Moving on.....

That hardest part about moving is the realisation that no matter how you plot plan and imagine, there really isn't anywhere near enough room for all the stuff you have accrued to fit in the new house.

Some of it must go.

I don't want to get rid of anything.

I want to stay where I am.

I want to be safe.

I wouldn't mind being rich?

I want the bad people to go away and leave me alone for ever.

I want to go to bed.

You don't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes......you get what you need.

I need to be safe.

Annus Horribilis

Times here at Dexter Towers are somewhat fraught. I will not really supply detail, I seem to be going over it enough without doing it again and boring everyone.

Things here are going to be horrible for a few weeks yet.

Then, the dark clouds will part, light will flow through the gap and things will be good again. I have no doubt.

It is the nature of the universe. Plus, despite my obvious shortfallings, I am an eternal, though depressed, optimist.

It is interesting to note that whenever I am having a really difficult time, I seem to get better as an artist. The stress seems to bring something out of me, perhaps it is the therapeutic value of creating something, focusing on something else other than my fears, owes and concerns. Anyway, in short, not to go for too long, I have had a very good week at life class. Here's the results.
Please comment. I like feedback especially on my life drawing. It takes me ages to re look at my work and decide if it is any good.

Travelling sketchbook

Well I finally started on my page for the second of the travelling sketchbook project I have become involved with. I've got another 8 to do after this and three of them are sitting in my "to do" box.

I decided I wanted to use circles, mainly because this book is about colour and pattern, and because I've not played with the patterns you can get with circles since I was a kid.

The background fabric is synthetic satin, with concentric circles of fabric from my bits box. I should explain that I have spent 3 days sorting out my fabric into a more sensible storage method instead of cramming it into a chest of drawers and a wooden chest. It is now crammed into 16 storage boxes, sorted by colour pattern and natural/synthetic composition. I have kept all of my silk separate, and the leather is in a completely different place. 1 of the boxes is a bits and pieces box, where all the little bits which are useful for small details but not big enough for anything substantial are being collected together.

Here is the first stage.

I will be hand and possibly machine stitching over the top to create a layered composition with lots of pink and probably green to create a more organic pattern. Hopefully. Depending upon whether it works or not.

I will post regular reports and pics of the progress of this piece. This is to get me motivated to actually crack on with my main project. A bit of distraction therapy.

Preparation/procrastination

Got up not too early with the intention of doing a days work in the studio. Tidied it up, moved some stuff around, dug out my old sewing machine - the new one is on loan to a friend in an equipment swap - cleaned it, stripped it down and serviced it, put it all back together, tested it's limits and ready to go for it now.

So how much of that was preparation and how much was procrastination?

Hmmm. Will ponder as I get the stuff out to sew with.

Eventually.

Bad Day

Nothing good happening today.

Went to car this morning to go to college and rear windscreen had been smashed and the offending brick was sitting on the parcel shelf.

Then things got really out of hand with their living room windows getting smashed and them threatening to set fire to my car and my house after.

Police involvement all day, stress levels beyond through the roof and I'll probably have to move out of my house to be sure of my and my son's safety.

Just like to say that for the past nearly 2 years I have been subjected to daily insults from these "people". Every time I come out of my house, or my car, I am verbally abused by them. Eventually you just can't bite your tongue any more so you answer them back, and then damage gets done to your car or your house. Which is worse? And why don't the police do anything despite the constant complaints to them?

This is my car. Depressing isn't it?

OMG

I don't often post links to music, it being such a personal thing and difficult to really give people an idea of what they will listen to, but today I feel I must bring this woman to everyone's attention.

Her name is Laura Marling and she is just wonderful.

Listen to her latest single here.

There's lots more of her music on youtube. Try her out. You honestly won't regret it.

I have to add that I am SO enjoying the recent new folk music. And now I sound really old.

The Human Form 2

So painting is hard. I'm struggling, but I've borrowed some books from the library and I'm trying to read everything about painter's techniques and them put them into practice. It helps when I can see the paintings in the flesh.

Just that happened on Tuesday when I went to the Graves Gallery in old Sheffers town. I'd been peering at a Walter Sickert painting for hours trying to figure out how he'd painted it from the description of his technique and it just wasn't going in. Then I stumble in that very painting when I'd gone to see something completely different. Joy, happiness and wonderment as I actually got to be an inch away from the painting and got look really look at the brush strokes and how the underpainting was visible in places, the lightness and looseness of the top painting. Fantastic. I'm never going to assume local libraries and galleries don't have something worth seeing in the end.

This is the painting I was looking at. It's just astounding in real life. Its called the Soldiers of King Albert the Ready. Painted in 1914 by Walter Sickert.

This is my latest painting. I've clearly got a very long way to go. I'm gong to try some underpainting in the style of Walter Sickert. Eventually I will get it, it's just a matter of persevering and practicing other people's techniques.