A LOVE AFFAIR ......

THERE HAVE some wonderful winter sunsets recently ....  and last week I had to stop washing up and take a photo ..... I have been painting this hill - my hill(!!) since we moved to Dorset in 1976!  that is 35 years isn' t it ?  Some of the first paintings were from Robin and Trisha Porteous' field at Mayo Farm ...  and later from Frenchmill Lane when we lived there.   It is a continuing relationship and to be quite honest - I still do not feel these paintings have not got 'there' yet....  still do not say quite what I feel so deeply!   I cant say what that is until I have done it!  I believe I will!

A painter friend of mine from years ago said you have to love what you paint - and I certainly love the hill, it has been the companion of so many of the important events of my life!   Great happiness and sadness, and ordinary life too.  Good friends, siblings, lovers and offspring, all shared walks, picnics, tobbaning, passed on - our  children now play with their children on the slopes.....  romantic ordinary and true. 

MELBURY AGLOW 60 X 60 cm oil/linen   

MELBURY AND BLUE SKY 60 X 75cm oil/canvas

ART STUDIO iPAD APP vs SKETCH BOOK PRO & ADOBE IDEAS

This is by way of an experiment......  please let me know what you think?

App Store - ArtStudio - draw, paint and edit photo

itunes.apple.com/us/app/artstudio.../id354818333?mt...

112 votes - $2.99 15 Sep 2011 – ArtStudio is a professional drawing / painting application. It uses advanced mathematics to attain the highest level of quality, at the same time ...

HOORAY.... finally the penny has dropped.....

The image from my ipad wouldn't load because it was a PSD...  but now its a PNG...  I must do some labels for myself....  I have made some splendid sweet chilli plum chutney ... with plums from the garden of course!

and my own mincemeat, raspberry and redcurrent jam (delicious) and as soon as my hand is out of plaster .... seville marmalade... I put arrak in last time and it was fab!

I seem to be in a most creative time of my life, and its so good!  Later in life can yield a new kind of fruitfulness!  More about this later... 

YET AGAIN .....more FROM THE WOND'ROUS IPAD....!!!!

I was trying to upload an other label I have done for a friend - but it wont work... for some reason.   These, meanwhile are two drawings I made in mr bedroom just after my op.  One of the amazing things about the ipad is you can save the drawing and then try colour ...  and still have the original....

HOME BREW BEER BOTTLE LABELS....

Since I have had this op.on my hand I have been playing with technology (in lieu of painting) ...  here are two designs I have done for my son.....

MORE FROM THE WOND'ROUS IPAD....!!!!

Well - its a very good way of drawing when one is incapacitated!    My left hand is in plaster and will be so for another 3 weeks!

Typing is hard work - so will keep it to a minimum!


Plenty more images to come!

SALISBURY DISTRICT HOSPITAL.....

During an 8 hour wait for the op on my hand, I had time to do this drawing ....
This is the third bit of surgery I have had for arthritis ...  Robert says I will be a totally new woman soon!  ..... typing with one hand!


I also had Martin Gayford's conversations with Hockney to read, and a spy thriller (by Henry Porter - rather good but my sleep and water deprived brain found that too difficult!)....  


If I was not already married to a Yorkshireman, I could fall in love with Hockney!   I did not know he was a pacifist as well....  BUT I am sure lots of us who have not lived in LA for 30 years, already know about intimate relationship with the Dorset/English landscape!

iPAD DRAWINGS ... whilst in bed....

I have had the ipad for a while now, but with all the preparation for Christmas it is only now I have had the time to play with it.  I have downloaded an 'adequate' (art studio, £2.99) drawing app and had the space to try it out!  It is limited .... but good to learn on - and much more immediate than the waccom! Any views on good drawing apps would be appreciated!

Quite properly  the cats are my first subject......!  I have retired to bed following a trapeziectomy to my left hand ....  The cats, the ipad and radio 4 listen again, are perfect convalescing companions!

Oh! this one is the kitchen table.....   its a fabulous piece of kit....  many, more drawings to come.....

NOVEMBER PAINTINGS

Here are the three paintings that I am working on at present - but have not been able to spend as much time in the studio as I would like.  Getting work framed for Christmas shows and other more domestic chores also -  preparation for Dorset Art Weeks and Christmas, of course.   I hope next week will see these three completed and more ideas I have underway....

