Getting the hang of things

One of the photo's taken by my friend, Matthew Hart, at The Oakwood. I wish I could direct you to some of his other work but I don't think he has anything posted online yet.

Can't wait for the opening night!!!

xx

Exhibition of My Work

Exciting news, my exhibition at The Oakwood in Glossop is going full steam ahead:D
Here's the poster for the show featuring some of my new drawings. It's been a while since I've simply drawn, no messing about with paints, or colour, just a black pen on white paper, it's been lovely and I intend to do a lot more work in this kind of style. It's a good contrast to the way I paint, which can be very spontaneous and expressive.

I also posed for some pics with one of my drawings, which I hope to see in my local paper next week, I'll post a couple of them later. Good times!

Anyway, everyone's welcome to attend so hope to see you there:D

Love and smiles xxx

Denis Jones

My favourite song at the moment is called 'Beginning' and it's sung by this guy, Denis Jones.

I'm really happy about the fact he'll be playing in Glossop at the Oakwood in November, yay! So excited:D

The video's a little quiet so turn it up!

I'll post some new work within the next week so stay tuned:D

Love xxx

Recent Stuff

Yes, I'm still Alive:D

It's been a while since my last post and I do apologise, moving country, moving house and starting a new job kinda takes it out of a girl! I'm now settled in my new house with my friend Dave and so far everythings very good:D
Our house is quirky, it has no straight lines anywhere, it came with furniture including a HUGE dining table which has already been christened with a few parties and lots of good food and drink.
I love it, which is such a huge contrast to the last house I lived in in England and I can't tell you how relieved I am. Liking the place where you live is pretty essential to general wellbeing.
Anyway, as soon as we get the internet connected I'll upload some pics on here.

ARGHHH!!!

Tomorrow night I'm to play live at my local pub, The Globe. I'm in a state of nervous excitment and sheer terror, I can't decide whether I'm looking forward to it or not. It's my friends birthday party and it'll be a great night, but I have this kind of phobia about being in the spotlight.
Hmmm, hopefully pics to follow of my successful debut.

ART

My 2 paintings never made it to the exhibition:(
I have had a friend enquire about buying one of them which is great, only I always feel a little awkward about asking friends for money so I've not pursued it yet.
I'm currently working on a black and white drawing inspired by Geisha and Japan which I'm really enjoying and can't wait to share with you. Who know's it may end up being my first print in the Etsy shop I'm thinking about opening:D

Hugs xxx

Cherry Blossom

Just a quick post to share some of my favourite pics of the cherry blossom in Japan:D

Enjoy xxx

Beautiful Papercuts and little things

I made it on time!!!

So I made it to the art gallery yesterday with my two watercolour paintings by the skin of my teeth (what a strange expression really). I've had a few days when every little thing seems to go wrong, from papercuts (to fingers, not the beautiful art of papercutting), computer stuff not working, no jam for my crumpets arrrggghhh!!

Beautiful Papercuts!

Talking of papercuts, please have a look at my gorgeous papercuts above, I was experimenting with different white papers, cartridge and watercolour paper (which is very hard on my fingers).

Anyway, I should know by Thursday if my paintings were accepted for the exhibition or not, so wish me luck and send me lots of hugs if I don't make it this year.

It's the little things that make or break you some days and I found myself being inordinately wound up by things out of my control, like the amount of people in Manchester yesterday when I was rushing to the gallery, and the Jesus bands and rappers (not to offend anyone in a religious sense but it was so musically bad), ouch.

Today is a new day though, in fact each minute is a new moment (oh god I'm such a hippie:D), so lets turn this thing around, yay:D

Love y'all xxx

New Photographs on Flickr

I've just been uploading some of my photos to my Flickr site.

Click here or on my mosaic to the right to have a look at all my wonderful photo's of a wonderful year in The Far East:D

Painting in the East and playing guitar in the West:D

It doesn't happen very often but here's a rare pic of me actually playing in front of people, I know, radical!!!:D

I'm trying to take the advice of the wonderful Havi Brooks and her duck Selma, to gently expand the boundaries of my comfort zone, lol, phew.

I'm adding some pics of me and my old friend Brian painting on our travels too:D

It was such fun, even when we didn't think we'd make it through the next hour because of the intense sun and humidity.

In Laos, at one of the most beautiful temples in the world, Wat Xieng Thong, we were sat painting very early in the morning (coolest part of the day) when an older guy came and sat down with a painting he must've started the day before. He turned out to be a well known award winning painter from from Chiang Mai in Thailand. His name is Charoon Boonsuan and I talked with him and admired his painting. He was apologetic about possibly ruining my view when he set up his easel and gave us some postcards (which I must get from Brian and post them here, they're beautiful).

Lovey guy, I hope to go to Chiang Mai and visit him in the future.

