Projects 2020

Every year I like to do a list of projects for the year ahead. This usually breaks down into a few categories....

The Projects:

Gardening in my new garden
Reading about gardens and gardening
Cooking American food following my trip to Florida
Explore boardgaming
Doing jigsaws
Sewing using my new dress form body
Doing yoga and pilates on my new eco yoga mat
Continue printmaking with a theme of Mysterious Places

Do you have any plans for next year, blog readers?

Mysterious Landscape

This very quick linocut print explores the very interesting and mysterious site the Bass of Inverurie. The site includes an 1100s motte and bailey castle, Pictish stones, one with a horse carving, also formerly a medieval church. Evidently this was an enormously significant place at one time.

Other Hobbies 2

Other things I do: rather odd knitting. This is a chunky scarf I have just finished. I wanted to do five colours but miscalculated or it would be about a mile long.

Bonus pic: Xmas lunch with all my friends from my old work; Annie, Amy, Anna, me and Viki.

Other Hobbies

As well as art, I also love sewing and knitting. This fabric arrived the other day to make into pyjama bottoms. I loved the very sinister bat patterned fabric, not what you would expect to find! I could not resist it though as it is very Dracula.

Waterlilies in Florida

Waterlilies at the Edison Mansion, done in inks.

Moving House Phew!

We moved house about six weeks ago. Even if you think your new house is perfect you will find a million things to do:

Buy and hang blinds
Buy and hang lampshades
Buy extra furniture
Assemble furniture
Paint cupboard door
Hang pictures
Collect furniture in van
Get new meters installed
Get boiler checked
Put on new door furniture
Remove rogue nails and screws
Install smoke alarms
Fix doorbell
Put up hanging hooks
Weed garden
Fill holes in wall
Put things in attic
Take stuff to dump

Still to do:
Get chimney swept
Buy fireplace tools
Install tv aerial
Clean decking
Paint external windowsills
Paint sloping ceiling
Get new extractor fan
Get new shower door
Fix bathroom tiles
Buy garden tools
Get storage container of stuff back

And we went on holiday too! Looking forward to some quiet time at Christmas!

Winterise!

A photo, not a painting. Winter hit suddenly this year as we returned from 28c in tropical Florida to about 0c in Aberdeen. Picture is an exotic floridian flower. As I struggle to stay awake through jetlag I have been replacing my summer nailpolishes (pastel or bright) with dark winter ones and my summer perfumes with more woody, spicy winter ones from my toiletry stash. I do this every year to mark the seasons. 

Jewellery Class

Progress on pendant, with filing, polishing and loop making.

Weird Flower

Inspired by my Weird Plants book, a very weird orchid I saw on holiday in Cambridge Botanic Gardens! My friend Siobhan identified this as Miltonia Clowesi a very rare orchid from Brazil! 

Garden planning

They recommend drawing a plan of your garden. Trying to identify the plants, which is difficult when they are not flowering! The star is an old espaliered Bramley apple tree. I want to plant a herb border, facing south and maybe cut the corners off the lawn so it is circular. Sadly the previous owners took the rhubarb with them! 

Jewellery Course

My first two efforts from my jewellery making course, the first is stamped and sawn out in aluminium. The copper one is drilled and then sawn to make the internal holes.

Too busy to blog

Apologies for lack of blogging lately, trying to move house, go on ill timed holiday booked before moving house etc.
I really enjoyed a radio programme from radio 4 about Sour foods I listened to on the train. I love sour and also bitter foods. We seek out sour as they contain vitamin C which we need. I am not sure why we like bitter as it often indicates poisons and babies won’t eat bitter things.

My favourite sour foods:
Lemon meringue pie
Pickled onions
Vinegar on chips
Lemonade

My favourite bitter foods:
Broccoli
Green beans
Tonic water

Sour and bitter yay or nay?

Duthie Turtles

Everyone loves the turtles at Duthie Park Winter Gardens! This is a departure fir me as I don’t usually draw animals. And Steve, I don’t know where Donatello went.

Begonia Leaf

I did this print directly from my begonia houseplant. It has huge architectural leaves, green with silver spots on top, red below. I might try to do some prints that capture the amazing colours, but I also liked this one for the beautiful shape. I love leaves. 

