Something Fishy!!

I visited an antiques fair yesterday at the local racecourse.....Monday ..what a weird day to hold it...

..still it was about 5 minutes from home instead of the usual 2 - 3 hour drive..so in the blistering heat ...factor 30'd from head to toe I braved it!!

There where a few things we are still trying to find for Miss Magpies wedding and it was my lucky day because I found a few perfect pieces.....

..I'm not allowed to show you though..ahh....got to be some surprises!!!

I also came across a stall with masses of these boxes.....now I am a sucker for a wooden box and with this great stencilling one had to come home with me....

now what shall I put in it???

kitchen utensils.....candles.....

...gorgeous hydrangeas........

...books.......

well i have another idea for it...but not telling yet...!!

The lady who bought one before me thought they had all come from the London fish markets...she obviously didn't spot the copious amounts of Malaysian newspapers at the side of the stall!!!


What would you put in it???

Summer Time.......

It is sweltering here today.....

......fortunately I'm not fed up with the heat yet.....give it a few weeks and I will be longing for cool autumn days!!!!.........

.....the climbing rose is fantastic this year...hundreds of blooms ....this one is unique though as it looks like I have been here with my paint brush and added a blush detail....

..the bees are busy.....and fast!!!!....

a pink perfection......

Hope you have a lovely day where you are and relax this Sunday....xx

Life

....the power of nature over man-made......

...suppressed under the paving slabs this little poppy finds its way to the light....

Quietly Beautiful

Sometimes I don't have much to say......
......life can be so mundane that it seeps into my being and I become static.....
....so I thought I'd show you one of my most favourite paintings.....

Lady with Squirrel by Holbein..The National Gallery, London.....

I love the colours......why is she holding a squirrel?......is that headdress uncomfortable?....she mesmerises me....

I never leave the gallery without going to look at her....she is in the same room as

The Ambassadors ( that's the painting with the distorted skull in it)......she is tiny compared to

that huge canvas....

but exquisite...

The Longest Day

I captured this moment yesterday morning while out walking....

6.30am........sun shining through the clouds on the longest day......

sometimes in this new life of mine I feel disconnected from nature...my once rural idyll has changed.....

the seasons come and go....always the same.....always there if I look....

Louis Dog!

Last week I joined Amelia Critchlows' experimental art course......

it is fabulous.....

I think i said on a previous post that I needed an injection of ideas to get me working on my art again and Amelia has pointed me in the right direction so far.....

one of our tasks this week was paper cutting and sculpture and i found a fabulous artist who lives in Australia...anne willi highfield

..who totally inspired me....

...she creates wonderful birds and horse sculpture from painted paper.....

..I decided to recreate my beloved bull terrier Louis.....

...... this is how it turned out...

Louis Dog.....vintage photo frame paper torn and sewed with cotton....

I love him so much I nearly didn't share!!!!

Lazy Sunday

family for sunday lunch.....

table laid....
garden flowers....
sunny later....
playing ball with sammy...
chilled white wine......
catching up.....
future plans......
strawberries and cream....
peaceful and laid back.....
perfect...

white roses and lavender from the garden.......

Where I create....

Well...I'm afraid no lovely pastel painted summerhouses or light filled work rooms for me!!!!.........

Since I moved in here my space has been minuscule....that is to say small......crashing together with other parts of my life......my free time allotted into the evenings after supper and before I fall asleep eyes smarting.....

I sew and paint....sewing is on a drop leaf table next to the ironing board..too messy to even photograph......

I paint where i can.....on the windowsill and in bed mostly...can you paint in bed......well on my small scale you can!!!!

When I move onto large canvas's I 'll be out in the garage.....

my room is surrounded by mood boards and pictures of my family and other things that inspire me..maybe a dried rose or shell...

or a ripped out magazine picture.......

I feel my time working like this is transiently....soon I will have to make more space....but for now even with its limitations I feel more creative than have in years!!!!

What me??

What me...no I do not have muddy paws.......do you think that I would have climbed on the white sofa,,,,,kneaded the cushions....and settled myself down.. with muddy paws......??

..the Lodger with muddy paws....mmm...



Daily painting...

Geraniums on Windowsill.

The Nook

This weeks Create Tuesdays theme is The Nook.....

As soon as I saw this I knew what I wanted to paint....however it proved more difficult than I thought!!!

One of my most precious places on this earth...... is in Dorset...... on heathland......there is a stone cairn .....it became a talisman for me...........everyday I would walk my dogs here...

I could stand by this beautiful stone sentry and look out to sea.....in to river...or across to hills and an ancient castle...

...if I needed help with a particular problem or was just feeling sad....I would gather a little posy of flowers..or a stone ...or a feather and place it in a nook in the stones.....


it may seem silly... but somehow giving that little offering now and again got me through some pretty tough times.......


......my pictures however could not do it justice......

the painting was to muddy......

so I just sketched it.......

.......thanks for looking in.

How does your garden grow?

At last the garden is repaying us for our tender loving care.....we have very poor soil and I have the blisters to prove how many goodies I have added to try to get things moving...

this gorgeous poppy among the lavenders is a new planting..I garden on instinct..and just pop things in where I think they will look good...sometimes it works....







