Gratitude

We all need reminding from time to time. Have a nice day :0)

Blue Peter eat your heart out

Never a dull moment, and if there is, make something. I don't often have times when I am not inspired to do something creative, even if it's just pushing a camera into my pocket and taking a walk. Anyway on this particular occasion, it was raining hard and I didn't much feel like going out for a long walk. I had completed all the watercolours and I just wanted something to fill a couple of hours. So here is my master class in how to make three or more Christmas stockings out of a charity shop jumper.

First put on your coat and go to your local charity shop. Browse through all the fabrics and sweaters they have available. I was particularly looking for a wool sweater so that I could 'felt' it in the washing machine. There weren't any, so had to make do with an acrylic M&S cream one. I then found a child's red check dress that would do for ribbons and applique hearts etc. 

Cut out a template for the shape of the stocking. Newspaper will do if you don't have anything else. Pin that onto the jumper, bearing in mind the ribbing will make a good cuff. You should be able to get two big stockings out of the main part and probably two smaller ones out of the arms. 

Draw around the template and cut out roughly around the shape. Sew the two sides together. This is best done with a machine but equally effective by hand. All those Pilgrim fathers had to do it by hand, and it was good enough for them.

 Cut strips of a complimentary fabric for the ribbon ties, and thread through the top of the stocking and some simple heart shapes and initials if you like. The stitching doesn't have to be especially neat and actually adds something if you use a contrasting colour. I sewed my hearts on with scarlet thread. I also added a finishing touch of bells dangling from the toes.

Hey presto 3 fab stockings ready to fill with pressies and hang from the fire place (if I had one). My children are probably too old to have stockings any more, so I will have to find some other children with the initials A & P to give these to......unless......

So there you go, how to fill a grey and miserable Saturday afternoon !

Sunny Sunday

 Little mini watercolours all bagged up and ready to go. Just some snowy ones to finish and put on card. A couple of 3D works to complete and I am about done for Brightlingsea this weekend.

“No sky

no earth - but still

snowflakes fall”

- Hashin

 A beautiful sunny Sunday in November. Is there a better way to spend a day such as this, sitting in the lea of a beach hut chatting to friends.

 Thought for the day:

Conquer the angry man by love.

Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness.

Conquer the miser with generosity.

Conquer the liar with truth. 

- Buddha

The past is not clinging to you; you are clinging to the past. Once you are not clinging, the past simply evaporates.

— Osho

Indeedy !

Mini's

Getting things ready for the Waterside gallery exhibition. Tiny watercolours ready to send as  special cards or to be turned into pictures.

Each mini is lightly adhered to the card, easily removed to re-mount and put in a frame of choice.

3 mini’s look fab in 3 deep box frames to create a contemporary triptych, a really original and affordable Christmas present. 

“Letting go gives us freedom and freedom is the only condition for happiness.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

 

“Do everything with a mind that lets go. Do not expect any praise or reward. If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go

completely, you will know complete peace and freedom. Your struggles with the world will have come to an end.” - Ajahn Chah

“The one thing you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and dance and build and play and dance and live as only you can. The moment that you feel that just possibly you are walking down the street naked........the moment you may be starting to get it right.”
- Neil Gaiman

“There is nothing more rare, nor more beautiful, than a woman being unapologetically herself; comfortable in her perfect imperfection. To me, that is the true essence of beauty.” 
- Steve Maraboli

Sweet ! have a nice day.

Busy, busy

 Busy, busy afternoon, persevering with the watercolours. I am determined to get to grips with them and I think I have found a method I like. I didn't want to paint detailed traditional style watercolours, and have found (armed with copious amounts of water and a sponge) that the wash on wash method suits my style best. I really like the simplicity that comes from moving a little colour around in a lot of water.

I am producing some very small and simple paintings, which will be mounted on card. They can be used simply as greetings cards or could be individually framed to produce bijou and very affordable art works to hang. I think these small works look best in drifts of 3 or 5, and I will be selling them (along with other works) at the Waterside Gallery in Brightlingsea, from 17th November.
It is the last week of the Pilgrimage exhibition at the Naze Tower in Walton on the Naze, so if you haven't been yet, wizz over there before Sunday !