Two Trees 120 x 120 cm oil/canvas.  I see these trees - with Duncliffe behind them most days when the animals ( the two cats and the dog) and I go for our walk.   Actually - all three paintings are on familiar walks ...   

Melbury and Compton Down  80 x 120 cm oil/canvas  - I have painted this landscape so many times over the past ....nearly 40 years and this Hill in particular keeps me coming back over and over again ...  !  This is the walk when  we cross the lane and walk north towards Shaftesbury.  Its about 5 minutes away.  I can see Melbury from my kitchen window ....   makes washing up a joy! (almost) well - everytime I look out of the window the hill - MY hill changes, looks different, always entrancing!

Fontmell Down and the Curlews 90 x 90 oil / canvas ... I have not painted this particular view before - and I rarely choose a view with buildings in ... but I am rather pleased with this take on a familiar subject....  mostly the walks here 

require a lift 'to the top ' above Littledown and we walk home - what a delight! I have seen the ravens we have at home and red or black kites too.  No curlews sadly!

PAINTING AGAIN.....

 OCTOBER FLOWERS  26 X 20 cm  oil/board

MELLOW DAHLIAS   60 X 50  cm oil/canvas- unfinished

I have spoken before about how strange painting is ...   I know I have said it in my book - and it is true.  For several weeks I have had ideas and - eventually got myself out of the kitchen out of the garden and into the studio - where probably I have 'tidied up'    This displacement activity is so familiar ....   I know it well - how was it possible that today - at about 3 o'clock I finally stopped myself 'walking round it'   ( as Robert says) and stopped negotiating with myself and just started ....     and two pictures are more or less done ...  and loads more to do...   now I have breached the ... blockage or dam or whatever it was, it will flow till it dries up or circumstances intervene or ...  something else stops it and another lull will take place - like fields that have to lie fallow, it is not reasonable to expect creativity to be on tap all the time!

WACCY LABELS.....

I got  this drawing tablet a while ago and have only just begun to use it ... last night after making chutney from all the produce we have here ...  LABELS! .... its quite hard getting used to looking at the screen while drawing on the tablet, and there are loads of things I need to learn ...  but I am pleased and excited with the experiment!  Who knows what else will happen....  ???  

AUTUMN reflected at STOURHEAD

Three pictures below are all going into a charity event in BRISTOL HARBOURSIDE  at the BRISTOL GALLERY.  It is for the hope step and jump  children's charity ....  ( I am so pleased to have the previous post behind me!)  

autumn reflections    oil on board  19 x 18 cm 

yellow tree reflected   oil on board   17 x 16 cm

The Sixbyeight exhibition

Welcome to the Sixbyeight exhibition website; We as a committee are planning a charity art event starting on the 11th November where patrons will have the opportunity to purchase art from professional and amateur artists. We have collated hundreds of pieces of art all measuring 6×8″ which will be sold at £40 each and all signed on the reverse , so your purchase is unknown an ‘artistic gamble’, all proceeds from this event will then be donated to Hop Skip and Jump

A private view will be held at the Bristol Gallery on the 11th November from 7pm, by invitation only, followed by the open view on 12th-13th November from 10am – 5pm. All donated works will be available to purchase.  www.sixbyeight.co.uk

John Hurt, Tom Stoppard, Jeremy Irons, Diana Quick, Kim Cattrall, Mark Ravenhill, Rufus Sewell, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Miranda Richardson, have all donated pieces ....  

stourhead reflections   oil on board   18 x 16 cm

"GET STUFFED LOSERS, I DONT BULLY THAT EASILY"......

Two weeks ago I was attacked - road rage.........  the attack stopped just short of being actually physical .... but psychically it has really affected me - the suspects are being questioned soon - and I hope they will opt for restorative justice rather than court .......   It has taken me this long to stop feeling weepy and pathetic and find my justifiable anger .......  and here is what has helped me access how I feel about being threatened and abused and to say  in the words of  LOUISE MENSCH in today's paper, "Get Stuffed, losers, I dont bully that easily"  .... 

No more about it for now... except to say that Victim Support may use one of the  following  as a poster....  I dont know if they ( the paintings!) are any good - there are certainly things about them that I like - and maybe that can lead me on somewhere new.   ONce again I am grateful that somehow I have a channel, a way of exploring the interior that feels like a gift.  

