Hello from Sunday night. Wotcha doin? I've been printing my head off!

Hi everyone,It's been an intense and working summer for me so far.Made even more so because I was determined to finish my internship/probationary period at my Oxford Printmakers Guild.So every Tuesday and Saturday I have been walking into Oxford from the park and ride with a small rolling suitcase full of papers, tools, inks and ideas, and organising those ideas out on a table.Then I would tear up my papers to size and get them soaking before anything else.Then I would ink up my plate, wipe the ink off, make a guide for registration, put the plate into one of the old industrial presses, grab one of my soaked papers, blot it off, lay it on the plate, and......cover it with tissue and the felt blankets, and run it thru.I also learned to do soft ground etchings on copper plates.I did three of these plates. So far it's the most exciting and fulfilling plate making intaglio process, but I have to master aquatints yet. Those I think I'd love to pieces.Here is a print of one of these soft ground plates.This is the second one. The twigs were harder to run thru the press than the ferns were.This is a small selection of plates you can see. I made copper plates, zinc, aluminium ones and even some plastic drypoint etchings.Of course, all this came with a great big investment in new tools and materials...as is often the case, but the end result is so wonderful. Here is a registration try at three moth prints.This is the third soft ground copper plate I made. All of these copper plates are supporting my wish to show how wild animals survive and adapt in the urban heat island that is our city scape.Of course, the worst thing about printing is that you have to flatten your prints between tissue and leave them for a few days to dry! No coming home right away with beautiful works of art!But then, there's always a new plate to make at home in the meantime.I was in London recently and the trip led me to make a plate of some London tube mosquitos on a piece of aluminium I got from Robert.They're really interesting. They've evolved to stay in the tube station and not hibernate, to breed all year long instead of seasonally, they have a fresh and adequate supply of blood all year long, and they've separated into different genomes because they cannot travel thru the tubes, (except in the train itself), and there is no need for them to go outside. A whole bunch of subspecies which live and die and evolve different characteristics underground.I'm waffling on, but here is the print.Hope you like this art.Talk soon(er)

Adieu April showers, bring on the May flowers!

Hi everyone,This was going to be a hello from Sunday night post, but then I didn't think I had much to say (past the car boot sale on Sunday) and then I thought that maybe I wanted Monday to finish up some art to show you and that turned to Tuesday...and there you are!Typical me.Do you remember last post when I was at the Burford garden center?I fell in love with a few books, but they cost about $60 Canadian dollars each, so I looked for them on the UK Amazon where they were only about $15 each and I ordered two of them.They are the most gorgeous books. Complete house porn!I could live in each and every farmhouse in the Farmhouse book and not change a thing, (except for one which is decked out in purple and black Goth. The Goth would have to go,) and the second book has such stunning photography that each page is more gorgeous than the next.My sublimation printing is coming along really well and I'm getting the hang of the material.So far I've figured out that I love the blending of the dyes wet on wet in a semi-controlled manner, and I like a little sharper outline.I've also figured out that I love overlapping the prints for a deeper effect than I could ever get with paints.A few days ago I decided to deconstruct some flowers and try to print them back together.I got four flower petals printed and something else came up.But today I managed to finish this little piece of art.I painted more flower petals today and printed them on.It's always a bit deceptive to see the colours painted as opposed to how the colours turn out when sublimated, but I'm getting used to it.Here is my deconstructed flowers piece.I really like it.This is the first piece...after about seven...where I think I'm onto a style I like.In other art news, I ordered some oil based printing inks and I love, LOVE them to pieces.There may not be any going back to water-based inks for me!The downside is that the print takes a full three days for the ink to dry, so printing with oil-based inks will be a slow process.I also ordered three vintage piano rolls from player pianos and one of them I designated for practice.I carved this rather large moth from lino and printed it on the music rolls.There we are!I love it.When this idea comes together it will be a scroll depiction of the peppered moth turning from a white with black mottling moth to an almost black moth thru the pollution of the industrial revolution, back to a whiter moth post-revolution. Darwin's natural selection in art.I think I will incorporate some graphics and drawings on the scroll too.On Sunday I went to the first car boot sale of the season.I had so much fun running around the three rows. It was a small boot sale because it was just so darn cold and the wind chill made it even colder and the ever-present rain clouds kept threatening, but the reality was that an F1 race was on Sunday afternoon, and that just left 45 minutes for me to run around the boot sale if I wanted to get home in time for the start.And I sure did! It was one of the best races we've seen! Complete mayhem.Anyway, I did find some treasures and only spent about $11.First is this beautiful teapot.It's a vintage Aston Pottery teapot and I love to collect Aston pottery, (the bespoke potters in Aston village very close to us.) I have a whole bird series of teacups which will look lovely with this teapot. And, it has cowslips on it...which are growing all over the hedgerows and meadows right now. I love them.I bought this hand-hewn wooden bowl and five stone eggs about the size of goose eggs.I love crystals and stones and I love hand carved wood of all kinds.This little bowl needs a good cleaning and polishing and moisturizing with some lovely bee's wax, and it needs a little gold to fill a small hole in its side. A sort of kintsugi Veronica style.And the last thing I got at the boot sale are these two large burlap pillows. I loved them! I couldn't help it.Rule Britannia...or something like that. :DHappy May Day friends. I hope May brings you flowers in your little corner of the old globe.

