Inadequate pictures of a private view

I was really pleased to go and see the private view of my work in the beautiful Edward Johnston exhibition at Ditchling. It happened in the evening so these photos are a bit dingy but I was really pleased to see my hangings beautifully displayed and back-lit so they glowed. What a buzz! They'll be up until September. The Johnston exhibition is also lovely and I really liked the Bob and Roberta Smith. Well worth a visit .

Flora

Working on a wedding thing - it is so nice making floral pictures. I decided to cut out all the stems so I could play around and arrange them, which was a good idea, apart from when it came to sticking them down: turns out my fine motor skills might be a little lacking but I got there in the end.

Super smart accessories

I've made a print that you can play with, or stick on the wall. Not bad eh? And it only costs a fiver - I've put it up in the shop and on the website.

With just a pair of scissors you can turn this print in to . . . 

suave sex appeal.

Twin your accessories with a winning smile and anybody will be putty in your hands. Seduce any man or woman. Nail that job interview. Watch as fame and success fall at your feet.

Oh jeez is that the time - I'm late for my award ceremony.

Things found in books

Something from the archive - a small collection of things found in a bible. Nice looking bits eh? I imagined there must me a beautiful blog dedicated to things found in books and I did find some but all a little dull/ugly and not ever updated. Makes me wonder - is the day of the blog over? Or am I jut out of touch? I can remember endlessly stumbling across beautiful and weirdly niche websites: cataloguing, documenting and appreciating all sorts of minutiae. What happened to that beautiful level of internet geekery? Maybe we're all too busy documenting our own navels over on Intagram. Can anyone point me in the direction of a nice website to cheer me up?
Thanks.
Jo.

Jessica Jane Charlston

Very fine friend Jess (Jessica Jane Charleston for long) is drawing me for an upcoming exhibition in Wivenhoe, how nice. All I do is sit still. And it's dead nice to see how someone else works and ogle her nicest pencils and stuff. I'll keep you updated on the outcome.

For the love of Malvina

Do you know the song Little Boxes - you probably do because it is brilliant. I wanted to listen to it the other day (maybe due to our impending exodus from London, embracing the burbia like) and ended up to a lot of other songs by Malvina Reynolds and they're all brilliant. I love looking her face on the album cover and hearing her lyrics like:

I don't mind failing in this world,
Don't mind wearing the ragged britches
'Cause those who succeed are the sons of bitches,

'Quiet' is also a brilliant song - she has a soft cynicism that speaks right to the middle of me. Yes, Malvina is a new obsession.

A new studio

I have a studio to work from now, and it's brilliant - pictures and ideas are rolling on a pace. I've decided not to give a hoot about keeping it tidy. So I thought it might be fun to document the changing drifts and tides occasionally here on the blog. Here's your first update - not too shabby eh?

My Venus

I've always liked the Venus of Willendorf, well since I knew about her anyway. I like how old she is and all the theories around who made her and why. I like that she's hand sized. I like that the subject is a large boobish/bummish/tummish/camel-toeish woman. And I thought I'd quite like one for my self one day - just to, you know, hold and stuff.

Well I thought the occasion of our first child might be an ideal time to finally take that want seriously. I looked around for replicas and found them all a little bit rubbish - and mostly they had weird plinths attached, which I felt really ruined her charm and made her look to much like a museum exhibit. In the end I struck on the idea of asking my uncle to carve me one, and he made this beauty! Isn't she lovely? Isn't he a nice man for doing that? I'm very happy.

Druidstone Haven

Jack treated me to a surprise holiday for my/our birthdays and for the last big trip out sans-babe. And it was perfect. On the way we met Jack's pa at Otmoor (a nature reserve just outside Oxford) to see a murmuration, I still had no idea where I was going for the holidays but had twigged it might be somewhere west.

When Jack told me in the car that we were going to stay in the Druidstone Hotel I had a little cry because I really love the place but never really thought of staying there - because of the moulah. So it was a real treat: we had 3 nights in a room with this out of the window . . . 

We sat a lot (I'm reading the Tove Jansson biography and it's very nice) and waddled a little. And in the evenings ate amazing food - usually followed by banoffee pie in front of a film.

I didn't get a good photo of the hotel, but it's really lovely - I mostly snapped away at the outbuilding: which were right up my street.

I love Wales.

Storm Imogen left this buoy right up on the beach - so we clambered to it for a little fondle. It had Canada written on it.

Beautiful Welsh sunshine.

Grass reminding me of a Ravilious painting.

A sunset from the hotel's own viewing point.

It was so good to be outside so much - let the wind breathe itself in to all the corners of the lungs and be in the landscape. I'm getting to look a lot more like a landscape myself now too

Work for a show.

 I'm working on some pictures for an exhibition with Jess and some other clever folks.

I'm using a collection of old frames to limit size and using a loose them of folkore and witchcraft. It's dead nice. As the collection grows I change the existing ones slightly so they all speak to each other in some small way. When the mandrake came along with it's bright blue sky the bottle of charms had to get a new yellow background, which then also echoed the legs on Baba Yaga's house. It's nice to make sets of things!