Drawing a line in time

A Reminder

2012-03-17T08:53:00.002-07:00

Just a reminder that I have moved my blog now to wordpress and have incorporated it into my website. I miss the ease of blogger, but am sure I will get the hang of wordpress one day!
Soon there will be a new competition there. Not sure what the prize will be yet. Still thinking about it.

Moved

2011-11-17T23:59:00.001-08:00

If you are wondering why it is quiet here, it is because I have moved to Wordpress. Please join me there.

The prize in the Contest of Beauty.

2011-11-15T02:16:00.001-08:00

The Contest of Beauty continues and more links will be added, but just to encourage those who have not yet taken part above is the drawing that the winner will be sent. A pencil drawing on board of a moon gazing hare, signed and titled.

I will add more links and images as more things come through. Check out the posting to see how things are so far and for those who have sent me things so far, I will be adding them, but the days are too short and I have too much to do. I will share, and I have so enjoyed seeing, reading, listening.

Moving house

2011-11-12T13:03:00.001-08:00

We have had a strange relationship over the years. You could call it a love hate one, but really probably more love than hate, though there were those utterly frustrating times. But all good things come to an end. Not sure how to break it to you gently. I will miss you, but it is time to be moving on. I won't bore you or lie to you. I have too much respect for you than to do that. I will simply say that, yes, I have found someone else.

I'm sure you will find someone else who will love you like I did.

And I do want to say thank you. Thank you for all the work you have done for me, all the time we have spent together.

But now it's bye bye blogger and hello WordPress.

Still working on ideas for covers.

2011-11-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

A book can become very successful with the right cover, sink without trace with the wrong one. I thought I had got the 'knack' of covers but have been struggling with this one. Maybe getting somewhere now but just want to try one more thing I think.

From porpoise to purple sandpipers.

2011-11-08T11:31:00.000-08:00

Walking a beautiful beach with friends and the dogs this morning, theoretically before work, changed the plan for my day. I had been lost in playing with images of polar bears in city streets but the day had a pearl grey quality about it, shadows flattened by low cloud, not cold not warm. Ffion said that the boats were coming out of the water soon and I asked what was about at the moment. "Oh, you know, porpoise, seals still, and pups." So at 12 I found myself wrapped up warm in scarf and hat and gloves with a long lens ready to sit on a boat for an hour.

The sea was flat calm, or so it seemed.

Lucy was working as slip-master ( or should that be slip-mistress?)

Ffi was skipper, Dave was crew.

So off we went on adventures to look for things.

And we found porpoise, so many and very close. They swam towards the boat, curving dark out of the water until they were all around rising into the ocean of air to breath and dipping down again in the hunt for fish. We found seals, including one so fresh to the world that he was still bloodied and the afterbirth was being taken care of by sharp beaked cleaners, gulls and a raven. There were peregrine and buzzard. The rocks around the back of the island were soft green with lichen, and gold and also black from algae ( or was it lichen) I can't remember, that thrived on the salt spray.

I watched seals swimming, hauling out onto the beach, golden and gray and dappled and stone coloured.

So once again this year I have to say thanks again to Voyages of Discovery. I have had three trips now this year and have seen such beautiful creatures from porpoise to purple sandpipers. Bliss.

If you want to follow the adventures of Voyages of Discovery you can do so on Facebook. They post photographs of current sightings throughout the summer and some are just so beautiful. This year's highlights included the double flip dolphin leap and the underwater dolphin film. Don't think anyone managed to get film of the whales breaching, but they did see them. All the people I sent out on trips saw dolphins and came back to land so excited. Worth a trip to Pembrokeshire, definitely.
( And if you click on one of the images here it should show a slide show of larger images)

James Mayhew.

2011-11-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

Not content with listening to an iPod while he works, my friend James Mayhew invites an orchestra to play with him. Mesmerizing watching how the music and the image just flow together.

Spot the Difference.