Local Fuchsia

Enjoyed doing this picture in gouache over gouache used as watercolour, on handmade Indian paper. The paper is from L Cornellisen in London, a gorgeous art materials shop. Choosing an unusual paper for a project can really jump start you creatively...try a coloured paper or an unusual texture, this one is a very thick, off white, textural paper. The flowers grow in an amazing garden down the road from us, which is always perfect and full of flower and colour right through the year.

Second Hand September

Second Hand September is going well! Mainly because we are in the process of buying a new house so are too busy to shop....I am hoping to pop into the charity shops this weekend though, as I now have weekends off work!
The only piece of clothing I bought this month was a green quilted jacket from ebay, although I also made a hooded sweatshirt and set of pyjama shorts. The jacket is by Nuage which I think was an inhouse brand by Debenhams in the 90s.

Bonus Sushi

Bonus photo by Alistair of arty sushi plate at CJ Yorokubi. 

Inspiration

A blog I often look at had an interesting idea today: list things that inspire you. They could be objects, places, collections...here are things that inspire me...

Books: I read a lot

My favourite place: Duthie Park Winter Gardens

Plants in people’s front gardens

‘This is Colossal’ the art website

Those conversations that throw up crazy ideas that you actually want to do

Stuff I see when driving in the car, often buildings

Poppy Print

A print featuring poppy heads from my friend Anna’s garden. I did this on brown paper, which gives an effect I like, although the ink doesn’t stick as well.

Seasonal Nails

Every new season I treat myself to a seasonally themed nail varnish. Spring sees a bright, fun colour, summer a pastel, autumn a warm colour and a dark colour in winter.

My favourite brands are Opi and Essie as they have the best colour range. This autumn is the brilliantly named Mrs Always-Right, a warm pinky red. Summer was an aqua colour. 

I dont like frosted colours as they show up my grooved and dented nails and metallic and glitter polishes are a nightmare to take off and have that repellent gritty feeling. I like to have colours on my toenails and clear fingernails as my fingernails have a hard life from my work and from art projects. 

Cyanotype

I love my cyanotype sun print kit. Wandering happily along the cycle path stuffing interesting plants into my handbag to test out on the paper. You need something with an interesting shape, which will squash reasonably flat. This cow parsley looked beautiful. The sun exposes the image from shadows on the paper and then you develop it by washing it in water in a sink. 

Wardrobe Update

I think Autumn officially starts tomorrow. However here it seems to have started today, with a chill rain.
This triggers the putting away of summer clothes and the appearance of Autumn ones.

Themes for this Autumn include:

Second Hand September: an Oxfam campaign to only buy second hand clothing for four weeks. Not actually a hardship as even designer clothes are available second hand on the internet, in posh charity or consignment shops. Save the world, we have never needed to feel we are doing something good more than now.

Quilting: I bought a body warmer (second hand) and unexpectedly love it. I am now hoping to acquire a quilted jacket to go with it. Autumn/Winter outdoor wear for me ideally has a country type vibe, the sort of things you find in large garden centres or country sports outfitters.

Lounge wear: I made a hoodie and I love it. I am planning another with a front zip. Autumn brings the need for comfort.

Quirky jumpers: I love weird jumpers, especially glitter ones

Corduroy is back in fashion: maybe some cord trousers with a 70s feel

More jeans as I currently live in them.

Digging out those favourite things you’ve hard forever such as my purple velvet jacket and long black wool coat, both dating from approx 1996.

Topiary Gate

Last weekend I went to a Gaming Club picnic at Crathes Castle. I was very taken with these two weird topiary trees flanking a mysterious garden entrance. I printed this mostly in black to reflect the mysterious and slightly looming quality of this ancient garden.

Here is the original photo, as requested.

Rock Rose

I spotted this lovely rock rose on Huntly Street while visiting the cathedral. The colours and geometry of the flower particularly appealed to me. The painting also escaped a spectacular exploding paint tube incident! This is in acrylic, some neat, some watered down. I like to select a limited range of paints for each picture and try to keep things as simple and quick  as possible. 

Sewing Update

Getting back into sewing now! I bought the book ‘Tilly and the Buttons: Stretch’, and am starting a project sewing loungewear/nightwear/sportswear (interchangeable in my book). First project is a hoodie. Here are the pieces laid out to cut out the fabric in my hall. I really enjoy sewing and owe a debt of gratitude to the ex friend who wouldn't help me with a sewing project I needed doing, necessitating me buying my first sewing machine and learning this. And to my infinitely more lovely friend who gave me her old sewing machine she wasn't using. You know who you are x

Duthie Park Flowers

I could endlessly paint the flowers in the greenhouses at Duthie Park, one of my favourite places. It’s always full of colour and tropical things. Bit of a daub in acrylic here but I like the colours.