A September roundup

Hi again,I've just been looking thru my photos of the past week and, oh my word, we've done a lot.Also, because we've been so busy, I haven't been keeping up with my posts, so now that we're into October, I thought it was time for a roundup round here.Robbie is still in Vancouver, which is lovely for us,and, with his help, I've been managing to work thru some tough decisions I have to make.One easier decision is guessing the right time to return my indoor plants indoors.I love letting them have an outdoor holiday over the summer, and I think they thrive more when they come back inside for the winter.I'm also trying to gauge the right time to protect some less hardy plants which have to stay outside, like this phormium, a few scented geraniums, and two red bananas.Last Friday was the last Shipyards Market for the season.Not being here for the prime three months of the market season, we only really got a few Fridays in, but they were fun to the max.We came down for supper.We'd walk around all the food trucks and usually pick our favourite fish and chips.Then a little ice cream or a sweet treat for dessert.And then we would stay till closing, watching the city sparkle, listening to the band and having a little dance.There hasn't been much time for art lately, which I know is bad, but my therapy journal workshops have started again and it's so lovely to see all my old friends who love to come journal with me and some new friend who can benefit from my approach.In other news, I prepared several wood panel paintings for a demonstration and practical class for Culture Days at the Arts Council.I love supporting my local arts council, and, face it guys, if you don't support your local arts culture in your town, what will you have?I had a full class with 20 people signed up and several more on the waitlist.I taught them some collage and painting and transfer techniques which they can apply to wood panels and possibly enter the anonymous show at the Arts Council, which will be held at the end of October.If you'd like to enter this show, (and there's plenty of time), then the info is here. My last year's post about this show is here.I supplied some ephemera, prints of my bird sketches, transparent paper and matte medium, and the council supplied the rest.We only had an hour and half together, but everyone did a brilliant job!The other news in our world is that we have been seriously contemplating a move out of North Vancouver into the country, but we're not sure where.Somewhere where there is a bit of land, not too far out of the city, not on a busy road, in the sunshine, with some trees, barns, a pond or stream or waterway......oh, and did I meantion that I want to take the hosue with me?Crazy as it seems, I'm contemplating moving not just us, but the whole house and garden because I know full well that my beautiful Craftsman house will be bulldozed down to make way for a modern duplex on this lot the minute I sell it. Furthermore, all the garden plants, which I've saved from local construction sites in the first place, will be lost to the bulldozer too! I just can't bring myself to allow that.So as crazy at it seems, we might be in for a new adventure.But then, there's nothing new about that with us, is there? :D

Second day back in Vancouver and all hands on deck for an art show!

