the LITTLE GATE & BEECHES...

This painting is not quite finished .....   but very nearly so I thought I would put it on the blog ....  more later.... its been another busy day!   Lots of painting, playing the piano and boring office work......

ESSENTIAL-PHOTOSHOP-ELEMENTS.COM/LESSON 2

http://media.essential-photoshop-elements.com/Lesson2_TheMenuBar.mov

this is a link to the very useful link that Rob Frost who did my website has directed me to .... so I now know how to re size the pixels in images of my paintings ....   does that make sense?   Rob can be contacted -   www.orionit.ltd.uk
www.robfrost.co.uk   

I guess the web will offer information on almost anything - we have used it for skinning and gutting a rabbit ( the dog caught) and the meaning of biometric - a discussion this pm on identity cards and big brother ....    what an amazing world we  live in ....   unless you live in Syria or Mali or ........

I give thanks that I was born when and where I was!  

A picture of my knitting to go with this I think!

People are often surprised to learn that I knit .....   I dont know why ....   I dont follow patterns as such - just make it up as a I along ...  and am learning all the time of course.   Sitting with my feet up, cats and knitting and a story or play on the wonderful beeb....    or iplayer ....
Who else loves the radio?

Renowned British colourist to showcase her art to the world....

This is a cutting from the Saudi Gazette .... it was put in on my behalf by Tim Saunders, of Creative Coverage....     it coincides with a picture of the Poppies IV that has appeared in Box Magazine - an online 'lifestyle' magazine - the article is by Emma Moir....  just so's you know!

DO YOU KNOW YOUR ART?

http://www.theboxmagazine.co.uk/magazine/.....     this is an online lifestyle magazine and this was written by Emma Moir of Box Galleries.

CATS POSING in the CORKSCREW WILLOW.....

I cant believe that I am posting this - its bad enough that I - Robert and I are besotted with these ridiculous animals - and here they are intruding on my professional world....    But there you are - I adore them, and they are very good at posing!

TROUBLE with PHOTOSHOP .....

Maybe the reason I have been so dilatory (?sp) in blogging in recent months is sometimes dosnt technology get you down?   Trying to do this logo f'rinstance...  and the one above - I have tried to put some text beneath it - first using Pages - but I couldnt find how to crop the page - so half of the 'image' would be white, and then in photoshop .... and the uploader cant recognise a psd ...  so I am on the look out for someone to give me a few lessons please... also about re sizing in photoshop so I can upload images to my website, using Contribute..

any ideas?

End of a successful show in Wimbledon...

and on to the next ...   Studio 106 Gallery,  Dawes Road from this Sunday, 27 January....  more information very soon.

COLLYER'S BROOK Springhead.....

This is one of a series of recent paintings - I have it hanging on our kitchen wall!  More paintings - maybe of snow- to follow!

                      Colllyer's Brook, Springhead 75 x 60

HYDRANGEAS in Wimbledon.....

This painting ... which is about 30 x 35 cm is one I did at our last house in Shaftesbury ...  and Emma Moir has chosen it for a pop up exhibition she is putting on next month in Wimbledon....  

I rather like it actually...  I didnt have a photograph of it but Glen Ines of www.picturecentric.com in Shaftesbury had scanned it so it is available as a reproduction print from him or me as well ....  

Seeing it - it reminds me about painting flowers ...  I love that blue too - with the alstromeria I think ....  I shall have to buy some flowers and paint some eh?

TWO PAINTINGS TODAY!

Well, I started two new paintings today - Robert my husband always says " that's it, its finished ...  he said that with the first one - below ....   I dunnno, maybe he is right - I find it impossible to leave it when the painting underneath ( one of the road rage paintings I did a year ago) is still so strongly showing and it feels too unresolved ......!

The springhead one with reflections - he insists that I dont do anymore to it - except I am allowed to finish off the water in the bottom left ...  

Since a few post ago I have had some feedback and I really appreciate it - if you feel like commenting on this, please do .....  I dont suppose it will change what I do - but its interesting all the same, and may encourage me to look at my work differently, which is always useful...

Tall Beeches, 90 x 60cm stage 1

Tall Beeches, 90 x 60cm stage 2

Fontmell Brook at Springhead  75 x 60cm

BEECH TREES and RED PATH 90 x 90 cm.....

This is a nearly completed painting - from a photo taken with my little iphone! this photo is also taken by my iPhone ...   when I brought the wet painting into the kitchen....   which now smells delightfully of oil paint!

Well - I just love my life...   painting is such a pleasure - and hard work of course, but I find hard work easy .....   jewish/catholic guilt probably!!!!

beech trees & red path 90 x 90 cm

I dont know if anyone reads my blogs....  I never feel as if they do - so - if you do please let me know that doing this isnt a totally useless activity, please!

I only add that because I did meet someone who admitted to reading it.  And that was Rita Yates - who is a very fine printmaker .... I will find her info and add it to my blog!

a last glass of wine and then knitting and bed!

OCTOBER PAINTINGS ..... hooray!

I realise that it is quite a long time since I have made any posts .....      and I am delighted to be back! This new painting is linked to others I have made about trees .....   I will add them to the foot of this post.  

                                   Hills through the trees  65 x 90cm 

I am really pleased with the new crop of paintings I am working on, or have just finished.  Here is the first.     It is a group of trees I walk through on one of my lovely daily walks ....  the hills in the distance are Hambledon and Bulbarrow ....  I have Melbury on my left and this field is my ....favourite .... fantastic views all around.   It is truly beautiful.   

                                                         Trees in the snow 60 x 90 cm 

                                           Winter Trees  60 x 90 cm

  

AUTUMN TAPESTRY .... my new painting .....

this is the painting that I have been working on this week.   I am not sure if I have finished it so have brought it into the house to live with it for a bit ....  Sometimes it is important to get some distance from a painting and this one I have been feeling my way rather ..blindly!