...peach roses planted in a tub..there are hundreds of buds and will be a real show when they all bloom...



..my old french wire basket overflowing with lovely scented violas and geraniums..oh la la!!....




..the bronze acer is stunning..with red and orange planting close by and of course 'ducky' looking on...a real hot spot....

I hope your gardens are repaying your hard work to...

Daily Painting No.6....Wild Garlic at Fonthill.

Daily Painting

My Daily Painting

Yellow Daisies at The Window.



I am really enjoying this....my day is very ridgid at the moment and just to take half an hour every afternoon to concentrate on something else is great.

The sun is shining here this afternoon too....bliss..

Squirrel Watch!!

In The Lodgers new garden....which he loves...there is always something going on....

like the cats that call in daily to see the progress of the baby blue tits....but don't worry the Lodgers is their guardian and although he loves cats..they don't seem to think him running after them barking ..play! play! is too much to hang about for.....

Then there is the rather lovely smell under the compost heap which is regularly dug at......maybe a rat (eek!!)..or a hedgehog.....

Then there are the pigeons...which depending on his mood will either be tolerated or scattered to the four winds with a hail of yapping....

BUT...The Lodgers absolute arch enemies are the squirrels (please say this word quietly or you may hear the barks near you)...they arrive daily...sometimes three together...happily swinging on the bird feeders...performing acrobatics in the bird house and trying to gnaw through the wire on the woodpecker feeder......The Scottie will be yelping with exasperation until we let him out of the french doors and he tears across the lawn...suddenly realising that if the breaks don't go on 5 yards before the fence it is him that will come off worst...ohhh!! grass burns on the tummy ouch!!

Please squirrels get the message..you are not welcome in the Lodgers Garden..

The Logder on lookout!!

Towering Cliffs

On my recent visit to the coast..on a blisteringly hot afternoon...we walked under the cliffs at Saltdean....



..the whiteness of the chalk cliffs was blinding.....towering above you...seagulls circling and crying and the sound of children playing on the beach....summed up the English summer....





..Saltdean, a stones throw from the bright lights and hedonism of Brighton has a 1930's faded seaside air....slightly tatty and frayed at the edges.....but laid back and lovely...


..walking back to the car we passed the lido....full up with bathers...the air full of the smell of hot dogs and chips and the noisy boys playing football....they want to build flats on this open air swimming pool.....such a shame....it took me back to youthful days of long summer holidays...meeting friends at the pool and the afternoons stretching forever on a tide of fun and laughter, warm coca cola and ice cold lollies...

Rain

Today has been rain,rain,rain....the lodger and i got soaked on our morning walk......typically it rains as soon as the tennis starts in this country!!!


No.2.Girl in red beret with flowers.



i had trouble getting the features right here but this a first effort on the portrait front so I'm giving me a break!!!

is this the right path??

Over the last few months my life has changed completely.....
.....I started out..oh..a long time ago....at Art School....but stuff happened and I didn't complete my course.....obviously when at college you draw or paint or sculpt everyday...you eat and breathe your subject...surround and immerse yourself totally...you have to be creative...and I always have been.....




(this is me ...I may look different now but I can remember exactly how I felt when this was taken..)

..I made my own clothes..I made my jacket and skirt in the photo...and when my lovely girls came along I made theirs to.....



..over the last few years I made a living by cooking.....anything....






..and I have also been a florist..you see the theme here...creativity comes in all forms......







but now my life has become 'the carer' and the creativity has shuddered to a halt..held back by the humdrum of day to day chores & hospital visits....

....at first the shock of the change made me grumpy...how had I come to this position in life where there seems only one way out and that is an outcome that the hospital visits are trying to avoid......

..then I found Mr toast and his Creative Tuesday....giving me a theme concentrated my mind..but now i find all I think about is painting!!!.....one challenge every two weeks isn't enough......
i came across a group of real artists who paint daily and show their pictures on their blogs every day....
now these are proper artists who make their living by selling their work and I am way off that!!!
...so i am going to try in my own simple way to do the same...a picture a day...to see if I can improve and maybe find the talent I had when I was the girl in the photo!!


a


Gateway to the Fields.

acrylic on card.


Hope you stop by now and again and see how long I can keep it up!!

xx

( Blogger seems to have totally mangled my text and photos...hope this all makes sense!!)

Sunday was..

..walking along the promenade..to the Peace statue....past the empty tents of last night champagne festival.....the air alive with the cries of the seagulls.....




...watching the anglers on the sea shore....brighton....7 am...slight sea mist...but the sun is trying to break through.... the two piers......one alive and one slowly decaying into the sea....










...smiling at the revellers..still awake wend their way home....or sit...still deep in conversation on the beach....

clematis entwined..

On a rustic trellis we have two clematis twining themselves together...
Twisted in with them are sweet peas.....



..they are the size of tea plates and scented........



...purple fading to lavender and white to transparent...



..a gorgeous splash of colour..their tissue thin petals fluttering in the warm breeze...