It sounded like such a fun idea at the time!My lovely friend Camila, of the NV Arts Council, invited me to exhibit my art at the Music in the Park festivalAnd I thought, "jet lag be damned!"So, completely ignoring sleep deprivation at the moment, I put on my best Music Festival dress, hitched my posse into service......and headed out to the festival.This is Capilano River Regional Park and the Vancouver watershed and reservoir. What a glorious park. One of my favourite parks in the Lower Mainland.And here are the artist's and maker's tents.Robert and Chloe were great. They helped me drag everything out of the car and set up and then naffed off back home to have a rest.So paintings on display......sketchbooks open for inspection and fresh flowers, (thanks to the amazing Clove) ......and an interactive painting on offer......I sat back behind my tables and painted some merlins....within a few minutes and festival was open and loads of people started to come by.Music was playing all day and people were invited to dance.There was so much to see and do!I must say that sitting in the pink shade of a red tent is very flattering! I think we should all bring our own pink light with us everywhere we go. :DEveryone seemed to love my little birdies.I got so busy talking to people about my art that soon it was 4pm and the festival was winding down and I hadn't even popped round to meet any of my fellow exhibiting artists and makers.Robert and Chloe came back to help me pack up and I left them in charge while I ran around and visited.Here is some beautiful bead work by Tetiana ZarubaLook at this beautiful dreamy, creamy pottery by John Winkler.I really loved these great birds by Elizabeth Austin.These beautiful plein air paintings by Maria Josenhans took my breath away.Some beautiful stonework by Jocelyne Dodier. She was so busy with tons of children trying their hand at stone carving. We talked about how I still have my children's elementary school soapstone carvings. We thought that probably every parent does...lolHere is some work by Christine Hood of Huges and Co.This is by Cydney Eva from Pattern Nation.Cydney also made this interactive art for the children.Huge clouds of reclaimed material stuffed with balloons. The kids have the best time with them.So the music played on and the people enjoyed it to the last song.And then it was time to pack everything and go home.But before I did, I took a photo of the interactive canvas I had going.This started as a collage of vintage ephemera with a few outlined birds and evolved in this amazing collaborative piece.Birdies everywhere.I really loved being here with all these people in this beautiful park this Labour Day.Now to catch up on my sleep. :D

Lately round here. Birch and Tili Box cosmetics, lunch, life in the village, and art. A bit of random.

