Studio Notes no.77

giveaway winner, birds and dolls

Photo: a random stack of sketchbook pages

Hello again and a big thanks to everyone who took the time to share with me your favourite bird! It was so lovely to read all your thoughtful responses. As many of you mentioned birds that don’t appear in my own neighbourhood, I have some great research to do. I’ve already looked up a few unfamiliar birds. You mentioned many to me but by far the most favourite bird is - - - the robin. Now, I recognise we may be putting together both the European and the American robin, but they are both robins, yes? My hope is that, when time allows (I will have to make time) I will put together a large sketchbook page featuring at least a good many of the birds you told me about. I will of course share this with you here.

Amongst some of the birds you mentioned popular favourites were cardinals, wrens and various tits. Robin mentioned the roadrunner - which is a bird I have seen in real life, when I spent some time in Arizona. I love the names of some of the birds you told me about: Black Phoebe and Stellar Jay. I can sort of imagine them without looking them up. A few I know from watching videos on the internet - such as dark-eyed juncos, who I know love bird feeders at this time of year. I’m intrigued by the down woodpecker and also enchanted to know the green woodpecker (who I see here) is named le Pic Vert in French.

So, thank you so much to everyone who left a comment and emailed me. There is only going to be one winner and I shall mentioned them at the end of these notes….

photo: more random sketchbook pages

***

Every so often I get the urge to make dolls. It’s not so much an urge - that’s really the wrong word - it’s a whispery feeling. Sort of like hearing a ghostly sound coming from a broken music box, but not at all disconcerting. I start drawing doll shapes on scraps of paper. I begin to cut out these shapes and hold them up to the window, have them dance about hopefully. Then they wait. Eventually, I might make a doll or a small family.

Just recently, I’ve been making a start on a new family of mixed media dolls. They are similar to ones made in the past, but some are a little taller than others. They are time-consuming to make, as dolls so often can be. However, I feel it is important as a maker to go ahead and invest time in things that whisper to be made. There is something about the very basic of doll shapes and the toy-like charm of them, connecting us back to ages when the most simple bundle of rag and bone might be a much-loved companion.

I still have work to do, but here’s just a peek at a few. Some of these I may keep. I shall be offering a selection in my shop in a few weeks time.

photo: two new mixed media dolls

photo: we come in various sizes - dolls in progress, in their papery undressed state.

**

A few small stories from this week

I often have such detailed dreams. One recent dream featured an intriguing peg board - a large piece of cork or wood with little wooden sticks, and carved wooden figures on display as well as small drawings and paintings. It seemed to be from another place and time. I knew this was not my work I was looking at, but it was as if I was being shown something to inspire me - how can this be the work of just my own imagination? The next morning I think of telling my daughter: I had a great dream about a peg board! But I decide not to because it does sound a bit random and really does she need to know her mother has dreams about peg boards? Oh, but now I am sharing my dream with you - and that somehow feels just fine.

**

Daughter and I walk in the neighbourhood. Slowly does it. Walking with a stick, just to help my confidence, I can linger and look at my neighbours’ front gardens. So many snowdrops. This seems like a very good year for them. One garden has a mix of varieties - an unusually large snowdrop that looks to be twice the size of the rest. Meanwhile, back in our little garden by the kitchen door, the snowdrops that I planted are beginning to push through. There are daffodils too. I press a fingertip on the top of a snowdrop blade to feel how sharp it might be.

**

News from the shop front - I will be updating my shop this coming Wednesday 22nd February at the usual time of 8pm UK with a preview from about 2pm. It has been a few weeks, so I have quite a few special pieces to offer including two artist books in safe keeping boxes, larger drawings and a selection of tiny paintings.

*

The Giveaway winner is: Anne van der Sligte - please email me Anne (ccullis at gmail dot com) with your address and I will send your package of goodies this week coming.

**

Thanks always for reading here for your kind comments and likes. Please subscribe. If you enjoy my writing, you are welcome to buy me a coffee - and thanks so much to everyone for their past support.

Shop News