Wednesday 18 April 2012

I knit a bit as well

You drop the stitches. It will look very cool. I have spoken. It is biased because of the terrible Sekku which I must repeat, you must never buy, leave it for fools like me
Echo beach (or a bit of). Yes. I am the fool who bought Noro Sekku twice, in fact I am probably the only person in the world who has been suckered in more than once. After this I am going to go and slam my hand in a door and write letters to the Daily Mail as both these things would be more productive and less masochistic.
Not even just a pansy but a pale pansy as well! Next time I would like a tulip. Thank you very much
Pansies. Kudos to Tom Art Teacher for finding the one flower in the world I have absolutely no interest in painting, but it is good to challenge yourself, says she through gritted teeth. I like a proper big bold flower, I do. Pansies, meh. I produced something a bit pretty, it threw me.
Yay charcoal! Charcoal is the best and it costs like NO MONEY! I only copied this from a photograph, but I am now on the look out for someone with lots of wrinkles who might wish to pose for me
Very quick charcoal sketch. We now have charcoal all over the kitchen table, all up my arms and on the end of my nose, it is actually worse than procion dyes. It says in my art book charcoal was very popular in the sixties which is good enough for me, I imagine they put down their patchouli, detached themselves from the orgy and trotted off to produce a few bold sketches. I copied this from a photograph but I am venturing into life drawing next week, in fact I am going to email a contact now. I may not be good at drawing but I am astonishingly quick, I am like Rolf Harris. This is because I am so used to knitting and quilting where things take months and there is no use messing about, you have to get on with things. I am expecting therefore at the life drawing class to have finished in five minutes, and then to spend the rest of the time feeding the model biscuits and perhaps doing a bit of light hoovering or dusting of easels.

Right. Cup of tea, stuff to do. For those of us who may be reading from Chesterfield, I have googled and there is an art supply shop on Cavendish street, I put this out there merely for information...

Sunday 15 April 2012

Delurking briefly

From my current self-imposed internet exile to update you with the following.

1/ I have moved into my abstract period although I expect to be going back to representational work soon,
Acrylic on canvas. I did indeed have a specially big tube of magenta. I am going to hang this in the kitchen
Partner in the 'misery and drink in Prague' period, in his kaftan. The champagne bottle looked more phallic whatever I did so I gave up. When I write my own self-help book it will heavily feature why you should never get involved with anyone who has ever owned a kaftan. That will probably be the first chapter
2/ I have encountered a terrible new hazard on my morning cycle commutes which is more than a match for me, it is all very difficult,
Hello nervous cyclist. Our eye is upon you. We especially enjoyed you cycling through that fresh cow pat
3/ Please google and watch 'Henri the existential cat' who is on Youtube if you have not already done so as he is very funny,

4/ I want to recommend a book called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron because it is brilliant. It is about getting over barriers to expressing yourself creatively and I think Partner and I are both hoping my ultimate creative expression is not going to express itself through enormous sculptures rather than, say, small pictures of daisies, but obviously we will have to see where we end up as I must be Untrammelled. I have got two caveats for you which might or might not be deal breakers: first, it is a self-help book, and I know self-help books are a bit naff. It is not as naff as it could be, but there is still a bit of bugger-I-am-reading-a-self-help-book cognitive dissonance you will have to get through. Where's the shame in that, though? If you're already so perfect that no improvement is possible then don't sit next to me, as Mae West didn't say. And secondly it talks about God, not in a way that it wants to convert you to Christianity, but, there is a lot of talk of a universal life-force, so, if that kind of thing irritates you (look, I'm a Pagan, I read books where you have to go dripping honey about as offerings for the Fae, I can cope with a bit of universal life-force) I am putting you on warning that you will find it annoying.

If you can get over the self-help God thing though I really think this book is good. I am forcing my brother Dan to buy it (have you ordered it yet Dan? Don't think I'm not going to check because I'm ringing you later), and what will Dan's ultimate creative expression be? I do hope it is not modern interpretative dance but then I am just being negative and Dan will be told how to deal with naysayers like me in Chapter 2.

5/ Have a lovely week, everyone. I am quiet but thinking of you all (and boring myself to death cutting out patchwork squares for a skirt). Enjoy the nice weather x

Sunday 1 April 2012

Out and about

Partner and I have been hanging out in Islington because we do not think we are sufficiently parodies of ourselves already.
Give me some coffee and I'm happy
We went to Ray Stitch on Essex Road, and I thought it was lovely. They do buns and coffees and all sorts of fabric (mostly of the quilting cotton kind but other sorts as well), also patterns and embroidery bits and the odd ball of wool. I am happy anywhere that sells me coffee and sublime stitching embroidery transfers simultaneously (I got the ones with the skulls on).
Lots of patterns. You'll never get it back in the sleeve once you've unfolded it, you know
Ribbon and fat quarters
Partner's verdict was that he liked Ray Stitch, but was not sure about the area.
This can't be a taxidermy shop, we thought. Wait...
I think it was the taxidermy shop that threw him a bit because I thought the area was great (Loop is just around the corner, so it's worth a visit. All the Wollmeise you can afford). There was a big notice in the taxidermy shop telling you that all the animals had died of natural causes and had been supplied by animal rescue organisations. I confess to finding the whole thing a bit bizarre. There was a stuffed swan. I mean, what kind of market is there for a stuffed swan? Where would I put it? In the hallway? Mind you, the taxidermy shop people might walk past Loop on their lunch break and go, God, look at all that wool. What kind of a market is there for that?
Don't go taking pictures of me. Throw my ball
This poodle was very, very bored. I thought, look, my woolly brown friend, you might be bored, but at least you're not stuffed. It could be worse.