a corner of my studio

Works in progress.

For the past few months I have been working towards my two woman show at Baxters in Dartmouth. So I have been painting Devon and the more I paint it the more I love the place. I have two weeks left so I may be a little quiet as long hours are now required. The show starts on Friday 24th May and myself and Sasha Harding will both be there on the evening. I will hopefully post more details soon but if anyone has any enquiries please email me or contact the gallery directly. The gallery website will have images up there before the show. I am honoured to be showing alongside Sasha, she has been a favourite artist of mine for quite some time now. More soon.

something to smile at this weekend

I have to respond to Camillas links with this one which made me laugh sooooo much last night. Yes, I watch Britains got talent, yes.......I need a life! Hope you are having a dryer weekend than us here in blighty!

evening light

Rockpool 1

Rockpool 2



Dunes 1

Dunes 2

High tide 1


High tide 2

Golden sky 1

Golden sky 2

I've been doing these small paintings over the last few weeks in the evenings. They are all from my recent trip to Devon of some of the beaches we visited. Some new colours have emerged when the light is different in the studio and I am really pleased with the results. They are for sale in my gallery at the moment at £90 the pair. I had a bit of trouble displaying them on this page as a pair. They are 8x8 inches each. If anyone is interested please send me an email. Thanks for looking.

Last Wednesday was my birthday so I was surprised with a day and night over to Dublin. We live just half an hour from Holyhead port now so got the Seacat over in just two hours. We arrived, we froze on an open top bus trip, we warmed up with a guinness then had a wonderful birthday meal. We saw the book of Kells in trinity college and we wowed at the Long room there. We woke up in a lovely room, I opened some surprise presents ,we shopped, we walked in the sun, we held hands, we ate fantastic vegetarian food, we smelled all the Jo Malone perfumes intensively, we drank more guinness, we got on the ferry home.....and the best bit on my birthday night......we watched Juno on the ferry and were the only two people in the whole cinema, our own private showing. We came home to pretty flowers and our lovely new house. I love birthdays!!!!

p.s Thank you so much to all the commenters and well wishes in our new house and blue kitchen. Jamjar, the clock comes from Laura Ashley a few years ago but is made by Newgate.

feeling blue?

I'm back...for today, Easter came and went and a house move came and went since last time I was here. We moved to our very own house and we are incredibly happy. It is a wonderful feeling to settle knowing that in six months time we will not be packing up again. So this is move number 24 in my 31(nearly 32) years and the last for a very very long time. We got the keys two weeks ago. I spent a week of evenings last week painting the kitchen, it was lovely teal colour and one reason i fell in love with our new house but ever since seeing this 2 years ago , I have dreamt of a blue kitchen. The next few months I think will be house related as this blog is a great personal diary and way of documenting our progress.

My favourite things in the kitchen are the orange and yellow plastic containers on the top shelf in the last photo. They belonged to my Grandma (Dads Mum not mormor) and last weekend she gave them to me after one too many hints. They are Danish and she bought them in 1975 when my Mum and Dad lived in Denmark and they went to visit. She has used them every day since 1975. Thats 33 years!! It makes me wonder how many things we have now that we will still be using daily in 33 years time and how much of a throw away society we are. Time to think about that.

Goodnight x

p.s thank you for the lovely comments recently, I am sorry for not taking the time to reply individually, i appreciate you stopping by and hope to catch up soon.

just saying hello

I wasn't swept away in thr storms, just so busy, painting every hour of every day at the moment. We are also due to complete on our new house this week so starting to pack also. Getting very excited by the Karin and Camilla collaboration. So many exciting things going on around. I happened to spend an hour catching up on a long list of blogs last night.
Back soon I promise x

Computer playing up, but just enough time to tell you I'm off to Devon now until Wednesday.
Its a work trip and leaving poor Sean behind to run the gallery. I have two man show there in a few months so need to do a lot of sketching and planning. A lot of paintings to do.
Above is the latest creation from the wonderful Syko. She is in the middle of making me lots of houses and boats to sell in my gallery, I can't wait to see them.
Have a great weekend everyone, I now have a six hour drive ahead of me. I shall return with some good photos.