Christmas is a comin'

Gosh there is a lot going on in Brightlingsea in the next couple of months ! All starting early November.  I will be showing work at the Waterside Gallery, The Coach House Coffee Shop and at Sea Green Studio on the high street, all up until Christmas week. I will be exhibiting a mix of paintings, small and large, some 3D work and some small surf styleeeeee driftwood pieces. All three venues need checking out for those unusual Christmas gifts. The Waterside Gallery will be showing a collection of arts and crafts, a continuation of the last very successful couple of years. Alex at the Coach House Coffee shop will be hosting a wonderful selection of local artists work which you can peruse whilst pigging out on coffee and cake. Sea Green Studio  has a fab eclectic mix of art and vintage home wares, from 50's tea sets to drift wood signs and of course 

locally made handy crafts and art.

I have a great couple of days beach combing, all the wood is drying out in my shed. In the meantime I have been working on some small pieces, ever the scavenger ! and framed them in deep box frames.

 Thought for the day, taken from 'Buddhist offerings 365 days' October 20th :
'True love for our neighbour will be translated into courage and strength. The more we develop love for others, the more confidence we will have in ourselves. The 14th Dalai Lama

I was only dreaming about the sea.

Muddy ditches and boats

A start with watercolour. A creek view and big sky. I haven't finished either and if I am truthful, frightened of  going further and making a mess. There have been a number of 'failures' and I feel these two have had a good start! But as I tell my workshop students...'there are no failures, only learning curves!' A painting is only satisfactory or pleasing to the artist (or less so) and really it doesn't matter what other people think. I feel as if I am trying to work too small, and therefore being too detailed, but at the moment space is at a premium and I only have a small table on which to paint. I am really trying to achieve a very impressionist painting, using only washes.

 Maningtree is a muddy ditch at low tide, but the light on the mud is so silvery and beautiful. So many shades of warm and cool greys shimmer on the surface.

A very wabi sabi boat ! A net holds everything together, it appears to be the fabric of the boat. When it finally rots away so the boat will fall apart. Reminded me of Indira's net. The idea that every thing is held together by invisible links, everything is joined, nothing is separate. Every vibration made on the net, affects the the stability of everything (us) connected along it's fabric. A seemingly innocuous action or word, good or bad, will reverberate through the whole system, effecting everything, everyone.

Question?

What's this?

A piece of fossilized something I Picked up on Winterton beach. I initially thought it was a piece of fossilized wood, but on closer inspection I think it may be bone. It's heavy. Mammoth leg perhaps ? It measures 7''x2.5''  ish.

Any ideas? You can leave a comment on my FB page if you like.

 Drilled holes in my driftwood....ready to go.

Beachcomber

Another fab day on the sunshine coast, while the rest of the country is under five feet of water !. Gosh this could be anywhere down the west coast of France. Deserted for miles and miles.

I spent a good hour observing a family of seals...I won't bore you with the 200 other photos. They were so inquisitive. Swimming away and fishing then coming back to where I was sitting for another look. They almost came out of the water they were so nosey ! Lovely to see them. This coast is a great place to watch mothers with their pups out on the sand, between December and February.

It was a beachcombing sort of a day. Painting in situ was proving more difficult than I thought, paper kept blowing away and I didn't take enough water to keep changing it, so everything ended up a muddy mess.
I soon filled my pockets with bits of beautifully smoothed drift wood. There were lots of tiny pieces scattered  about. I wasn't sure how I would use them, but didn't want to leave them there.

When I got back to the place I was staying, (which by the way is Fishermans Return, highly recommended ) I had a bit of a brain wave ! I will paint them and make necklace charms or key rings. Here are the first two experiments. All they need is a hole drilled in the top, that may be trickier than I think, and either a piece of leather threaded through, or a ring end for keys. I have only used watercolour paint for these two as that was all I have to hand. Acrylics and varnish should do it.

 Trying to do a ten min sketch before it all blew away ! and yes I took the picture myself ! arm outstretched. I like to have a few reminders of where I have been but don't like to ask strangers to take them....anyway there wasn't anyone else for miles.
I have had a lovely week here, batteries recharged and ready to go again. All change when I get back

Hermanus

 So for the rest of the week I am in Winterton-On-Sea. I have never been on the East coast of Norfolk before...and very beautiful and windswept it is. Strange post apocalyptic huts huddle in the dunes.

 No clues as to what they are used for, though I am guessing they house fishing boats. There was no debris lying around to suggest this though. All a little spooky.
Rusty hinges and peeling paint caught my eye.

 Squally showers dominated the day and every time I tried to get the paints out another shower came.
To tell the truth my heart wasn't in it and a long walk seemed like a better idea.

 Absolutely fabulous coastline.

Look at these, my word how bizarre are they? stuck in a sand dune in Norfolk. Apparently the man who owns the holiday resort is South African..ah so that explains it ....not !