RUSSETS 6” x 6” oil on board

Our neighbours’ Russet apple tree looked lovely in the early morning light and I couldn’t resist doing a little oil study of it. Our family have a fondness for that Russet tree, which grows right by our garden fence . . .when our boys were little (they’re grown men now), our lovely neighbours told them they could scrump ‘our’ side of the tree whenever they wanted (how our boys loved our neighbours who, with great patience, would also return stray footballs etc and pass other treats over the fence!)
 

Now it’s Boo dog who goes apple scrumping and eats all the windfalls as they drop on our garden path. If you hear me bellowing, “Boo, drop it!!” at this time of year, it will probably be because he is wolfing down his third apple of the day! 🍏🍏🍏🐶

Winter Evening 8” x 10” oil on board

It is true that if you wait until you feel inspired to paint, very little painting will happen; so with that in mind and feeling just about as uninspired as I could possibly be, I picked my brushes up today. All I had really wanted to do was stay snuggled in front of the fire, but as always I’m really glad I forced myself  to paint as it’s always a calming thing to do and I always feel better for it. 

It’s been a fraught time lately, not least because we found another lump on our beloved dog Boo. He had only had surgery to remove a cancerous lump from his tummy just four months ago, and here we were facing surgery again - this time for a mast cell tumour, similar to one he had when he was only two years old. That time it had been followed up by several months chemotherapy, so we were very concerned this time. 

Thankfully Boo’s latest surgery went very well, and this evening we saw the vet to discuss if  further treatment is needed, I’m really relieved that the decision was that the surgery should be enough this time. You would think that, after all he has gone through in his (almost) 9 years, Boo would be very wary of going to the vet’s, but no! He loves it, can’t wait to get in there with his waggy tail and lick  all the staff, and do his “puppy eyes” so that he gets lots of treats! We are very fortunate to have such a great veterinary hospital at Chipping Norton; our family has most certainly been glad of it the past few months.

‘Chinese Lanterns” 10” x 8” oil on board.

Every Autumn I see the glorious colours of Chinese Lanterns and determine to plant some for the following year - and then suddenly Autumn is here again and I still haven’t got any in the garden! Thank goodness for kind and lovely village friends who were so generous to bring not only a big bunch for us to enjoy in a vase in the sitting room (where it looks gorgeous in the hearth), but also another bunch ready to hang and dry, which I hung in the Cwtch so that I could paint them - what a joy to mix those vibrant colours!

Speaking of Autumn - how did that happen so quickly? I can hardly believe we are about to say hello to October already. I’m not a person who enjoys the dark, wet, cold days, and even colder nights, very much (it can be very hard to keep oneself warm and dry in a wheelchair when the weather is cold), but I have some friends and family for whom this is their favourite time of year so I am determined to try to embrace their enthusiasm! Certainly, on a clear, frosty day the colours in the countryside are amazing, and even a murky misty day, with the jackdaws cawing in the trees, can have its charm; so I will look forward to trying to capture the changing seasons with my oil paints - and wrap up very warmly while I’m doing it.

I will be taking part in an exhibition with Chipping Norton Arts at Chipping Norton Theatre Gallery from September 30th to October 19th. It is part of the Chipping Norton Arts Festival which is taking place in venues around the town on Saturday October 5th. There will be lots happening on the day, so do go along if you can, and I hope you will also enjoy the CNarts exhibition at the Theatre over the next couple of weeks (I’m not sure of opening times yet but will post on my Facebook page when I find out - and please be aware if you have limited mobility,  that the gallery is up a flight of stairs with no lift or stairlift unfortunately).

Also on October 5th, I will have a stall selling art prints, cards (including some new Christmas designs) and handwoven items at the ‘Dogs for Good’ Autumn Craft Fair, at the Dogs for Good training centre at Blacklocks Hill, Banbury. The Fair runs from 11am - 3pm, and I would love to see you if you can make it. Boo and some of his DfG friends will be there too, ready to give a waggy hello. x

Sweet Peas 6” x 8” oil on board

There was so much to enjoy on my walk with Boo today, but the highlight for me was the noisy little housemartin family that had made its nest under the school roof. It was the sound of the noisy youngsters, obviously more than ready for some lunch, that first stopped me in my tracks, and then I watched as one of the parents kept flying back and forth with tasty goodies for them. Boo waited so patiently as I watched the parent bird darting in and out from under the roof, with his children never letting up in their demands for more food. I couldn’t see them in the nest but they must be getting quite big and like hungry teenagers by now. 

