Tawny Owl

The first painting I ever sold was of a Tawny and I painted it when I was 12.  This is probably the only other one I've done!  I seem to be running out of steam with the pastels now though, this has taken an age to finish and I'm starting to overwork it so I'm leaving it.

Barn Owl

I must be on a roll!

10 x 13 inches pastel pencil on Senellier paper.

Kingfisher

I've put the last finishing touches to a painting I started at a Nina Squires group meet a couple of weeks ago.

10 x 14 inches pastel on Senellier paper.

I Knew it Would Take Time!

But boy oh boy, where has January gone?

Ellie has taken up quite a lot of it, as I'm sure you can imagine.  From tomorrow she is all safe to go out in the big wide world so that will be another huge step forward.  She is growing well and has a few basic things understood.  Mind you going out to the loo when it's pouring with rain isn't one of her favourites, and who can blame her!  Thankfully the dogs have their own area in the house and accidents are kept to a minimum.

We had the Openreach engineers here on Monday trying to fix everything.  Apparently last Friday one of the maintenance teams had been shoving cables down the wrong conduit in their eagerness to fix the storm damage and totally messed up the whole village.  There were crossed lines everywhere, quite a lot of door knocking with messages and diverted calls to mobiles by BT for those of us who had them.  Unfortunately the people we were crossed with didn't own mobiles so we were receiving their calls too, including one at 1am wondering if everything was all right!  By then tempers were a little short.  We seemed to have the most complicated problems because of having two lines, that new fangled internet thingy (not many in the village have internet, see comment about not having mobiles either, talk about back and beyond!) and other things attached like security and fire alarms.  The poor guy we had assigned was backwards and forwards between the exchange, the green box and us for most of the day and he had been given 15 jobs to do that morning!  Mind you sorting us had a sort of knock on effect for a couple of others but he still moaned that his targets would never be met that week.  Hardly his fault.  There were at least six other vans in the village too all trying to sort this mess made by one slip of a maintenance team.  Why do these this always happen on a Friday too?

I have managed to do some very quick bits in my sketchbooks.  Not many as it turns out but at least some. Just mainly sloshing a bit of paint around whilst waiting for a certain pup to settle at 6 in the morning really.

This was pure doodle.  And then a bit of paint.  And an alternative background added so a few mornings worth really.

I found a picture in a magazine and tried blending it into a background.

This one I picked up my pencil whilst sipping coffee and sketched a owl pincushion Elsa had made me but I put him on a branch

Ellie has been very good overall but one morning she did discover my box of willow charcoal.  With a piece that was left I sketched my mug and rug.  I may go back and fiddle with this one.

I can't tell you how hard I find it to do these things!  They are too naive for me!  I really am not used to just sketching quickly, I want detail and accuracy and I struggle with just accepting that all these pictures are OK in their own right.  The urge to rip them out of my sketchbook is huge but I am resisting.  I am not a great natural artist, I have to work at it so I focus on detail. I want to let go of that and just 'do'.

And I have done a little stitchwork.  :-)

 I have to do a few samples this morning for the C&G and this afternoon Elsa, Cat and I have a girly time in Salisbury booked.  Something to do with a wedding I believe, lol!

Thank you to those who commented whilst we were out of connection and those who emailed.  Hello to some new followers.  I have a lot of blogs to catch up on and I apologise if I don't manage to comment on any for a bit, there's a lot to plough through as well as life to live!! I've missed you all.

Have a great weekend.

.

A Nice Find

John was up in the vegetable area digging up the potatoes yesterday because the rats have started raiding them. Tully had a field day although she didn’t catch anything, Ruger’s not allowed to try, he’s too big! When John went to put the potato tops on the compost he found this beautiful slowworm on the heap. It’s only the second we have found here and they are always welcome. Certainly much more than the rats!

All the heather is out on the heaths now and I borrowed a little to bring home to paint. Our honeymoon was in the Cairngorms and we had icing heather on our wedding cake and flowers in my bouquet and on the tables so it’s a special little plant for us. My first watercolour in far too long!

Last night we had a good display of the meteor showers and today we are going to wash all the rugs so fingers crossed the weather stays fair!

Yesterday's Box So Far

Well this is the file box, as was.  Now stuck, stitched,and painted to within a hairs breadth of it's cardboard corners.

It's quite metallic and sheeny so quite hard to photograph.  It' now curing outside in the sun before assembly and anything else I can think of.