Hi everybody,It seems like the three months of me in Europe have flown by in the blink of an eye, but here we are in the ebb of August and most of my thoughts and efforts are turned to getting projects done here at West Cottage before I return to Vancouver in September.Hence, very little blog postage!So I was looking at my pathetically small collection of photos from this week and have managed to put together this little post.Thing one I wanted to tell you about is my great and rather inexpensive experiment with subscription beauty box samples!Oh my gosh, I may have been sucked into the Birch Box for July and August and the Tili special edition box.Now, I'm no beauty blogger, and, as a matter of fact, think that by the time you get to your fifties you probably really should know what it takes to make you feel and look your best, but it's always fun to try something new. Samples are just ideal, aren't they, because this stuff is really expensive these days. Who wants to spend a fortune on products which you may or may not like?Here's the inside of the Tili box.Overall, it's great fun.The box was supposed to come with a lovely, baby pink OPI nail polish, but this teal one was included instead. Fine with me because they do say they may have to substitute, and anyway my teen neighbour Stephanie loved the teal, so everyone was happy.It got me thinking; are any of the new products so good that I would consider adding them or substituting them into my beauty routine?Here is what I'm currently using:Lush and Alba shampoos and conditioners, Kiehl's cleanser, and a thick moisturiser (rotating brands because my oily, Mediterranean skin gets too used to them). That's about it except for my always and will never be replaced coconut oil for everything and Retinol for rebuilding collagen.The verdict is that none of my existing products are going anywhere, but these three are great additions.I really love them.In the makeup section, my Charlotte Tilbury mascara is definitely losing out to the new Benefits Roller Lash and I think I will switch. But the new Meech and Mia eyebrow pencil is definitely not as good as my Anastasia one.And as for concealers or foundations or powders, I rarely use any, but my Dior powder foundation is so translucent and perfecting, that it's superior to anything in the world...except maybe Bobbie Brown's tinted moisturiser (for those not so great skin days), that none of the foundation samples can't even come close.There you go. Me with new makeup.Lastly, my hair...even though it's slightly shorter than the usual two feet at the moment...I'm always struggling with the classic just-stuck-my-finger-in-the-electric-socket look caused by the hard Oxfordshire water, which Robert affectionately calls the "Darth Vader's helmet" look. So, I decided to try hair extension and I am planning to start with The Lauren Ashtyn Collection.Despite miracle promises, texturizing sprays, anti-ageing shampoos and conditioners (what is that anyway?), or even dry shampoos (which are a gross powdery white and cause terrible static), nothing beats the Frizz Ease.So the Frizz Ease is in and the rest of these products are coming back to Van for Chloe to give them a try. On the other hand, my clean and pure Vancouver water might just make some of these viable. (Except for the dry shampoo. That stuff is just gross.)We had some friends drop by to spend last Sunday with us, and the weather cooperated enough that we could have lunch in the garden.The Wednesday before, I spied these lovely 1940s art deco dishes at the thrift store and thought they would be fun for our lunch table and so bought them.As it turns out, I love them to bits. There were only three lunch plates and so I bought a green transferware plate to mix and match.Our friends came over and we thought it would be fun to go to the car boot sale before lunch and each of us buy a silly tea mug for a maximum of 50 pence.Here is our selection!That Incapability Brown is my choice!Do you all know Capability Brown, the greatest garden and landscape designer of the Victorian era?Nic bought the little sheep, Sarah the Mr Strong, and Robert's is the floral cup and inside it has an infinity type swirly, wooey-wooey pattern.And Nic brought back 20 pence!While I was hunting for things at the car boot, I managed to find a fourth plate to my new art deco lunch set and a tea pot!Our Victoria plum tree...which thinks it's a grape vine...is so laden with fruit that we can't keep up. The other day I invited a strange lady to pick her fill and she took away two grocery bags worth and it hasn't even made a dent in the harvest, so I keep using them how ever I can. For our lunch I made a lovely, tart plum crumble.In other news, I had completely reorganised the third bedroom; which is, in fact, Chloe's room when she's in E. but functions as my studio.There's still a bit of cleaning up and when I get that done I can show you a better pic.And that's about it for now guys.Here is the only painting I managed to semi finish so far. It's a Eurasian Jay who I spied in Prague in June.I've really got to get cracking and produce some art in these next two weeks because I have a couple shows coming up in Vancouver in September. Yikes! Always so much to do.Got to run now. :D

