Happy, happy

Happy Christmas to each and every one of you. Thank you for the great support and kind words. This is just a short one to say that really. I have lots to do this evening as being Danes we celebrate tomorrow. To learn a little more about our day, go here.I can't wait to get dancing around the Christmas tree later in the evening. A very old tradition. Off to Paris for New year so I shall be back early january. Love to all, God Jul xxxxx

A walk in the derbyshire hills

How did she get there?

A walk in the hills

How did he get there?

too many marshmallows

My friend Amy spoiled me with this beautiful Tord Boontje vase cover for Christmas. I also got spoilt with two more books and an amazing Russian salt and pepper set. My batteries have run out for my camera. Not having too much luck with it at the moment. The books I will share with you tomorrow. One is really really special. My camera did not do this Tord Boontje vase cover justice so I had to use this one. It is just so delicate and will take pride of place on the mantelpiece when the decs come down.

Today I made this.



Boy did I have fun making this today, but feeling a little sick now. I'm afraid it was one marshmallow for the snow and one for my mouth. Without showing off it really does look way better than this photo in real life. It is sparkly and really colourful. New years resolution....buy a new camera!

Tomorrow is the second to last of my Christmas painting deliveries, over in Derbyshire. I am combining it with a little trip over to see my very best friend up in t'hills. We will do lunch and swap presents and talk and talk and talk and laugh a lot, its been too long!!!! I am trying to see as many of my friends as I can before Christmas as I have been rubbish and not sent or made a single card this year. It is of course much nicer to see people anyway, To those I don't, I'm sorry, you are in my thoughts. xxx

All wrapped up!

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything at the moment. I had the greatest time in London with my Mum. We arrived, we dumped our bags, we headed to Liberty. Amazing, lights, wood, fabrics, smells my senses were working overtime. Several purchases later and one wedding outfit found, we surged on. We drank hot chocolate sitting outside, we ate Sushi, we went to the show at the Palladium, we found a charity shop open on the way home at 10.30 at night, we had a wee tipple outside a pub, we had very sore feet!!!!! Sore feet begged for comfier shoes on Saturday so a quick trip to a shoe shop was in order, a new spring in my step and off to Harrods food hall we went, we bought, we smelt, we walked for many many miles, we bought said wedding outfit, we went to a Scandinavian restaurant, we shared Smorgasbord and beer! We walked home. Portabello Road On Sunday, we bought lots in Graham and Green, we went to Spitalfields, we bought more gifts, we raced for the train, we played cards, we slept, I had a fabulous time Mum, hope you enjoyed your Christmas present weekend. Lots of love xxx

I have suddenly realised I am not at all ready for Christmas, or I am ready but I have so much more I want to do. I had an urge to bake today and have started some biscuits for friends. We are doing the rounds on Saturday, so we go bearing biscuits. For those who know me, know that the baking girl is the one I want to be butnever have the time to do more than cook dinner at night. I also have a gingerbread house to make before Friday for one little boy. I cheated and have bought the basic structure fro Ikea food shop but am planning to fill it with sweets and goodies and decorate the outside. This inspired me. I started wrapping presents this afternoon, I am good at makinga mess. I was wallowing in paper, ribbon, buttons and lovely stuff. But look at that floor!!! There was a little circle in the middle of it all for me!

I found this great paper in Hobbycraft. I thought I could make great cards with it and each persons initial as their gift tag. Also the paper you can just see under it is old wooden tape measures.

First few wrapped, many many more to go!

The soldier above is my favourite thing I own and I have two. My Mum gave it to me just last year but it has been with us for as long as I have been alive.

Sorry for the lack of photos of London, would you believe I forgot my camera. I also forgot it last night for the 80's night which I will have to tell you about tomorrow as there is lots to do still tonight. We were well and truly spoilt by our good friends. Thank you.

I hope people are enjoying this busy time for us all. It is hard to step back and appreciate the wonderful time that it is, but today whilst wrapping presents I have thought about that person for the 5 or more minutes it took. I smiled a lot!

See you tomorrow xx

Prawn cocktails and Campari?

I'm back from London, WOW! Had the best time! I will have to tell you all about it tomorrow as we are rushing out to an 80's dinner party at our very special friends' house. I can't wait to see what we are eating. Will be taking my camera for show and tell and we are also swapping presents and one lovely girl will be receiving this!

I have decorated my tree this year with my favourite colours. I am happy with it but somehow just doesn't feel like Christmas. Back to Red next year!

