SPRING GLORY painted on location five days before self isolation began. 

The last time I wrote a blog post Spring was just around the corner and we were all busy making plans for the better weather. Now we find ourselves in strange, and worrying, times that we couldn’t even have imagined a few months ago.

Times at the moment certainly aren’t easy for anyone, and the daily news continues to be grim viewing; but there are some amazing things happening in the midst of this dreadful pandemic. The kindness of people; strangers, friends, loved ones, is wonderful to see. And to watch our politicians all working together to get us through this is a marvel in itself. The heroic dedication of doctors, nurses, care workers , shop workers  - the list could go on and on - is very humbling indeed. . . .I truly hope and believe the world could be a better place in the future if we hold on to all the values we are showing now, in this worldwide crisis. . . 

And, through it all, the Spring continues in all its glory, families have time to be together, we are all keeping in touch much more, and we are all learning to live simpler lives, as those before us did. 

I hope you stay well, and free of this awful virus, I hope we have good weather to make the lockdown feel less limiting, and I hope you get the opportunity to perhaps try that new hobby or interest that you’ve never tried before. As this time passes - and it will - I wish you joy in the little things 🌸

The Best Laid Plans . . . 

If everything had gone to perfect plan, today I would have been on my first day of recovery after surgery. Unfortunately, I failed my pre-op last week, so everything is delayed while I have more tests and now wait to go to another hospital for my op. It’s very frustrating as the timing was perfect - there is only four months until Artweeks 2020 and there will be so much to do to prepare for that. . . 

Still, as they say, life carries on happening while we are busy making plans, so although I felt fed up yesterday I decided to get on with things anyway, warping up my smaller loom and starting on another scarf, weaving a lap blanket on the bigger loom, and spinning some more lovely, soft Blue Faced Leicester wool to weave into cloth for a waistcoat.

Today I did a painting of the still-soggy fields of elephant grass down by the river. Painting takes so much concentration that it’s completely absorbing, so after two days of filling my time with doing all  the creative things I love, I feel so much better. What creative things lift your spirits? 

New Year resolutions

Over the decades I’ve lost track of how many New Year’s resolutions I have made and promptly broken, so this  year I’ve resolved not to make any at all.  New Year is always a good time to reflect on the past and to look ahead though, and I’ve been doing plenty of that in between all the busyness and enjoyment of the past couple of weeks.

The last six months haven’t been as productive as I had hoped; some of that was due to looking after a poorly dog (who is now thankfully full of beans again, and has just celebrated his 9th Birthday with lots of treats). A lot of the problem though, was that I lost confidence in myself and have had a very long dose of ‘artist’s block’.

Now that I’ve had a bit of a post-Christmas rest and had a bit of time to think things through I’m ready to face 2020 with fresh enthusiasm. I’ve entered a couple of art competitions, and got through the first stage of one of them, with another stage still to get through (not holding out much hope of the other, but will know one way or the other soon enough). I’m also going to try to manage my time much better, especially while the daylight is still so limited, so that I can get more painting time in. I’m going to concentrate more on painting the things I love this year, no more commissions or anything like that (which that I find super-stressful), but spend the time trying to improve instead.  I’m already looking forward to Artweeks in May too, that is always a lot of fun, and as usual will creep up on me before I know it!

There are so many blessings in life, and so much to look forward to - not least, the brighter, warmer days of Spring not too far off now, with all that it promises.  I wish you a very happy, peaceful, healthful 2020 🌸x

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.

Artweeks 2019

I can’t believe that Artweeks is over for another year! Looking back it was such an amazing ten days....thank you to all the lovely visitors who came to see my work in my new studio and made the whole week a happy and memorable one.

I had been a little concerned about displaying all the paintings as my new ‘Little Cwtch’ studio is not as long as my old studio, but dear hubby and I had devised a way between us of displaying it all without it being cramped and I was so pleased with how it all finally looked - I even had space to display the weaving I have been doing over the past few months, which was a new thing for this year.

I met some wonderful people and had some wonderful conversations - always one of the highlights of Artweeks for me. I was also thankful to have some very good sales..... I had decided to donate the profits from paintings sold at this exhibition to the Lawrence Home Nursing Team after they had cared so wonderfully for a friend of ours last year, and am very happy to be able to send them £540 from the exhibition.

I couldn’t do any of this without my dear hubby. . .he works tirelessly in the lead up to Artweeks, helping me to do so much - even the garden was pristine and weed free (well, almost 😊)! During the week he was a smiling host and coffee-maker, and when it was all over he was the one who had all the heavy work to do, bringing all my ‘stuff’ back into the studio, taking down direction signs and posters etc and packing away paintings.

Now I’ve had a bit of a rest and it’s time to think about getting back out there and doing some more painting - here’s hoping we have another gorgeous summer! 🌸

Cloud Study 6” x 8”

I am trying to keep up the momentum of getting out and painting small oil sketches on location as much as I can, but today was not a day to be out much in my wheelchair. As beautiful as it has been at times, at other times we’ve had rain, hail, strong winds and black skies - today is a prelude to Storm Hannah’s imminent arrival tomorrow. I decided the safest, driest way to do any oil study today was in the shelter of the open conservatory doorway!

The clouds were whipping along at a real pace, so I had to move very quickly while painting, whilst also still trying to focus on the colours, shapes and values of the swiftly changing sky.

I was really glad that I didn’t let myself feel that today was a day wasted as far as getting out and painting was concerned, and that I’d made the effort to get out my kit and sit there studying the sky; it was a great lesson in observation for me and a lot of fun on a blustery day.