I enjoyed snipping and slapping and can think of a few more ways to use this.  It's a good job I don't actually go to a supermarket anymore.  If there were goats eyeballs in a piquant sauce in an interesting box I could re use....!!!  Perish the thought really but I am looking at different boxes, how they can be dis-assembled and re made.  Great for unusual present wrapping at the least.

The combines have been busy all day today.  There is dust everywhere and so many flies.  Of course they are doing the thing on my touch screen again.  They are the only ones who have any use out of it!  I was wondering if I left the swimming fish screen saver up if they would react to it. If I touch the screen the fish swim to wards my finger. Fish eat flies. 

Waiting for Daddy

So what do you do when Mummy is busy and Daddy is out??  You wait where you're not really allowed but have a good view.

But that's why it's called furniture!!

John told me this week that I have bad habits, in the nicest way of course. It may be a clue to my bad knee. I have aways had flexible joints, hypermobile they it, and it can cause a few problems. I used to be able to not only touch my toes but put my head between my knees while doing so. John now tells my that when I bend over, drying hair or gardening, I still have 'backward' knees! I'm nothing like as flexible now but it could be a cause. I'm doing all I can to keep my knees slightly bent now. Change a habit of a lifetime.

On Monday we had a lovely drive out to the Haynes Motor Museum in Sparkford in the Mercedes 108.  Of course we also forgot it was half term and a holiday Monday!!  We are in that lovely lull in life where the kids have grown but the grands aren't here yet, but everyone else's were there on Monday!  We did see Ricky the Racing Car though.... hmmm.  The car performed rather well but of course John now has a head full of other little tweaks in search of perfection. 

The garden is coming back, we're so pleased.  My fears of having a hack and slash ground maintenance type have gone.  Brian speaks plants with me and I can trust him with my babies.  I hope.

Yesterday The postman brought me a great piece of kit.  I remember buying my Nan a carousel for her kitchen tools in the '70's and it dawned on me that it would be ideal for my crafting stuff.  I finally found them and bought two, one for crafts and one for painting.  Lots of storage in a small space and it rotates for ease of use, great!

Last night was Meet the Artist at Stewarts Garden Centre where Nina is exhibiting with quite a few others for Dorset Art weeks.  This was one of the official nights and we managed to find something else to put in the garden.  Again can't show you yet, it's still there!! All Nina's beautiful pastel paintings looked lovely hung on the walls en mass.

Today we were invited to a Land Rover day at Beaulieu Motor Museum.  Lots of off road and mud and I was even praised by the instructor!!  Wanna do it again!!!!  

Tonight it's open top sports cars at Quay for My Car in Poole so we are taking the old SL out for the evening and having chips on the quayside! Warm summer evenings......

A Trip Out

As I said in the last post, it was the Chettle House Garden and Craft open weekend. 

Chettle House is about three miles from us and when we went to the show last year we came away with quite a few goodies for the garden and wanting more this year.

I have quite a few hares around the place, 10 I think at the last count, and this is moongazer No 8.  The nesting birds plaque and Green Man were from Hilltop Garden where Paul Harvey of Whitchurch sells and displays some of his stonework. I know he produces quite a few pieces for resale but they are not mass produced on an imported scale and have great unique qualities. I already have one of his horned gargoyles. 

And I finished the Kingfisher.  John would like this one framed rather than just shoved in the folio! 

I am really having trouble keeping my head out of Jan Messant's book.  It really is lovely and a total inspiration.  I am thinking of translating a couple of her ideas into pieces. We live in a very ancient landscape here, we even find oyster shells from the Romans in the garden and we're 20 miles from the sea, and I would like to incorporate this into something.  Thing are stewing with the little fellas in the back of the brain!!

I hope Spring Holiday is good for you where you are.  I keep putting on skirts but I'm usually back in jeans by lunchtime!!  It will be great weather from tomorrow of course.

A Productive Saturday

My not yet finished Kingfisher I was painting at pastels on Thursday, I hope to do some more on this today to finish it. 

The other thing to sew in last times Stitch magazine.  It can now reside in the growing pile of things that have no home!!  I did not enjoy the making of the wings!  In fact they probably added quite a few weeks to the project as I didn't want to face them!  But it's done now and not lurking in a corner of the room.

And I made some more tea cosies.  They were a bit of fun to make!!

Also in the post was a Goldwork kit from Golden Hinde to try and fit in, some bits from Rainbow Silks and some hand dyed felts etc from 21st Century Yarns.  I think I'd better go and play to reduce the pile a little. If it dries up enough we're going to Chettle House for their open Garden and Craft day.