Until tomorrow xxx

These are a couple of pages from my sketchbook. This is where it all begins. As you can see there is a little more detail in these but the basic compositions derive here. Unfortunately at this time of year I don't get out there much, weather permitting, however there is something quite satisfying about rain splodged pages. I have hundreds of these sketches which I am considering getting mounted up for sale so watch this space. I definitely prefer them raw without colour but the colour can remind me what time of year I was there.

I am off to spend my night planning my trip to London. I am not normally so organised but this time there is so much to do and so little time and so many wedding dresses to see and try :) x

These are on their way to Wills art warehouse. They are doing so well with their Christmas show they have requested more. I may be sending more tomorrow depending on what I get finished tonight. It really is non stop. I am really feeling the pressure now and have made the decision to work crazily this week but wind it all up on Thursday night for Christmas. I have people to pay attention to, presents to buy, holidays to organise, cards to make, paintings for gifts to paint etc,etc,etc.

Reverting back to my older style. I love the freeness of painting like this.

We have booked the flights to Paris for New year. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to it. A few days exploring, discovering, visiting, but most importantly relaxing before a busy January beckons.

Bye for now! x

It's here, Christmas is here! I finally feel in the mood. Had a lovely relaxing day yesterday, went for our tree, played cards, decorated the house then had mulled wine with friends.

These are my favourite decorations that have been handed down and collected over the years.

I love these Ikea lanterns, or did until I severely burnt myself when I touched the top. Not recommended around Children!

Still busily working away on commissions this week in time for Christmas. Will share some of these tomorrow. Preparing for a trip to London this weekend for a weekend with my Mum. We are off to the theatre to see the Sound of music on Friday then shop till we drop for the rest of the weekend. Sooooooooo excited. See you all tomorrow x.

links

A couple of great links to new blogs I have added to my favourites.

Edwin Cole, a talented photographer whose work deserves to be looked at! Some really beautiful black and white shots.


A great shot of a Parisian street. We are planning to go to Paris for New year for a well deserved break so seeing these shots made me even more excited.

And I loved this, the powers of Photoshop!

A friend of mine Ciara Leeming, a journalist from Manchester has started a blog. Check it out! I loved her recent entry entitled Viking invasion, great piece about Danish sperm!

Busy busy!

Three artists who also show in Serena Hall gallery.

First up is my partner in Crime Caroline Dangerfield. I have had the pleasure of seeing Carolines work go from strength to strength in the last few years. We used to work together and now do an Open studio Sale together once or twice a year. It is hard work but so rewarding meeting with people that buy your work.

I also love the work of Emma Brownjohn. Such lovely colours. I first saw her work earlier on in the year at a show in London. The texture created with the Oils really adds a depth to the detail.

Finally, Marc Brown who along with Serena runs the gallery. What a talented couple they are. It is incredible to go close up to one of his paintings to see the detail, really amazing. His patience and the tiny brushes he must use astounds me!

I must go to get a parcel ready for Cornwall in the morning. It just never stops does it??!! :)

Here we go again!

Just as I thought things were calming down and I had got all my work off to galleries, I have been flooded with emails today for orders of originals for Christmas. I find it very hard to say No so I will just work extra hard and REALLY enjoy my Christmas break.

I had a long, long day yesterday hence no blog. I went to Canterbury and Southwold in Suffolk and home again all in a day!!! For those who don't know , I was basically driving for 13 hours! I had a 2 hour break in Southwold where I met the lovely Marc from Serena Hall gallery for the first time. I also stretched my legs on a very windy beach and took some photos of the lines of beach huts there then nearly got knocked to the floor by a very excited big black dog! I do love a beach at this time of year, the sound of the crashing waves and the wind just encapsulated me and took control. Got some pretty good photos even though the light wasn't great.






The gallery was so much bigger than I expected. There was room after room of really vibrant pieces mostly with a coastal feel. I have been selling my work really well here for a year now so it was great to see where they go. I loved Serena's mixed media pieces, like this one called 'Happy'. There were lots more great artists and designers that I will feature for the rest of this week.



Right I need to go to start replying to some of these emails and start a worklist for the next couple of weeks to see what I can and can't fit in. Is it just a coincidence that it is all men that have contacted me for paintings before Christmas!!??? ;)

afternoon gossip

A painting I finished yesterday heading over to Serena Hall gallery on Monday with a whole load more. It's called 'afternoon gossip' as the seagulls look like they are having a right old chin wag!

I am really happy with this one, or as happy as I can be, but I think I prefer the close ups to the whole painting. I think because of this I might work on some really small ones tomorrow. Thinking about this the bottom picture is actually pretty big so proportionally it does work just not so well on here.

My sentence structure is pretty bad! Writing this blog is the first real writing I have really had to do since school which is about 14 years ago. So please excuse my bad use of grammar and punctuation. I am hoping to get better at this through having to relearn how to express myself through a new medium. I like to think that my paintings express some of what I am, simple, happy, fun, colourful perhaps.