Leopard Sewing

I made a leopard pattern dress. I love leopard pattern. This has pockets and I went for a fairly conservative design as the fabric is pretty outre.

Travel Sickness Tips

I have been long plagued by travel sickness. I used to take tablets for this but they make me very sleepy. I have been trying the following instead, which seem to work.

Dry Biscuits, preferably ginger. Nibble them.
Drink, preferably Innocent lemon and ginger.
Mints to suck.
Look out of windows.
Travel in front of cars.
Face forward on train. First class if possible for comfort.
Keep cool temperatures.
Stay relaxed and comfortable.

Linocut heart

I loved this heart motif I spotted on some historic iron gates in Cluny! Here it is in linocut.

Healthy Living

This post is going out for my friend Steff, who loves healthy exercise and body positivity. We are planning to join a yoga class together in the autumn!

Healthy breakfast: let’s face it, my favourite breakfast is croissant. Cereal is dull. So I finally found a breakfast which is tasty and healthy and gives me the energy boost I need as I am not a morning person. Cut up a banana, pit on greek yoghurt, honey and a sprinkle of granola. Keeps you going until lunch.

Healthy exercise: I am still rebuilding my leg strength years after my foot injury. I am trying to go for a short jog twice a week. Every day I do 5-10 mins of pilates from the Blogilates channel on youtube. With the ever cheery Cassey Ho, here she is with some relaxation exercises.
https://youtu.be/NRWz91kQuJk

Celtic bird

A quick fun celtic bird in deliberately freewheeling pen rather than detailed gouache. Actually quite liking this. I deliberately went for a very unhistorical colour scheme. I like the way the tail of the bird breaks the circle. This is traced from my celtic colouring book, endless source of design inspiration. This might also make a really great print, will ponder it... 

Edinburgh Buildings

The Kings Wark, Leith from our trip to Edinburgh. Now a very nice pub, formerly a royal palace and a military store, dating back to the c14th. This fascinating building sits overlooking the Water of Leith. Sadly adjoining buildings to the right, in the same style, did not survive.

Edinburgh Shopping

We just got back from Edinburgh, one of my favourite cities! It also has great shopping. I went to a lot of my usual haunts...

Armstrong's: where I got a peach 80s blouse and a red jersey jacket, a Finnish brand!
The one that got away was a red futuristic jumpsuit, just a bit too squeezy.

Jenners: sadly a massive sale following the House of Fraser collapse, although Jenners survives. I got a grey linen dress from Dutch brand Sandwich. I love finding new unusual brands.

John Lewis: leopard pattern fabric for making a retro dress as I plan to do more sewing and a book on sewing with stretch fabrics, ditto.

Greyfriars Art Shop: sketchbook and paper.

Luba Print

Another African mask print, a Songhay mask of the Luba people. I like the graphic, symbolic quality of the masks. I did this in a cheerier colour so it didn't look so scary...It is hard to get the pressure on linocut so what I do is print into my sketchbook which is squishy and has thin paper and stand on the lino piece so it really presses down with all my weight!

I bought an amazing book in a charity shop today on sculptures by Henry Moore, I am very into his work at the moment. 

Popcorn Party

🍿 popcorn must be the most fun food to make. Don’t buy ready popped popcorn as there is no fun in that. Also if you make it yourself it is cheap and healthy.

Heat up a smidge of oil in a large pan with a lid.
Put shallow layer of popcorn kernels in the pan.They swell up massively.
Turn down heat. Shoogle pan continually.
You will hear them start to pop.
When they stop, remove lid.
They are nice sprinkled with salt or sugar or spices.
If you want to go nuts you can coat them in caramel (not healthy).

Other fun or non stressful cooking includes
The slow cooker
The casserole that goes on the hob
Roasting

I particularly dislike grilling as nothing ever seems to get done, it always burns and it is very messy. I dont use my grill much as it is within the oven rather than separate.
The metal casserole is great as you can fry the ingredients to start with and then cook it on the hob or put it in the oven. Genius.
The slow cooker is soothing as you can leave it on all day and even go out leaving it on, without worry.
I am still obsessed by making pizza too!

What cooking do you enjoy, blog readers?

