9th June 2014
The biggest gap so far? Maybe not quite. Well now I have a 3 1/2 year old and a 6 month old to use as an excuse - and used they will be, in every conceivable situation! Just starting to work again, in my lovely new studio at Victoria Works, Chalford, and wondering where the time and mental energy might come from. Think I'll need some fuel... one of Kim's cakes from downstairs maybe...
28th March 2012
From the Menier Gallery on Southward Street. Thanks to everyone who came to the opening of Eyes Shut last night - I had a great time. There's a bit of washing up to do later on... Well, here we are, a mere just-under-two-years later, and I have a just-under-two-year-old daughter to show for my absence, as well as a fine solo show, of course! Not sure what I'm up to after this one, other than getting married, having a nice party and a honeymoon, and then a trip back to Aus, most likely, later in the summer... not sure where the painting time is going to come. Perhaps I'd better make the most of my time sitting here in the gallery and get on with it now!
14th July 2010
Well it's been a while, and I'm afraid I'm only here because I'm showing my mum how you do a blog! Back from Aus, and it's all change with house moves and baby on the way... It's a trouble maker already, being due the week that my next exhibition was supposed to be, so there's been a slight change of plan, and I shall be working mainly in the medium of nappies for the next little while, before putting those aside and having an exhibition in early November 2011... Otherwise, some paintings in the Summer Exhibition in Ludlow this August and many more irons in the fire...
28th October 2009
Hello all from South Australia, where is it really quite hot, and getting hotter. We're off to the Rock formerly know as Ayers at the weekend, and it's supposed to get up to about 38ºC. Still, it is the middle of the outback, it might be a disappointment if it was just a bit tepid.
So far on our big journey there has been a lot of wandering the streets of Adelaide, looking at the nice old buildings, and even the odd moment of stopping to paint something. This morning that something was the first hotel in Adelaide (it must have been small, having a total of just six rooms and one storey). It is now opposite the Heather Somethingorother college of beauty, where many girls in bright pink t shirts come and go and learn how to be beautiful, or how to make other people beautiful (although presumably if that was the case it would be a school of beauty therapy). I like the buildings here - they remind me of ones that I have never seen, but imagine exist, in the deep south of the US. Lots of wrought iron doilies over porches where old men are reading, in the case of Mr Wednesday morning, the yellow pages. Also enjoying the street names - one for almost every friend: Charlotte Street, Kate Court, Stephens Road, Charlie Rose Terrace (those who don't have a street have a shop, for example, Max Massage), and the most brilliantly named (it must have been on purpose, right?) Cleo Lane.
Outside the city, we have stroked a koala, fed a wallaby and petted a kangaroo (albeit in a wildlife park, don't think the wild ones would take so kindly to that sort of behaviour), been slightly boggled by the sheer number of vineyards, startled by the little bit of bavaria in the Adelaide Hills, been to Brighton and walked to Hove, and eaten far too much food from here and food from there. Oooh, and we have tickets to the Australian open in January!
So there we are, I'll save further jealousy making for another day, and say bye for now.... Byeee.
Sometime in September, just, 2009
Oh dear, it really has been too long, hasn't it. Still, the next updates will be coming thick and fast, because we're off to Australia in ten days time (aaaaah so much to do), and I intend on making you all extremely jealous with great regularity! I'm sure I'm not really that cruel - actually I imagine there'll be a great deal of "oh my God it's so hot - can't go outside between the hours of 6am and 8pm" or "Sydney: dust storm" and the like.
But back to now - I'm at Glenarm for my exhibition, Journeys, at James Wray & Co. Thanks so much to all of you who came over - hope you had as much fun as I did. And for those of you who didn't, well... you had to be there.... or you could just look at the gallery's website and see the pics. They'll be up here sometime soon too. I can't think what else to say - damn, and I thought I'd avoided the running theme. Or was the running theme about me forgetting how to update the site? It's been so long that I've forgotten! One of the many reasons my mind is blank is that these few days are my catch up and r & r days between what's been a long stretch of working really quite hard getting things ready for the exhibition, and the final sprint of packing up to go away, as a result of which I slept for nearly 12 hours last night and woke up feeling like a... well, to get in the Aussie mood, a wombat that's had one too many fermented carrots.
So on that note I'll leave you for the moment, and return again when in a land far, far away...
