Hello Summer

Oh dear dear, my laptop is broken, I only bought it in January so the nice men are coming to take it away tomorrow for up to 14 days!!!! This is not good at all. We do have a spare computer but it is old and temperamental. It will probably do me a lot of good to have a cleansing but the thought of only checking emails once a day horrifies me. I have probably become a bit to reliant on having my laptop practically next to me while I paint so I am trying to see this as a positive thing.
Sadly and coincidentally it coincides with the start of a brand new series of Big Brother. Now don't get me wrong I do not normally watch rubbish TV at all, in fact I don't watch hardly any, we prefer scrabble and cards but Big brother just seems to hook me! I missed numerous beautiful sunsets at the bottom of our garden last summer much to Seans dismay because of the dreaded programme and I am promising not to get sucked in this year. So tonight as the housemates go in I am going to go for a Sauna and swim and hopefully if I don't watch the first I will not get hooked. So I am saying hello Summer, I hope to see you this year!

So instead of checking blogs every evening or generally surfing and internet shopping I will have to do other things. Like make 200 metres of bunting for our marquee. I am slowly building a lovely collection of gingham spotty and floral fabrics and have begun to start cutting but boy is this going to be a job and a half! Any quick tips would be grateful, but buying is not an option, far far too expensive when you work out how much I need.

I wanted to show you my lovely house quilts which arrived from the lovely Kajsa at Syko but I haven't yet worked out how to get photos downloaded. So instead the image above is from Lee Page Hanson that was saved on this old computer. He is fairly local to me and has a studio in Manchester craft centre, which is always a nice day out. I own one of his pieces which a lovely couple gave me for my birthday last year, take a look at some of the other designers in the craft centre.
I must go now to finish some pieces of Padstow for Whistlefish galleries to publish as prints.

I will be back soon, I promise, and Julie.....you are oh so welcome! xx

It's a date!

Its scary how much this looks like us! It was alittle bit rushed but raised a few smiles.xx

These three are currently residing in Sarah Wiseman gallery. They make a great triptych I think. Today turned into a crazy paperwork day, delivery notes, signings, cheques written and the best....cheques cashed and just a little bit of painting.

I am taking this evening off for Wedding talk with my friend as it is really creeping up now. First proper dress fitting tomorrow morning woohooo, exciting.

I just realised I never did show you our invitation we created...... Hahaha, if I get the scanner to work tomorrow you are in for a laugh! I am also going to discuss flowers tomorrow with the florist. This is the really exciting bit. Marguerites and Cornflowers with wheat and rosemary as fillers are the main flowers. But who knows of a great red flower to go with these? Sadly anemones aren't around in July. Let me know any thoughts xx

Happy Tuesday folks!

Gosh, has it been a week already! I have nearly finished my 8 pieces for the 'B is for ' exhibition at Baxters gallery in Dartmouth. The show starts 25th May - 14th June. It is a mixed exhibition including art, textiles and 3d work all beginning with the letter B. The private view is on the Friday where Bi is also for Bucks fizz and Bloody Mary's which will be served. All are welcome. Here is the work of some other artists showing. From left to right Aliisa Hyslop, Richard Goodwin Jones and Linda Miller. I'll show you mine later in the week. I tried playing around with placing pictures...it didn't work!

xxx

Nature takes over

I was so taken with Oxford, what a beautiful city, steeped with History. We just had a few hours there so I shouldn't admit it but we did go on an one of those tourist open top buses headphones and all. I am so glad we did because we learnt so much about the city. Sean was dying with embarassment though. I love this last photo, Nature has taken over.

Several red dots made the show a real pleasure, despite the nerves. My voice actually went towards the end of the day and today surprise surprise I feel exhausted so I took the day off. The show runs until 3rd June. No rest for the wicked though so straight back to the easel tomorrow to start work on my 'B is for' exhibition for Baxters in Dartmouth.
Hope everyone is having a great Bank holiday weekend.

Harbour kiss

This has been one of the most challenging 6 weeks of my career so far, but 27 paintings later and I am ready to go tomorrow. I am really pleased with the body of work I have produced and i am looking forward to hearing the reactions to my newer work.We are travelling to Oxford in the morning to deliver the work, then I am looking forward to exploring the city for the afternoon and evening. I have never been to the city centre before and am very excited to discover the beautiful old architecture of the Universities it is so famous for.

Then Saturday is the opening of the show, I will be there from 11-5 and really looking forward to it but also very nervous, talking about your work can be challenging but I always seem to learn from myself when I speak, talking about my work helps me to understand where it came from if that makes sense.

I had all the work photographed today so I may be printing a few, and perhaps opening an etsy shop.

I will be back for sure a lot more regularly next week. Hope you all have a great Bank holiday weekend. Off I go to face the dilemma of What do I wear?!? Something colourful......or black?!?xxx