Hello Beautiful Bag

 There aren't enough reasons to use this in my book. I would take this to bed with me if I could. But Mr T would start to get worried and I guess I can understand that.
This is going to be my last post until I get back from London. Still got a lot of things to pack as is usually the case. Looking forward to hearing my mums plans for white horses with bells, an ice sculpture centre piece, and that dreaded beast: the pink balloon. Naturally, I will have a rather lengthy mother daughter chat with her.
I should have a truckload of photos when I get back so I look forward to snuggling up with Mr T for lots of ooohhhing and chuckling and 'Who's that?'
So I will be back again in a couple of weeks and a few more pieces in the not too distant future. I've got lots of ideas and thankfully a new full time position at work to pay for them too. Three cheers for more cash and less time! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hoooray! Hip hip hoorayyyyyy!!

So..bye for now :)

Dreams in colour.

I can't even begin to tell you how inspiring it was to read this interview with the artist, poet and writer Dorothea Tanning. Ok, maybe I can but I wanted to be really British and say that just to annoy Mr T because he always thinks I sound too uptight. I love her gutsiness, her honesty and relenntless output of creativity. This interview gave me that warm feeling that you get out of pure and utter admiration.
Must stop gushing now and let you read it. And when I say 'you' I'm probably talking about you
Okay,for all the Nats out there perhaps I should give myself the credit of having a reader with a tangible human form of some sort but Im just not used to addressing my 'readers' like the more experienced bloggers do. I need to go to Blogging school and take blogging tests or something.

By the way,I got my recent sprinkling of random linking fun from Tollipop.I should also mention that shes a lovely artist too.

Why should diamonds be a girls best friend

...when you can have MAC? This morning I went all dewy eyed as I glanced across the endless rows of endless possiblities for endless ways in which I could 'enhance' my features. But with a very weary Mr T at my shoulder I thought it would be best to not perform a dramatic display of reckless spending on lots of colourful mush. Plus his need for a ciggy quadrupled when I went to the personal hygiene aisle at the supermarket. His face went as white as the pantyliners. Poor Mr T, he's been smokefree for three weeks now. I must never put him through such torment again. I must start getting my driving lessons sorted out so that I can do all my lady errands without him around. And he can put his feet up munching carrot sticks out of a cigarette pack.

Loved looking at these photographs of the objects artists collect on Poppytalk. I discovered it lastnight. I have my own collection of chipped mugs. But that kinda happened by accident. As so many other things in my life.

 

One minute I'm doing squats the next minute I'm eating Jaffa cakes...

Thats what happens when you want to keep fit, and experience pleasure at the same time.
I'm giving you a little peak into my latest painting. Going well so far but Im starting to wonder how far I can take my beehived ladies. Only the future will tell.I've also been writing a couple of poems but I want to take my time with them as I don't want to make the mistake of pushing them to a hurried end. Its called 'poetic introspection'. Its also called 'cleaning out the fridge v sitting at my desk whilst things continue to smell in the fridge'. Sometimes I just have to get my priorities straight so a salmonella free fridge comes first. I have a little over a week before I head off to London for lots of pre wedding madness and dining room tantrums with my mother. It always seems to happen in the diningroom. She will fight me to the end on having pink balloons if she could. Mum..NO PINK BALLOONS. Not that shell be reading this but Im sure she can sense the anti pink balloon signals from across the Atlantic. I have a pic of the dress I will be wearing for the civil ceremony in Portugual. All I can say is this, that dress is a world apart from what I will be wearing in London. Its like comparing Dolly Parton with Condoleeza Rice. Not that I will look like either of them of course.A few more pics around the house (like as if I havent got a ton of other stuff to do). My pink orchids, my green plant that I cant remember the name of, some vintage books I saved from being dumped. They're all in Portuguese which is a pain for a lazy Brit like me.
Thats it for now. Cooking a nice chicken curry tonight. Followed by more squats.

Home is where the heart is...

With all the wedding jitters in the air at the moment (two weeks to go before Im enslaved to a life of wedlock..lol) Well it means I havent been really painting, lots of drawing and fiddling with pens and pencils, but nothing solid and complete. So I thought I would spend this afternoon taking pictures of all my favourite nooks and crannies. Of my home, not me. There are two studios, the one with the big windows and patterned rug is Antonios, and the other one is mine.
I love all the light we get here, and we get a lovely breeze when we open the windows. The Portuguese heat can get a tad stifling during the summer months but being on the second floor of an apartment building gives us alot more of a fresh breeze than those below us.
Over the last few months or so, plants have been one of my guilty pleasures, why the guilt im not sure. Maybe its because I should spend more time talking to people than to my plants.. but I love it. It really relaxes me. A close second behind my love for after eights and Oprah. (watching Oprah..now THATs a guilty pleasure).

Laila

Here it is, finished approximately an hour ago. All that cadmium red sent me to cadmium heaven in a well ventilated room. Im off now, to spend some quality Dr Phil time with my other half.

 

Beauty Mark

I wrote this poem during one of my many inbetween moments. These moments tend to occur when I'm far far away from the telly, the internet and the kitchen. Add a bit of sunshine and a Sunday afternoon and there you have it, a glorious inbetween moment. I wrote this after listening to a song with the same title by the ethereal Charlotte Gainsbourg.I had also been on a cloud of surreal heaven after reading Haruki Murakamis Kafka on the Shore. Well, enough of the babbling, here it is.