2011-11-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

Above, almost. Below, finished. Sometimes it is difficult to know when to stop, to know what makes a 'finished' piece. Needs to dry now.

Today I ordered some new paints. I want to play, bigger paintings, different paint and have taken some advise and learned some lessons from Catherine Hyde.

Her beautiful book, The Firebird, written by Saviour Pirotta has just been nominated for The Greenaway Award, and I am hoping that Saviour will be joining me in Bramhall, Stockport on 26th November, at Simply Books, where the Holly Dragon will be on display in the window.

Catherine has an exhibition at The Lighthouse Gallery in Cornwall. Beautiful work.

Almost there.

2011-11-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

Walking this evening at dusk, the cool air made my breath glow in the quarter moon brightness. If I talked as I walked, quiet words of thinking, the words became visible. All was still, apart from the blackbird alarm call as twilight woke the darkling creatures for the wild hunt.

Sshhhhhhhh. Look. Listen.

2011-11-03T14:11:00.000-07:00

I have worked at home alone for years. I find it hard to concentrate when there are people around, in the house, in the garden. Today I worked away in my studio listening to radio 4 and the sound of children in the other room. The children were visiting the Museum and galleries of Wales collection. At one point in the day I walked past and saw them all sat, silent and still, looking at a painting while the guide told them the story behind the picture. A semi-circle of concentration in miniature.
In the afternoon a lively noise was coming from the room so I turned up the radio a little and painted on. Then I realised it had gone completely silent. I turned around. Small faces were pressed up against the glass in the doors, big eyes, smiles. I waved and then held up my dragon for them to see, walked over so they could have a closer look.
I missed them when they had gone, missed the sound of them. Once again the day ended far too early and I drove home through the early evening twilight, leaving the Holly Dragon to fly through the gallery.

The Holly Dragon

2011-11-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

Covers, ideas, thinking aloud and a window.

2011-11-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

Old book, new book.

2011-10-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

Title page for I am Cat, with dedication.

Tentative cover idea for East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

The Pleasure District: A Contest of Beauty.

2011-10-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

Idly flicking through a beautiful book on Japanese prints I read the title of one. " A Contest of Beauties in the Pleasure District." Such a wonderful idea, A Contest of Beauties. I had been thinking about having a competition again on my blog and the idea of A Contest of Beauty seemed to be a good place to start.

So, the prize will be a small drawing of a moon-gazing hare, and the competition will be to make, show, tell, create, something beautiful. It can be with words, images, sculpture, any medium what-so-ever, but it must be beautiful. A celebration of beauty.

Email me a link to your entry and I will list it here on this blog post. Please invite others to enter too. I would like this to be a celebration of beauty, more than a contest. If you write, then write something beautiful. Sing, play, dance something beautiful. If you are not a maker, but wish to share what you find beautiful, send a link to that. All artists desire an audience and the audience to art is no less important than the maker. I would like this blog post to become a portal to beauty.

To begin with here is something very beautiful that I love.

The most beautiful, stunning, dangerous, breath-taking natural history filming I have seen for years, BBC's The Frozen Planet, directed by Elizabeth White. Glorious. If you can watch on iPlayer do. The ice caves, bears, whales, land, sea, everything is just stunning. Link is to her blog.
Walking in the street the other day I watched a couple, maybe in their seventies, walking hand in hand. The autumn leaves blew around their feet. Watching them I wondered if they had had a lifetime together or whether they had met again after living separate lives, childhood sweethearts reunited. A fragment of time, watching the lives of others. Beauty.

Tabitha Violet Rose Stickland, a photograph I saw on a friend's facebook page. So beautiful. Paul is an illustrator of books for children. I met him once on Whitesand's Beach.

This is one of the most beautiful pictures of a child I have ever seen. Magic in her eye.

( Later I read the text that went with the image from the book of Japanese art and realised that I had been thinking along completely different lines. It was a series of prints from 1795-1796 of Japanese courtesans in Yoshiwara. Had to laugh. Seems my mind had wandered into a completely different Pleasure District from the one so elegantly depicted.)

