Four Things

1 :: Having a wild weekend away with my friends from Facebook.  I've been in contact with these girls for a couple of years or so now, and am so blessed to have their friendship and support.  There's a whole load of wisdom and talent around that table, as well as fabulous senses of humour.  We went to Stratford upon Avon and enjoyed the hot weather, chilled Pimms, the River Festival and frenzied conversations and laughter.  Til next time girls :)

2 :: Loving the colours of my new Orla lamp, and a jug of hand picked wild flowers from down the garden by the water.

3 :: New wool supplies - fresh from the Yves Town shop - this is a bag full of cotton, and the colours are absolutely wonderful, zingy, fresh and rainbow infused.  I'm starting a little project with this, and I'll share it with you soon.

4 :: Paint and tea.  I'm on with some new work which is really lifting the spirits and making me feel happy.  I'm creating some special wooden block paintings at the moment for the Janet Bell Gallery, and I will have three of these to share with the subscribers of my e-zine on Monday at a super special price.  You can sign up here if you would like to be the first in the queue to have a peek at them yourself :)

Have a lovely weekend.  Til next time,
Love J x

What I did when I got tired of painting

I recently decided to take some time away from my work.  I've been feeling a little drained and a little lost of late and felt that some much needed downtime was necessary to recharge the batteries.

So the weekend before last, we drove down to Suffolk to see my sister and her family.  On Saturday, the forecast looked promising so we took off to the coast and went off to Felixstowe.  I do like Felixstowe, it's a lovely little town and is a nice mix of traditional seaside resort with it's pier, amusements and fish and chip shops and then up the far other end there's Felixstowe Ferry which is a tranquil and quiet little quayside that has retained an old world charm that is impossible to resist.

We started off in the amusements, the children had some pocket money and lured by the twinkling rainbow lights and exciting sounds within we spent a good hour dispensing two pences into greedy machines and enjoying some vigorous games of air hockey.  Fish and chips for lunch followed and we sat on the beach wall enjoying them as the children ran up and down the beach and had a fine game throwing pebbles into the little waves.

After lunch, the children went off with their Uncle for a round of Crazy Golf, and me and my sis and the other half wandered down the promenade, stopping for ice-cream.  After much frivolity on the golf course we decided that we'd drive over to Felixstowe Ferry to look at the boats.

 

 

As you drive into this little place, you feel a quiet calm descend.  There are old wooden huts on stilts by the waterside, and lines of masts and rigging that snap and tinkle in the breeze.  As we walked towards the little harbour area, we discovered fennel growing wild by the side of the road amidst poppies and wildflowers. 

There's a little fish shop by the quay too, and you can buy fresh lobster and seafood.  We treated ourselves to a pot of prawns doused in tangy vinegar and the children enjoyed an ice-cream each from the little van.

Wandering about these kinds of places makes me feel very happy and relaxed.  These places are very good for the soul.  There's not an awful lot going on, just the call of gulls and the odd boat sailing up and down, but it's nice to sit and watch, to not have to do much else.

On Sunday, continuing our relaxing theme we drove over to Wicken Fen.  This is a National Trust property and one of my favourite places.

An unspoilt landscape of reed beds and boardwalks lead you past hidden streams, where unusual birds call out to each other and people take the time to notice the profusion of wild flowers and insects.  Lazy lizards lounge on the warm boards, and when these walkways give way to soft grass, its a pleasure to slip your shoes off and walk barefoot on the cool green ground.

It was exceptionally hot, and many rests were taken along the way.

It was one of those lush, hot days that we ambled through slowly, finishing in a nice pub in the cathedral city of Ely before setting off home for the north.

While I was away, I was able to take some time to think about my work and other feelings of apathy that have taken over me of late.  In my last post I wrote about how much of an effort everything seemed to be.  I'm sure this happens to many creative souls; at some point they hit a brick wall and nothing seems to inspire anymore - and it's deeper than just the mojo disappearing for a few days - it's something, a feeling, that has grown over time and you feel that you've *lost* something.  I realised that the intensity of creating a body of work for an exhibition, and then carrying on to create a body of work for a client (all of which had taken many months) had taken it's toll.  It's not that I don't enjoy painting, I truly do - but I'd reached a point where I'd felt it was becoming mechanical and I was no longer looking forward to sitting at the easel anymore.

In a quest to find fresh inspiration we need to take time away from what we do.  We need to go off and do something different, something fun and forget about it all for a while.  We need to let time work its magic, and since then I've noticed the tiny little sparkle of new ideas being born.  I've made some time to write down my thoughts, and realised that there are some aspects about my business that don't work for me so well - I've decided to only offer a handful of commission slots for people from now on because it will free up the time for me to focus on new projects in the future.  I've also made a schedule for myself, kind of planned out my week in a loose fashion so that I can create work that I can sell for myself, as well as for my agent and galleries.

It's about realising that I need different revenue streams to flow side by side - finding ways to make a regular income alongside the jobs that don't pay out for a few months.  It's about keeping the inspiration bubbling, and keeping it fresh, and keeping my passion for my subjects alive and I know to do this I have to take regular breaks away from what I'm doing in order to let new ideas come through.

I had another amazing weekend away after being at my sisters which has further fuelled the creative fire, with a bunch of talented and inspiring chums I've met through Facebook.  We had a weekend in Stratford upon Avon...but that's another story which I'll tell next time.

