Autumn Soul

On a grey, rainy November day, sat in my studio listening to the rain, it seems a long time since half term holidays last week. It seems to my sun starved brain a long time since walking in the Suffolk countryside absorbing the sweet, autumn sun. Walking out, away from the village of Long Melford, away from the horses in their fields, past the sheep and into the farmers ploughed land - I felt free. I packed my pockets with sloes. I collected acorns in their jaunty hats. I looked up at their Mother oak tree and felt comforted. I felt grounded and timeless at the same time. I walked without intention. I took some photos as reminders of place. I watched the light and drew the colours into my mind. And since then, back in the studio I have started a new series of work on landscape, and trees, and the time I spent meandering in nature is flowing on to the page in a way that seems to have escaped me earlier in the summer. I really do have an autumn soul.

You can see more images of my autumn journey on Instagram.

Alive

I get so much joy from visiting gardens. The colours, textures and shapes are amazing. I love to look at the patchwork of it all. Here, it had just rained and the plants were so vivid. I am always amazed by  the variety; each flower lifting its head to the sun; reaching up for the rain. Alive.

Full colour

Doing something new can be very refreshing. This week the Photocraft online photography course that I am doing will come to an end. It has been such a life saver in helping me move forward in my business. It has opened my eyes to new possibilities and helped me see my own creativity with fresh eyes. Completely unexpectedly, it has made me paint my wall beetroot!

New ways of working and playing have reinvigorated me and I'm very proud that I'll be featured in the new Photocraft tutorial on creating inspiration boards. You can see a trailer here....

This week I'm learning about styling shoots so have been out collecting props. After a week of pinning style inspiration on Pinterest, I was like a kid in a sweet shop when I got to Homebase! I'm loving the Habitat ranges there. I think I might be a rainbow when I grow up!

Simple Beauty

These have grown from cuttings taken from my Grandma's conservatory at her 100th birthday party.  As we stumble in to Spring they are a vibrant colour-song in my studio.

Simple pleasures

I'm hanging on to Autumn as Winter creeps in.  It gave me great pleasure today to treat myself to a beautiful bunch of dahlias.  What simple pleasure will cheer up your Friday?

Have a lovely weekend.  Hope to see you at the Holmfirth Art Market on Sunday.

Autumn Colour

It's so dark!  I'm stitching work for my exhibition and can barely see!  So grey.  Cheered up by this picture from the Anthropologie catalogue.  Lovely rich colour.  Have been getting out the quilts and blankets and cosying up.  I love the painted bowls here.  Makes me want to splash some colour about.

Mary Newcomb

Lady in an unsprayed field seen in passing, 1988

6 violas, 1985

Mrs Brown and black, 1972

I have just weathered the first of what will be many temper tantrums by my soon-to-be-two year old.  I had to hold in my head that "the moment could not last".  And now he sleeps so peacefully and I am calming myself with images from a beautiful book about the artist Mary Newcomb.

Mary Newcomb is a self taught artist.  Much of her work deals with the mood of a moment and using colour and light to capture her world.  She uses colour intuitively and with a heightened pallette translates her feelings onto canvas.  In her diaries, she wrote about the sounds around her as she painted, especially of birdsong, and of her efforts to record sound with colour.

Aah, feeling much calmer now.