A Little Trip Out

This week the children have their school half term break, so the house has been filled with sounds of piano playing and smells of biscuit baking.
The sky has been really showing off, wearing the most amazing clouds and colours.

Its been a week of recharging batteries. A time to visit special places.Today, a visit to Gloucester cathedral.
It was snowing and icy cold.

Luckily inside was lovely and warm and we wandered around drinking in history and inspiration for two hours, fuelled in between by a mug of hot chocolate and slice of cake in the coffee shop. I won't go into too much detail about the cathedral, as you can read  about it here. But here are my photos of things that inspired me.

  The hand painted ceilings and walls.

 Beautiful  lettering on stone and stained glass

Cold stone faces

Everything reminded me of how much I love medieval colours.

 

And this marble hand was so beautiful, I just had to keep touching it.

 

  

 

I've always been in love with stained glass and here of course it is everywhere.

But this window below wove a magic spell over all of us.It's by local stained glass artist Tom Denny

My small camera couldn't capture how beautiful it really was. It needs to be seen! You must go and see it, if you are not far away. It's simply stunning.

A different kind of magic crept into our visit too. The cathedral has been used numerous times as the film set for the Harry Potter films. Here are 'my two' standing in the passage where the message written on the wall proclaimed..... "The Chamber of secrets has been opened"

They enjoyed exploring, seeking out the different areas that had been used in the films, and so did I.

To finish our trip off and because it was snowing, (as in the story) how could we resist a wander, just a few steps from the cathedral to a rather famous address. Number 9 College Court. A little shop just off Westgate Street that once belonged to an old Tailor his cat and some very clever mice.

My favourite Beatrix Potter story. :)

Gold On Fur And Some Old Work

This morning golden sunlight on golden fur. As if to fool me into thinking it's the warmest of  summer days outside.

It is bitter cold outside. Blades of grass are sugared  with frost and the water in the bird bath is solid again.

I cocoon myself in scarf, hat, gloves and coat to venture out into the garden. A bunch of snowdrops and to defrost the bird bath, my small mission. It's thirsty work when you are a bird preparing to build a nest. Flitting branch to branch and darting from tree to hedge, I've been watching them from my window as I work.

There is new growth in the garden. Among the dry browns, a new primrose and a single bluebell  emerge.

 And back indoors, it doesn't take long for the snowdrops to open up.

I have started a new painting on canvas and will be back to show you pictures very soon......

In the mean time and because I haven't any new work to show you today. Here are two old paintings of mine which were done for a personal picture book project, a few years back. It got abandoned in dummy book form when I was told by publishers that the illustration style was too old fashioned looking? I also felt my story wasn't strong enough.

 I'm thinking of going back to the one below as I'm not quite happy with it.  The sky needs darkening down a little and the tree needs more work too. Then, if it turns out ok I might make it available as a print?

What do you think? :)

Hares In The Cold. Aceos And Moss Green

I've been out in the cold, this week. In the shed where the saw lives, cutting out some wooden hares.
Once they were cut out and drilled, then came my favourite part. Sitting in the warm, next to my little heater, listening to music and bringing them to life.

They have been painted, highlighted with gold and adorned with beads bells and ribbon.
And are almost ready for their journey by photograph to the Etsy shop.

I've also been playing around with paints, and this was the result of Monday evenings play.

An ACEO sized acrylic painting on watercolour paper titled 'Sweet Rest' which will also be for sale.

Today I needed to get out in the fresh air and stretch my legs. The woodpecker was tapping  and the spring song of blackbirds preparing to nest. I needed a breath of green.

 Velvet moss.

 Just like the elusive velvet moss green coat that I have been hunting for forever....

Tommorow will be a trip to town for various bits and pieces and a long overdue book browse in the charity shops. I think I have to, or I could well become a hermit here?

Moon Effects

Yesteday was an odd day. Maybe it was the effects of a full moon?

Throughout the day the weather constantly changed.  It started dull and grey, then the sun came out and I felt sure I'd see a rainbow when the rain began to fall. I didn't. An hour later the hail began to tap against the window. After lunch the clouds on the horizon looked like mountain peaks covered in snow and the bluest of clear skies appeared. Thats it for the day I thought, but how wrong can one be when two hours later there was a blizzard of snow outside? Things were very strange and if I had seen owls flying past in daylight and strange people resembling wizards in  long robes I wouldn't have blinked an eye.

