Snail mail, balloons, Wild Things, and tomatoes

I’m at home this week and feel it is definitely time I posted something on my blog. I have lots of little things I thought I would share today, here goes:

Since my last post I received a card from Alex Tan featuring one of his wonderful pictures.....



It’s such a treat receiving something like this via snail mail and even more so when it is from someone I have got to know through the EDM group who shares a love of art. I could really get into this whole swapping artwork thing.  Mmm, I’ve been trying to think of something to celebrate my first ‘Blogaversary’ – watch this space. In the meantime a small parcel is winging it’s way East from here in sunny Yorkshire, just a little something to thank Alex :o) x

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I had produced a painting of a flower that I hoped would be used in some way to raise money at a memorial event for one of my work colleagues who died over the summer.  Well, on Sunday November 14th we are going to have an event at the school – a balloon race. The balloon that travels the furthest will win a prize for it’s owner. All the money raised at the event will go to charity and to pay for a permanent memorial at school – an outdoor, flower-filled classroom which should be beautiful.  I have produced a one-off necklace that will be auctioned, and a print of the flower will be signed, framed and also auctioned.



I’m so glad I decided to paint that gerbera, it’s great to know it might raise some extra funding. I will take pictures and post here to let you know how the event goes.

As far as my Wild Things are concerned things are ticking over slowly, but surely. I’m certainly getting lots of lovely feedback! I have decided that as I am at home this week I will remove all postal charges from my items, to anywhere in the world until noon (GMT) on Saturday, October 23rd. I figure a little saving is always good in the lead up to Christmas! I have also had my polar bear printed up onto cards and he looks quite smart so they are now available to purchase.



If I can complete the new ‘snowy fox’ painting I have started this week hopefully he’ll be arriving in the shop in one form or another very soon.  Also, a lovely lady has also requested a small, silver pendant version of my wolf – it’s taken me ages to get him to fit the charm! Hope she likes him.

I am also finishing lots of experiments I have been doing with my soldered items and patinas, and in making my own copper findings!!! Never a dull moment!!! My poor old fingernails are shot to pieces though!

Anyway, as a shameless plug... do pop across and have a look in my little shop, you never know, a Christmas treat might be lurking there just waiting for the right person to come along!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/WildThingsPurcell

Today I decided to start working in my new A4 Moleskine - though I have stuck a sheet of watercolour paper onto the page I am working on as I am painting a series of little pictures of some beautiful tomatoes my lovely neighbour Colin has given me.  They are all different colours and shapes, such simple things and yet so pretty.  All good observational practice.  In fact, I shall finish off here now and do some more before the light starts to fail (must buy me a new work lamp this year).

Oh, and finally, remember I sent in a piece of art to the ‘Mail Me Art 2’ project?   Well, the book is finally out and my piece made it into the tome – albeit in a little corner of a page – but I’m really chuffed!!! I really enjoyed taking part in that project, it was great having a goal to work towards. 

Mmm, mail art – now how about that as an idea to get us all communicating via snail mail as well as over the Interweb? That could be a fun thing to do as a Blogaversary event...... Mmm, I’ll have a think and get back to you on that one   :o)

My mind went completely blank



I can't believe it's been so long since my last post!  Even longer since I posted any finished art work.  This has been down to a mix of 'life happening' and creative block.  For the last few weeks I have hardly sketched or painted or created anything, apart from that is, the painting of this pink gerbera flower, and this has a sad tale behind it. 

As many of you may know I work as a professional librarian in a school.  The school is made up of a primary and grammar school and part of my role is teaching library skills classes to the junior pupils.  The best part of the job!  Through the last academic year I worked with and got to know a lovely young teacher, in fact during the summer term we began to make plans to start a junior book club - coming up with lots of fun ideas for the kids to do - us too.  I knew at the time that she had not been feeling too well, food allergies she thought.  Then two weeks before the end of term she was diagnosed with stomach cancer and, unbelievably on August 18th I attended her funeral.  She had just had her 31st birthday, it doesn't really compute.  I was really only just getting to know her but I have really felt her loss.  I think we could have been good friends.  I can't imagine how her close family and friends must feel.

Anyway, all her colleagues who attended the funeral wore a pink gerbera buttonhole. It had been her specific wish that we all wore bright colours, especially pink (her favourite).  The day after the funeral I decided to paint this picture of her flower, just because it looked so pretty and because I wanted to remember how it looked.  Now I am about to make a set of pendants using the image to help to raise some money in her memory, and the junior school have decided to use the image for their fundraising campaign in her memory - how cool is that?  I'll let you know how things go.

