30th March

Piratical!

Not sure about this one, maybe something inside is about to mutiny! Or at least burst into pirate speak or take to talking to parrots. A little surly but with other worldly, sea-green eyes and a kind of feathery familiar spirit. I am feeling a bit besieged by a number of jobs that are backing up on me, and Easter is already here, bar the chocolate. Arrrr... shiver me timbers me hearties, there be dragons here!

29/3/10

Storing Up Outside Days

A beautiful Autumn day with a warm northerly, blue skies, and the garden calling out for some attention! I am also a bit behind with several other things, including these little pictures, but I decided that time in the garden before the bad weather sets in is probably more important for my spirits, and I don't want to end up with yet another bunch of flower plants dying in their plastic bag before I get down and into the earth. Being out under the sky is so important for me, I will hate it if I am ever unable to put my toes in the grass and my hands in the garden soil. I may not be the world's most effective gardener, but I am one who is most appreciative of the process!

28th March

Last of the Autumn Flowers

I went around my garden this morning looking at the last little splashes of colourful flowers as the leaves are starting to fall from the trees. A handful of nasturtiums, a lace cap hydrangea, and a couple of harebells was pretty much it. I always mourn the end of the paintbox coloured nasturtiums once the first frost arrives, they seem such childlike flowers, full of optimism as their vines climb about the garden, and seeding in the most unlikely places. This year a couple of ambitious plants climbed up the fence and through a rosebush by the clothesline and amused me by nodding at me against the blue sky as I hung out the washing. Flowering where they find themselves, and bringing a brightened moment to whoever notices.

27th March

Kite Flying

This is another of those lovely, windy, outdoorsy things that are fun to do! Once you launch your little construction of paper, string, and sticks up into the wind it becomes a twisting, tugging live thing on the end of your string. It's a kind of magic transformation, filled with possibilities and breathless laughter. Here is this construction, which is definitely heavier than air, riding above you on invisible wind, and for all intents and purposes, seems to be making a good attempt at lifting you off your feet and up into the sky behind it! Such a joyful sensation. A low-tech, energy friendly, simple delight.

26th March

Cat

Cats are supremely able to sleep deeply without any effort at all it seems. It is a gift many of us envy! This is our cat, or rather we are hers, called cat as she is a stray who has obviously been loved and named by someone else in the past. She has impeccable manners in the kitchen but is demanding everywhere else. She has a determined fixation on our fish and chip papers if we forget to shut her in out while we eat from them, and we are her retirement plan! Actually she has done rather well considering we were planning to be pet free once our children left home. She gives so much affection, and is very smoochy when it suits her, as every cat I have ever known is. She has become a fixture here, showing  respect for neither artistic endeavour nor reading, and firmly asserting her place right in the centre of everything. She gets away with far too much!

25th March

The Cat

So this is one of those days when my idea has not meet my expectations... I love the way the shape of the cat is instantly recognisable, and I thought using collage images of domestic stuff would work with the idea of the domestic cat, but... I have a hodgepodge, a mishmash, an unresolved creation where I am doing battle with my media, lack of ways to overlay text, and plain lack of time, all digging me into a hole. Still the idea is not to have a perfectionist rock around my neck, but to keep going and see where I end up at the end of the year. I will have to keep trying. I read somewhere that there are two sorts of outcome, a pleasing one, and the one which gives you the opportunity to create another one ... or words to that effect. This is one of those. So I will retire today and have a little melt down, I have a day away from home tomorrow so will have to create something later than usual - I won't be abandoning ship, merely taking a chance to breathe and look at something new for the day, and hopefully returning refreshed!

24th March

TwentyOne Birds on a Wall...

Amazing how much expression can come from one basic shape! Here are 21 birds striding about in their fabulous plumage, on a slightly 60s background. I have some new paints to try out which is fun. A set of golden acrylic paints in little bottles, in a flow formula suitable for the finer detail I need on this scale of work. I think they look promising, although it is still a bit slippery to draw over with coloured pencil. I may have to resign myself to only using coloured pencils with watercolours in the background I think. I quite like this big panel of bird shapes, they seem like real little characters!