself possibly taking on the characteristics of some of the characters characteristics!  Am I Mapp or Lucia? I think I am more likely to be quaint Irene. Apologies if you don’t know the book and haven’t a clue what I am going on about - but I highly recommend reading, if you fancy it.

At the same time, I am also reading a variety of very different books including Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Winter - one of a quartet of books of short essays, insights into a variety of topics. Enjoying this even more than his Autumn collection (where I began his seasons). I think Winter might be Knaugaard’s season. Another book I would recommend.

I get a great deal of inspiration for my artwork from reading, of course. Storytelling, exploring characters and moods, over and over and with thoughtfulness - that’s what my work is about, really. 

Recent sketchbook pages

My recent sketchbook pages are very much about storytelling or finding stories as I draw. I enjoy working spontaneously and finding tiny figures out on the horizon. I may draw places that are both archetypal and familiar - inspiration comes from my local park, walking about the lanes and roads of my neighbourhood and town….  But really I am exploring somewhere else, not here but another place that feels real to me even though it may never  have happened. It is a place of the past with a bounty of characters and no one knows what might happen next, or what house they live in, but they seem to know how to walk across the marks I give them to tread within and they seem to understand where the sky and land meet. And there are often surprises, small things like birds appearing from out of a hat.

My sketchbooks have recently focused on using just black gouache paint to draw and I feel a great freedom with this. I could happily work this way always. I make use of found papers, layer up, keep it small. I like books that can be worked on a little at a time. I cut up vintage postcards to add a stranger's handwriting or very old postmarks, found text. I keep brown paper bags, wipe a gesso loaded brush on a brown envelope - all these things are ready to be used. 

In my world of simplified landscapes and people going about their business, things are happening quietly and without too much to shout about. There are stories to be found but no big statements. There are similar motifs repeated, but always something a little different about the weather, or the tilt of a line. 

Drawing with a brush allows me to work quickly, with a flourish that is more like using a fountain pen than a pencil. There’s an inky quality but the paint has a matt look rather than the slight iridescence of indian ink. 

I like to add pages within pages of the small books I make. Often I have to stop myself from creating bulky cul-de-sacs of pages within pages and must check the entire thing can be somehow folded up. But is it that important to have to fold neatly? it is mine and will live on display for a while, standing on an old book or shelf. 

I will be saying much more about my sketchbooks and ideas in forthcoming studio notes, especially when I begin the subscriber notes in a few weeks time (more on that soon).

***

Stitching

If you are looking for embroidery/stitch work - I have yet to begin stitching again this year, but hope to soon. I have had to take an extended break (due to a neck/shoulder injury) and am not sure when I will have a collection available. I am considering the idea of a waiting list but please don’t ask to be added to one just yet, as I am uncertain just when anything other than sporadic stitching may happen. I think it is possible that I will need to extend my break from stitching, or at least ease myself back in very slowly. Getting back to the machine will tell me what I need to do. Thanks for your understanding. Meanwhile, I hope all the other things I make and share will keep you interested.

Shop News

<script type='text/javascript' src='https://storage.ko-fi.com/cdn/widget/Widget_2.js'></script><script type='text/javascript'>kofiwidget2.init('Support Me on Ko-fi', '#29abe0', 'F1F61CZFW');kofiwidget2.draw();</script>