Apart from that I seem to have started more pictures than I have finished and really have struggled with motivating myself.  I can't give a particular reason I'm afraid, it's just how it has been.  Well, last weekend I couldn't sit down and work on some jewellery pieces as I'd planned because I had ended up in A&E on Saturday morning with a scratch on my left eye  :0(   however, this Thursday gone I did manage to finish a sketch I had started on a beach, Hunmanby Gap on the Yorkshire coast in July.  It's pretty basic but I'm happy with it.  Wonderful beach too - I always manage to find lots of fossils there :0)  I also did a bit more work on a coloured pencil piece I did to illustrate EDM # 161 Draw something you think smells wonderful - I will definitely get this finished, hopefully tomorrow and post it here.  Oh and I managed to list a few more pieces in my Etsy shop so not too bad a day I suppose!

Anyway - here's the beach picture which I will say is EDM # 100 Draw or paint a landscape:



I promise I shall be pulling my finger out in the next few weeks and getting some more work done.  I have ordered myself a new A4 Moleskine sketchbook and a book to inspire me on digital artwork so no excuses!!  I'd be interested to know what you people reading this do to try to overcome any creative block!

And if the last few weeks haven't been the kick in the pants I needed to remind me that life is just too damn short to dither about, well I don't know what would remind me, do you?

Buzz if you like, but don't sting me

Didn't realise how little I had been posting recently.... partly because I've been busy in the proper job and partly because I have been producing some new artwork both for my jewellery and a couple of EDMs on the boil (so to speak - will post these over next few days whan I have caught up with everyone elses offerings).  Here is my latest Wild Thing... a bee!

I have a sheet ready to print so that I can start preparing some soldered bits and pieces.  I am going to make some little charms and pendants with a 'Halloween' Wild Things theme.  Yesterday I started a painting of a spider... now, let me explain that I have a very stupid and irrational fear of spiders.  I live in a country where spiders are not a threat, yet just the thought of one scuttling along makes me want to run for the hills.  Ridiculous!  So I am finding myself as normal, totally engrossed in the painting I am doing and then, every now and again... shuddering at the subject matter.  I have no real fear of any other living thing.  As a child I once sat on a wasps nest (long story) and was stung everywhere.  Am I frightened of wasps / bees / stingy things?  No.  I once had the little finger of my right hand almost ripped off (no seriously - I have a cracking scar to prove it) by a rearing pony.  Am I scared of all things equine?  No.  As a child I was bitten several times by dogs - once on the face (again small scar to prove it) - I'm not frightened of dogs, never have been, which is why I got myself into so many scrapes with them because I always threw my arms around any dog I saw as a child  :0)

Being scared of spiders is silly.  I have never been hurt by a spider, never had a spider trauma... apart from the time my friends child held the biggest one up under my nose saying 'Look what I found Lesley....'.  I was horrified, my instinct was to leap over the fence into the neighbour's garden, or worse still chuck the child and her find into next door's garden.  I told her I thought it was beautiful and she should put it back where she found it because it's family were missing it, which she dutyfully did.  I think (hope) the rictus smile and my googling eyes passed her by. I would hate to be responsible for imprinting the same fear in another generation.

So, deep breaths, keep calm Lesley, and get that painting finished!

TTFN, xx 

It's all OK I used a rubber.....

It has taken me ages to come up with an idea for EDM 206 'Draw something familiar to you that you know is called something else in another region', but I have had real fun with this.  I'm not trying to match the comedic level of the extremely talented Andrea Joseph when she tackled the whole 'fanny' issue (insert lots of English blushing & - see her post for February 19th HERE - you will need to scroll down a couple of posts to see it).

I have had the odd idea for this one then last week, while going over my Paris sketches I found a page I had abandoned.  In true EDM spirit I decided I should try to mend it, but I just seemed to make a bigger mess.  That's when I thought about using my rubber.... and that was it, an idea was born. 

I set to with the already messed up page, made an even bigger mess - and loved every minute of it!!  Then I painted a RUBBER on some watercolour paper, cut it out and stuck it on top of the pencil scribbles. 

