small and pretty things

In the midst of life it is the small but lovely things that sing out... like this little bunch of gloriously scented just-picked flowers from the garden... and a piece of sponge cake with lemon curd and cream... I am particularly happy about this as I have finally discovered how to make a light-as-air sponge cake which is also gluten free. A mini-triumph... the best kind, I think.

"not matter the long pause..."

This excellent piece of advice was given to me by Rossichka in a comment she made on a previous post... she meant it about art... getting round to it again after many years, beginning to find a voice. However, I have come to see the truth of it in so many areas of life... making art, yes, and also reading and learning about it through books and exhibitions... picking up a forgotten novel again... remembering to take pleasure in clothes and my appearance... reviving my interest in walking and generally exercising more... finding new life in a relationship... and so many other things, including...

...finally finishing a piece of crochet! This blanket was started exactly a year ago and I wrote about it at the end of this post. It's a proper old-fashioned, make-do-and-mend, frugal patchwork blanket made to use up odds and ends of wool from previous projects and no new yarn. Apart from choosing colours that complemented one another, there was no great design involved, just picking up a yarn, working a square, selecting another colour and adding another square, and so on. When the yarn ran out, it was finished.

It's made with all different weights and types of yarn, mostly aran but some dk or finer, which I doubled up to get the right thickness.

Then I used a mid-blue to do a nice scalloped edge:

I love the back of it:

It has a soft, dimpled comfortable feel to it which is different to the front:

So for all of you who have unfinished projects on shelves or in baskets, or plans that haven't yet come to fruition, or unfulfilled intentions, or a sense of stagnation about things... these words are for you too:

Not matter the long pause.

It's true even, or especially, if you previously thought there was a full-stop. You can change a full-stop into a comma quite easily, you know... just add a tail.

nobody here but us chickens

These energetic, characterful and beautifully drawn hens were sketched, probably by a little boy called Robert, about three hundred and fifty years ago in the Taylor family Bible. Aren’t they exquisite? I love the curious, slightly bonkers expressions on their little chicken faces.

This sort of thing is the reason I love my job. To find out a little more about the chickens (but not much, because they will always remain rather an enigma) have a look at the Chetham’s Library blog, home of all things quirky and interesting, many of them in an untidy pile on my desk.

Clicking on the images will enlarge them - because they're worth it.

holding on

This beautiful image of Japanese carp kites is taken from a tiny little calendar book from 1901 which we found at work today. It's about 6cm square and is printed on beautifully crinkled, terribly fragile crepe paper in these lovely watery shades. Every May, Family Day is celebrated in Japan (although I think it was still called Boys' Day in 1901) and these paper kites are strung up to flutter in the breeze as a symbol of good wishes for your family and children.

Our family has been rather disrupted this last fortnight or so, but I think we are finding some sort of equilibrium again now. Lots of changes are happening which are all quite sudden and surprising although hopefully, positive, and so this image of the happy, colourful carp swimming bravely in the wind is a good one for me just now.

home truths

I found myself doing much more reading on my ‘art holiday’ than I had imagined, as I got a terrible cold which confined me to bed for most of the week. At first I was irritated, even angry about this, but decided to be open-minded and spend the time reading, writing and thinking productively even if I didn’t produce much work. I spent a fair bit of time working rather haphazardly and sketchily through The Artist’s Way*, which although definitely qualifying as navel-gazing of the highest order, did prove to be quite illuminating and helped me make sense of some of the thoughts spinning round my head. I was particularly inspired by the exercises to identify your creative dreams and aspirations. In between sniffing and sneezing and eating too many Easter eggs, I learnt/admitted/discovered these things about myself:

• I would like to paint large canvasses
  

• My most cheer-me-up music is trad jazz

• I’d like to learn printmaking
  

• I worry a lot about wasting time

• I’d love to dye my hair very blonde

• In another life I’d be a singer in a band or a window dresser for Anthropologie

• I wish I was braver

• I’d like to own red shoes, more silver bangles and an easel

• When I was a child I wanted to be a ballet teacher

• I am getting better at believing in myself

What I need to do as a matter of urgency is carve out regular, uninterrupted time for myself to paint and draw. How I do this I am not yet sure... what I do know is that, perversely, it is something inside me that stops this happening just as much as external events. I need to stop fighting myself.

*The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

art holiday

This week my sons have gone on holiday with their dad and I am free of family responsibilities for five days, so I decided to book time off work and have an art holiday at home by myself.

The house is clean, all our clothes are clean, and there is food in the fridge... I plan to tell no-one I am here and just get up in the morning, go for a walk, come back and hang out in my artroom all day. What bliss. Knowing my life, something will probably happen to disturb all this, but that is ok... I have prepared myself... a pessimist is never disappointed.

Today began rather early (at four o'clock) so the day has been a little slow to get going, but I have had a peaceful time drawing funny little apples from a picture in a magazine. I am finding that I am still preoccupied with experimentation in lots of different media and seeing what pleases me and what effects I can achieve. It is pleasing to my tidy mind to cross candidates off the bottom of the list and not bother with them much again: charcoal, chalk pastel and coloured inks have all had three buzzes and left the stage, and the jury is out on oil pastels.

I hope to have some more to show you by the end of the week... if all goes well.

Elizabeth Blackadder

I wish I could tell you this was my work... but it's Elizabeth Blackadder... I'm really looking forward to seeing her retrospective at the Scottish National Galleries this autumn.

I've been a bit of a renegade on my art course and haven't done the last two assignments. I have been doing a lot of experimental drawing though, which I think is more valuable to me in my growth and development. Nothing even half good enough to show... but maybe one day soon.

PS Hopefully I have sorted out the missing picture now... please let me know if you still can't see it.