that head

...the hairdressers dummy is on the move again.....she's moved down a level and is very good at making JT jump.....

illuminated........

.....this tulip caught and held the sun for us over the weekend.

sunshine AND a bank holiday AND a birthday AND a memory tickler

My birthday fell on a sunny bank holiday weekend this year, a rare rare thing!  I had a lovely weekend with friends and family, with some studio time and a few hours gardening and allotmenting too...perfect.

...here are some images and some objects and a little boy who can now stand and clap at the same time - the Memory Tickler is especially special

neon knit Iain R Webb & John Grant

This jacket was a splendid gift to me from a certain Mr Iain R Webb...I meant to blog it when I got it but life overtook somewhat.  The jacket belonged to his mum, he added the springy neon trim which he knitted and attached in beautifully neat giant stitches.  It has huge buttons and very useful pockets. {I am nothing without pockets, men really have the pocket situation sorted} 
We went to see the ever fabulous John Grant last night (my birthday treat) and I wore it to and from.

scribbly birds

More bird sketches today - fast basic lead-breaking drawings....

{JT had an audience with a blackbird in our garden - it flew down from the tree and hopped along the grass in his direction to say hello.....}

Klezmer Kennedy Periman and a couple of horses

Here are some sketches of the horses in the paddock by my studio.  I've not drawn horses from life before...I reverted to my usual technique of drawing without looking at the paper, tricky as the horses were on the move constantly. I'm a bit rubbish with horses, I find their scale  intimidating and their behaviour unfathomable!..... but very quickly I realised they are a delight to draw - it was an enjoyable half an hour sketching in the sunlight with the swallows skimming the fields all around me.


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Finally finally FINALLY got round to watching the programme on Klezmer - Jewish Folk music last night...really fascinating.  Which let us to Itzhak Periman and then Taraf De Haidouks.  

And to round off the evening  to Nigel Kennedy playing the Gypsy Chardash which turned out to be a piece of music I've been trying to remember for a while now {i think I had a tape years ago of the Communards playing this??}

clare willard / NEW brooches

As I've mentioned here before I share a studio with Clare Willard who works with laser cut vinyl.  Clare has been developing a new range of bold & colourful brooches. I couldn't resist taking some photos of them {they are particularly photogenic!} as she was getting them ready to send off to Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

a warm kiln

Working in a kiln warmed studio today.  I normally build a piece over several hours or days waiting for my cold studio to tease the water out of the clay until it is dry enough to support itself.  Today's warm studio meant I could build fast and get to the most enjoyable part of the the process quickly: the painting.

sketchy

lots of sketching with water colour today.....planning the pieces underway and those still to make

a night owl and a sleepy Wren

...very foggy as I drove to the studio early this morning, the higher I drove out of the city the foggier it got but it cleared to reveal a beautiful day.  The swallows were flying in and out of the barn all day long and I had my first outside-on-the-bench-cup-of-tea of the year. A mainly productive time in the studio - starting new pieces, reclaiming clay, watching a kiln reach temperature and catching up on pieces already under wraps...... hampered towards the end by the appearance of a wasp.
This owl has been sitting in paper and plastic for a while waiting for me to decide how to proceed. I've drawn owls before but not made one in clay......he does seem to be inhabited by a penguin.

Our own bird slept through the night for the fist time last night - hurray {he also made great strides in his walking skills a couple of days a go}


Listening to this as I type