You see I know that generally speaking a 'rubber' to my lovely friends across The Pond has an entirely different meaning - you know what I mean boys and girls ;o)  Yet here in the UK it is absolutely an everyday term for well, a rubber.  You would never get anyone here asking to borrow an eraser to rub out pencil marks. Even typing the word doesn't seem right!  It's funny isn't it how things can have such varied meanings?  But it all leads to fantastic innuendo (or as I prefer to call it 'In Your Endo) - which is VERY British humour.  Google the 'Carry On' films sometime (Oooh, Matron!).  And, more importantly it's all part of the beauty of the English language that adapts and adopts fer more than any other language (probably).

I found this British - American glossary online and think it's wonderful, thought you might like to see it too?  You can swap it round between countries, which makes it even more useful.

Armed with this glossary my American chums can now also appreciate this little anecdote from my childhood:

I would have been possibly 10 or 11 years old and at school pen-pals were being organised between the school I was at and the school we were partnered with in Lille, France.  We all had to write a letter to a pupil at the French school.  These letters were to be passed around the pupils in the equivalent French class and they would reply to us.  I was very taken with this idea and laboured long and hard over my letter, illustrating it (of course) and sticking pictures to it.  After a couple of weeks, friends in my class started to receive responses from the French pupil who had picked them.  I began to get more excited.  Every morning I ran downstairs and asked if my French letter had arrived.  I was obsessed with receiving my French letter.  I told everyone I met, family, friends, complete strangers, that I was going to get a French letter through the post.  I didn't flinch when I noticed the strained looks and stifled grins on the faces of the adults I told this to.  After I can't remember how long, my lovely Dad could take it no more, sat me down and told me why I should re-phrase what I was saying.  I have never been so mortified in my entire life.  Well I have, but those are other stories  ;o) 

Now I leave it to you to look up French Letter in the glossary I have supplied you with!!!  More blushes!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend xx

Is it really already a month ago?

I have finally got around to photographing some of the sketches I did in Paris - here's the first, a sketch I made at Pere Lachaise cemetery:

It's not the best sketch I have ever produced by any stretch!  It was a very hot day and my paint was dry almost as it hit the paper!  I also ended up having to use several different drawing implements so - the lines are a bit messy - and as for the perspective!!  Still, I really enjoyed painting it, and as with any on-the-spot painting it evokes so many memories, the smell of the trees, the sound of them, the overgrown plants and patches of grass - and of course the heat!

I'm going to class this as EDM # 29 Draw something architectural - I think it fits that category fairly well and it is an EDM I may have otherwise avoided doing. Cheeky I know!

More to follow when I get my act together, hope you are all having a lovely weekend. :o)

I'm gonna get you little fishy.....

Now you'll probably only get that quote if you live in the UK and have ever watched Red Dwarf... one of the silliest Sci-Fi programmes ever - well worth a view.

I'm hoping this little fella will kill two birds with one stone - he's going to be adapted for the bits and pieces I am making to sell - but he was also painted with EDM 166 in mind - 'draw a fish'.

I just need to do something about the green blobs - make them look more like seaweed!!!  I've used watercolour, gouache and coloured pencil in this picture and have really enjoyed painting it - though my it was fiddly!!

I have also listed another item in my Etsy shop today...

Things are going slow, but you have to work hard for good things don't you?  I'll keep chipping away!!

You'll notice a little Wild Things Facebook button over on the right.... I'd love to see you over there if you do engage in Facebooky activities!  If you have your own artwork / craftwork on there, we could share the love - man  :o)  xx

Green things

Just thought I'd share a couple of very quick watercolour sketches I produced while out walking the pooch.  I haven't really posted any decent artwork in a while, and these I hope fit the remit of another EDM - No. 116 - something green. 

The first is of a tree stump that I have a fondness for - it's all mossy and attracts lots of birds.  I just sketched it with the paints, and am quite pleased with the results...

The second painting - again a quick watercolour sketch (the paper was not so good for this one) of some hawthorne bushes edging a field.  I love hawthorne, all twisty and knotty and in the swathes of beautiful flowers in spring are just gorgeous...

On a slightly different note I actually listed my first necklace in my Etsy shop, using a print of the himalayan poppy I painted last year.  I'm quite pleased with the finished piece - I hope someone will like it enough to purchase!!

Thought I would ask you all too - what are your favourite flora and fauna?  Wild or domesticated - I'd love to know... it might help get my creative juices flowing Wild Things wise - don't worry though, if you do inspire a painting / product I won't insist you make a purchase!!!  :o)

Have a lovely rest of the weekend folks, I'm off to finish a seahorse painting!!

First ATC swap....

