A blissful weekend

First of all thanks so much for the responses to the last post. It is so difficult working in a void, it's really important to get objective feedback, and I couldn't agree more with the comments. In reality the case was originally intended to house a different scene. It changed at the last minute and was not sketched before hand....It was just sloppy and all over the place and unsurprising it didn't work. So its sitting, resting in the corner..One day, something will happen.

Instead, I managed to relax this weekend and just do some nice small drawings and paintings..It feels a bit like therapy when I do that. I have these big plans for things, and sometimes it's quite crushing, always trying to move them forward (There is a largish musical mechanical theatre in the making.. I hardly know what i'm doing so it's taking time to figure out how to fit it together). So I just stopped, put it on the back burner. Relax.

I fit a very full time job, lots of travel, freelance work and various other ventures around my creative life, and it can get a bit boiling-point with frustration as I do not have the time...any time... I can feel sort of frenzied and unwell when I come to try and make something. So I had to actually talk myself down from this frenzy.... So, here's some wee thingybobs. There are more, and probably more to come, but before then, a walk in the sun, maybe match some flowers in my Wild Flowers book, probably go to the local shop and buy coke and a chocolate bar and just...meander about and look at the wee lambs in the field next door...And there's some new calfs too with lovely soft wet noses. :)



I'll be updating the shop with these and more on Sunday 4th May. I hope you can make it....And before I go, 2 music links from freinds which I think are brilliant!

http://www.myspace.com/miserygutsmusic

http://www.myspace.com/theailing

Enjoy!

Shop update today and when things don't work out

Well now - the Monkey and Bear theatre appeared to be going well however - here's the back story. Generally speaking I always work out colour values for every aspect of an image/theatre before hand...Usually by doing a drawing and then digitally colouring it or using felt tips. The reason is that I always end up with one aspect not fitting with another, and then i'm stumped. The same thing happened with the new theatre. The background was fine, then I added bear and you could barely (heh) make out bear. So I put gold in the background. Fine...Then I added monkey, and the two of them seemed to come from completely different pictures. I could have sobbed... I didn't I just went and drank a glass of wine and hoped to find out the problem later on...I never did manage it. Here's some pictures!

Monkey on his own - vicious little devil eh?

Bear on her own - serene and sad


Somehow it just isn't working. It's actually driving me insane. Part of me logically realises that there are more layers to be added, more sea and also some circus bunting around the top....these things may mean it will come together. Unfortunately in a pique of - something - I ripped out the organ painting off he back and there's now a mess there....I really need to leave it alone for a bit! My other thought is that i'll repaint bear in monkey's browns and then they'll both occupy the same colours......we'll see, I don't think I can sit down with it again for a bit!

Anyway, I have some things to put into the shop in a sec. Here's a photo of the queen and I:

And! A jumping jack! He's a tatooed wonder - it's all very mystical

And finally, I leave you with a pic of monkey hanging around on the stand I use at Glasgow Craft Mafia fairs:
Hoping everyone is having an excellent weekend, i'm going to bust out of my studio and go for a walk in the sun.

Cooking, sketching, and clocks

So, I ended up getting ill in time for my time off work...so predictable! So, I did a bit of sketching and made Quick Tiramisu! Let me tell you it's amazing and very simple ingredients and since me cooking is a momentous ocassion in our house, here's the process:

250ml Whipped Cream
250gms Mascarpone Cheese
3tbsps Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
6 Tbsps Amaretto
2 cups of strong coffee
1 Packet of Lady sponge fingers (Like you use for trifles)

Make some really strong coffee (about 2 cups) and let it cool. Add 3 tbsps of the Amaretto.

Seperate the eggs, save the whites and into a seperate bowl whisk the 2 egg yolks and Caster sugar until it's thick and pale.

Blend in the Mascarpone Cheese

Fold in the whipped cream gently

Whisk up the egg whites until they form soft peaks and then fold this quickly but gently into the rest of the cream.

Add the other 3 tbsps of Amaertto into the cream mixture and make sure you don't lose any volume.

Dip the sponge fingers into the coffee/amaretto mixture for about 2 seconds, shake off excess coffee

Layer the bottom of a glass bowl with the fingers
Add a layer of the cream mixture, and repeat until you run out of sponge fingers. Finish with the last layer of cream.

Sprnke cocoa powder or drinking chocolate on the top and refrigerate for 2 hours....The longer the better actually but it will last :)

Serve with some raspberries and Consume! And if you're feeling a bit fruity, you can make this nice liquer coffee using Amaretto, Kahlua and a topping of left over whipped cream!
Excellent day which made up for illness. Some sketching:


And some progress on the clock case theatre. It's such an insanely beutiful case. I cleaned up the outside, fixed some of the gold edging. I have painted the inside and added a large star and also a constellation.....Again i'm inspired by Joanna Newsom.....


The song is pretty obvious if you look at miss bear who is one of the characters to be placed inside it :)


I will have some originals to put in the shop soon then - including 'The Queen and I' from the previous post. I will put them all up at the same time, i've heard this is better than just shoving things up willy nilly. So it'll go up on Sunday 13th :)

Toys! Exhibition

So the Toys! exhibition at Gallery 1988 began last night. I really wish i'd had more time to prepare something for it, but 'King for a day' seems happy where he is:


And I love his orange background! The toys exhibition looks great , lots of people took aprt and it even ended up on the news!
http://cbs2.com/video/?id=63691@kcbs.dayport.com

Anyway, that's all for now, back to work!