When I got home I picked a bunch of sweet peas to put on the mantle piece - amazingly, the strong winds and fierce rainstorms of the weekend hadn’t done any damage to them  and they were still beautiful (unlike our poor, battered geraniums). Once I’d brought them into the house and put them in the little glass vase I couldn’t resist painting them.

Sweet peas have always been a favourite flower of mine and hold lovely memories for me. My Dad grew wonderful long rows of sweet peas every year, and when they were flowering Mum would let me take a bunch to school each week to give to my headmaster’s wife. My headmaster at the junior school was extremely strict, and in all honesty as a little child in the infant class I was quite scared of him - but his wife was very kind and gentle, and I was very fond of her. 

We had a school savings club which she was in charge of, so each week I would take the half of my pocket money that hadn’t been spent on sweets to school and deposit it in the savings club, and each week while they were in flower, I would take a bunch of sweet peas with me too. Dad must have had such green fingers because I seem to remember taking these little bunches of flowers for that lovely lady for weeks on end throughout the summer. 🌸

Porthcawl Lighthouse 20cms x 20cms work in progress

The time has flown by since I wrote my last blog and we are now into harvest time already. Lots has happened too, so my painting time hasn’t been as regular as I would have liked, but it’s been very good to be in the studio this week as I work on this piece.

The most upsetting thing to have happened since my last blog post is that Boo, my assistance dog, was found to have another cancerous lump, this time on his chest, but after surgery to remove it plus a wide margin he has now thankfully been given the all-clear and is completely back to his mischievous self again.

Unfortunately Boo’s post-op recovery meant he couldn’t come on holiday with us. I missed him terribly but knew he was in the best and kindest care as our youngest son looked after him whilst we were away. I had planned to get a quick oil study done most days while we were in South Wales, but the week was very windy and blowing my painting stuff about . . . I did get one tiny oil sketch done as the clouds broke up to let the setting sun through a little, but other than that I just used  my sketchbook and pen. Having a break on the beautiful South Wales coast after Artweeks was lovely , and both dear hubby and I felt so much more relaxed after it.

I’ve had a couple of paintings in exhibitions lately too. The first one, a little oil painting of our peony plant in the garden, was painted as I sat  in the garden in between my studio visitors during Artweeks, and was exhibited and then sold at a charity auction at Little Buckland Gallery near Broadway. The peonies started off in my Mum and Dad’s cottage garden when I was little, went with them through two house moves and then ended up in our garden. The peony plant is decades old and positively thrives on neglect.

The second painting is one I did called ‘The Art Stall, Genoa’, which I entered into The Artist magazine/Patchings Festival Open Art Competition. It received a ‘Highly Commended’ and is in their online exhibition through July/early August. It is also eligible for the People’s Choice award which is lovely, but I am highly unlikely to win that as there are some incredibly gifted artists also exhibiting. I am very relieved to have had my work judged at that level and to get that ‘Highly Commended’, it helps me gauge my progress and assess where I am on my painting journey. It takes a lot of courage to enter these juried art competitions, and I’ve had to grow a thick skin so that at those times when work isn’t selected the feelings of rejection and dejection aren’t too painful.- they say that rejection is good for one’s growth as an artist and I’m sure that’s true; I still feel very vulnerable when I enter these things though (although The Art Stall did well, two other paintings I also entered weren’t selected).

The painting I am working on presently is of the lighthouse on the end of Porthcawl pier. I took a photo and did a quick sketch of it one wild and windy July day a couple of years ago when we were down there for a friend’s special birthday. I love being on that pier in wild weather, but it would be reckless to try to paint there from my wheelchair flanked on both sides by raging seas, so a studio painting it has to be for this one. It is still a work in progress but I’m enjoying it very much, remembering the feeling of the salt spray on my face as I sat there watching the stormy sea.

If you watch the BBC weather forecast, you will often see a picture the BBC use when gales are forecast, of enormous waves towering over Porthcawl Lighthouse. It is a very dramatic image, and incredible to see in real life.