Just wanted to share my first ATC swap with you.  I am a member of UK Handmade and a lovely lady called Kella set up an ATC swap group that I decided to join.  I have never done anything like this before but, ever up for a creative challenge I though it would be a great idea.  The theme for the swap I joined was 'songs'.  This seems to have been approached from lots of angles, I've have just noticed on the Flickr group that one lady has done 'the dawn chorus'... well you can't really get much lovelier music than that can you?

The card I received was from Jane who makes the most beautiful crocheted items and her 'card', I don't really want to call it that because it's made of the most gorgeous golden silks and velvets and beads, is inspired by the most recent album by Corrine Bailey Ray...

Lovely isn't it?

I had to send my ATC to Kella (check her beautiful craft work here) this time.  I think I have mentioned the group Eels before, there isn't an Eels album I don't like and many of their songs I absolutely love.  So I chose, without even realising I was chosing to illustrate yet another Wild Thing, the Eels song 'I Like Birds':

On the back I collaged lots of astronauts and a rocket launch, an auto-car and lots of little birds which I then covered with a layer of tissue paper with my details written on in bestest, neatest handwriting...

I loved making this and can't wait to have a go at another!  Keep an eye out now for the little sparrow - he'll be turning up in jewellery very soon!

Oh, and don't forget to leave a comment on my previous post to be entered for the giveaway!  Ta ta for now, x 

Gearing up

As you can see I have changed the title of my blog...  I was never very happy with 'Making Marks' I just felt I had to think of something suitable and at the time that was all I could think of.  I am about to start selling some of my hand made work and will be doing so under the name 'Wild Things' (the tag line being - 'hand made things with wild things on') and so it seems a sensible idea to tie this blog in with my little business venture. 

The picture at the top illustrates the state of my little buisiness venture as it stands today though - I don't even think I could call it organised chaos could I?!!!  Guess what I'll be doing this weekend...

Just to add something a bit more creative to this post I thought I'd put up a  non-Wild Things pic that I keep working on - a watercolour of Lindisfarne in Northumberland, a place I have visited many times since I was a child.  This is a painting I keep coming back to.  It's taken from some patched together photographs of the castle and harbour, I am trying to work much more freely with the paint.  I have already made a mess of the sky and will try to rectify it at some point but its all being done on practice paper, just for fun really so I am enjoying the process:

Right I off to try to create some order out of chaos!  Chores today, creative fun tomorrow.  Have a good weekend guys! x

Help me I'm hungry

Just a quick post...  I finally got my act together and worked on one of the recent EDM challenges 'Draw something from your pet's point of view'.  Here is my quick watercolour sketch.....

This is the jar I keep my dog Scout's favourite biscuits in.  Here is the proof of how much she loves her biscuits....

Dogs! x

You say it's your birthday

I have had such a busy few weeks (months) in my proper job I have hardly found time to produce any artwork.  Which has made me feel very sad.  It was my husband's birthday last weekend and I didn't even manage to get his birthday card finished on time!  I have worked on it all this weekend and when he gets back from walking the dog, I will present it to him!  I hope he likes it....

Each picture basically represents a band he loves - so he has to work out which bands they are!  He will, he's a music anorak, nothing will pass him by!  If he really likes it I'll frame it up for him.  I really enjoyed doing this.  Some of the images were more successful than others I think, but they were all universally fiddly to do as each square is around an inch and a half across.

The lack of recent artwork other than the above has made me have a look through some old images I have on the computer.  As this post is about Paul's birthday I thought I'd post this picture too.  A watercolour I did last summer (in daylight - when can we have proper daylight again???) - part of a series of studies I did trying to master painting snowy mountains.  We had visited Zermatt in Switzerland a couple of years previously and this picture was an effort to portray Paul with a dramatic mountainy backdrop.  Still not sure of the success of this piece, my sky wash is a bit weak, but I am quite fond of it because of the memory it evokes - so, here is Birthday Boy in the Alps!

  

Right, the light is disappearing on another weekend (where do they go?) so I'd better go and do something useful.  I have more time to myself again now, and from next weekend a week off the proper job - yey!!!  So, hopefully I'll find time to have a go at a couple of the EDM challenges I have been wanting to try - my fingers are itching to get cracking.....

Deliver the letter, the sooner the better...

Well, I did it!  I have just posted a painted envelope to the Mail Me Art 2 project and I'm really excited.  I've enjoyed doing this so much, I really needed to set myself a little project and be disciplined about a piece of artwork, and I've done it!  Hurrah!  I don't even mind if I never hear about the envelope again, I even just like the idea of that little bit of art being out there, somewhere, hopefully making someone smile.

