In the Window

Two posts in one day - normally unheard of, but i'm having a good day resting, creating, learning, gathering ideas and more to come.  I have plans for this blog, the fog is clearing and i see a faint light at the end of the tunnel....

...also i just wanted to share these:

 Still playing with watercolour "still life"

 and an abstract piece, not sure if i'll add to this yet

"Wherever my story takes me, however dark and difficult the theme, there is always some hope and redemption, not because readers like happy endings, but because I am an optimist at heart. I know the sun will rise in the morning, that there is a light at the end of every tunnel".

Michael Morpurgo

Playing...

I'm very much enjoying playing around with watercolours on this little break here in the Peaks.  It's so good just to have the time to experiment 

These two paintings are on thick watercolour paper, i use huge amounts of water to mix and spread the colour around, so thick paper is essential.  

 (Detail)

 (Detail)

I never actually know what shade of colour will appear before i apply the brush strokes and that appeals to me. I'm drawn to the greys, blues and sepias for...maybe there's a deep psychological meaning there somewhere....and tend to pick up those colours in addition to the greens, reds and yellows.

 (Detail)

It's a very murky start to the day here this morning, i took the dog for a walk at 7am and this is the view that greeted me:

Mysterious and beautiful....one could almost imagine a hobbit walking down that road!

image from: http://www.flicksandbits.com/2013/03/24/excellent-hobbit-quotes-design-for-the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey/42767/

“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Birds of feather....

 or possibly not....

Currently having a mini holiday in the beautiful Peak District, Topley Head Farm very near Buxton. A day out today to Bakewell, but only for an hour or so, this holiday is more about relaxing and doing barely anything.  I did bring along a few art supplies, watercolours mainly to practice with, am loving these birds...

This was done using water soluble pencils, paints and lots of water, the result is always unpredictable.  

I wonder if i'll ever get the hang of using watercolours, i tend to overuse the water and sometimes the work never seems finished, so i keep adding and going over things, it does make for watercolours with a difference though, and that's not so bad.  I much prefer acrylics which are more forgiving and create texture.

Mixed media stitch pieces, muslin painted with gesso and acrylics and sashiko style stitching applied.

 Just experimenting with some stitched backgrounds for future use.

Vintage finds

A beautiful wooden horse...well half a wooden horse.  I picked this up from a place in Matlock a few weeks ago....i just felt it needed a good home.

A ledger from 1919

...all that beautiful handwriting and scribbles.

XOXO

Sunny Days and Rainy Days

We've had some really wonderful autumnal sunny days lately here in Montgomery, it's been great to go out on long walks in the mornings and in these lovely mild evenings.  However last Sunday it just rained and rained all day long.  I've always loved listening to the pitter patter of rain on the windows when you're all tucked up and warm inside - hot chocolate and repeat episodes of Poirot were the order of the day!  So stretched out on the sofa (in my jimjams) armed with my new Faber Castell Aquarelle graphite pencils...

...and watercolour paints i doodled and sketched all day - vases, flowers, chairs and such.  Totally relaxing. Here are the results.

I just have to show you this amazing garden i stumbled on during a recent visit to Machynlleth.  We went in search of an antiques shop nearby...

 ...and inside that blue fence were all these wonderfully decayed musical instruments and things.  I love that they once had a different use. They work well in their old age as receptacles for plants and flowers.

The Grand Piano, notice the radio atop

 The clock and the mirror on top of the piano

 The Banjo

 The Piano Stool

 Books...

 ...again on top of the piano

 The old guitar

 Trombone

 and an old enamel colander full of pebbles

It brought joy to my heart!

I wondered how many of these things once belonged to the house and the people in it or if once the owners started with one thing more were donated!

We're off to Aberystwyth on Sunday to meet up with my niece, Heather, who's just started University there - thought we might take her out for lunch as she's so far from home!

Have a great weekend everyone.

X O X O

Spring

Still playing with water colours....

 these are painted onto very old pieces of legal mortgage papers

glued onto water colour paper

 the next job is to stitch around them

I have an idea to make a book, but who knows.

Glorious sunny day here in Montgomery today, just enjoying a coffee in the garden, listening to the birds singing, is Spring here i wonder?

Cleaning day today i have more visitors arriving on Monday, so...much to do.

XOXO

...a day in the life

playing with watercolours

 Little glimpses - work in progress...

...some more little homes for my exhibition, these are taking a bit longer than i thought to make, lots of fiddly bits of work involved, but i'm getting there.

Two items that sold in our shop this week...

...I so wanted to keep this set of early 1900's french button drawers, maybe there's only one of these in the whole world.  They would have been given to retailers back then free of charge to display the goods advertising them, a lot of them have probably been destroyed since, the lettering and colours are simply gorgeous.

and this ....

Indigo Moon looks very different without them! we sold a few other large items, time to do some more buying i think.

We have a new antique shop opened in Montgomery "The Old Stores", we're very lucky, i found some lovely old french ticking fabric in there a few weeks ago, they have a piece of 17th century fabric (part of a curtain) for a few hundred pounds!  Needless to say I left that.  The owner, Mark, kindly gave me some old french fabric he couldn't clean up enough for the shop...

I love this rich red colour, i can't wait to use it on my collages as well as these cards...

i loved the french handwritten notes on them, i'm not sure what i'll do with them yet, i'm just enjoying looking at them

 

...and last but not least, more practice with my new sewing machine and free motion sewing, i never knew sewing could be so much fun.  This is the sewing version of a detail of the watercolour above and the other two house will have a brooch pin on the back.  I still have a lot to learn but am getting there with controlling the foot pedal.

XOXO