Purrr

Museum and fireworks

Aren't I super late in posting this week!?

Good excuses:

Child

House

Preparing a birthday painting (hopefully this will be finished by tomorrow afternoon!)

I must update you on last weekend, which was lovely. Saturday afternoon took us to the Natural History Museum - quite possibly my favourite museum in the world so far, and for good reason:

and a close up of those ickle creatures...

 

Bones...
 

"It's pink! It's pink! It's pink...!"
 

Lovely lighting and colours...
 

That evening, we stayed over at Rob's sister Jenni's place and then went to a fireworks display:

  
 xxx

Daphne

 

Got a bit Fleetwood Mac-icised the past couple of days. You have to watch this right through - in the 4th minute, Stevie really seemed to be channeling The White Goddess! And Mick Fleetwood's face!  - totally carried away in the energy, the muse, the primal, the extreme...

Managed to get a lot done the past few days. in between the tedious bits, these things have happened:

 

Chutney! Turned out looking kind of jammy huh? I used many plums, raisins, ginger, onions, garlic, cider cinegar, wholegrain mustard, Bramley apples and that's about it, I think.

 
Clearing and re-sorting a part of our dining room/study

 

Here's a close-up of the recently-finished Daphne:

"Daphne"  - acrylic on canvas (13" x 17" image one 14" x 18" board)

I went through so many name possibilities for this one, but kept on returning to Daphne, probably because I've always been attracted to Greek mythology, or maybe because she wanted the name Daphne and was psychically controlling me... I originally saw this Atlas Cedar at Kew Gardens and immediately kind of saw this beautiful, giant lady wearing it as a crinoline skirt... As Atlas Cedars areobviously from the Atlas mountains, I though maybe something about the mythology of the area might jump out at me as being a suitable name for her, but she obviously wanted this name, so there we go.

She's floating over the the shop in a minute.

Back to the canvas for another 20 mins before I got to pick up Amelia from school

xxx
 
 
 
 

Post Halloween Post

Our mantelpiece pumpkin with the Zapatista dolls, which Rob found in Mexico a couple of years ago... Love them!

I have a couple more paintings to show ou - one a quick watercolour of a cottage door close to our cabin:

We're going to have to keep this one and frame it for our place, as a mini-reminder of our fantastic holiday and painting in the dead of night, whilst watching Withnail and I:

 

Here's one for Etsy:

Pixie Hollow (5"x7") acrylics on canvas board.

The painting has a fantastic depth and vibrancy which never seems to come out on the photos! Harumph! It is painted right to the edges, but it's still possible to frame without losing any of the atmosphere, if that makes sense...? I'm so happy with this one - it just pings with life!

I'll leave you with a few more photos of our holiday - these are from our wild walk up near Men-an-tol:

Men-an-tol

We veered off the main path and took a trek across the hills. After about 20 minutes, this loomed out of the fog:

I'm not completely sure, but with its proximity to Men-an-tol, I think this mine might be "Ding Dong Mine". Not sure why it should be named that - it kind of doesn't really suit such an imposing building.
 After a bit more walking, we found a few more rocks, which seemed to be glacially-deposited, maybe, or left-overs from a past-civilisation's rock-moving-and-placing obsessions. On these rocks was the most brilliant, varied lichen I think I've ever seen. As I really like lichen, I got down close to take a photo, beetle-eye-view-style:

Then I started imagining that this guy might just fit in there:

He's from the old Star Trek. Doesn't the lichen-world look just like one f their alien-planet scenes?! Totally cool!

I think that's me done nattering for the moment. Off to list Pixie Hollow in the shop :)

xxx

 
 

Cornwall Holiday!

Hey! We're back from a wonderful, inspiring and incredibly green holiday in Cornwall. We stayed mostly on the Helford river:

 

Pebble-throwing:

 
 
 Up to our little cabin:

 

Amelia went to stay with family and Rob and I went on some lovely, fairyland walks:

 

There was lichen EVERYWHERE!

Woodland walks:

And the views!
 
 

Lots and lots of Halloween party prep to do! More pics soon, oh and a few paintings and sketches from the holiday :)

xxx

Bedtime books for everyone

Just have to share our new Richard Scarrey book with you. I think everyone I know has loved these books as a child. They're just so packed full of stuff!

The page below has to be one of my favourite book  pages EVER:

 Also, "House by Mouse" by George Mendoza is greatly loved, if purely for the pictures. I haven't been able to find a copy of it anywhere, but if you happen to stumble upon it, get it!  The pictures SO make me want to draw my own little houses!

