My first hat and a big decision

Modelled by 'moi'

So what do you think?

I recently finished a lovely cashmerino scarf (which was made as a gift) and felt that my idle hands and mind needed something to occupy them...so I devoured a few crochet hat patterns and came up with this little beauty - its my very first attempt at a hat and Im rather proud of it!

I used Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran for my hat in two shades of pink; a lovely raspberry and a dusky candy pink - the flower and leaves were made in contrasting colours and a pearlised shell button gives a nice finish to the centre of the corsage (which can be worn on the hat or anywhere else for that matter as its fixed with its own pin).

Anyway, back to more arty related stuff. Ive recently been seriously considering the ways in which Im taking my art. I felt a certain randomness was becoming apparent in my work which I believe to be unavoidable when there is only one art day per week. I sometimes am inspired by so many different things that I leap in to new work that one week may be a figurative piece, and the following week, depending on what has seduced me could be a painting of a contemporary landscape or wildly illustrative piece.

So! (deep breath) big decisions have been made - (although not in an awful regimented way as I think ive written before about art styles and following themes in our work etc and how an artist - me especially - can sometimes feel trapped by just one subject)...anyway, I digress - Ive decided to try and be a little more structured with what Im doing. I want this to reflect in the work that is in my gallery - I want to be able to have the freedom to work on illustrative pieces when I feel moved to, but mainly focus on large-ish landscape work, which I intend to create by going back to my interior design course routes and by re-adopting a more architectural way of drawing - simplifying whats in front of me to give a structured, contemporary look to the work which will be enhanced by a simple pallette of colours.

Im very, very excited by the prospect of this new work. It is going to be challenging - something that is essential to an artist who wants to push themselves out of their comfort zone - its going to be a love hate relationship with what evolves...Ive worked like this before, some days Ive hated a painting so much Ive turned it to face the wall and ignored it for several days until I had calmed down enough to return to it and put right what was going wrong. I think some artists call this passion and I think to make a great painting we need to invoke some passion!! Ive also found myself in the total opposite mindset, in that I cant bear to be parted from the same piece of work and go to bed thinking about it, miss meals when working on it and forget what time it is.

So, with Christmas on the way, and lots of family commitments (not to mention finishing the kitchen which 'hooray' is almost in its final stages) I am looking to make a start on this work in January.

I look forward to sharing the journey with you.

Joy to you this cold December day!

J x