I'm a children's librarian, I love children's books and their illustrators, so I decided to come up with idea that reflected that.  I have tried to make my piece look like it could be a page from a children's book - which meant me having to make up a bit of a story.... so, the idea is that the front of my envelope is supposed to be the illustration from a fictional - fiction book (!) you flip it over (turn the page) and on the back is the page that explains the whole piece - hopefully!!!!

So here's how it all came together, a bit at a time (without boring the socks off you).  I had a few ideas for the front first, sketched in my little sketch book...

Idea number 1:

Idea number 2:

So you have basically got a small decorated envelope, on top of the larger envelope.  I wasn't keen on either of my ideas for the 'smaller' envelope, then found this 'scribble' in an old sketch book that I quite liked...

So, that became the basis for the 'smaller' envelope design, which was essentially supposed to look like a piece of post that had been dropped onto the ground on an Autumny, leaf covered path.  The the little envelope itself is slowly being covered in leaves.  Here is the collage as I started to build it up:

As you can see, I painted each bit seperately, including the Autumn leaves, then glued them down, overlapping each other.  The final front of the envelope, after hours of painting, cutting, gluing and sticking looks like this:

You can see some of the flyagaric toadstools have managed to find their way in!  The back of the envelope I hope will help you understand my thinking for the whole piece:

The size of the piece is bigger than A4, I'd say about 13" x 9" ish (in old money!).  I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this.  I'm really fired up to set myself another project now, got to keep going!  If I hear anything - i.e. whether or not the envelope actually gets to it's destination, I'll post something here.  Watch this space! x

We come from the land of the ice and snow....

....though perhaps not from the land of the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.... !

I thought I'd put this picture from the BBC website (in case you haven't seen it - if you are outside the UK it won't have been broadcast on your EVERY news bulletin) showing the UK under it's blanket of ice and snow.  It is a NASA picture and quite breathtaking I'm sure you'll agree?

I find myself at home again because of the weather - so am starting on a little mail art project I have decided to work on!  I'll post pictures when I have something to show - the final piece will include some of these flyagaric toadstools!  I have decided to make the piece to look like an illustration in a children's book!  Watch this space! x

Snow (hey oh)....

No artwork to post today - even though I had an unexpected day off work yesterday because of the snow.  Snow days are the best, a real excuse to just relax and not beat yourself up for being lazy, for just one day!  Actually I wasn't too lazy, I did get a couple of little jobs done that I have been putting off for a while (never a bad thing) and I have  been thinking about 'pictures and projects I'd like to tackle in 2010' - coming up with some good (?), fun, silly ideas.  Watch this space....

I also spent some time looking at other peoples artwork and found the BRUSH - PAPER - WATER blog, posted by Chris Beck (see my list of blogs).  It's a lovely blog, with some fantastic work by different watercolour artists so I thought I'd share.  I've also listed his own blog - 'I'm painting as fast as I can...'.

Just to brighten this post up, here's a picture of my doggy, Scout (after the little girl in one of my all time favourite books 'To Kill a Mockingbird').  We'd just got back from a long, snowy walk and she was waiting patiently for us to get the house door open so she could run to her comfy bed and get warm.  The snow was blowing in her eyes, so she's blinking a bit.  I've also noticed in this picture that her face is showing more grey fur - aww, she's getting a little older and it makes me feel sad!

If your'e a UK resident (or anywhere with lots of snow....) I hope you can enjoy it rather than have to drive in it (me in half an hour) or, get stuck in it!

Dashing through the snow...

Well he's probably ambling rather than dashing - here's the polar bear design I have painted for my Christmas cards.  I am busy printing lots off onto Bockingford watercolour inkjet paper and am really quite pleased with the results.  I can recommend the paper as a very reasonably priced way to reproduce your artwork.  You can buy more expensive and, one would assume, better quality inkjet papers but I am really happy with this.  I shall definitely use it again.

Today should be my final push at the Christmas cards, hopefully at the weekend I'll find some time to work on something fresh.  I have got lots of things I want to do...which first though...?

Cut, glue, draw, cut, stick....

I am spending my weekend producing Christmas cards.  It's the first time I have done it in nearly twenty years!  I have to say I have thoroughly enjoyed myself, I'll post some pics when all is finished.  In the meantime, I have been flicking through my artwork and decided to post a couple more pictures.