28th May 2008
Rather than the usual I can't remember what I'm doing entry, here's one with some actual news... I've just got myself a nice new studio, not far from home in NW London, which means I'll be able to do some of the bigger things I've been wanting to do for a while. And hopefully it'll generally give me a bit of a prod to work a bit harder.... The other exciting bit of news is that my next solo exhibition will be at James Wray & Co., in Belfast, hopefully in late spring next year (assuming the studio has the desired effect!). It's a great space and a lovely gallery, so should be fun.
Mind you, although I can, for once remember what I'm doing in terms of updating the website, I'm not without my customary dopiness today. Yesterday I went off to collect a parcel from the Royal Mail Sorting office, having looked it up on the rac's routefinder, only to wander round for a couple of hours, come home defeated, and find that I'd put in the wrong postcode by a couple of digits. Today, dog in tow, I walked to the place where the sorting office actually is (about an hour's walk there and back), only to find I'd forgotten my ID, and wasn't allowed to take the parcel away. Ho hum.
Otherwise, life is good, dog is bad, and I hope you're all having fun.
16th March 2008
I have a feeling that there's going to be a running theme to these blog entries: every time I make one I'm either trying desperately to remember how to update my website or feeling triumphant that I've worked it out. In this case, it's the former, so whether this and the new photos and things will remains to be seen. Actually, having looked down at the last entry, there was a bit in there about running themes, only interestingly it's a different theme this time (last time it was cold - I'm sure I could continue that one if I wanted to, it's a horrid day out there).
Well, I've just had my exhibition in London, which seemed to go pretty well. Lots of red dots, lots of deliveries to be made, and feeling slightly in need of a little holiday. Apologies to anyone who didn't get an invite; I probably did send you one (I know of a disturbing number that I know I sent and which never made it). Anyhow, it was all lots of fun, and now.... I'm off to Belfast on Tuesday, hopefully to arrange the Next Thing.... More to follow on that in due, if not prompt, given past form, course.
A quick hello to everyone who was at the St Anne's 10 years thingy last night, and I hope you didn't get stuck on the M40 on the way home like I did, and now I'm off to try to work out how to put the new pics where I want to put them...
22nd October 2007
I have conflicting emotions at the moment: I'm ashamed that it's taken me so long to update my website, smug that I've remembered how to do it at only the second attempt, and astonished to see that I've had just over 12,000 hits since July. I can only assume that most of those are little crawlers and bits of spyware and the remaining few hundred are you nice people.
There seems to be a bit of a theme to these entries. Once again there's cold involved, although this time I don't have one, but am pretty well frozen. I just got back from a lovely weekend away to find that I'd not only forgotten to leave the heating on at all, even a little bit, but had also left the fridge open, thus leaving myself with a flat at a very hygienic 4 degrees or so. God knows what the electricity bill will be like.... And if my typing is somewhat eccentric, I blame it on the fact that my fingers are so cold they won't move properly. Maybe it's warmer in the fridge....
I'm not quite sure what I should write in this blog. Random thoughts about this and that, and a little work related Stuff, I suppose. But it's a bit difficult, because it's public, so I can't write anything too scurrilous or gossipy, and I don't want to be nasty about anyone. I don't want to say too much about what I'm doing either (apart from the fact that it's brilliant!), because then it wouldn't be a surprise. So are vague generalisations about nice flowers and clouds and sunrises (of which there was a spectacular one in Somerset this morning) the order of the day? Ooh. Here's something: I went to see a great exhibition the other day, of Julian Perry's work at the Austin/Desmond gallery in Great Russell Street. It's on for another few weeks, so go and have a look if you get the chance. Great pics of soon to vanish crumbling allotment sheds and the like. Phew! On that relieved note, I'm going to go and make my supper, but be warned, now that I know I know how to update this without having to upload the whole site again, I'll be back, and soon....
Oh, before I go, I should say I've just arranged my next couple of exhibitions, and so am part excited and part panicked! The first will be a group show at the Cavehill Gallery in Belfast around the end of November/beginning of December this year. The second will be a solo show at Gallery 54, Shepherd Market, next March. More on those to come....
2nd July 2007
At this very moment I am sitting, with a cold, designing a website (guess which one). I can think of more interesting things to write about, but at the moment I have this website to design, so that'll have to wait. Future blog entries will, I hope, be both longer and more entertaining.