Random Reading and Eating Week

A reading snapshot:

Cooking for Geeks about food science
Killing Eve 2 the novelisation
Nuns a History of Convent Life
Two books on Mary Queen of Scots
The October Man, fantasy crime set in Trier

What are you reading/ have stacked up somewhere?

I was also given some unusual chinese foods including:

Seaweed
Goji berries
Dried lychees
Black sesame powder

Recipes/uses appreciated.

Solar Photography

Knights/superheroes

Inspired by my new book ‘Henry Moore Helmet Heads’. He was inspired by armour and it struck me that helmets look like the African mask I did earlier. They also remind me of superheroes.

I did multiple small prints of a helmet in a superhero/retro colour scheme.

Gouache Explorer

Trying a slightly abstracted architecture, Indian palace in gouache.

Food Pictures

I like drawing food. My favourite food in the summer is watermelon and its also great to draw. Great colours and patterns. Look closer at your food today.

Pizza Making

Monday is pizza night!
I’ve been working on homemade pizza since I got a great breadmaking book from my lovely sister in law, Maria. She knows about pizza.
I’m lazy but I like good food so this is me:

Mix yeast with warm water and leave to rest. Don’t use too much yeast, about half what they recommend.
Mix a bit of flour with warm water and rest. Use a good quality flour, I like Dove farm organic bread flour.
Make up dough by eyeball, you don’t have to weigh anything, you just need the right consistency.
Put yeast liquid in bowl, put flour in, put salt in, mix using floury water. Knead a bit and rest for ages.

My pizza sauce is heretical: small tin tomatoes, raw garlic, slug olive oil, squeeze tomato paste, big squeeze ketchup and cook down.

Heat pizza stone in oven hot as you can.

Flour board and pizza peel and dough, sticky is the enemy.

Roll and stretch dough on wood board. Transfer to pizza peel. Top with sauce, mozzarella (not the diet kind) and fresh basil, quick as you can.

Slide off pizza peel and cook on stone.

Art class of the year

Every year I try to do an art evening class to stretch myself creatively.
Last year it was printing, the year before painting. This year, in October, I am doing something completely different with jewellery making! I am hoping for lots of cathartic hammering and to make things I can give to people.
I am discovering rather than fine art I like to do something that involves making stuff in an interesting craft process, but with lots of design to ponder. I do like working with different materials. I didn’t do the next printing one as it is all etching and engraving, whereas it was the linocut that I really enjoyed.
Next weekend I am doing a one off class in Letterpress where you print with text. I will need to think of a pithy slogan or phrase to print. Sadly, most of my favourite catchphrases are either rude or insulting....

Mask Linocut

I was very intrigued by a picture of an African mask I found in the newspaper, so cut it out for my sketchbook and did a linocut print of it. The print is the biggest I have done yet at A4 so required many hours of patient lino chiselling using my wee tool set. Enjoyed this one. Might do more.

Felt Pen Renaissance

Art in felt pen? Surely not. Until I discovered the new art felt pens which have a wide chisel shaped end and a pointed detail end and and come in a million gorgeous colours. The colour is transparent so you can layer it for different effects. Mine are the Winsor and Newton Promarker. 

Project Renewal

Every so often I like to start some new projects...

After having an amazing dinner of tapas at Cafe Andaluz in Aberdeen I am going to be trying some Spanish cookery. Not such a well known cuisine as Italian or French but looks tasty and healthy with lots of prawns, chicken, tomato and peppers. Roll on paella!

Following great success with weird serial killer style sheet facemasks from Boots, I ordered a pack of Korean facemasks online. Apparently Korean face care is the next wonder product. Not the one with snail slime though as I worry about the wellbeing of snails. Plus eugh.

Also had a big clearout of shoes from the wardrobe. The agonising, the knackered and the ugly are all off to the charity shop.

Most Illuminating

I spent a while working on this Celtic design, which I traced from my old Celtic Colouring Book. I tried to stay authentic doing it in gouache and (fake) gold leaf but had to touch up in marker pen and white acrylic. This was fun to do though and I love gold leaf which might appear in more pictures! 

Slug Triptych

I created these Slugs in a workshop on Japanese Printing I went to this week. I like slugs. This is probably the Leopard Slug. Japanese printing here is done using watercolour on a woodblock. I really enjoyed the woodblock carving and used freehand painting onto the block to create the blotches.

