A funny week.

It's been a funny week, two meltdowns and two lessons learned - (I think).

First the meltdowns: On Tuesday I decided that with Dorset Art Weeks (DAW) looming (six weeks to go) I HAD NO WORK to show. Not withstanding the fact that since the New Year I have created nearly 60 pastels, countless small drawings and around a dozen small to medium size oil paintings.  It's no good you know, on planet Karren normal things don't make sense and for a whole 24 hours I was totally panic struck. By Wednesday I had taken the proverbial big breath and pulled a few things out to reassure myself, that whilst none of it was up to scratch, the walls would not be bare.

Meltdown number 2 came on Thursday when the postcards I had had printed arrived and they were not postcards but regular opening cards.  Aagh - I wanted them to give to other artists so that during DAW they could have them on display.  We always swap small items so that we can point visitors on to the next venue, and as they are free people love to pick them up and carry them away - it may not bring them to your studio this time, but they may remember you next time they are planning a trip around.  I spent all day mentally fussing about what to do - what a horrible waste of money on top of the uselessness of it all, and I still needed something to hand out.  Eventually the smarts kicked in and I emailed the printer. Dearest Chris Oldroyd got back to me immediately and accepted responsibility for the mistake - the postcards will be with me on Monday and he reckons I should be able to sell the cards anyway.






Well what did I learn?  First of all over a much needed and lovely coffee break with my friend Amo (check her blog out at Amanda House "View from our Hill") she's a fabulous textile artist, but I digress!!!













She reminded me that although I have painted/drawn something I don't need to display the whole thing. She grabbed some mount corners and proceeded to cover up parts of the pastel I had taken to show her. Doh! Lightbulb moment. It's simple really.





The second thing I learnt this week was also on Friday - I experimented drawing with a pen.


 I have to admit I don't like drawing, not with a pencil anyway and it's something I always avoid if possible.  I love using charcoal, but make such a mess it puts me off. Well I have decided that I love pen and ink.















The odd thing is that I am much less hesitant, more decisive and consequently the lines I produce (right or wrong) have a quality about them that says of course that is exactly how it should be.
 And the bonus is that I find it quite satisfying.




The lesson I will never learn is to think before I panic, but then I wouldn't be me.

.....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.

I need staff....

Got up this morning with only one thing on my list - write this blog.  As if that was going to work.

I have started organising an exhibition for Spring 2017 with fellow pastel artist Caroline Ireland (sounds good considering I only started on this particular journey 3 months ago). Anyway on the back of one or two fairly successful drawings have decided I can only get better!!

Then I remembered that Monday I have to take 2 paintings to Shaftesbury Arts Centre for their annual snowdrop exhibition,

                                        and 2 paintings to Swanage for the 100 cubed show at L'Artische.

They are now all gussied up in their going to market outfits (framed with hanging fixings), checked for foreign objects on the surface and any aberrant marks removed/hidden. Forms all printed out, filled in, and attached where necessary. Now all I have to do is think up some titles.

A very busy week this week. The pastels drawings are really taking up my time - I love the mark making, and the colours.....  

                                                                                   I usually photograph my pin board once a month,
                                                                                  here is the end of January..

                                                                           









and this is the end of the first week in February!

Have been spraying the pastels this week - I finally gave in and ordered some fixative.  Memo to self only spray outside (almost asphyxiated the whole household) - even after the windows had been open for an hour couldn't get into my workroom for coughing.  A little disappointed with the results of the spraying, the whites disappear and the bright colours take on a plasticity that I am not too keen on.  Went back into the images one by one bringing back the highlights and recolouring some of the really dark areas, much happier now.  Have ordered some acid free tissue paper, it should arrive Monday, so that I can make covers for each drawing for storage.  I will keep them separate from the watercolours and in a suitably sized box so that they can't slip around. That should help protect the delicate surface. I cannot imagine how Degas managed to keep the freshness and light in his pictures.  I know he used many layers and sealed each one except the top one.  I already use several layers but have only sprayed at the end I shall experiment with intermediate fixing next week.

Now where can I advertise for a helper...?

Something REALLY different.

 For me that is.  I paint landscapes - I have never ever painted a seascape.  But .. at the beginning of the week I walked into a room that was suffused with an amazing pink light from outside.  My phone runs on steam power and, although it was totally inappropriate for the situation, I went around looking for a 'smart' phone to take some pictures. Thank you to Penny Meaden for lending me hers and for emailing the images to me so quickly.

I started with a board coated in gesso and covered it with a thin layer of rose madder - much of the base layer can still be seen in the finished painting. I then began to work up the shapes I needed for the beach and the horizon.  For the last several months I have been working on a much smaller scale and I had forgotten how much hard work it is to cover a 4 foot wide  board!

As you can see, first go around I painted the shape I know so well - the field at home.  It just proves how necessary it is to keep drawing and drawing and drawing, the body learns the rhythms of shapes and produces them automatically.

 I decided to work with the shapes I had and continued adding colour to catch the light and serenity.

To finish I altered the shapes slightly and added the breakers. I'm quite pleased with end result, I may even paint a few more seascapes.

"Goodbye Old Friend" oil on gesso board 48" x 24"

Dear Diary - I keep writing to you but unfortunately you can't read my mind and automatically put the thoughts on the screen.  It seems that I actually have to sit down and type this.....

Thanksgiving to New Year is my most hated time of the year - now that has stretched into January. I keep looking up from my work table expecting to see Monika charging up the drive and off loading heaps of plants that will find good homes in my garden. Funeral tomorrow - a chance to say goodbye - I always thought she would be attending my funeral.

So - onwards and upwards.  Even though I don't like this time of year I have continued to work (paint, draw, photograph) and probably forced myself to do more than usual to keep the lids on all those mental boxes.




My easel has probably reached its final incarnation.  It is a wonderful big studio easel on wheels - can take up to 6' canvases and is really solid.  Because of our ceiling height the lower support cannot be pushed up to bring a small painting to eye level so I have attached a beam using two clamps.  Lighting is always a problem. When working close to one tends to get between the light and the work - I have tried specialised lamps that clamp to the easel but you need at least 2 and they always seem to get in the way. Two desk lamps, 2 clamps and an offcut of wood - et voila..

(L)A small oil painting (12' x 12") I finished in early December and had forgotten about!

(R)And a watercolour of the same subject done early January 2016

For the last 10 days or so have been working on something for the Snowdrops exhibition at Shaftesbury Arts Centre - mid February. I don't usually work to order  but decided it would be good discipline to do so.  Started playing on Procreate and eventually developed 2 small (9"x 9") oil paintings. Not sure if they are finished - will live with them for a day or two to see.

This last photo has the 2 oils and a photo of hoar frost tipped ferns I was using for the background on the left one.














I suddenly realised that I have mentioned about a quarter of what I have produced since the beginning of December but this post is quite long enough.
So Dear Diary you will just have to wait for the next instalment.