Hmmmm?!? I am off now to spend the evening thinking about what mine and other peoples art might say about them. Would anyone like to share? x

Favourite number one

This was linked by Camilla whilst talking about kayaking tonight. It prompted me to show you the work of my very favourite artist, Charlotte Evans. I realise that I say that about a lot of people but in terms of landscape painters she really is my favourite. I exhibited with Charlotte earlier on in the year at the Affordable Art fair where we were both represented by Wills Art warehouse. She is a young painter just 3 years out of Art school but has the most incredible sense of colour I think I have ever seen. A true gift. It was so hard to choose but here are some of my favourites.

This is what she says, wonderful! "How can a painter not be fascinated by colour, it is the stuff of sight.Painting is not a means to produce an image, but a process that should enrich the painter as much as it should an audience.I have little desire to produce a picture of a place but rather to make a place in the picture. To take people somewhere they have never been before, but which strikes up desires and recollections of their own."

......and before I go I have been fascinated by Shari's interviews over at The glass doorknob. A fabulous insight into other artists and craftmakers daily lives. Go read and be inspired!!!

Tomorrow I shall show you a few new pieces I am working on for a gallery in Cornwall, if the light is good that is. I am having the same problems with lighting as Abigail.

Just perfect!

Well it was a lovely weekend, good trip, good food , good wine, good company but unfortunately not good weather. It rained from the moment we left the house. Five hours later we arrived in Dartmouth, Devon. The first contact we had was with the ferry. Excuse my innocence but I got so excited when I realised we had to get a ferry over the water to Dartmouth. In my sight was a wonderful row of colourful houses. Perfect! The hotel was warm and welcoming. Oak beams, uneven floors, comfy beds, white linen and a Continental breakfast of cereal, freshly baked breads, and warm Danish pastries mmmmmmmmmm, perfect!

So, in the rain we headed to the gallery. Sarah, the owner was over the moon with the paintings, prints and cards I had done for her. She even managed to get two of them in the window before closing. Perfect!

So in the rain, we wandered around Dartmouth, there are some great little independant shops, galleries and restaurants. We decided to really push the boat out for dinner and went to the Michelin starred Restaurant of the year 2005/2006 The New Angel. It is owned by celebrity chef John Burton Race and guess what? he was actually in the kitchen serving up my dinner. It was an open kitchen so I spent a lot of the time watching him. I must admit the dishes he was serving up really were art on a plate. The food was delicious. The best course by far was dessert! I opted for the 'Chocolate plate' I only wish I had brought my camera because I thought I had died and gone to heaven. There were 5, yes 5 I tell you mini chocolate desserts. This was the perfect dessert for me as I am a "can I try a bit of yours" kind of girl, and only decide on what I am eating when I have found out what everyone else I am dining with is ordering. I find it scandalous for two people to order the same thing. Why is that I wonder??? SO with a very full belly and lovely fuzzy head from the wonderful bottle of red we wandered back to the hotel.

Saturday rained again and after doing some quick sketching (in the rain) and taking photos we set off for home. I came home to a whole host of goodies. Something from Camilla and a parcel from Karin. Unfortunately I cannot share the contents with you as they are Christmas gifts for two people who I know read my blog. But believe me I am reluctant to let them go as they make me very happy indeedy!

I also came home to really good news. I donated a piece of Artwork recently for the Art and Soul Contemporary Art auction at Bonhams. The proceeds from the auction went to the Demelza Hospice Care for Children. My work was being auctioned alongside some very famous artists including Antony Gormley and Mary Fedden so I felt very honoured.

I am really pleased to tell you that I donated £330 towards the overall total of £24,000 that was raised on the night. I feel very proud.

Perfect little weekend really.

So with a smile on my face I will say goodnight. :)

p.s Sorry about the words to pictures ratio today, it's just not good enough is it :) xox

just a quickie!

Five artists I love.... All their work can be found on the Velocity website. Velocity is an Art and design store in Seattle, US. However for all of us on this side of the pond as far as I can see Shipping is free with orders over $100. Go see wonderful affordable art!

Matte Stephens thrilled to see this talented guy has a blog. Added to my favourites immediately.

Fumi Watanabe wonderful website!








Lorena Siminovich I love her collages soooo much!

Amy Ruppel need I say more? I love Amy's work.









The kooky work of Ashley Goldberg. Hers is a blog I read daily. I love her attitude and of course her work too! In fact I already own two of her pieces.





I shall be back tomorrow with some photos from my weekend and some news I am soooooo proud of! x