Serendipity of Rain

I returned a few days ago from a painting holiday on Holy Island where I was with four other artists, under the sage and encouraging eye of Mick Kirkbride (NEAC).

I had never been to Holy Island and I hadn’t really strayed far from my home and the adjoining villages since lockdown, so my anticipation was high and nothing about the four days disappointed, even the daily rain. 

I did not paint, choosing to draw, instead, on sketchbooks and in my altered book sketchbooks, made specially for the visit. (More in a subsequent blog post). 

This drawing was looking out to sea with the rain coming at me. I only had pastels and they puddled on the page, but I got out a rag and moved the pigment around, trying to capture the milky light and the rough grass.  

Rain Near Priory

pastel on paper, 16 x 16 cm 2/9/2020

Time Flies

As I was choosing which pieces of work to share on my website, I was often surprised about the date that I had made the work. When I finish something, I must think of it as THE PAST because work that I did six months ago, or even a year ago feels like it was made such a long time ago. 

A year ago I was making monotypes for the Red Dot miniprint exhibition. The print of the gull was sold before the first exhibition was even hung. Lesley, from Red dot emailed and said she felt the early sale boded well… Little did we allknow that covid would arrive and life would change so completely.

When I make monotypes I work from drawings, my imagination, and sometimes use photos to solve a problem. The gull ‘arrived’ in the image.  I was not long back from Maine where on a walk I had watched the noisy creatures for some time. 

Sometimes I wish I could click my heels three times and arrive somewhere. On this rainy night I’d like to be on the back shore with the gulls.

Gull on Backshore

August 2019

Admin Tension

A few weeks ago, I met with some smart people at Parker Harris.  Their advice was to get my website and online presence in order. I am reasonably techy so I wasn’t filled with dread, but after a week, chained to my desk, I am aching to begin painting and drawing again.

This peculiar Covid year has had the effect of making me even more in tune with nature.  So, every time I have left my desk and passed my flowers I have been frustrated that I can’t pick a bouquet and begin something new. The flowers won’t last, but neither will my squarespace trial… I have three days left.  

It’s been annoyingly fun to trawl through my semi-organised files of images to use to build my new website. I see things differently and ideas have been sparked.  That’s been one of the little joys of this process. The decisions about how to order the big messy collection have been complicated. 

I watched a few videos.  One woman said her website was a ‘work in progress’ and that she always makes little tweaks.  I understand how it all works now, from lots of trial and error – I wrote this blog once and it disappeared so have had to begin again, for example, so it’s a relief to know from now on it will evolve. If you have any suggestions, get in touch.  I’d love to hear from you. 

I’m just off to do a little drawing on a book page as a reward for mostly being done for the day.  I’ll post it when it’s done!