Photo: A mix of foliage in my little garden
Hello again, hope you are well and enjoying May sunshine in your part of the world. Here in the south of England the sun has decided to shine, roses are budding and blooming, plants I thought might have died due to a long wet winter are now re-birthing…. It all feels rather lush. The end of May and beginning of June are the best times here, if the weather co-operates (for anyone thinking of visiting from elsewhere).
The warmer, greener days are welcome as I start work on my summer tiny landscapes. I will be offering summer lucky dips from this coming Wednesday - that’s the last day in May already. I will also have a new postcard set - you will have seen the three in previous studio notes. I am happy with these and will be including a tiny bird painting with each set! If the postcards sell out I may reprint, if there’s a demand. Thanks always.
And a very special thanks to everyone who purchased a copy of Maudie, my poetry zine. Absolutely had no real idea just how this one would sell. I made it because I felt I really wanted to share a new zine, new writing. Putting the zine together has been an engrossing and satisfying process, battling my inner critic and making clear choices about how I wanted things to be. With plenty of work to get this one out there - this past week has felt consumed by it. I have a final batch to send out on Tuesday, after the bank holiday. I won’t be making any more copies. But yes I hope to plunge myself into zine editing some time again in the future, with less of a gap than previously.
photo: an image that appears in Maudie - I made a series of quick drawings on thin paper and pegged them out in the garden. It seemed like a good idea at the time - my hope was a bird might land on them and I would get such a great photo. But after waiting and waiting, I had to give up hope of any bird participation. Still, I quite like this photo and feel it somehow fits the mood of the poem sequence.
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As you know, hopefully, I have been working on a series of May drawings. These have all been monochrome gouache drawings on paper. I’ve kept to using simply black gouache. The daily process of drawing has been good for me; it has been an interesting challenge, with new ideas evolving. I was a tiny bit concerned that making a commitment to draw and share each day might become a chore but it has not felt that way at all. I’ve looked forward to my early morning or evening drawing sessions. If I had found things did not flow I would have stopped. There is nothing at all wrong in saying to oneself: well, maybe another time. I am sure no one would have misunderstood, had I decided to ditch the plan. However, it’s worked out and I am most grateful to everyone who has looked, purchased and shared an interest.
Looking ahead, I have thought and thought about what to do as a daily thing in June. And then of course I told myself I did not need to do a daily thing, or have a theme for the month. I’ve considered a month of stitch, a month of mixed media - basically I have thought through just about every scenario!
It all comes back to a love of drawing.
So, I have decided to continue on with daily drawing and adding a new one to my shop most days. However, I am opening the field and will be using a wider variety of media and colour. I might make colourful drawings, monochrome drawings - gouache, pencil, charcoal…. If life happens then I might skip a day or two. I plan to add them to my shop at 12 noon, or just before and will post on Instagram. (Instagram has been especially good at limiting who sees my posts just lately, so sorry if you missed them - not my doing!)
But for the first week of June I shall be taking a break - from daily drawing. For some time now I have been itching to devote more time to my personal obsession of patchwork. It’s such an engrossing task in hand, all those stitches - and I love to stitch my patchwork pieces by hand. So, from the 1st to the 7th June I will be sharing a week of doll quilts over on my personal Instagram account: phaedraspoon. Phaedra is something of an alter ego, where I post personal projects occasionally. You are welcome to follow me there. The doll quilts will not be offered for sale in any shop - however, if you see one that interests you then do get in touch. Over time I hope to build a collection of doll size quilts with a future exhibition in mind. I will write more about this and my ideas on doll quilts in a few weeks time.
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photo: recent sketchbook pages
I am really, really looking forward to next weekend - the weekend of a sketchbook challenge I almost glibly mentioned here and now it seems is really happening! It is going to be engrossing, fun and just so good to be devoting time to filling a sketchbook. The challenge is a simple one - fill that book! I am especially happy to have such a lovely group of people joining in. More than that, I am looking forward to seeing everyone else’s books. I will certainly write and share more about the sketchbook weekend here, in future posts.
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A few small stories
The warmer days mean conspicuous gardening. I have seen my first topless man mowing the front lawn. It was barely warm that morning, but just getting the mower out of the shed can be an effort, I do understand. I have also seen - and I just can’t condone this at all - a neighbour vacuuming their front lawn. And there is a good reason why this woman had her Henry vacuum cleaner perched on the path as she cleaned rather than mowed - because her lawn is not a lawn at all but a piece of nasty plastic. And it was not saving her time or energy. Give me a weedy, earthy, mole-hilly, dandelion-rich front lawn any day.
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A woman on the bus makes a phone call: ‘Hello Carol, it’s Chelsea…’ She then laughs, she somehow manages to continue laughing - hardly taking a breath - for the rest of our twenty minute journey. It’s a heartfelt, belly-wobbling laugh. I eye my fellow passengers, who all seem completely tuned out of Chelsea’s merriment. Personally, I love it. I smile, can’t help smiling. I look out of the window at the already-fading union jack bunting on houses, at the blooming trees, the overfilled wheelie bins by the roadsides - I look and smile, happy for Chelsea and everyone on this sunny day.
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A ginger cat is sitting on the chair by the kitchen door. I don’t know where he has come from or who he might belong to but he wears a red collar and looks quite at home, sat on the chair I usually sit on. I don’t open the door, as planned. I shall wait to go out into the garden. The washing can wait to be pegged out. Best not disturb him, better to admire.
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Thanks always for reading here, for your kind comments and likes. If you enjoy my writing and would like to buy me a coffee, this is very much appreciated. Thanks and I look forward to sharing more again soon.
Maudie recieved....and is loved in our house....the words, the drawings, and all the lovely extras that were included. Thank you Cathy.
My husband doubled up with laughter at the ridiculousness of hoovering plastic grass!
Chelsea sounded like a tonic. She would have made me smile/laugh along too.
Have a good week.
Helen