Studio Notes no.94

a new handful of tiny sketchbooks and more

Hello again, I hope you are well. Yesterday was full to the brim with rain. This morning, I work early and heard the church bells chime six, got out of bed to make tea and was greeted with golden sunshine. As I waited for the kettle to boil I looked out of the window - we get to see three different aspects up here in the attic. From the dining room window I can look straight out and see a distant avenue of trees, many quirky rooftops, distinctive traditional old brickwork. But if I look down there’s an empty (at this time of day) car park - and it was here a lone fox was ambling about. The fox was a good size, with long dark legs. It seemed very much at home. He jumped on to a nearby old wall and it was this that I quickly sketched whilst my tea went cold…..

photo: a quick fox jumped on the old wall - sketchbook

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Thank you to everyone for your kindness with comments and emails over the past few weeks. My apologies if I have not replied to each one - this has been a busy time. We are still very much in sorting things out mode. I am grateful indeed to have time for my creative work and have enjoyed re-immersing myself in all that I want to make and share. Thank you so much for your recent purchases and interest. I am going to continue on with offering new work two to three times a week. Each small update will include three to six artworks, most likely. I’m working on an eclectic mix of ideas but with stitch at the heart of what I do, for stitch is such an engrossing creative strand and I am grateful for the continued interest my embroidery.

Photo: a recently sold embroidery brooch. There will be more.

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Long-term readers and followers of my work will understand my love of sketchbooks. They are my playground, my never-minds, my sparks of ideas, my edgy self, my colour fields, my little poems etc… For a while now I have wanted to make a new series of tiny sketchbooks. Books to be held in the palm of your hand. One book and then another. Now I have started on a trio that will soon blossom, I hope, seeding more and more tiny little books.

photo: new tiny sketchbook - with a bit of playful stitch included

I know to some these are quite different creatures - but they are an important part of what I make and who I am. Part self-portrait, part journeys into past lives, irreverent and abstract, they are nonetheless books I like to share to show that I am always open to play and reinvention.

Photos: new tiny sketchbooks - gouache paint and a little collage

I would like to fill these books as quickly as possible. That’s what they are all about. Capturing moments and chance encounters... It’s fascinating to see so many figures show up! I knew they had been waiting for their re-emergence….

I shall continue on with these books. I hope to make new YouTube videos going through my books and sharing pages, maybe even talking a little about them if I find a confident moment. We shall see.

Meanwhile, over the next few weeks I will share more of my tiny sketchbooks - both present and past.

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A few small stories

The town is ‘bustling’ as any English town might on a summer’s day. Children are off school and being entertained by grandparents who declare loudly: but I don’t think your mummy will want you to have coca-cola! Then there are the children who like to skip and hop on narrow Georgian streets, meeting the traffic. Henry - don’t jump in front of the cars! Families file into coffee shops and wait for tables. Shops close down and coffee shops open. Coffee shops close and new coffee shops open. Little girls dressed in bright polyester princess dresses twirl about in Poundland, choosing five-minute-wonder toys. Meanwhile, it’s raining again. Across the road, in the churchyard, a man stands by an easel - I think he’s painting or simply staring at the stones.

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A huge crow sits on the fire escape. He has a subtle speckled chest. Those feet, so shiny and absurdly crow-like. I watch the crows come and go through the day. They help themselves to sandwiches left at the back of a shop. They jump and hop up and down the fire escape steps. I particularly enjoy seeing them go up and down the rusty steps in pairs, doing their little musical dance routine. The church bells chime - two churches can be heard from here. The crows spend much of the day up by the church tower that I see from my kitchen window. I wonder if they recognise the church bells as something, as a thing that is part of their aural landscape, or are they to be ignored?

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Inside the church, the church nearest to where I live now - for there’s a choice here - inside this church there is a calm and timelessness (though there’s also, on the welcome table, a card reader screen for donations). I admire the needlework on kneeling cushions, read the remembrance notices. It’s good to have this open church to sit and think. Just think, or not - now there’s a blessing…. I know if we ever get a hot spell of weather and I need a cooler place to be for a few hours I will be across the way to here with my sketchbook or a Barbara Pym novel. Miss Pym would approve, I am quite sure.

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Shop updates for the week ahead

Monday 7th August 7pm

Wednesday 9th August 8pm

Sunday 12 August 2pm

(UK times - please see my shop ahead of these times as I hope to preview the new work, also see Instagram).

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Thank you for reading here. Thank you also for subscribing and commenting. If you enjoy my writing and sketchbooks and would like to buy me a coffee then your support is much appreciated.

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