Cooking and painting in my vintage painting box on this rainy day

And that was summer!...is not what we want to think round here, but overnight the lovely weather has broken and in came a day of torrential downpours.It's actually a good thing because the garden needs it.This was our view almost all day.And, although we tried to work thru it, we couldn't help but feel as tired as Theo looks.(Actually, Theo had the night shift so he had a good reason to crash all day.)Sometime during the night, the wind kicked up and pushed the curtain into my glass of water which spilled into one of the small pallets of paints I have been using on my rough-legged buzzard map. The water sat on the paints for such a long time that the paints are a bit too liquid for me to safely use on the map and so no map painting until they dry out.So while Robert got on with Medusa, I made a large pot of beef, vegetable and lentil soup, a veggie frittata, and endless cups of tea.Here, next to yesterday's homemade granola, is my current favourite tea.It's Pukka chamomile, vanilla, and manuka honey tea and it's absolutely amazing. The night time one is fantastic too, and there's also my usual rooibos Earl Grey by Dragonfly Teas. I love this rooibos tea so much. I wish it was imported to Canada, but for now it isn't and so I stock up and bring it with me.So, after a mornign of cooking I really felt like getting some work done. I did tons of office work yesterday and really felt like painting, and, with some of my watercolours out of commision for the day, I decided on a little oil painting.Robert's sister Catherine gave me this amazing vintage painting box for Christmas, (thank you so much, Catherine, I love it so much), and today was the perfect day to have some fun with it.Opened it looks like this.There are two gessoed wood panels and a palette.The palette slides out revealing a large space for my paints.I usually keep all my oils in a plastic bin, but this space is the perfect place to isolate the colours I'm using for the painting.No more digging thru the bin.And the panels slide out of grooves which keep them nestled in place.I looked around for a subject for my little study and what could be more perfect than one of my vintage ink bottles.So I made my fourth, fifth, sixth cup of tea today......sketched out the bottle and some flowers and squished a few random colours, plus some Liquin onto the palette.Soon I had a background which I loved and the outline of the bottle, and then I painted the flowers but just didn't like the complication of it all.So I rubbed it back and only painted the lavender.I like this simple little oil painting.I thought I might eventually add more of the flowers, but the more I look at it, the less likely that feels.The rain is supposed to break up overnight and hopefully, we'll get back to lovely sunshine.

Back home in Oxfordshire

Hello everyone,I'm back in OXON with Robbie and took a few days to recover, adjust and flip into UK living.Look at this little guy!Theo is so much bigger and so much gentler. Robert has him so incredibly well trained and disciplined. I'm so impressed.This week I jumped into the car and drove to the market on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car and felt very easy about it.Also this week I cleared the cobwebs out of my studio and got reacquainted with my space again.Would you like to see some new art supplies?I bought some watercolours in Slovakia, in an art store in Piestany. I bet that's the best place to sell art supplies to all the happy spa customers.These watercolours are so cool because the little pallets hook on top of each other and form a small tower with a plastic lid. So much fun.And in Prague, I bought a new set of chalk pencils. A full set with loads of exquisite colours. Believe it or not, I've never had a full set of chalk pencils in my arsenal and I use them all the time in my art.I've also brought back a ton of ephemera; old maps, old passports, documents...And this little painting, painted by a street artist in Prague. I fell in love witht he bright, happy colours.I'll find a frame for it and it will join my studio collection.It's a small but special to me collection.In it is this large, vintage oil painting I bought at the car boot sale for just a pound or two. I loved it at first sight.I feel really lucky to have one of Robert's mother's paintings in my studio hanging beside my own art.(R's mother's on left, one of my oils on right)I also have three of Robert's father's paintings here on my wall. They are all wonderful inspiration.For a primary little art session the other day, chose a map of the area where my summer cottage used to be.I looked at it for a while but the only obvious choice was to paint that bird I saw flying below me when I was looking down from Strekov Castle. I did a lot more blowing up of the three photos I managed to take of it and concluded that it wasn;t a gyrfalcon but probably a rough-legged buzzard.And so I decided to go with that and paint him.Especially when I'm dealing with an old and delicate map...this one is beyond fragile with old paper glued onto canvas...I will draw my subject on transparent paper to get it right before I place it on the map. Often these papers are a one-shot deal and there is no erasing possible.As soon as I get anywhere with this painting, I'll show you. :DIn other news!I've had the most wonderful day out with Robert at the Thames at our favourite little pub The Rose Revived.And that is because I met this beautiful girl in real life!Thsi is my friend Julie and she lives in New Zeland and writes the blog Frog Pond Farm.Julie and her husband Andrew were in the Uk visiting his father and made the drive over to us so we could meet each other in person.So we had lunch together and sat under the willows......beside Newbridge; the 13C bridge across our area of the Thames.We chatted for hours and fed left-over french fries and peas to the cygnets,and watched the narrow boats float by.

