Flowers ahoy

My back is much better now - ok, it still hurts like hell, I lie in bed like a beetle on it's back rolling around trying to fling myself out, but where I was on monday night was unbearable, and now I am tottering around.

I have help of course

This mainly consists of him leaping in front of my feet and making me grateful to get through the day in one piece.

During back-nightmare I managed to stop painting/sitting up long enough to watch the entire first season of The Wire, and read/gorge on Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber & Other Stories. If you haven't read that or any of her other works yet and if you like fairy tales, dreams, sensuous language and the darker side of the human soul then I envy you discovering her.

Anyway, there's only so many DVD's and books a woman can read without boredom. So I rigged up some semi-vertical board to paint on and keep my back stretched long.

I couldn't hold on any longer.


I think you can click this one to see details...though the photo is tragic quality again, I give up with the photographing.


She'll be stting in the clock case eventually

Something bad and something lovely

Reading back through my previous posts it's ironic now that I use the word 'hunched' to describe my position when painting. It really is a crabbity crouched posture, and the last few days I started paying for it. What began life as a slightly annoying throb after standing up from my drawing table has now almost completely debilitated me. I can walk a bit, I can sit down but standing up afterwards is dreadful. It seems likely that i've pushed a disc out - I won't know for sure until I go and get it checked out tomorrow.

Worst of all - the only thing I can do is relax and lie down while an unfinished painting sits in the hallway begging for a bit of muddy cyan on the wings.

Hopefully it won't be long before i'm back on, well, my back.

Meanwhile, in my ridiculous shuffling state, a new tennant was brought around by the lovely people at the Cat Protection Agency. His name's Nacho, he's about 4 but noone can say for sure because he's been living as a stray. He's quite a big cat, handsome to look at and incredibly freindly.

A new collage

I've been messing around with some new exciting ideas for my website, and part of that lead to me obsessively cutting each thing i've painted out from it's background using photoshop. My boyfreind watched me doing this laborious task on my laptop last night for about 2 hours and finally said 'You realise that's very anal don't you?', but if you want to do a thing, then you do it properly right? That's not anal is it? :)

Anyway, I also put quite a large collage together as a result of some of my obsessive cutting. It's going to be available as a limited print on a large A3 sheet of Hahnemuhle paper.




Today it's actually quite fine outside, and this always happens when i'm getting ready to spend the entire day indoors hunched over some panel...And that's exactly what I plan to do :) I have somethings to do on a commission and i'm going to try and revisit the old clock case I abandoned earlier this year. Rather than anything theatrical I am going to try some painting inside it...we'll see.

Update later and a wee painting

I'll be updating the shop later with one of the capes I made and a wee painting i've been mosying around with today.

It's been funny weather as I said in the last post but I am starting to enjoy the rain. This has happened to me once before about 5 years ago living in London. Some overnight, unplanned for switch occured and suddenly I loved the rain and the dark drizzly evenings. It's happening again at the moment, which is just as well.

Here's the little painting

Some more - capes?

Well, finally this weekend the sun has come out. It was alleged to be raining according to the weather man, but in Britain meterological science might as well be a case of seeing if the cows are lying down(rain), whether the sky is pink at night(sunny), whether you're getting a funny head(thunder) . It's really no wonder we're obsessed by the weather. The last few weeks it's been torrential rain/grey mist/roasting hot/blasting wind/suffocating stillness.

However, after all that, the sun is here and of course I celebrated by not going out at all but instead hunkering over bits of suede and old beads and sewing till my finger tips hurt.


The white cotton is very old, as usual, I prefer old fabric to new, even a bit stained and water-ruined. It's all pleated around a beaded and painted suede neck band.


The full effect can be a bit too much for going out but under a nice tux jacket it's dressed down and looks very nice.Some details. It's not finished, I want to do some more beading and painting and then i'll line it....Lining things is not something I enjoy. For a start I tend to hand sew - I have a sewing machine but I can't stand the noise or the aggressive march of stitches - It's daft I know. So everything takes forever, especially lining, and it has no aesthetic effect on the outside, so for me it's utterly boring.



Detail of the black pleated cotton neck - what? I don't know what to call it at all.


Some attempt at professionalism there. It's actually a nice little technique I aw in the Craft zine. Just take t-shirt transfer and iron it onto ribbon. It really works well!



This also looks nice and quite dressed down under a black jacket, however I don't have a picture of that as my camera started to flash it's 'I'm dying' light. This one is the only one really finished. The others all need some manner of finishing (the dreaded lining!)