The competition will end on 10th December, International Day of Human Rights.
This is the drawing that the winner will receive:

The list begins:

From Lyn Oates, a photograph seen on the web. Child and tiger by Dyrk Daniels.
From Jane Johnson, author of The Salt Road and The Tenth Gift, patterns in Saharan sand and her husband, for, as she says, "is anything more inspiring than love?"

Above, from Susan, a beautiful ballet from Tamasaburo Japan. I love herons, and snow and transformation.

Hare from Charlotte.

Crow from Mo crow.

Carole Miles, silver siren.

Below, from Kate Green, an astonishing film of a Murmuration of Starlings. The birds move like one creature across the sky. Just beautiful. Thank you Kate. And many thanks also for showing me your beautiful May Tree painting. I couldn't find it on your site so am linking to A Bird in Hand.

May Tree by Kate Green

From Catherine Hyde, the poem, Song, by Ted Hughes, inspiration for her latest exhibition of beautiful work, The Moon's Full Hands at The Lighthouse Gallery in Cornwall. Here read by Richard Armitage. Wonderful words. And Catherine's paintings do justice to them.

The Dark Hands of the Sea by Catherine Hyde.

From Jane Ryan of Opi, her message that came with the link is beautiful in itself. It reads: " My lovely daughter singing......... a beautiful thing for her mother to hear." Jane's work is magical too.

From A Mermaid in the attic, a contemplation on Beauty, a sideways look. Her entry to the Contest of Beauty is complex. A painting, which I will add below, or Beauty, sleeping and dreaming and remembering, but also a poem, sung. She recorded the song in a swift window of 15 minutes and says that it is rough and yet if you tried to recreate the nature of it you would struggle. Even the dog conspires to the atmosphere. I love the idea of Beauty looking back on her life with her Beast lover, so look first here for the poem and the roots of it, then at the 'finished' song and image.

From a friend on Facebook an entry by email, beautiful, atmospheric.

If I was any good at writing, or drawing, I would put down something
about last Tuesday, when I took my 3 year old gypsy vanner and my
daughter out for a walk. It had rained hard earlier, so there was no
point in staying in the field, but the paths in the woods were dry
enough. I put her on his back with a blanket and walked next to them,
in the twilight under the trees. I knew we didn't have much time until
full dark, so I ran part of the way, jogged with the horse trotting
next to me, and ran hard with him cantering. It is somewhat scary
running with a horse ten times your weight running next to you, almost
touching, but exhilarating as well. we stopped because my daughter
shouted 'enough!', and anyway it was getting too dark to see. On the
way home, the other horses greeted us from across the fields, the
lights from the cars on the road in our eyes.
Looks like I have written something after all.

From Heather Golding a link to 'Dances With Horses'. There is something very beautiful and peaceful here.
From Glenda Jones, a link to her paintings of shells.
From Marianne Last a link to the most amazing and beautiful wooden ship. Even the tools used here are beautiful. And you can see more of the ship here.
From Suzane Duce. A shamanic journey into a numinous inner landscape, in answer to a question: How would you describe your Beautiful Soul?

My Beauty is
the wild and windswept moorland
the piercing eye
of predatory bird

My Beauty is
the well-lined face of Oak
the visionary Wren

My Beauty is
the sensual touch of velvet flower
salt taste of ocean
scent of Earth

My Beauty is
green grass in stone circles
Sun-bleached bones of desert
Undulation of prairie

My Beauty is
the ecstasy of dance
the moonlit glade
the chant of invocation

My Beauty is
the hypnotic hum of bees
fragrance of honey

It is laughter, tenderness
and frightening as lightning
It is the arching rainbow
the glinting sharpness of obsidian blade

It is night-hunting Owl
Playful Crow
Blue Star Maiden
Swan-blessed river

A late entry, sneaking in on the last day! Which is only fitting as I knew this young woman when she was a small thing and she sneaked into my house through the cat flap with her sisters. First I knew of them being in was three giggling girls. She has grown up to be very beautiful and very talented through years of hard work and practice.