Skincare Update

I’ve been reviewing my skincare and trying some more value products. It’s a hit and miss process as some are good and others terrible. To be fair I’ve had terrible results off some posh brands though which can be very irritating to the skin. I don’t think my sensitive skin likes things like anti ageing ingredients or even sun protection.

Some worked, for instance Nivea Nightcream is amazing and only about £3, however the much lauded Simple range makes my skin go red and feel like sandpaper.

For handcream O Keefes Working Hands is great and about £7 but has a slightly weird texture. Helps with my very sensitive hands though. Anti itch E45 is brilliant too on exzema.

Some face products are just better though. I love Avene especially their face creams and the facial spray is fantastic for stress, sunburn etc. They are a bit pricier but really work.

I also like to use a peel off mask on the greasy areas such as nose and chin and a hyaluronic sheet  mask all over which is super relaxing, although it makes you look like a serial killer.

For the body I love the BodyShop Body Butter, the original and best!

Charlie Rooster

This is Charlie, the rooster who roams the grounds at my work. He does a lot of crowing when he hears the alarm go off in the morning. This is in felt pen, I love all the colours.

Oxfam Update

Finally, some warm weather! I realise the last two things I bought from oxfam/ charity shops have both been jersey dresses. One green and white from White Stuff from my fave charity shop in Ballater and one black with white spots from Hobbs from Shelter on Holborn St Aberdeen.
Interesting how some charity shops always have great stock and others are total duds.
I love a jersey dress as it is comfy and can go from fairly casual to posh depending on shoes and accessories. Also they usually fit!

Muscular Gothic

I was very struck by this dramatic church on the Perth Road in Dundee.

Dystopian City Collages

Collages of different architectural bits and landscapes. Remind me of estate agent pictures for very expensive flat developments, always vilely ersatz.

Virtual Window Triptych

This collage comes from an earlier print of a window. I cut up views of landscapes and collaged them to create a new landscape. I then put the shape of windows over it, I decided I liked the uneven window outlines which make it confusing as to if you are in or out.

Digital Blossom

The cherry tree outside my bedroom window is so beautiful right now. This pic was done in a computer art programme, which is fun to use and get something down quickly.

Kahlo Collage 2

Really enjoying doing these collages! Another Frida Kahlo inspired one!

Kahlo Collage

Another collage, inspired by my new book on the art of Frida Kahlo. Collage is great because it quickly becomes a bit surreal...

Beach Huts

And now for something completely different! These are beach huts in the village of Hopeman on the north coast of Scotland. They are all quirky and different. I am thinking of doing a more abstract version of this as it is basically about the colours and shapes. 

And here it is in collaged bits from a magazine. Really fun technique and super chuffed with this one!

And digital!

Spring Wardrobe

Looks like Spring is finally on its way, triggering a wardrobe change over.
For Spring I like cardigans, jersey tops, tshirts, jeans and more relaxed skirts. This year I seem to have bought a lot of striped tops (Fatface and Joules) with a nautical vibe, also a pastel check shirt (Sainsburys). I bought a brown leather cross body bag too (also from Fatface). I am experimenting with shirts which you can also wear over a tshirt as a cardigan/ jacket type thing. Spring/Summer colours I like include blue, navy, grey, pink, green and white. Apparently yellow is in this year but it does not suit me at all, all though I don’t mind red sometimes. Shoe wise I am always sad to stop wearing my ubiquitous knee boots and start on some comfy flat shoes.

More Neolithic

Using those water and ink squeezy brush pens again! This amazing decorated stone is from Sweden, via the brilliant book The Megalithic European by Julian Cope. Julian is a rock singer, author and self taught archaeology expert. He links art, archaology, spirituality and the importance of landscape and place. It interests me how early human art has similar elements whether from Scotland, or Sweden or from Africa or Australia. Patterns and symbols, possibly for contemplation or meditation.

Printing Again

After a bit of a hiatus and being very busy, I now have a bot more time and mental energy for art again. This print came out more sinister than expected, but is a piece of victorian glass design featuring a weird dolphin, that I saw at the Crieff Hydro. Kind of fits into the creatures and symbols theme I am working on though!

Balcony Birds

Another work in those self fill squeezy water pens, love them. This is on some amazing handmade Indian paper I bought in the art shop L Cornellison in London. Our ‘balcony’ (decorative wood rail) has been regularly visited by a pair of doves over the last week, they are beautiful.