Here is a detail of a piece I am working on at the moment from a sketch made at the lake earlier this year. I will post the sketch in the next post. It is approaching being done but not quite there yet. This is a delicate stage and am feeling my way towards it. I am leaving things sooner than I used to so as to not over-egg the pudding. I need to get outside again soon I think to do more drawing. I do have an idea for a piece to do over the winter months but will let it mergle with me for a bit as is my wont!

Here is a little video of me sewing on my current piece based on Birks Mere lake here in the UK. It was suggested to me to take little videos of me working on pieces like this as a way of sharing my practice. I find that my sewing pieces don’t mind me doing this a bit! Oil painting is a bit different- it seems I have to guard the gold there until it is ready to be seen. The embroidery is very much about process though that brings us into the moment and video is in the moment so it kind of fits!

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I have started oil painting on areas of my canvas piece that I have rabbit skin glue sized with two layers of the same. Am avoiding the embroidered areas that came to a natural pause. I may go back to some embroidery in it, will see where it takes me. The layering of dye then glue then oil paint seems to work, and I really like moving between the media as they all offer something different. It has been suggested to me to make little videos of me embroidering or painting which I am gradually approaching doing, and will put on here if it works. The embroidery doesn’t seem to mind being shared as it is very much about process, so we’ll see. Onward and upward as they say. Click to enlarge and see detail as usual folks!

Just to share what I have been making so far recently. I used a drawing I made on the spot of the lake in the Lake-district here in the UK as a starting point. Am sharing the drawing here too. I had the idea to dye the canvas first, and then do some embroidery whilst it was on the stretcher prior to sizing some areas with rabbitskin size that dries transparent so you would still see the dye. Then I can oil paint on chosen areas as well. I won’t use primer and have researched that you can paint direct with oil on sized canvas without priming if you want to. Rules are made to be broken, but I don’t want the unsightly chip fat look of oil seeping outside the brush-marks. So lets hope this works! I have mixed embroidery with painting before, but on ready-made canvases. So am curious where this new venture takes me with a canvas I have stretched myself from scratch. The meditative quality of sewing, and repetitive action of pushing the needle through the canvas is satisfying. It felt a bit like one of those celtic drums, as I held the stretcher to sew and turned it to fasten threads. You can engage with the physicality of the canvas much more than having it on an easel. I kept standing back from the embroidery too to decide what marks to make next. I find all this glacially slow, but interesting for me. I will post further updates when I have done more! Embroideries don’t seem to mind being shared as I go along unlike paintings!

I went to Wasdale in the lakedistrict recently and sketched this iconic mountain and a fell next to it. It was overcast at first but the cloud burned away to reveal the granite characteristic outcrops. I didn’t try to climb the mountain but my partner did. He said the rocks coming down were a bit hairy so I was glad I didn’t try. I thoroughly enjoyed sketching and painting though. One of my favourite valleys. Click to enlarge as usual.

A visit to the garden in the lakedistrict here in the UK provided yet more inspiration last Friday when I went to work and sketch. I take photos too throughout the day. The colour in the garden itself was compelling this time not the lake so much. Just click on the images to enlarge. I enjoy the flowers in all their stages, whether in bud, full bloom or withering with petals falling.. The wind moved through the whole garden as we worked and the fragrances were intoxicating. Overload of the senses! It was great to be immersed in this place as well as painting and drawing it. So many perspectives, a happy place. A duck landed on the lawn and waddled towards us then flew off, something is always happening..

We went on a little trip to Northumbria and I drew this bridge from our hotel garden. The stone is a wonderful yellow ochre sandstone round there. The trip to Hadrian’s wall and Housteads fort was another highlight. A real atmosphere, and you could imagine the soldiers and community living and working there. The wall itself was imperfect in some places and was made by ordinary soldiers not master masons which added yet another dimension. I took a few shots with my digital SLR which I much prefer as what you see through the viewfinder is the image that is captured, which wasn’t the case with my other camera that broke.

I painted and drew these yesterday. They are Japanese orchids and relate to the idea I think that children can be dandelions or orchids. Meaning that some will grow and thrive wherever and some will need a lot of TLC. This was said to me recently by a friend. Don’t know how true it is reckon we all need a lot of the latter!

I found this beauty on the pavement in front of me yesterday afternoon. It had been knocked off a flowering bush nearby and would only have got squashed, so I decided to take it home and make a little study. I was so glad I did. These are some of my favourite flowers. I used pencil and watercolour for the observational study and pen and ink with watercolour for the broccoli. We get this vegetable from the market and I’ve wanted to make a little drawing of the bunches for a while now and it was only on Sunday that I got round to it! We ate it then with our Sunday dinner, delicious! These studies form a welcome break from the embroidery I have been concentrating on and gear me up towards moving back into drawing and painting. I have a feeling a painting will be coming next!

Am really pleased to see my most recent artistic statement on the Neoartists website ( I am an associate member with them) and link to this my personal website. They are a great bunch doing some challenging and impressive work. I hope to co-curate a show there next year for painters primarily with Richard Cross under the title ‘The Undiscovered Country’. Wish us luck! Here is the link to Neo, you can find me in the list of artists!

https://neoartists.co.uk/neoartists/