ONE

 TWO - UNFINISHED

THREE - UNFINISHED  6" X 6"

FOUR - UNFINISHED  6" X 6"

a BOTTLE OF WINE.... and a loaf of bread!

I painted this when I was at St Martin's I think - when I was 20!  I remember the grapefruits went off - I think I had made the mistake of having them in the freezer compartment of the fridge...   !  Shared house in Keildon Road, SW11 ...  ah innocent days.   I wish I could contact some of my housemates ...   even with the good offices of Facebook and ... the dreaded Friend's united no luck!  Ah well -  I am pleased to see in those days - I was so young but I could wield a brush...  two more still lives to follow...  just for fun 

oil on canvas

AUTUMN EQUINOX..... a bluebell painting ....

I have been sorting out my photos and I found this ....  a scanned-not-very-good photo of Blubells, from 1996 I think, and I had the  thought that Spring and painting bluebells is something to look forward to! 

OUR DEEPEST FEAR IS NOT THAT WE ARE INADEQUATE....

Our Deepest Fear

by Marianne Williamsonfrom A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles(See note below about Nelson Mandela)

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”



I first  read/heard of this piece when I was Peace Worker at a Conference at Woodbrooke College in Birmingham in the days of Greenham and all that...   and it has a place in my 'fuzzy file'  something I copied from Bruce Kent......  in another life that laid the foundations for this one......

MISTY MELBURY & FLOWERS.....

I have finished this painting - almost like it as much as the Jubilation one - and I have three others nearing completion and ... two small ones on boards that I did last year that I never fully resolved that I feel I can tweak into something now ...  really on a creative high and loving it!   

Misty Melbury & Flowers 80 x 80 cm

SEPTEMBER JUBILATION

I have named this painting after consultation with a special friend! - so this is it!  I think I might put it on the cover of my book which I am re-printing very soon.    I am not sure I am ready to part with this one just yet - or maybe I shall agree to getting some reproductions done by PICTURE FRAMES (www.pictureframers.co.uk)... we shall see!

September Jubilation oil/canvas 1 x 1m   

 No Hiding in the Flower Bed 90 x 90cm sold - MINSTER GALLERY WINCHESTER

THE GOOD LIFE! doubled!

This painting is finished and I am really happy with it ...  excited about where it has taken me! 

Often when you hear writers talking on the radio about their novels, they say the characters take over the story and the plot, they develop a life of  their own.   This seems to reflect what happens to me when things go well - when 'I' get out of the way...    and then I am working in harmony with the painting, a channel for the inevitable... the painting takes over and I am led.   

It is getting more abstract, less descriptive, less literal.  And as I looked at the flower bed I just kept seeing more colours - suggesting themselves to me!   I am ready to begin the next painting as long as I dont allow myself to be distracted by watering geraniums and tomatoes and dead heading cosmos, oh ! or picking raspberries!  

So it is also about the bounty this time of year, The Good Life times two!

I dont know what to call this painting -  I want to call it for a very dear friend - I have to ask her permission first so I will come back and label it later!

WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY .....

I have been out painting ... wasnt it hot today?   Wonderful, what a treat and lets hope we have an indian summer?    Finally I have got the lovely Mr P to take a 'natural photo' of me ...  I was actually painting, not pretending to !....    the flower bed of course.

It began from another angle - and/but I am being led by the nose - I try NOT  to think when I paint, thinking DOES NOT  HELP at all when painting ...  it is about the left brain trying to be bossy and organise things and be sensible and .... BORING ....   no magic with left brain .. or brian ....   enough for now ..... 

I am pleased with this - the end of a second session - and a relaxed one at that!
Putting it on the blog is more stressful - if I remember I must talk about 'earnestness' and 'play as opposed to angst .... making a good, honest and authentic painting....  


I want my work to reflect joy and all those happy emotions - why not?  the flowers of the fields etc etc ....  but never froth at the expense of honesty and integrity...    and I  think  that what I want to express is a clear ... avenue to God's grace - acceptance and knowledge of what is so good and so available in my blessed life....  without my vanity of ideas and stuff ....  striving at a felt authenticity and simplicity ... of the grace of being a ...late middle aged woman in this treasured corner of beautiful England.    What blessings indeed!