More........

Oh, I'm really getting into this painting lark! Here are a couple more I've completed - green apples and some poisonous looking toadstools - and two more elf babies in felted buntings.

Picking Up The Brush

For quite a while I have had a strong desire to do some paintings again........it's been a while!

Here are some small still life paintings that I have done in recent days to brush up on my skills.

These simple studies of fruit and eggs and the interplay of light and shade were great fun to do......I can really lose myself when I paint.

I'm Here!

Oh boy..........It's been over a month since I last posted here! lots of stuff happening in my life has prevented me from always doing what I want to do, but I'm back in harness now, more or less. My dear old cat (I posted about her a while back) passed away a few weeks ago. She was twenty one years old and such a sweet-natured little presence that I miss her badly. Always considerate, she saved us the looming anguish of making a decision about when to take her for the kind needle.

Here is some stuff I've been working on.....firstly the Travelling Doll Project that I have been participating in. This is Colleen's doll, which arrived with no face. I gave her a face and the small baby she is holding and sent her on her way. She looks a bit odd with no hair, but I'm assuming the next person will give her some! Secondly, here is a sculpted bust I have just finished. I called her "Guinevere". And lastly, I've been making Zozie dolls and small wrapped elf babies to sell at "The Best of the Tamar" market to be held in the Sidmouth Hall on Good Friday. This is when the Three Peaks race starts, so there should be zillions of people around. I should also have some small paintings and some sculptural pieces on display.

In A Reflective Mood

I have just received the first of the Travelling Doll Project dolls from my ADO group. The doll comes from Colleen (aka LoopyBoopy) in New Orleans - she is something of a blank canvas (the doll, not Colleen!), and I know I won't be able to resist the urge to give her a face. But I'll also be giving her something that Colleen won't be expecting.........The wonderful journal accompanying Colleen's doll put me in something of a reflective mood. Her journal was inspired by some found (in an estate sale) ephemera in the form of a baby book from the 1920's and she was moved to write about the nature of motherhood.............she's hoping that the others in the team will take that baton and run with it, I think. Well, that got me thinking about where we come from and what we pass on and how we are just a blip in a long line. I remembered that I had done these drawings of my grandparents as young people from photographs that my aunts had, that I saw when I was travelling in Europe some years ago. I thought I would share these: from the top, my English grandparents, Bertram Johnston and Gladys Barnes and my German grandparents, Heinrich Klatt and Rosa Mohr. Gladys only died a year or so ago at the age of 103.

What A Blast!

Well, I have landed back in reality with a thump after a fabulous week of music-making. It's hard to pick a highlight of the week, but the Cajun and Scottish fiddlers were fantastic. Playing in a chamber group was a new and wonderful experience, as was playing in an orchestra with ages from around seven to eighty. It was also wonderful to behold teenaged boys and girls getting so much positive experience from playing the violin - suddenly they were in a millieu where what they do is not "nerdy" but normal - I think many of them went away with great memories.

Here are a few pics...........from top to bottom: Tout-le-monde (sans moi!); double bassists - check out 9 y.o. Monty with his mini-sized bass; early morning swimmers; my chamber group; Colin, the Scottish fiddler.

Off to String Camp

Well, my bags are packed and I'm almost ready to head off in the morning for a week of intensive music making at LYCO's annual string camp. I will be "camp mother" to a cabin full of 14 - 16 year old girls..........might be interesting?

I'm really a wind player so in order to not feel like a fish out of water and at least be able to participate a bit, I've been learning to play the violin since November. Surprised myself how much I enjoy it. Wish someone had put one of these into my hands when I was six!

The camp is at the beach near Ulverstone - a great setting - and the weather looks set fair, so I think it is going to be a fabulous week.

Adios, amigos! I won't be posting until next week.

Lelah Mae

Last year when I was in Columbus, Ohio I met a wonderful painter called Linda Apple. I spent a week staying with her....she is a warm, funny, smart and talented person with whom I felt an instant rapport. To thank her for her generous hospitality, I made this little doll while I was staying with her and dressed it in a scrap of fabric that had been in her mother's stash. Linda named the doll "Lelah Mae" after her late mother, which I found very touching. Linda recently emailed me some pictures of the doll, which I had forgotten to photograph. Here they are. I particularly like the picture of the doll seated aginst the yellow wall on the painted cupboard with one of Linda's paintings above it.

You'll be doing yourself a great favour if you visit Linda's website and have a bit of a peek at her art: http://www.applearts.com/