Sunday hours

Its a Sunday, and I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself because as much as I would like to be out for a long walk on a beach somewhere on this beautiful Island, I am painting busily for show after show. A lovely local couple came in and bought 2 pieces from me this morning for their little boys' newly decorated bedroom. They then phoned later to invite us both along for a walk, sadly I couldn't shut up shop but the thought was lovely. The people here are so friendly and welcoming, so hopefully next time. I love being part of a community, it makes me feel very settled and secure, a feeling I have never had before really. Back to it, hope you are all having a fun Sunday (said through gritted teeth) ;) x

Liverpool

This was one of the finished paintings for the new gallery in Liverpool, it opens 29th February. I will give more details when I know them.

It was nice to paint older bulidings, not something I'm used to.

Coffee and cake

Its a new week, and a new painting featuring my favourite Orla mug and more cakes!!!!

We just got back from a very inspiring walk along the beach. I was looking for a few nice pebbles to display some jewellery on in my new cabinet. The light was spectacular, we both glowed orange. I always forget my camera though. What is it with this weather?? We've had blue skies nearly every day of February. Global warming?!?!?!

Having fun

I've got some exhibitions coming up, first in Sarah Wiseman gallery at the end of March and then in May a rather large two man show in Baxters, Dartmouth. More on that soon.

So I'm really enjoying doing some still life work. I am painting things I love, fairy cakes, my vases, bowls, seasides and spots!

It feels very me!

Ok, I'm off to a wonderful treasure trove of a shop looking for a nice little cabinet to display some jewellery I am getting in the gallery. Bye for now....x

I am very excited that these little fellas will be joining me in my gallery around Easter time. From the wonderful Abbot and Ellwood based in my beloved St Ives. I love love love their Sculptures. Take a look here I have loved their work for a very long time when I first saw their work at Chelsea craft fair many years ago which is now Origin. I'm going to have a special little shelf made, so I'll show you when they are in situ.

Its half term this week so there are lots of nice people and children to talk to every day, fun but exhausting!

colour

I am enjoying playing with colour. I have a lot of deadlines at the moment but I wanted and needed to step back for a week to experiment a little. I am liking the direction. I went to the Spring fair trade show in Birmingham on Wednesday. There was lots to seduce you, it was hard but I had to remain focused and I only want to sell what I love and would buy myself. It would be easy to stock things you know would sell but without my heart being in it I had to say no. I found Nicky Thompson knitwear that I will definitely stock next Winter, so it was a success.

We had a blue sky last week, its a quiet week this week......

The photo below from yesterday was taken standing at the end of the pier in this painting I did recently. An inspiring view in every direction.
I just rediscovered the work of Virginia Graham, it makes me smile! i particularly enjoyed looking at her drawings.

midday sky

This view never ceases to amaze me.

I might attempt to paint it this week.

A wintry train journey

Some white links for the end of Winter white week,

Wendy Jung ceramics

and some flickr faves here, this and this

Hope you all have a good weekend, I will be painting all weekend, I have to finish my Liverpool paintings x

p.s Thank you for the camera advice, I'll have a play around.

I'm loving all the White around for Shari's Winter white week.
I like the work of Helen Musselwhite a lot. She also has an etsy shop.
I like to decorate with White, then add colour.
On my wish list is a new camera. Or maybe I should read the instructions of the one I've got to find out why every photo I take is blurry. Any ideas or recommendations? x

January by the sea

Joining in on Shari's Winter White week, some beautiful images over there.

Go see!

virtual shopping

I love how in a couple of hours the web takes you from one place to another, here was last nights journey.
I started somehow on Flickr and found an image of a shop in Paris called Puree Jambon, there I found the dolls of Heather Louise, here is her fabulous website. She had a show last year at Puree Jambon in Paris, I particularly love her Marie Antoinette dolls

Heather Louise also has a blog here.
You can buy her work from this great shop in Amsterdam called Eggmercantile.
And they have a blog.

They also sell these postcards by Camilla, and the trays of Ibride, which I have loved since the days I worked in Habitat and we stocked them.

You have to go and look at the Ibride site, its beautiful.
Eggmercantile also stock lots of other great stuff from LZC and cute ceramics from Helbak.
And finally I found someones work I had never seen before, the talented Sam Buxton,

how have I ever missed that?

So a couple of hours soon disappeared and I didn't spend any money! x