The travel journal

Hi everyone,I spent a happy hour photographing my June travel journal for you...just in case it's of any interest.Do you remember me making this late May?Well, I've been chronicling my days here with drawings, collage, snipets of this and found bits of that.It's a bit complicated and thick and folded over on itself, and so some of the pages I had to photograph twice so you would get the idea of the layout.There wasn't much thought put into this, just an organic collection of days...one after the other...just like life.Here it is and I'll try to link the posts to it.The book is bound in a vintage yellow book titled, "A Scent of New-Mown Hay" and like usual, the book came form my friend Dalyce's used book shop Booklovers.I used found paper and Mucha postcards for the pages and added two bookmark ribbons.I tied a little vintage fish, which I had around for a while, on the black ribbon, and, eventually in Piestany, I found a tag with the number 13 on it...my lucky number...and so tied that onto the burgundy ribbon.Now at the end of the month, it's a bit thick!But I have plenty of elastic bands to keep it closed.As you open it, you'll find photos of me, Chloe, the grand babies, and my Mother's day flowers on the inside cover.I took those with the Fuji instax mini camera Chloe bought me for Mother's day.The first page is the flight and a collage of flight detritus and torn BA magazine pages.Post is hereThese pages commemorate my flight and arrival in Prague.These commemorate my first day in Prague.One thing I really wanted to remember is the exquisite smell of the lindens all over the Czech Republic this month so I painted some. It'll forever be linked with this trip for me.All these days I rented a car and parked it at my friends Helena and Zdenek's place and took the train into town. The train is much faster and so much less stress than trying to battle thru the traffic. Here is the post from Helena and Zdenek's.Next was a visit to Pribram and the Holy Mountain pilgrimage.Post is here.Then came a visit to my favourite castle Karlstejn.The post is here.The next day was a trip into town and a meet-up with my cousin, and we went to lunch and a visit to see Mucha, Dali and Warhol.Then a trip to the horrifying and fascination collection at Konopiste Castle.The post is here.Then the high and low migraine day!The depth of the Macocha abyss and the height of Pernstejn Castle.The post is here.I left the Prague area and started driving towards Slovakia.Stopped in Brno for a couple nights. That's a night photo from my hotel room taken with the fuji instax mini.Next stop was the palace Lednice.I also stopped that day at a war memorial but chose not to put that into my book. I have a terrific problem with wars and have a very hard and emotional time being at war memorials. Those wildflowers are from the war memorial. That's all I could manage to have in this precious book.The post is here though if you want to see the entirety of it.Then I left Brno, crossed into Slovakia, stopped at Trencin castle and finally arrived at my spa in Piestany for five days of pampering.The post is here.And then, my darlings, I just hung out!Luxuriated!Got wrapped in mud, got massaged, got submerged naked into hot whirl pools, swam at night in bath water temperature outdoor pools and ate the most fabulous food.Post is here.So I was totally prepared for no posts and just a few lovely pages in my travel book......and then a tree fell! Miraculously, no one was hurt.Post is here.The days wound on with massages and a funky gold plastic wrap. Twiggy massage it was called. I was swaddled like a baby. Thank goodness I didn't get an itchy nose!!!I commemorated my days with this page and a little snippet of that gold plastic held into my room key card holder.I also painted a little piece of that bark from the horse chestnut that fell into the pool.Then I left Piestany and continued on to Bratislava to meet my cousins who I haven't seen in about 40 years!Just luck of the draw that this beautiful Mucha