Paper mâché houses

Taking a break from sardine tins and working on my other obsession.
Little houses.


These are made from recycled boxes and newspaper then painted with white acrylic and decoupaged on top.





This evening I had company in the studio when my little monster-making friend came and we got stuck in to some creative mayhem.


Sometimes we work in companionable silence. Sometimes we chat.
I love the fact that the 42 years that separate us are a whole lot less significant than the love of making that connects us. Sharing this time with her is both a pleasure and a privilege.

Can you see what it is yet.....

Brace yourself.
In the ,seemingly, never ending de-cluttering I came face to face with this canvas. Something I started many moons ago in a fit of........
maybe just a fit, thinking about it.
I took it out to the studio to paint over it and do something else.........good idea you say?
But, something stayed my hand.





And I had another little go at it.
I shared it on a forum to get some feedback......that took some courage let me tell you.
And it raised all sorts of questions in my mind.





Painting, quite frankly, freaks me out.
Making a painting is too much like making a declaration that I consider myself to be an artist and gives the viewer the option to disagree.
And I will let you into a little secret. I want to be an artist with 10 times the passion and fervour that I had when I wanted to be a ballet dancer at age 5.
So I don't want anyone to disagree.
But you can, of course you can.



And talking of can(s).......
This week I restocked my etsy shop and shared many of my new designs on my facebook page. In so doing I found out just exactly what people do think. Reviews were generally favourable. But I did get gently teased too.


My romantic, melancholy scene of " the leaving" got renamed " zombie pigeon fancier and girlfriend having a tiff"
The thing is once it was said I could see it too!


I was careful to point out that this morose little chap was a seagull and not a pigeon. Sad apparently because he had alighted on a rock and not the half chewed bread roll he thought he had spied from above!!
See what I am up against!
However this did make me genuinely L.O.L as they say. And I got really helpful, constructive criticism and positive feedback all from the same source. Not to mention a sale. Happy me!


"homecoming through the tangled web of dreams and expectation...."
I know I am leaving myself wide open with this.






But butterflies? You are surely safe with butterflies......

The sun does shine in Wales

This photo marks the moment when our holiday nearly went horribly wrong.
As is so often the case the distance created by passage of time has transformed it into our dinner party tale of ha,ha,ha,
The beautiful stallion facing the camera had been getting increasingly bolshy in defence of his little group of mares and foals.
Funny how you don't register that through a camera lens!
A stallion approaching at speed through a camera lens gets the old heart rate up let me tell you.
Got both the dog's dander up too.
There was a flurry, barking, lunging, hooves raised and a less than graceful retreat.
No one got hurt.
No body contact at all either equine, canine or human but nerves were definitely frayed.
Adrenaline?
It was like Niagra falls.
Phew!
So off we meandered.....looking back......over the shoulder.....many times...occasionally hastening our pace.
At a safe distance we regrouped and reviewed our position. The stallion and and his entourage now blocked our path back to our starting point.
Not good. Not good at all.
Long story short:- at the end of a pleasantly tiring and exhaustingly hot day we were forced to walk considerably out of our way to get back to our car. And.....when we got there......this is what we found......this is why we now find it so funny.....

Our car was one of three in the car park and the only one surrounded by the horses. That foal was actually nibbling my tyre.
Daphne Du Maurier's 'Birds' came to mind.
But the rest of the holiday.....well....

Three cliffs bay was beautiful but the busiest beach that we visited. See how busy. I mean this fisherman was busy...right?

This beach had been busy because these are not our footprints.

Now this isn't busy.
This is hectic. This is wave chasing.


This is a shell thingy shaped like a brain.

After all the busyness we needed this tranquil location.

The view from our holiday cottage across the village green was of much interest to our border collie.

As was the view from the moor down to the village pub which serve really good food. Yay!

An early morning walk up to the moor to exercise the dogs and undo some of the indulgence in the pub the night before brought us to this little light struck beauty.

Let me just draw your attention to the beach attire of this season.......duvet/ dress and wellies. You mark my words it will be in Vogue any day now.

The beaches were really the most fabulous.
Even Hairy Herbert Senior was suitably stunned.
Like Arnie; we will be back.

Idleness

My mission this week, should I choose to accept it, is to be idle.
Yeah baby!
This week's course material is simply a call to idleness. And, as I am currently on holiday it should be a doddle.








The dogs seem to have settled to idleness quite nicely in this lovely sun filled holiday cottage. A good race around on a vast and empty beach helped them find their way.




My first beach find was beautifully covered in barnacles when I spied it. Turns out are they were not robust enough to survive a journey in my hand bag.......disintegrated.
Much like the accretions that were clinging invisibly to me......those fell away and were carried off on the salty breeze. My insides and my outsides relaxed and softened in the warmth of the sun and I felt myself restored by the blue sky and turquoise sea.








Sufficiently restored and stirred to get out my paints and play, idly of course.




And it did feel very idle. We are not watching the clock. Not eating 3 square meals a day. Our days are not defined in any way.




I leave these materials out and we eat whatever we fancy when we fancy in amongst the colourful chaos.




I am very blessed with a beloved who takes me just as I am.




So blessed by his patience.
When I found an albatross skeleton on the beach ( either an albatross or pterodactyl, not sure, it was huge) I did actually listen to his reasons why taking the, not completely finished rotting, skull with me was not necessarily an altogether bright idea. I think he may have had a point.
It was awesome though.
If you like that sort of thing.




I am liking idleness.
Like there was ever any doubt that I would!




Idleness leaves gaps, space between thought and activity where you can hear those things that are usually drowned out by busyness.




You can really hear yourself think. And blow me you can really hear what it is that you have to say back.




Fruitful!

More things to do with a duvet cover

Or.....wearing a duvet cover and loving it!
Now, I like to think that I have style.
Quite what that style is defies description much of the time.




There exists in me remnants of the girl who took pride in a tartan sleeved, Bay City Rollers crombie.
For any readers who do not parlez that lingo just accept it was a fashion "must have" that existed briefly,a long, long time ago.
It has to be said,for a particular, small group of pre and pubescent girls that probably had no dress sense but did care about what they wore.
And somehow in the intervening years I went from that to this picture above.
It took the attrition of green issues, the increasing desire for post menopausal comfort, the sheer delight in doing it for oneself, and the open mouthed horror at the price tag of £80,in a bijoux boutique,for a simple shift dress to get here. But, here I am.