Between the fore and the middle
I have a beauty mark,
a brown spot in a pink cradle
removed from the light.
If I spread out my fingers
I can see my secret
forgotten often and yet reminded
each time I slip on my ring
or wash each crease and crinkle
of sunless skin.

It's a feeble little keepsake really,
not one part of it sparkles
as a gem handed down and tucked away.
It doesn't rest upon my chest,
it doesn't have the dark lines of a
tattoo,
its just an inanimate mark
on the map of my skin, unamed
undiscovered and in limbo,
floating inbetween
waves of hello and farewell.

I can make whatever I want of it
like the books I read
and the photo on the refridgerator,
or the endless beating of my heart that
on some nights won't let me sleep.

At once both a sign of something precious
and something irrevelent.
So much or so little
All that meaning I could or won't give.

Isabelle Scurry

Looking at this work made me think about the sacred space that I would like to experience and show in my own work. Her work resonated with my own personal battle with what I should see as sacred in my life and what I was brought up to believe as essentially sacred. I love the way she depicts the front entrance of buildings as the focal point of her work. She literally invites you in, and what you feel when you come out largely depends on how much of you went inside. I guess whatever we take from any piece of art, largely depends on our willingness to step inside.
You can see more of her work here

Jeanie Tomanek

wow would be the appropriate word. See more of her mesmerising work here

Circumstance

I just finished this. Its over an old canvas which had an oil sketch on it. I might hang this up in our bedroom.

 

Sneak preview

of a small oil painting on canvas. I had to really drag myself to paint, not sure why. Maybe its because Im one of the rare few who have Mondays off work so I feel a little guilty for not hanging the laundry out or doing the weekly grocery shopping. It can get so quiet in the flat sometimes, that my neighbours might start to think Ive died in some corner somewhere. Thats what happens when you want to paint without any distractions.

 

 

 

Moody and Monochromatic

 
I made these a couple of days ago, on watercolour paper with acrylic paint, pva glue, indian ink and pencil. Theyre about the size of a regular postcard so it was alot faster to finish. I like the way they look as a set of three. Just envisioning how I might want to present my work in the future, with the right materials and abit more confidence! Ive been watching the work of alot mixed media artists recently and there are so many techniques I want to try out! Wyanne Thompson has some great youtube videos on the specifics of a mixed media piece. She shows exactly what to use and how. Beeswax and water soluble colouring pencils have been added onto my list so far.

Wedding Update

 

My mums driving me crazy. Antonios driving me crazy and my hairs driving me crazy.
Antonio has decided to stop smoking. Its been two days so far. Keep it up Mr T! My advice to anyone whose partners are trying to quit: NEVER take them to a shopping centre in order to buy a gift for their neice. Youll end up with that crazy glazed look in the eyes and tension headaches. So dont go there.
Cant decide how I should do my hair for the big day. This is probably the only shot of my naturally curly hair that I like. Just the right amount of wind and sunshine. :)

 

 

 

 

Strange and Surreal

 

Images of serene yet stern faces floated about in my mind and I wanted to draw them to see what else I could make of them. I played around with various colours and shapes, patterns and details, incorporating motifs that I enjoy using like swirls, plants and red clownlike cheeks. I enjoyed doing these, most of which were done over a weekend and in a notebook I keep by my bed. I used very cheap felt tip pens. Cant wait to do a shopping spree for some serious art materials though.
Heres what I want to get: acrylic paints, textile paint,acrylic gesso and medium,black marker pens,turpentine, chinese paint brushes,canvas roll to make my own canvases.
And here are things I want to try out: using mylar and masonite, polymer clay, shrink plastic,gocco printing...
So many things I would like to do with such little dosh and time! My weekday mornings consist of a combination of quiet frustration and boredom. The frustration part comes when I know I cant keep ignoring the mess in the kitchen from lastnights dinner, and boredom from just generally turning into a little arty hermit, painting and blogging at my dining table with the telly on in the background. I'm happy but a little restless.

Teapot flowers

 

I had a bit of a stressful day yesterday, alot of things to think about. So I sat down, took a few deep breaths, and did a spot of flower arranging, right in the middle of all the decision making and worrying. The result was far from elegant, I had to stick it all in a teapot as I didnt have a vase,but I felt alot better afterwards. Daisies make girls like me very happy indeed. Looking forward to a better weekend.

A swirly Monday afternoon..

 
Thought I would spend 45 minutes doing swirly whirly shapes and lines, using Indian ink on watercolour paper. I can see this on fabric too particularly the fern details. So I think textile paint will be added to my ever growing list of things that would make me warm with joy.

 
Change of direction with the skin tone. I dont have a ton of experience when it comes to mixing skin tones so I just dived in and hoped for the best. I do this alot and it can either go really well or really wrong. Well, after alot of head scratching and humming, I think its going well so far. I can see a pattern in my work which pleases me alot. Not a deliberate act at all, more of a case of being drawn to a style that I enjoy doing. I will clean it up abit around the edges and add a few fancy floral details to finish it off.
Still working on my large repainting. Have to buy some more turpentine for it. I mustn't tempt myself to paint it without this, otherwise my brushes will die on me.
Lots of wedding and family stuff going on in my life right now, and with sunnier days ahead, being cooped up at home on my laptop won't be something I'll be rushing to do. So for now, blogging will be on and off.