I didn't, just incase you are wondering ;)
The sky cleared again and it was the most beautiful clear night with the brightest full moon. So beautiful we just had to go for a short walk in the garden at 11pm on frosted grass. When we came in we needed icecream.
Yes, I think a full moon can sometimes have a strange effect on things.
Not on these hearts though....

As this time, the new heart hangers listed in the shop are moonless....

Some Hearts For January

I heard Spring in the song of the birds today.
In the garden, we have the first snowdrops in flower.
As the sun set the sky tinged with pink as though to remind me its still very much Winter.

I love winter bare branches against twilight skies.
    

 They remind me of illustrations from a thorny fairy tale world of sleeping beauty and forests to lose your way in as Hansel and Gretel did.

I 've spent most of this week indoors here..

Painting things...

The Green woods

Step carefully through forests of green. 

Ancient twisted branches hide secrets that they long to tell & share.

'Snowlight'

When the snowlight day was dimming, dizzy dancing flakes had fell.

I spied him leap a jig and jump. There were stars beneath his feet...

'Dream in Starlight'

Be still and dream in starlight. Be silent and listen well.

Follow your heart wherever it may wander. Be true

 

Each of these hearts will shortly be for sale in my Etsy shop, so if you are interested pop across and visit.

I have 5 more cut out, ready and waiting to be done, so I think this week will be much the same as last.

Is it me, or is January just flying by?

Just Past Midnight

Its just past midnight...

.

Time for bed, but I thought I'd just leave a short note here about something that is for sale in my Etsy shop. Earlier this year, you may remember I did this picture 'here' for Illustration Friday. I have decided to sell the original and give all money from it to the Haiti earthquake appeal. If you are interested please go and take a look 'here'.
Sweet dreams.
See you soon x

Through The Wardrobe A Little Blue Dress And A Blue Moon

Stepping outside this morning I really wouldn't have been at all surprised to see Mr Tumnus walking up the garden path.

In fact, I was rather hoping I might?...
A fresh covering of snow fell overnight and how beautiful it looked once again. With weather such as this, you may have gathered by now, that I find it very hard to sit still and concentrate at my desk. So, just for a 'little' while, jobs inside came to a stand still once again.

Instead I went through the wardrobe so to speak, on an enchanting woodland walk.

Every step I took and each corner I turned, I captured it through my lens.

I took many many pictures and have lots of wonderful reference material for future paintings.

Meanwhile on the other side of the wardrobe, back home. Earlier this week you may have noticed a couple of new items listed for sale in my Etsy shop.

          Luna Fox with a Valentine heart 

And

A Hare Wearing A Little Blue Dress

And finally this evening, feeling refreshed from my walk. :) I finished my first painting of 2010...

I've named it 'Wishing On A Blue Moon' and it will be available to buy as a print later this week.

xx

White Magic And Rose Trees

Enjoying the warmth from my little radiator at my desk I sit. Listening to gentle music, planning ideas for new work and lists in my head of things that I hope to fit into 2010. All is peaceful. The children are back at school. Its their first day back. Titanium white touches new canvas.

                                                 

 Characters to breathe life into.

But outside a different tale was beginning. A whisper, a hush song, the gentle falling and gatherings of white bees.

That smell of cold and ice, travelled far from the north. She was finally paying us a visit.
By the morning the Snow Queen had painted her own canvas.

And what a masterpiece she created.

School was closed, my painting suspended, and off to find hills we walked. To sledge, with all manner of transport, toboggans, plastic feed sacks, dune boards, inflatable lilos, rubber rings and body boards.
What fun we had.

The Snow Queen has to be  my all time favourite fairytale.
I have loved it from the age of six, when I received this book for Christmas.

 I loved the illustrations, (By a lady named Pauline Hohly) especially this front cover.
And Jan and Gerdas window box gardens with minature rose trees growing in them.

Even now, whenever I see minature standard roses I always still think of the Snow Queens story.
There are so many beautifully illustrated versions of the story around now. I won't show you them all as you can hunt them all down online. But I do have this version here,  Illustrated by Errol Le Cain which I think is beautiful.

If you love the tale too you might like the quite recent BBC adaption featuring the music of Paul K Joyce.
I have both the cd and dvd and every winter, I listen and watch. (you can find it on Amazon through my link on the left side and find more about it here)

So, I have no 'new' finished work to show and school is closed again tommorow.
But we will enjoy the white magic while it lasts.
xx