Spring Awakening

Signs of Spring are everywhere now and finally there is light at the end of the tunnel. Despite the still freezing temperatures nature gets on with it anyway and little buds everywhere can't wait to pop up and delight us! I find it so exciting just looking outside in the morning and seeing something new appearing in the garden. The mornings are particularly beautiful given we have a cherry tree outside the window which is full of blossom. It looks so pretty with the sun rising behind it.

Springtime is the most exciting time of the year I think, so hopeful and new. The greens are much greener and everything is at the beginning of it's life.

It's difficult to concentrate on working but one must, so I'm painting away as usual and have just finished the third painting in a small series I've been working on. Using a palette that resembles medieval paintings, it's only really the colours that have reflected the medieval art influence so far until this last one. With this I have taken inspiration from the flowers and foliage that can be seen in these paintings and have done my own version mixed in with the sort of foliage I usually do. I was also influenced a little by the sort of clothes that figures wore in this style.

I'm quite pleased with the result and I flit between loving it and hating it! It took a surprisingly long time considering it's small size ( 30 x 40 cm) This was due to me changing the posisiton of the figure about six times until it looked right.

'The Happy Introvert'. Acrylic on canvas.

I think I've come to the end of my medieval influenced series now and am excited about trying something different. I have some nice little ideas waiting in line.....

Alongside that I'm working on a very inspiring commission at the moment, painting someone's dream for them. I'm using oils for this piece, so inbetween drying times I'll be developing my own ideas.

I think I will have to at some point incorporate our new little kitty into a future painting. She's a black cat and is so shiny and slinky and her name is Minky! She is only 6 months old and has brought so much fun into the house as well as eating all my house plants and driving me to dispair. I can't stay angry for long though when she looks at me with those gorgeous hypnotic eyes. I'm completely under her spell!

Miss Minky Buttercup giving me 'the look'!

Minky is just one of the things inspiring me in my immediate environement at the moment. The sunrise, the sunsets and the pretty garden all feed my creative mind with the possibilities and imaginings they can evoke in me. I'm never without a new idea even when I don't leave the house.

Most of the winter I stay indoors and never really venture anywhere as I really dislike being cold, so I always look forward to the milder weather returning. Spring signals the start of the 'vide-grenier' season (car-boot sales as they're called in England!) This is always a great source of enjoyment for me and I will even brave a cold day to go to one! One of my favourite pastimes is rummaging around junk shops or vide-greniers in search of a bargain or something a bit unusual. Recently I picked up these beauties. The cross-stitch picture is what most people consider the height of bad taste, but I'm not most people and I love them! They're so awful that they go beyond gruesome and become something rather lovely and quirky! The battered gold frame I think just adds more beauty to it so I won't repair it. The embroidered table mat is just amazing and looks wonderful on my dressing table.