Please invite your friends to join by sending them a link to this blog post. There is so much beauty in the world. Let's share it.

nb. And there was more, much more and thank you to everyone who has enriched my life with all their beauty and shared. Sorry I can't put more on. There is just so much and I run out of time to paint and draw, but I have looked at everything. There is still one day left. Tomorrow morning I will decide where the hare will go. The winner will be announced on my new blog.

Day Off

2011-10-30T03:11:00.000-07:00

1. ~~Make List~~

2. ~~Walk dogs~~

3. ~~Email Guy about exhibition.~~

4. ~~Phone Dru re Tues~~ ( hmmm.... Thai feast night, lovely), sister re birthday, ~~Parcs re studio.~~

5. Capture 2 or 3 images so that can work on East of the Sun in studio next week.

6. Stretch paper.

7. ~~Put washing away~~.

8. Tidy studio/ bedroom ( slut slut slovenly slut!)

9. Read, for at least half an hour, but fire, with feet up.

10. ~~Blog.~~

End of the first week.

2011-10-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

Peaceful working today after a busy book signing yesterday. In the morning I popped out for a coffee and found a strange visitor on my return.

Washing up, lovely to have a sink in my studio.

Adam Buick's moonjars complete the window.

Meanwhile, in my studio, old work, and new.

On the beach today.

2011-10-27T00:57:00.000-07:00

I missed the coming of the light, and by the time I reached the beach the tide was full in. Walking out onto the small headland an ink dark seal lifted her head. Closer she came and closer, her body salt-water buoyant in the sea, her eyes dark and wild. The clouds silvered wind wrinkled sea surface. Walking back to the beach she followed around and stayed close to the slip, lifted by small waves. The sea cradled her beauty.

I met Maggie. She told me that yesterday a pup had been taken from the beach. The sea had been rough and her pup was young so they had found a place to rest, safe. It was by the slip and the tide full out and when the sea rolls back at Whitesands it rolls back far. The sandy stretch between mother and child would have seemed like an ocean. So many people at the beach, so many dogs. People had come and taken it away to the seal rescue place. So when the sea came in and the people went away she would have come back to look for her child, but he was gone.

Wild thing. She searches for him. It tears your heart.

Learning. Always learning.

2011-10-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

Early morning dog walk on the beach. On the way there a flock of curlew flew across the hill in echo of the invitation painting for the exhibition opening tomorrow. Made me smile.
On the way home a dead rabbit lay in the road. I collected things for the day ahead and stopped to collect the still warm body. Soft fur, shine still in the eye, almost warm. Dead. So many times I have wanted to just draw, so I decided to change plans and begin a series of roadkill drawings. ( Traveling so much over the last few weeks I have been shocked by the weight of dead creatures by the roadside. Foxes, badgers, deer, more pheasants than a shooting party could hope to bag, cats, dogs, buzzards and owls. Sad) I remembered something one of my tutors had once said. " Never make a mark without thinking of what you are doing, without thinking of what it is you are trying to say." I begin to understand what he meant, but it is a tentative understanding.

Other drawings happened and I prepared the Hobb cover for gilding tomorrow. I hate these pieces when they are at this stage. They look ugly to my eyes.

I met two young people, the girl a student from Bath Academy. She wouldn't have been born when I left there. Both fantasy fiction fans, both interesting to talk with, they now frequent places I once did when I lived in Bath.

Home, tired, to a house warm because Hannah had made the fire, Tom had got the logs in. I took the rabbit to the high hill top, a present for the ravens now, or maybe for the winter fox. A rainbow shone in the sky and wind ruffled his soft fur. Peace.