Bear's House

Caterpillar's House

The last couple of days, I've been doodling around in my sketch pads. Lots of ideas and possible new ways of expressing them. I'll post a couple of them below:

Click on the photos for a closer look :)

Right. Must spend the rest of today packing and getting the house in some sort of semblance for you return! Mustn't forget to take these:

 
 
See you on our return. I'm planning on doing LOTS of drawing :)

xxx

 

The Frog Prince

I haven't posted Amelia's painting yet, have I?

She loves frogs and princesses, so what better image to paint for her? He hangs in her bedroom, guarding over both her and the golden ball, of course.

"The Frog Prince" acrylic on canvas (8" x 10")

We love his froggy frogginess :)

Off to Cornwall tomorrow morning, to visit family, chill and gather more inspiration. Time to check hire car places around here...and pack everything. In the world...

xxx

Amelia! And other amazing ladies...

I'm so excited!

Just ITCHING to see this movie! And I have the painting to go with it:

Amelia (8" x 8") acrylic on canvas

I absolutely adore that aeroplane in the background - may have to paint another of just that :)

A couple of days ago, I was updating Flickr when I stumbed across these wonderful ladies of science!

Mary Agnes Chase

Jaqueline Cochran
 

Mildred Adams Fenton

Guess I had better get a little painting done :)

xxx

Oh sorry - I almost forgot...

Chilly

"May I sit up there, please?"

 
 Leafy...

Bye :)
 

A mess and two loaves

Keeping up to things recently is not easy!

Today:

Tried to file a million papers

Made and played a read-the-direction-and-follow game with Amelia

Baked easy soda-bread

Made an autumn soup

There are still piles and piles of papers all over the floor. I was planning on getting this (dining/office) room tidied by the end of today, but the end is approaching fast...! This is where we are at the moment:

 

thetable

the fireplace
 

Hmmm. Ah well. Here's the super-quick soda bread recipe:

PREHEAT oven to 200C

500g self-raising flour (plus a little for kneading)

handful of sunflower seeds

handful of sesame seeds

300ml milk

10g salt

Mix it all up in a bowl with a wooden spoon, til it all congeals, then scoop it out with your hands and plonk it onto the flour which is waiting for you on your work-top! Squish it around for a bit, til the dough is an even consistency. Divide into two pieces, place onto a baking tray and shape into rounds, about 5cm high. Take a knife and cut a cross into the top of each loaf, to about a third the depth. Place in your oven and cook (keep an eye on them until they're a lovely golden brown - about 20 mins).

Amelia and I went to Kew again yesterday, this time with Dina. I can't believe how much everything has changed in only one week! The sweet chestnuts are suddenly, sadly, pretty rare, and the ground is littered with red and orange leaves.  Will post the pics tomorrow.

Must attempt to be organised now....

xxx

Saturday stroll and a resulting faerarium

I forgot to post this photo of a fantastic little dude we found, guarding his rosebush, not far from Victoria Gate at Kew:

I know robins are known for being bold, but this one was amazing! I wish I had taken a photo of the whole rosebush - a large, dense plant about 9' tall, now covered in tiny, creamy rose hips. In the side of the plant was a hole about 2' in diameter. Amelia and I decided to take a peek inside, and out popped this cool little bird, making it pretty obvious that nobody but he could live in his rosey house! So cool!

Today, we went a-walking again, messing around in leaves...

 

Running down forested pathways...

 

And collecting moss from here:

 

...to make this...

  

We are expecting faerie company this evening, after we have all gone to sleep. Will see if there is any evidence of their visit in the morning...
 

Also, I said I'd get another photo of the petrol pumps for you:
 

 
 Lovely weekends to you

xxx
 
 

Organic(ish) Architecture

Been working on a couple fo new teeny weeny paintings today. They're connected with an ongoing project "Dwellings". Here are a few cool/weird/funnydwellings I found around:

Found on Miki Mikelis' Flickr page.

Mushroom House!

Simon Dale, Wales

 
 Unfortunately, I couldn't find the origin of the one above...

Here's our own local quirkiness:

I love it! There'a a pair of them outside a cottage, which ave been moved sideways from thei original posotion outside a petrol station (which is now a garage). I only had my phone with me, so the photo's a little blurry. I'll try to get a better one for you soon...

Almost sleep time here!

xxx