.....full time artist

When I walked into my workroom this morning it was in such a pickle that I couldn't even find a pencil to draw with.                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Its not that I don't clear up after myself - it's just that over the last week I have been so busy I seem to have had no chance to pick up as I have gone along.

Anyway it got me to thinking... the average job is 35-40 hours a week and over the last 8 days I have probably spent fewer than 10 hours actually producing artwork - yet I still call myself a full time artist.


It seems that the more hours I put in the more hours I seem to spend doing other things. I am taking part in Dorset Art Weeks at the end of May. A huge event encompassing around 800 artists in 350  venues. 16 days of free art, for people to visit as many studios as they can. Thus, this last week has been spent creating an exhibition space.  3 days clearing the weed patch in front of the shed and 3 very long days clearing 35 years of crafting and family detritus from inside.

No small feat  - the boxes were stacked up to waist height over the whole of the floor and two walls with floor to ceiling shelves equally full.

All I have to do now is repair the walls, create screening for the shelves and paint everything white!! Oh and figure out some form of lighting for the inevitable dark rainy days.

The last 2 days have been spent photographing pastel drawings and working on the computer sorting photos and ordering postcards.  I still have several days of computer work before I'm done.

The other option would be to just paint/draw endlessly (ecstasy) and keep storing it away for someone else to deal with at a later date.

in the meantime here are a trio of small skies I managed to complete over the week. (Oil on canvas)

It really is Spring...

At last, Spring is here, we have had sunshine for 2 straight days and I feel happy.  Not least because after three and a half miserable weeks I have finally thrown off the cold that has sent me to my bed more often than I care to admit.  I had a small personal celebration by spending most of those two days surgically attached to my worktable creating pastel paintings.

I started with some sunbathing logs -
we pass this heap each time we walk the dog
 and for over a year I have wanted to do something with it
 but not been sure how to go about it.
 This is me in 'just get on with it mode'








A few weeks ago I invested in a large quantity of different pastel suitable papers and am slowly beginning to get a feel for those that I prefer.

Drawings of my Mother's Day flowers. I have two more to do now that the flowers are going over. Somehow dead ones have a different kind of magic.

These 3 were all done on Sennelier Royal sovereign card.  I have decided I am not too keen on it - it is too coarse and although it "grabs" a lot of colour it makes my work look even less detailed than it is. Each picture is on a different coloured card, to try and compare the luminosity of the pastels.  i don't think it makes a huge difference with this subject as there are so many other variables.









For an extra special treat I took myself outside to photograph and pick some of the fabulous daffodils we have in the garden.

These were all on Cansons Mi tientes paper. This I really do not like, it is too thin and does not hold enough colour.  I shall not buy it again. However, I worked on a light (L) and dark (R)shade of paper and the bottom one I used the reverse side which was rougher (didn't help).

This is how my pin board looked at the end of the 2 days:

Feeling rather pleased with myself.

Now what's next?

Sometimes Life just gets in the way

An average week in the middle of February - weather unseasonably warm, some sunny days, some a little wetter and greyer. A "getting on" time.

Saturday - up and away early to spend lunchtime with the grandchildren. Elliott's first birthday party.

Great fun - but lots of snuffles in the house.

Tuesday - first thing on facebook, a reminder that this is the anniversary of my sisters death.  I try not to remember death days - it's bad enough remembering the birthdays of those no longer with us. It was done with love and I know the person who posted is suffering, but...

Thursday - took my beloved to Salisbury station - he has to go to a funeral on Friday in Leeds.  The sax player from a band he played in  - it may be the last time he will get to see some of these people - how depressing to get to the age where more people are dying than living. I wandered around the town - but its not the same by yourself - didn't even stop anywhere for coffee - headed home as quickly as possible

Thursday evening - it is 40 days since Monika's death. According to the Russian Orthodox faith this is the day when the spirit rises up to heaven. A friend who worked in Moscow for many years is having a dinner party to celebrate M's life. Have to go alone as Mike is otherwise engaged (see above). Dinner guests - me, a Yorkshire woman from the wrong side of the tracks; the host, a southerner who was a banker in Moscow, Paris and Brazil; a couple who escaped from Hungary in 1956 she a potter, he an engineer; the lady who owns the village and her Swiss husband; a retired Dorset farmer who still talks about the year he 'escaped' and worked in Australia and Canada as a young man. It was a wonderful way to remember a dear friend, we laughed and told stories and remembered the time when......   I spoke of Monika and her 'stuff'. How she would turn up with armloads of stuff - mostly plants, but also other things.  Many of which keep turning up as I sort out rooms and cupboards.

I showed them a pot she gave me in which I keep sea salt - I use it every day and each time I open it I am reminded of her.















The other object I showed was a needle case she had made for me from a piece of her own weaving/embroidery based on drawings made from exotic plant leaves. I love them both.










 The food was great and all of a sudden it was almost midnight and Cinderella had to head home.

Saturday - collected beloved from Salisbury so good to have him home again safely. Then to my bed for the next 10 days.