Another Sunday . . .

The weeks are rolling past way too quickly, as ever. But for once I'm a little more on top of things, 2 out of 5 Christmas card designs done for this year. I finally got the magazine article done, more on that in another post though! Except to say that it meant several trips up and down to the next village for the photography, good old Neil saved my skin as he does fab pics, I don't on the whole!
As a break from the norm I am now officially a "proper" arty person as I was asked to judge the art/handicrafts at our local produce show, which has just been started up again after many years, it was great to see so much there, but so cruel to be in such close proximity to so many buns and cakes when I'd not had brekky! Thankfully the cake judge needed help so we were eager volunteers, you can have too much though . . .
We are having a bit of an Indian summer at the moment so art has been put on one side a couple of times in order to get my hands mucky up the garden. Hacking back the Russian vine that should never have been planted . . . it wasn't me! And just enjoying the sun. The sound of crows made me look up at one point to see 4 or 5 of them mobbing a buzzard that had come down low over the village. As it rose on the thermals they drifted off to get on with crow stuff elsewhere. Not so many years ago we would never have seen buzzards down here so as a raptor fan I'm glad they're here now.
It's the time of year the owls start getting chatty too. As I sit here in my studio I can here them squawking as they float from rooftop to rooftop up and down the village. It's great to hear them again after the summer silence but it is a sure sign that autumn is in the air, as is the sound of geese gathering which we hear on most days now.
I'm so glad we decided to plant trees in the garden as they are alive with smaller birds, various finches and tits, sparrows, crows, rooks, pigeons and doves, and only the occassional sparrowhawk popping in for a snack, when it isn't sat in the tree outside the kitchen window, which was quite a surprise the first time I saw her there!
Not much arty talk tonight but I'm going now as I have a poster to design for my next exhibition. Nighty night x

Birds, Still-life and Stuff . . .

Thought I'd put a few more bits and pieces on today, after all, this is supposed to be about my work even though I keep getting side-tracked! Butterfly-brained I know.

Birds, birds, birds . . .

   I have started getting a little obssessed with our feathered friends! thus far they've tended to be of the generic variety as that allows me a bit more artistic license, which translated means I get let off mistakes!! I won't have bird enthusiasts pulling me up for getting plumage wrong, or missing a claw off. But, as I have a head full of new ideas based on extinction and evolution, to include dodo's, pteradactyls, etc, I'm going to have to break the habit of a life-time and at least attempt to get things right, or do I??? They're extinct, who can tell me off?
   And here are a couple of still-lifes, just to prove that my bird obssession isn't totally taking me over, yet! After struggling to do these things when I was at school I swore blind that pots with greenery in them would never darken my desk again, so what when wrong? Well we all need a challenge from time to time, and to tell the truth, I enjoyed doing them. The pots are by Charlotte Morrisson, a local maker and their stripey-ness inspired me, so a stint parking my car up hedgebacks in search of interesting frondly things to arrange in afore-mentioned pottery eventually brought forth these two pieces, there may be more but my studio is a tad messy and they could be anywhere!
   Thankfully school art classes didn't make me still-life phobic forever, after that initial quivering fear and dread I took the plunge, alright, hundreds of years later! but I think these turned out ok.