Merry Christmas Everyone and a happy new year!

How lovely it is to have a few days just doing nice things like eating good food, having lazy mornings in bed and giving and opening pressies:D

My gorgeous man, Matthew, has bought a new laptop for me and I'll be moving house again soon to somewhere less expensive, so i'll be able to afford to be online at home and keep up with my blog and stuff much more easily!

I think I've mentioned before how I usually really struggle in the winter, I hate the cold and the unrelenting greyness, but so far this winter I'm feeling very positive and excited about the upcoming new year, maybe I'm finally suceeding in changing my habitual thinking patterns, wouldn't that be great :D

Christmas day at Matthews sisters house. Me cuddling their new dog, a gorgeous cocker spaniel called Bruno.

Some new work, Falling Cherry Blossom at a shrine in Kyoto.

 Details from Falling Cherry Blossom at Heian Jingu, one of my fave shrines in Kyoto.

The full painting, it makes me feel happy but nostalgic for my year in Japan as cherry blossom season in Kyoto is one of the beautiful things I've ever seen. It rendered me into an excited little girl who finds herself suddenly transported into her favourite fairy tale. I intend to do a whole series of falling cherry blossom paintings just for the fun and beauty of it all.

xxx

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

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

Japan I miss you!!

My time in Japan was a really wonderful experience. That's not to say it was always easy, sometimes it was a struggle being away from my family and friends and all the things I love about home. On the whole though, I have absolutely no regrets about my decision to go away for a year and I couldn't have chosen a better place. Everyone is so friendly and warm, there is virtually no street crime or intimidation and therefore as a girl travelling on her own it's a wonderful feeling to not have to worry about all that crap.

Of course it's also very beautiful and has managed to keep hold of many of it's traditions whilst fully embracing the future. I'm sure there are problems when you delve deeper, nowhere is Utopia (yet!) but I sure had a fabulous time and was blown away by the generosity and warmth I found there. I wholeheartedly recommend a year in Japan to anyone genuinely interested.

My next few posts are just going to be lot's of my photos I think, of friends made and missed and everything I found beautiful:D

xxx

I love RRRoom

I'm so lucky to have found this great cafe called RRRoom in Yokosuka Chuo where the food is great, the company wonderful and the music sublime!!! Is there anything better than good music, people and food!! I don't think so but let me know if you think differently. My friends, Krishna and Ali, found this place by accident whilst looking for the library. I go there for a meal every week or two and meet up with some new friends. They also have a great selection of books to look through whilst you sit and drink their fabulous freshly ground coffee, mmmm, heaven.

On Jan 4th they had a mochi (traditional Japanese rice cakes) pounding party, where we all took turns to pound the rice to make it really glutinous and sticky, and then the chef, Koji, made some wonderful toppings for it using, amongst other things, Daikon and Kinako. It was a beautiful sunny day and very enjoyable to be outside eating! I was ther with Krishna and we were talking about how no-one does this kind of thing in England, there's not really a strong sense of community any more like there seems to be in Japan.

I love winter in Japan! Any friends back home reading this I'm sorry for the shock of that sentence! I surely never thought I'd utter the words 'love' and 'winter' in the same breath but there's a first time for everything:D

Winter in Japan is totally different from winter in England. In Japan it's sunny with clear blue skies almost every day!! In England it can get horribly grey and depressing.

Also, I've recently discovered that on a clear day I can see Fuji san (mt. Fuji) from my local park, Kurihama flower garden! How cool is that!!!!

Love and light xxx

Autumn in Kurihama

Another beautiful day here in Japan, I can't believe it's nearly december already!
Although I have a nasty cold bug at the minute I could not resist the call of the sunshine and fresh air. I was planning to go to Kamakura today to get my fix of Autumn colours and temples but I've postponed it until i'm feel better.

Instead I opted for a walk around Kurihama Flower Garden, no temples but plenty of lovely, subtle autumnal shades.

I also got some nice shots of the walk down by the river with all the reflections.

Enjoy xxx

Bubbles and blue skies in Yokohama

Yesterday I went to Yokohama to see some of the art in the Yokohama Triennale. I wanted to see the boy diving into the pool (by Elmgreen and Dragset) but I followed the bubbles and got sidetracked!!

The bubbles in question were an exhibit outside the Yokohama Museum of Art and I happened upon them by accident with perfect timing! The sun was shining, the sky was blue and never have I seen such a happy art exhibit:) Lots of bubbles, rainbow colours and happy kids (and adults), everyone smiling.

Please have a look at the short video I took on my digital camera (to the right of this post).

I've also added a couple of new vids from my youtube page, hope you enjoy them.

xxx

New work in progress

A short and hopefully sweet post to share with you what I'm currently working on. The first two pics are of the Tanabata festival held here in Japan during July, the festival centres around the tale of star crossed lovers who get turned into stars separated by the milky way and can only see each other once a year. The temples and streets are very colourful at this time as children make brightly coloured banners and write their wishes on strips of paper that are then tied to a bamboo branch.

The first picture, which I'm tentatively calling Autumn Girl, is a spontaneous, unplanned painting which, if I'm honest, I'm not sure what to do with next! Any suggestions?

xxx

Sugimotodera Temple

Sugimotodera temple is a small and very dark temple at the top of some stone steps up the hill in Kamakura. I have photos of the the outside but you're not allowed to take photos inside the temple, which was my favourite bit. It's so atmospheric inside, it's wooden and old and feel's like another time. I knelt at one of the Buddha statues just as there was a lull in voices, so I felt really quiet and still. Some of the Buddha images are difficult to see because of the dimmed lighting but that only added to the sense of mystery and stillness. It also smells deeply of incense, one of my favourite smells!

Small, dark and beautiful!

Kaii Higashiyama

Another Japanese artist that I'm really drawn to at the moment is Kaii Higashiyama. I work at two schools in Japan and in both of the staff rooms they have the same print up by him. I'm not sure what it's called but you can see it above, it's the one with the white horse. The two photos of his work in-situ is from a temple in Nara, the ancient capital of Japan.

I'd love to see his work close up and in the flesh, apparently his paintings are pretty big. What draws me to his work is the feeling of serenity he evokes, my mind feels more silent when I look at his work. That's a rare gift.

If I manage to get some better quality pics at some point in the future then I'll be sure to share them.

Hope you like them. xx