Inky blue

2011-10-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

Today, quiet progress despite hustle and bustle at the centre. Next door in the afternoon, a lecture. Outside the door a small girl watched while I painted and commented to Jetska that I was 'working very hard'. In the cafe as I placed prices next to a hare drawing a woman said, " Well, I don't think my husband would agree on that price." I wondered what he did when he wasn't theoretically questioning my prices.

I learned that the day dawns at 600 miles an hour in St Davids, and a formula for calculating how fast it rises depending on where you are in the world.

On the beach the tide line was littered with by-the-wind sailors and I feel as blue as their inky sails, though cannot specifically define why.

Working away from home.

2011-10-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

Working in my new studio space for the first day. I found that as soon as I sat down to work the conversation that takes place between myself and the paper was the same as it is anywhere. I could hear people around, but Radio 4 kept focus away from being disturbed and it was warm and light.

The only thing was the day finished at 5. When I looked up I found that the sky was falling down! Rain so hard everywhere was flooding, but I had been lost on the wings of dragons.

I only had my iPhone with me, but here are some photos.

I learned a few things.

1. I whistle while I work.

2. I swear too much at my paintings.

3. Best not to burst into random out of tune singing.

4. All that matters is the spaces between head, heart and drawing board.

5. I work on a lot of different pieces of work at the same time. ( I have another half finished piece here in my studio at home that needs to be taken in.)

Above and below, the studio space.

A painting that has waited too long to be finished.

Above and below, two new strawberry foxes; or, something to settle me in.

Above: wolf drawing, waiting. Kingfishers, almost finished. Below, my boots, Robin's rug.

My desk in my studio with the beginnings of the cover for Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb. Soon there will be gold leaf.

Spit, Fente, Sintara and Heeby.

Meanwhile, outside, rain.

Exhibition at Tourist Information Centre, St Davids

2011-10-24T00:53:00.000-07:00

Last week I spent three and a half days with Nigel from the Tourist Info Centre in St Davids moving and hanging the exhibition that will be on there until the end of January. The TI Centre shares its space with Oriel y Parc, the beautiful and small gallery that houses a part of the Museums and Galleries of Wales collection. At one time they ran an artist in residence program in the building, but with cutbacks this is one of the things that has fallen away and the room has been idle and little used. Somehow I managed to talk my way into becoming an 'artist in residence' there, using the studio space and having an exhibition that runs through the length of the building.
Today will be my first day working there. I have never worked away from home before and require solitude when working so the idea of working in such a public space is, at the moment, filling me with dread. The residency is not a paid position, but even so I feel some, pressure isn't the right word, maybe obligation would be better, to be a little accessible to people. So, how to get the balance right?
This week I will be open to the public between 2 and 5 on Thursday afternoon, working in my studio and available to sign books. Then in the evening a more formal opening from 6.30. ( If you would like to attend please let the Parcs know as they are trying to get some idea of numbers attending.)
Other than that if people want books personalised they can leave them to be collected and I will sign at the end of the day.
Moving my studio has been more disturbing than I thought it would be and so I am moving tentatively at first. I am hoping to be able to 'play' with some new ideas at home during the evenings. Meanwhile will see how things go one day at a time.
And for those who find Pembrokeshire too far here is a sneak preview of the show. It will be on until end January and the exhibition at Oriel y Parc in the Museums and Gallery space will change on around 25th November. At the moment is a Turner, Cecil Morris, John Bellamy and Graham Sutherland. Also beautiful silver work and exquisite glass pieces. A small but richly rewarding exhibition.

Caro Flynn is also showing some work in the window of the centre. Emma asked if I would help her to arrange the display, so, despite my better judgement I said yes. We were chatting and she had been cleaning the glass doors and shelves and I was saying how I didn't really 'do' ceramics because I am such a clutz, but, being brave I picked up the most expensive and very beautiful jug and went, 'I'll put this here then" and slammed it straight into the glass door! The noise was awful and I felt sick and Emma's face was a picture and the room ( where there was a meeting going on) went silent and everybody looked at me, and the jug, still in my hands, and fortunately for me and goodness knows how, unbroken. Well, if Emma hadn't cleaned the glass so well I would have seen it!