postcard came to this page because I remember my cousin Zdenka with red hair.The painting on the left is a branch of the most magical looking silver willow which grows everywhere here like a weed. It just sparkles at the roadside. And the little pine cone was right outside Zdenka's home.I made myself a few personal, emotional pages in my book, including pictures, found things, photos and even a recipe my cousin Kveta gave me, but took the days without posts for myself.The one post is here.After this emotional overload, came another emotional overload. I drove all over Austria looking for the perfect place for my aunt Vera's last resting place.Then I finally found it in Salzberg.Two emotional pages, and one post right here.Then I had a slow meander back up to Prague.First stop and these pages Cesky Krumlov.I painted the wild geraniums growing everywhere and the hawk moth I photographed.Then the Trebon pond system of farming carp.Then Hluboka castle and I ended up in Tabor......where I mined a few raw garnets!Real Czech garnets! You can see them better in this photo where I put a white card behind them. I mined them out of a sand mix which was put on a light table and the garnets shone ruby red thru the light.These three pages have one post here.Suddenly a heat wave washed over Prague and I went swimming in a bio habitat and underground again into Koneprusy caves.The post is here.Oh this page, the most amazing visit to Krivoklat castle.I fell in love with the sundial on the front. In Latin it says, do not count all your hours, only the ones filled with joy.Post is here.All along I've been dealing with government this and official that trying to get my Czech citizenship reinstated.These pages describe a frustrating day in this heat wave made better by escaping onto the Vltava fro a few hours.Post is here.This page is from the day reserved for taking care of my gradparents' graves and visiting a little star shaped castle called Star, and opera tixs necessitated a few nights in Prague.Post is here.A day running around Prague. Caught up on prezzy shopping.Tripped over some four leaf clovers.Then my second opera, and another day of running around Prague.The post is here.There is only one post for these two journal days because life!This day it's back into Prague and dealing with citizenship stuff.Helena and Zdenek's granddaughter drew this lovely picture for me and I saved it in my book. On this page is a small scrap of beautiful blue paper from the chocolates I had one of to ease my frustrations, and a perfect Mucha of woe-is-me-ism landed on the right day. I swear I didn't plan that!Post is here.Yet another day much the same as yesterday!But I did get to back to Canada for an hour!!!It actually was amazing to visit the embassy.Post is here.And then, when I seemed to have exhausted all possible Prague venues, I was forced to go to the Northern Czech Republic to the township which was my last known official address.And it was a coming home.The post is here.And that's where my posts end for Prague, but not this little book.Here is a little spread remembering the Metro and shopping and my walks around this golden town with lindens blossoms perfuming the air.And the last couple of pages are a bit complicated.On the left is a collage of Prague, and a little snippet of a map showing London and Oxford.On the right is a postcard by one of my favourite illustrators, Josef Lada. He illustrated almost all the books of my childhood.This last pages has a spread which pulls out.Under it is an envelope with pressed silver willow and oak and linden leaves.The pull out is the cover of a found vintage book of Prague.And the last thing in this book is a companion book I found in a vintage shop on how to keep geese.I figure if I ever needed to keep geese, this would come in very handy.Well there you go, a month worth of memories all wrapped up between golden covers.I hope you liked this very long post and if you have any questions about the pages in my travel journal, I'm happy to explain everything.