The first one is a scan I made of one of my paintings which is now framed up and hanging on a wall.  It is nearly ten years since I did it, but I still quite like it.  I found the original picture in a magazine I think and really liked it.  The credits for the original photograph are pencilled in at the bottom of the scan.

The second picture is a study of a beautiful pink, Himalayan Poppy.  They grow in my garden - early summer and look fabulous for too short a time.  I painted this during the summer (pre. this blog) but looking at it today I thought I might share it.

Right, I'm going to make tea and finish my cards.  Then I will chill for the rest of the day.  Proper job in the morning.....

Consider the lilies....

Well, I have to say once again a great big thank you to everybody who took the time to leave such lovely comments after my last entry.  You have all really made me feel positive about my work and I can't thank you enough.

Here are a couple more offerings, first a study of some lilies that I worked on over a few days.  I have resisted the urge to draw over it with pen!  I think I'll leave it the way it is.

The second picture is a quick watercolour sketch I did after a visit to Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland.  It shows only a small part of the ruins but there was a tremendous storm gathering, while this tower and the grassy slope that led up to it remained bathed in sunlight.  Not sure how well I captured it but it was beautiful at the time!  Dunstanburgh Castle is extremely dramatic, set on top of a rocky crag with the most stunning beach - Embleton Bay, sweeping away to the north.  Northumberland is my favourite place ever, I go back again and again!

I have also been naughty this week and treated myself to a lovely new book, 'Illustration Play' published by Gingko Press.  Gingko Press publish some great books - real eye candy (I'm speaking with my professional librarian head on now and, as far as I am concerned, 'eye candy' is definitely a technical term in librarian speak) it's always worth keeping an eye on their web site.  I am eagerly awaiting its arrival, I shall tuck myself up this weekend with the book, a pot of tea and some good cake!

While I am here, I'd like to share a photograph I took in Manchester of some street art by Shepard Fairey.  I know anyone who lives in Manchester will be more than familiar with it but it made my day coming across it the way I did.

I think the bags of rubbish, waiting to be collected underneath it, really illustrated how tucked away it was and, of course, how beautiful the piece is.  I stared at it for ages!

I like birds...

I gave spent the weekend trying to come up with ideas for Christmas cards. The pictures have been copied from images found in books but I really enjoyed doing them. I am getting more and more relaxed with my drawing skills now, but really feel I need to loosen up quite a bit! I want to get much more flowy and free with my drawing. I try to put far too much detail in and fiddle around when I should stop.

Until I began this process of rediscovering my creative self, I had forgotten how graphic my art is. When I did my art foundation course (in the late 1980s) I focused on fine art. I feel now I should have focused on graphics. Why did nobody tell me?

Anyway, here are a couple of coloured pencil and ink studies I came up with as card ideas, I'm not going to use these but I quite like the studies anyway. I shall post the actual card design, after I have sent them out to friends and family!

I am also posting an ink and watercolour study I did of some pebbles. I love rubble! If I had been clever at science at school, I would have loved to have studied geology. But I wasn't, so I satisfy myself with a sizeable rubble collection. The picture is of fossils, pebbles, sea-glass and ceramics, found on beaches in Yorkshire and Northumberland.

When I have a minute I will design myself a better banner - the one I have at the moment is rubblish!!

Baby steps...

Here is a basic little picture I have produced of the old lighthouse at Flamborough on the Yorkshire coast. It is going to be a thank you card for my sister-in-law, who spends half her life there, I do hope she likes it!

I have had my day off from my 'proper' job and have spent as much of my time as possible producing some still life work, and trying to learn to use my paints a little better. I really wish I had kept a hand in with my drawing over the last few years, but sadly I have been rolling along with the rat-race, feeling that art work was far too luxurious a thing to be spending my free time on when other jobs needed to be done. When I get the chance I will scan some pictures and upload them - maybe this coming weekend. I hope that as the weeks and months pass, there will be a noticeable improvement in my work!

Many years ago I was self employed, producing hand-painted fabrics and textiles along with a very good friend I met at art college. Our business did well, on paper, but we never managed to earn enough to actually give ourselves any kind of livable wage. It's a sad fact that that's just how it is for many creative people. So, the art gear was packed away, only to be dusted down a couple of times and never with any serious thought to trying to pursue a living out of it again. I think my confidence had taken a rather large battering too. But life is too short to let that govern your life.

However, I'm older and (a little) wiser and, am looking to hopefully begin to earn from my art work again. If I can just get enough to pay the mortgage and the bills, that would be a wonderful start. We'll see. For now I won't give up the day job!