Hugs to everyone xxx

White Cherry Tree and Tokyo In The Rain

I did promise to scan all my work in when I returned from Japan and put better quality images up, but alas, my new multi-function printer/scanner/photo-copier is refusing to scan. I don't understand why and I'm not happy about it and shall sit and sulk until a kind friend comes and sorts it out for me:(

Ok, sulk over for now just because I'm really excited about having finished the two watercolour paintings I've been working on and I've bought two frames today and have been cutting mounts for them and getting them ready for a competition I want to enter. The deadline's on Saturday but I still have to buy hooks and stuff and finish the framing.

Anyway, here are my finished (as far as any artwork is finished) paintings. I also really like just the left hand side of Tokyo in the rain all on it's own and I'm considering whether or not to chop it in half, any comments or opinions appreciated.

xxx

Tokyo in the rain

Well, somewhat trepidatiously I've begun painting Tokyo in the rain!! Oh how I wish I was sketching from life but I'm still here in Manchester, same weather though! I say trepidatiously because I'm not used to painting Cityscape's and it's scarily different from my usual beautiful flowers and faces (which I love painting:D)

At times I think I'm completely ruining the painting and at other times I quite like it.

It's almost at the point where I need to stop, but it's not quite there yet I think.

It's pretty much bed time now, I want to paint some more but it'll have to wait till tomorrow now.

xxx

New Painting - White Cherry Tree

So I've actually got myself together enough over the the past couple of days to make a start on a new painting!!! Why is it that most artists will put off doing the thing they love most? It's very frustrating. The things I did to avoid making a start include cooking a full on roast dinner (lamb with all the trimmings), doing masses of washing up, cleaning the bathroom floor, going shopping, watching southpark and playing guitar, anything in fact to avoid the scary void of new white paper staring back at me when I've not painted for a while.

And then I get I get started and of course I really love it:D

I Thought it was finished earlier and I took off the masking tape (I love doing that), but now I've decided to add a bit more detail to the foreground on the left hand side. The painting is of a beautiful weeping white cherry tree in the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, like most of Kyoto in cherry blossom season it gives you the feeling of stepping into a more beautiful, enchanted fairytale of a world. Have I mentioned before how much I love cherry blossom;D

Anyway, here it is so far.

xxx

Memories

It's been a good day, I 've spent most of it going through my photographs from the previous year trying to sort them out and see which ones might act as some inspiration for painting. I have over 2000 pics and I've narrowed them down to 200!

I'm planning on entering a watercolour competition, the deadline's in 3 weeks and I want to do some new work based on my travels. I've not painted for about a month so I hope I'm not too rusty.

I really enjoyed the process of sorting through everything and it bought back some beautiful memories:D

Now I'm sat listenng to my friend Dave mix his tunes and prepare his DJ set for Saturday at The Globe - Stop making Sense. I think I'm gonna be doing some dancing on Saturday night, yay for creative friends:D

Me and my mum

I've not long come back to Manchester after a visit to see my mum in Shropshire. I've not seen her for over a year as I was in japan so it was a lovely reunion and she's delighted to have me back in the country! Kazuko, my friend from Japan, has asked me to put some pics up so she can see what my mum looks like, so here goes, some pics of me and my beautiful mum in Ironbridge.

xxx

Things I love

Ok, so in my last post I mentioned the importance of the small pleasures of life and then I went and illustrated it with fabulous photo's of Mt.Fuji (known as Fuji san in Japan - Mr Fuji), which is quite a big, fantastic pleasure really. So I decided to contemplate the things that make me smile in my daily life.

I love blossom against a blue sky, wild flowers, silhouettes and shadows of trees, Helens chocolate cake with a nice cup of Earl grey, bluebells and forget-me-nots, cats (especially ginger ones!), good manners, dancing in wild abandon round my living room, live music, playing my guitar and getting the flow of a piece just right, Daves giggle, good quality heavy watercolour paper-especially with handmade crinkly edges, watching a good movie, being given a good hug by a friend, smiling at people for no reason and having them smile back, kindness, sitting on a hill in solitude, warm air on my skin, vibrant colour, delicate hues.....

The list is just endless really and so I think I'll be doing more posts on things I love:D

The beauty of life

Thomas Moore wrote that "ritual maintains the world's holiness. As in a dream a small object may assume significance, so in a life that is animated by ritual there are no insignificant things."

I am coming to realise that art and music are the rituals of my daily life that keep me sane(ish) and that give depth to my life. It can be very difficult to live a creative life in a climate that doesn't seem to appreciate it but what the hell, I appreciate it! I appreciate that I'm able and willing to create a life for myself that is creative and beautiful and rich and that I can enjoy the small things in life which can be the most beautiful. 

The difficulties are part of that, if I had no difficulties how would I ever relate to anyone, we'd have nothing in common and I'd probably be insufferable.

I'm beginning to see the extent to which we do create our lives basically, and I want to create something good:D

I shall leave you with some photo's of the stunning flowers below Mt. Fuji (shibazakura) and one of the poppy field in kurihama where I used to live.

xxx