Art in the Garden weekend the recap.

Hello everybody.What a weekend it's been and what a work up to the Art in the Garden show!It's been a fantastic few days, mixed with hard work and exhaustion, and a couple sushi suppers. Come, I'll show you how it all went.As late as Friday afternoon, the day before the expected 300-400 people came for a visit, I was still picking up weeds and leaves and bits of stuff, cleaning and filling up the waterfall, putting things away and bringing things out into place.As I complained to my friends on FB, I took the glass from my tea caddy trays and into the kitchen to wash them, and, as everything was all soapy, the bottom glass slipped out of my hands and crashed into my stone sink, upsetting four vintage and heavy ceramic ink bottles on the window ledge, which crashed on top of and around the tray.Well, my hearts stopped, but, miraculously, nothing broke! Not even a chip! Can you believe it?By the way, are you my friend on FB? If not then friend me. :)So, after a few deep breaths, I opened the garage-studio, parked my sports car against the doors, moved tables and chairs around and put my big oil paintings on the easels because I thought it might be nice to have people wander into the studio.And then I did what every artist/gardener would do the day before a major outdoor art/garden show, I cleaned up the entire inside of the house!I know you can relate. ;)And then I painted well into the evening till I felt a bit calmer, and went to bed.Saturday morning dawned sunny and warm and some more flowers started to open. It's been such a late spring that most of my late May flowers are still in very tight buds, but some are making up for lost time, so I'm happy about that.I put my paintings on the big studio table,hung some more paintings around the garden, and opened my sketchbooks on some stands and shelves so people could have a mooch thru them.I brought out my vintage tea service and some old tea pots. I love serving tea in real tea cups and saucers, and ages ago bought these for use when there are big crowds. I also bought some crispy coconut cookies. Just the thing for a little pick-me-up in the heat.And then it was noon, and, with Chloe's help, we opened the garden!Morgan took up a favourite position. She was funny. All weekend she made the rounds to people she liked. Everyone loved seeing her.And loads of people came. About 200 each day.And my little birds flew out with their new owners.People enjoyed the garden. Some walked thru and sat for a bit, some sat in the cool studio, some came to see the rescued 100yr old grape vine or the rescued peonies, others came to see the art or listen to the concert.The concert was amazing. This beautiful girl, Feona Lim, played and sang on both days.Feona was accompanied by this beautiful girl, Jill Russell.I loved it so much.Everyone stopped and painted a little something on our interactive canvas.Young and old, everyone really loved sharing a little of their art and left a mark.Here are some close-ups. I love the pink baby squiggles. There were a couple little guys here who could barely reach!Here is the full canvas. Amazing, right?Well, the weekend just flew past! Before we knew it, it was 5:30 pm Sunday night, the art in the garden weekend was finished, and some friends stopped by for a visit.So we sat for an hour and chatted and cleaned up and moved things and watered, and then we went out for late sushi......while the garden bloomed on.

Birthdays and art

It's been a long standing tradition with me and my children to make gifts for friends' birthdays. I think it's a much lovelier thing than buying something mass market at some store, (unless of course the gift you buy is a handmade something special), so when Chloe was invited out to her friend Nicole's birthday, she thought long and hard about something special.Nicole is a climber and outdoor girl and loves mountains, so Chloe painted this beautiful painting in the middle of a vintage teak tray.Isn't it lovely?After it was dried and cured, Chloe protected it with varnish so it can be used and it will last.It was my friend Dalyce's birthday this week too.I painted this little robin on one of the 1912 dictionary pages with the word "read" on it. I liked that page for her because Dalyce owns Booklovers, the used book store we love so much.Another little piece of art, I rescued a vintage handmade quilt form the thrift store this week. It's the softest cotton in the world with these perfect little squares and a beautiful pink and white ticking on the back.I washed it today and hung it outside to dry and then kept running to grab it before the rain cloud and re-hung it after the cloud passed. Marathon drying!Then I sat down for a little rest and some kombucha in this glass. One side has a sign which says Impropaganda, and the other has this slogan:I love this glass. It makes me laugh.Anyway, I sat at my dining room table and made all kinds of lists of thing which need to be done in the next two weeks. Whew, tired just thinking about it and thinking that the work to be done on those lists leaves very little time for art!But I wanted to show you one more thing I did this week.I made myself a little travel journal/sketchbook for June in my home country, the Czech Republic.I chose a bright yellow book called The Scent of New-Mown Hay, carefully took almost all the pages out (kept a few front and back pages), and glued in a bunch of signatures (page bundles) made from random paper and some Alphonse Mucha postcards I brought from Prague.I glued two ribbons for book marks into the last few pages along the spine and hung an ancient lead fish from one of the ribbons.And then, just for fun, I painted the first page and my old friend the house sparrow.I love this little bird and paint him often. I love that he lives with me in Vancouver, Oxfordshire and Prague.This page contains all sorts of symbolism for me and is the perfect way for me to begin my summer.