I think it is quite like the water paintings in that it is ambiguous what is on the surface and what is behind.  And that is what I wanted ...  I don't want the marks to be too descriptive - although some are ...  

Autumn Tapestry 80 x 120cm 

WHAT DO THE OLYMPICS TELL US ABOUT OURSELVES

I came across this on twitter - and read it. ( it is by Jon Snow) It is so good that I am trying to make a link with it....
http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/olympics-tells/18299#comment-45893 - excerpt below...

I was very skeptical - nay even cynical about the Olympics, and tutted about the cost and the venality of the politicians and money makers etc ....   and/but I really agree with  Jon Snow and believe that cynicism is so uncreative and why choose to be miserable?

Melbury Aglow, 70 x 70 oil on canvas, SOLD

I have also sold one of my favourite new paintings in the Sticks to Stone exhibition which ended yesterday.  I also sold several wood/lino cuts as well so this is a double reason to be cheerful!

...."That we are builders, designers, craftsmen and women; that we can organise; that we can train, set our hearts upon an ambition, and deliver it. It is who we are. We may not, many of us, wallow in the extremes of empire, but together we are a consequence of it.

This medium sized island state once somehow administered, dominated, exploited, developed, half the then known land mass of the world. Today it is different.

We are here, and our talent is dispersed across a very different world......  from Jon Snow's excellent blog... 

DITCH PROZAC, BUY PHYLLIS.....!

“… if I had both the money and the wall space, I’d have one of Phyllis’s paintings in every room.  The sense of movement, the brush strokes and her distinctive use of colour create such an impact; and of course, the subject matter.  To see nature interpreted with such love and joy is just incredibly life affirming – I always feel as if I can smell the blossom, feel the wind.  In short, Phyllis’s work just makes me happy.  There you have it – ditch Prozac, buy Phyllis”

Virginia Edwyn-Jones  Shaftesbury  Dorset.

POPPIES POPPIES  1 x1m oil/canvas   .... not quite finished yet

POPPIES NOT PROZAC!    I x I m ...oil/canvas ( interim name!)

NEW POPPIES.....  6O X 60 cm    oil/canvas

Three new not-quite-finished paintings .....   after a very difficult day, the sun has come out, he has cut the grass, wonderful organisers of the LONDON SHOW  have over come a big glitch and .....  I am happy and exhausted.   You know what I mean!  

GREEN RIVER ( the Charente near Ruffec) and this weather ...

... has something to be said for it - there is no gardening to be done!  So a blissful day - much more relaxed than usual I have to say - and some painting.  What do you think of this - its only a start, but I like it!  On top of another painting, so I had to work quickly to cover things up and actually I don't think there is necessarily a huge amount to do ....

I will see tomorrow, when the paint is less wet!

GREEN RIVER ( the Charente near Ruffec)  1 x 1m oil/canvas

THIS HILL CALLED MELBURY......

 I am really pleased with the work I have managed to do this week ...   I am a fortunate  woman to live where  I do and to be able to paint.....  This hill called Melbury  which I have painted for years  since 1976 when I moved to Dorset after being a student at St Martin's and Goldsmiths.....

To me the relationship between the artist and the subject is very powerful and important.  It seems to me that this hill has helped me to paint.   This is certainly true of portraits and it feels true here.  

Maybe the process of  painting the hill has helped me access something in myself ....  But it feels like  the hill is my teacher...  tells me about my human-ness as I struggle to paint its hill-ness.....    and I LIKE the feeling of not-there-yet ....   lots more paintings for us to discover together ......

 Melbury delight I 90  x 130cm oil/canvas    

 Melbury delight II 80 x 120 cm oil/canvas

from Fontmell Down June 1989   pencil drawing 

MELBURY DELIGHT.... I and II,

I have finally managed to wrench myself away from chores and domesticity and boring but necessary office stuff too.  Just got a tweet from Lizzie Speller in Greece who talks about why she needs to go there to get the necessary solitude she needs to work....   hmm one certainly needs to be very disciplined.  

I am SO happy to be back in the place where I can really be myself - like in the Rumi poem - that I have quoted before and will do again,right here!

Neither of these are finished - the challenge is to keep them open and keep the touch light...more later, oh - and the poem now.

 Melbury Delight  II  80 x 120 cm

Melbury Delight  I   90 x 130 cm 

Time to go Home

Rumi

Late and starting to rain, it's time to go home

We've wandered long enough  in empty buildings.

I know it's tempting to stay and meet those new people.

I know it's even more sensible

to spend the night here with them,

but I want to go home.

We've seen enough beautiful places with signs on them

saying This is God's House

That's seeing the grain like the ants do,

without the work of harvesting.

Let's leave grazing to cows and go

where we know what everyone really intends,

where we can walk around without clothes on.

SKETCH BOOK OF NORMANDY JUNE 16-24 2012

I have just returned from a week in Normandy with friends .... and here are some of the scribbles I made ... 

of the coast near Les Salines,    the landscape around Hambye,  and the well known calf market at Gavray with  children and  animals ( poor little things) and the sellers/buyers who showed their sensitivity to being drawn and 'recognised' but not to the vey young animals in their care .....!  

I am not an animal rights activist or a  vegetarian, I just am a person who noticed the fear in the young animals and felt both angry and sorry for the humans who had power over them  who seemed  so brutally unaware ....  one cannot ignore it, though I was very aware of the English being sentimental about animals ....  it just seemed so very LAZY  an attitude and made life more difficult for the farmers etc too...  

Here are also happy  and sketches of friends, boozy lunch under the trees etc ...   a very full and happy week... storms on the channel notwithstanding!