trapped

Stupidly I pottered into my WorkRoom this morning confident that i could find the small piece of leather I was looking for.  Of course I couldn't and then I fell deeply into the Slough of Deep Despond when I realised what a mess the whole room was, how much stuff I ha piled up therein and how much I wasn't prepared to throw away.
Rotating and muttering I achieved very little, except remove some to my ladyShed, to pile up there, out of sight.
It is/was raining and quite chilly which is not welcome after all the moaning about weeks of heat.
Eventually all the shifting about got me to look quizzically[bad temperedly] at a canvas I had prepared with Gesso and I sketched out the above...........having painted it for an hour or so I feel much better, altho it will inevitably lead to the growing piles of stuff eventually.

other artists

 Went up to London yesterday to catch the last day of the 62 group exhibition, it was small but perfectly formed showing work by some of my favourite artists.

 The last picture is of a large scale piece [the 62 group's were all smallish really] by Roanna Wells, and was on show at the Jerwood [i always want to say Jedwood] at their Makers Open exhibition. She has developed her seed stitching mark making to the point where this taken from an aerial view of a religious festival at Allahabad.  It is held every 12 years and attracts over 100 million pilgrims.

She says of the fact that she was present when the image was taken "It has given it more meaning for me, ......it has given the piece a lot more gravitas.  It has made it more personal"  I wonder if that is what is missing from some textile work, the underlying meaning, rather than a main concern with texture and technique.

still dancing

Worked with the palette knife on a variation on Matisse's theme. Stopped me getting too fussy but don't know now whether to do any more.

too hot to paint indoors

more agony than ecstasy

I have been fiddling about with some stitchings;  once ArtSkool starts I won't have time and I have hit a bit of a wall with the painting work.
Too long till October! No sense of panic. 
By chopping and joining have constructed this seasidey thingummy but it will need a deal more stitching before it surrenders.  Colours are nice but everything is somewhat crude and lumpy.
certainly looks better reduced size on the screen. 

The Ascot people have possibly reached the end, but have sketchy false starts on the linen, so not sure what to do about them.

I am limping around having stood on a large needle yesterday.  I was working on my rust cloth when I was distracted, when I returned to pick it up from the floor, the needle must have been stood up vertically in a fold, threaded with black wool, and I stepped full weight on it.

It went into the ball of my foot, eye and thread first, and I got that lurchey feeling in my groin of anguish.  [reminiscent of when the kids were doing something dicey]

Nothing to be done but to pull it out scrape out the woolly bits left behind and apply TCP.

Hopefully my foot won't fall off in time, now just Lurching around feeling sorry for myself.

A fine day

Took down the exhibition today at Snape Maltings [nr Aldeburgh] after two weeks exposing our work to the populace pootling by.  Quite a lot of peeps were potentially around as it is Benni Britten's centenary, so concerts and stuff.  And the weather of course is amazing.
No excuses really.
Obviously people feel a little more wary of shelling out for Art, and I expect the concert tickets were a priority, but we definitely didn't sell as much as usual.

Fortunately the "shop" [where we sell smaller things, cards and inspiration packs etc.]took over two thousand pounds so we covered our expenses. Hire of the Gallery etc.
Double fortunately I was one of the two that sold from the exhibition, three pieces, the Queue, a Rust pic and Woman looking in Mirror so I now have a bit more space in my work room.
Also there is some interest in me showing some work in a Textile Art exhibition in Colchester.
I really should shove my work out more often, but the ego is a delicate flower and needs nurture not refusals.  I need an Agent, ...........and a Secretary, and a Psychiatrist, and a Cleaner, and a Cook and a Bottle washer, tho maybe I could do without the latter.
Could be thought that what I need is a Wife, but HimIndoors is really ace at most of the above. 
We had delicious fish and chips on the beach at Aldeburgh for lunch and a lovely long walk across the marshes at Snape, then home to strawberries from the garden.
All this good stuff definitely makes one uneasy. 

another painting

painting

When we were down in my lovely Hastings in June we went to the newish Art Gallery to see a retrospective of William Scott, British painter [1950/60s, St Ives etc] and I was really taken with his monumental and slightly threatening nudes,
so I have started one of my own.

I really like the abstraction of the figure, it's what I need to make a break for freedom...........the board was already mucked up with lots of sticky evidences of past errors so I gessoed over the top in white [texture!]then went for it with the palette knife.

putting on a show

TAGS exhibition starts tomorrow

Poster says the 4th but that is wrong!  Spent the 4th putting it up, looks OK. 
Twenty artists.  Took 3 solid hours for 4 of us to put up, staggered home exhausted but triumphant, only to get a call to say one of mine fell off the wall! 
Fingers crossed it stays up after first aid.