Glad to say the rest of the window disply was put together with more care and the jug looks beautiful, as does all of Caro's work. I am particularly taken with the small, round, owlpot.

Back to work.

2011-10-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

I have not painted for almost 4 weeks now, but have worked and worked and worked until I felt ragged. Today I cleared the things away that barricade me from my brushes and found solace in my 'real' work. New title page for 'I am Cat' which had fun at Frankfurt and has lots of interest, from France, Holland, Denmark and other far off cat loving lands.
Good to be painting again.

Imagine

2011-10-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

Imagine, two weeks on he road, three days hanging an exhibition.
Tired.
The skies are punctuated by winter visiting flocks of birds.
Rooks sit on the wires like slow notes.
I have met so very many lovely people over the last couple of weeks.
So, I still have much to do before the opening of the exhibition next week at Oriel Y Parc ( 27th October, 2-5 and then again a little later).
Today I saw a hawk fly low over the early winter land.
Today I made a film of beautiful things with a sound track of sweeping and lovely music.
But now I am tired.
Imagine.

Day....... not quite sure.

2011-10-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

Ennerdale School is in a place of such wonderful beauty. All day yesterday we drove north from Shrewsbury, up and up and I read the map and found a route that travelled through the beautiful heart of the Lake District. When we arrived we were greeted with smiles and food and drink and such warmth it was just wonderful. Now, after a day of working with the children I feel tired but alive.

As we drove here yesterday I saw signs by the roadside. Warning signs with squirrels on. Were the squirrels dangerous here? It took a while to sink in but then I realised, this is the land of the red squirrel. Now I really hope that before we leave I will see one. I have seen goldfinch and heard all kinds of birds. There are hares in the hills. The lakes mirror the sky and the wind wrinkles the water. The children make me stop and think about what I do and how. Life is good.

On Saturday we drive home, via Simply Books in Stockport where I will pick up a painting or two and sign stock for Sue. But I think I will be back.

Day 3

2011-10-06T04:53:00.000-07:00

London. Morning, breakfast and then blogging whilst Suzanne and Brigit performed morning rituals in the shrine room below and loved the sound of bells and owls and chanting, and the click clack of pushchairs outside. Then walking through the London Street in sunshine to the offices of Frances Lincoln where I signed books and we had a meeting about works in progress then on to Foyles and Hatchards to sign books.
Next to The Illustration Cupboard for the Amnesty International event to auction and sell artwork from We Are All Born Free. I have been to the gallery before but was really knocked out by how well the whole evening went. The auction, for seven pieces of work from the book, including mine, is a silent auction and the paintings are on display at the gallery in Bury Street.

http://vimeo.com/29703706 from Bellotheque on Vimeo.

I met Jane again, and haven't seen her for years. She is still as beautiful as ever and her image in We Are All Born Free must have been one of the hardest to illustrate and is one of the most powerful pieces. I think I can speak for all those involved when I say we are all proud to have been involved in this amazing project. The chief exec of Amnesty in the UK did an amazing short speech about the project and I will try and get a transcript of it to post. One of the things I remember from it was how he spoke of a woman in Africa. She is a champion of human rights and has lived through terrible times. When people asked her what they could do to help her and her cause she asked for copies of this book so that she and her team of people could go into schools and educate children, teach them their rights and shape a new generation who will hopefully grow up with respect for each other. Powerful.
The auction will run until 10th December, International Day of Human Rights and you can bid online or go in to the gallery to make bids and 100% of all money raised will go to Amnesty International
It was a long day, but I was so pleased and impressed with The Illustration Cupboard and the beautiful work they had on the walls and also the books, signed that they had for sale. We were so well looked after by Brigit and Suzanne, where we were staying, and Cho Cho the butterfly faced cat and Haiku the dog with extraordinarily short legs!