Til next time,
J x

Home Girl

 

These last few weeks have been strangely tiring.  I'm not quite sure why...just in that 'everything feels like too much effort' sort of tiring.  I think it is possibly a culmination of things, of a rather intense workload, of commissions, housework, general family life and what have you.  Keeping all the balls in the air is sometimes a huge job, and I think these last few days, I've definitely dropped one or two.

I felt the need to stop, to just potter about at home, nap, dream, wander....I know better than to argue with these feelings and find these days it's best just to succumb and let go.

 

So this Saturday, there was just me and the little one at home, and seeing as how Summer had forgotten to set its alarm, and wild rain and winds randomly battered the windows, we decided to hunker down indoors for the day with not much planned at all, and see what unfolded.

 

There was some catching up to do on the chores front - oh my, being busy with some painting commissions and generally feeling rather drained has left me with little or no inclination to tidy up at all, and I'm afraid my house is rather topsy turvy because of it.  Ironing languishes in a pile at the top of the stairs, a feature I have been walking past and choosing clothes from these last few days with no plan to do anything about.  There are slightly dusty surfaces, and washing in the machine that needs hanging on the airer (too wet and cold to go outdoors, more's the pity).  Yet on Saturday morning, the one thing that had been niggling me most, was suddenly dealt with.  The toy corner.

 

Living in a very small house means that we don't have the luxury of a toy room as such, so there is a stash of toys that has seemingly grown out of all proportion behind the armchair.  On Saturday, we both sifted through this mess, and created a pretty satisfying pile of stuff that would be off to the charity shop, and also one that was destined for the bin.  I am now on the look out for a nice second hand cupboard to paint up so that the child has somewhere pretty to keep some of her smaller toys and games.

 

 

So, after the general effort of tidying was over, we set to baking some biscuits, and then I sneaked onto the sofa whilst she played with her Lego.  I found myself nodding off here and there, in between reading this book:

 

 

I haven't baked anything from it yet, but the recipes are very enticing.  Using lots of fruit and other seasonal produce (as well as chocolate, which is a year round staple), there is a tempting array of tasty, but healthier bakes and goodies to satisfy my sweet tooth without an attack of the guilties for indulging. 

 

On Sunday morning I nipped out briefly to bring in some groceries, and some summery blooms.  It's been a while since I had to buy flowers....

 

 

Before investing in these, I had been nipping down the garden, following the little path down the side of the river and disappearing into a fairy glade of frothy grasses and pretty wild flowers, and once there I would snip a few with my scissors and pop into my little Greengate jug. 

 

 

 

 

Ox-eye daisies, cornflowers, red campion, cow parsley and knapweed all grow in profusion down there, along with buttercups and forget-me-nots.  It really is pretty as a picture, but when I ventured down there this morning, the rain had made the whole place overgrown and inaccessible.  It had turned into the Wild Interior almost overnight, and my little path to the waters edge was a tangle of nettles and grasses which had somehow weaved themselves together to form a nasty, and painful passage.  So I gave up and came home again.

 

Still, a little bunch of cheap flowers from the supermarket are just as nice, and on the subject of splurges, I've also been in raptures with my newest little gift for our house.  I'm afraid I couldn't help myself, and I'm rather glad I couldn't because I bought a Real Painting from a very brilliant artist and I absolutely can't stop looking at it and smiling when I do.  I don't know if you are familiar with the art of Sarah Summers, but please do take a look - she is a most talented and inspiring illustrator, and I'm now the delighted owner of one of her original paintings:

 

 

See it?  That little square canvas on the right, sitting happily next to my print from Caroline Rose?  The colours really are wonderful, and I think the two pieces of art together are just glorious!  I get giddy just looking at them, I absolutely LOVE colour in my home, it really lifts the spirits and makes me feel good.

 

I actually have a Plan for this wall, I have a plan to adorn it with all kinds of colourful art and trinkets.  I'm very excited about it, because I do like to have little Home Projects on the go and I can already see in my minds eye how it will look when it's all finished.

 

So, this weekend, I have been soaking in the colour and the cosiness of my little nest.  Feeling happy not to have to do anything too pressing - apart from go to the Arena in Sheffield to see Rod Stewart on Sunday evening which was just a little bit brilliant.  Aside from that, I've been enjoying the quiet bits, just sitting and thinking...because I sometimes do that, when life feels a bit too much, when the tiredness takes a hold and I can't shake it off.  I sit and think what I might be able to do about it, to put it right again, to find my balance and what not.

 

 

Time in my little nest is very healing, it involves gentle pottering, deep baths and good reading books to take to an early bed.  I scour my recipe books for healthy, energy building meals, and go out into the sunshine to soak up some vitamin D when the clouds take it upon themselves to part.

 

I enjoy being at home, amongst my bits and bobs, with my little girl playing on the carpet, piles of old magazines to lazily browse through, and a stack of colourful cushions to doze on.

 

I have some exciting work on the cards at the minute too, I'm designing some lovely new work for Janet Bell's gallery on the island of Anglesey in Wales.  I shall keep you posted about this, but here's a little peek of the kind of thing I'm going to be working on:

 

 

Thanks so much for coming to see me today, it's always lovely that you do.

J x