Blog

my heart a wounded crow.

  This story begins a long time ago, when I was a little girl in what felt like a simpler time. Out on my bicycle one summer’s afternoon, I found a wounded crow in the lane. Carrying it carefully home, my nan explained to me that farmers will deliberately maim a single crow –  knowing... Read more »

Settling the mind

After the excitement and exposure of an exhibition, it always takes some time and  solitude to settle the mind and heart back down to work. The energetic period immediately before a show is all deadlines, printers, finishing, perfecting, and then reaching out and making a lot of noise – ‘look at me! look at my... Read more »

Words

This week I’ve been posting out catalogues for my forthcoming show at Beaux Arts Bath.  It’s been a pleasure packing them up and sending them out to friends and clients, old and new – not least because the essay by Rev. Richard Davey is so sensitive and well written.  He seems to understand and articulate... Read more »

Paper love

Here’s a nice story of social media meeting the world of the hand-made…. I’m always on the look out for nice paper and take a good deal of trouble to always choose and use the right paper – the right colour, the right weight, and almost above all the right surface, (Hot Press, Not or... Read more »

Creek

Charcoal and sepia ink on 650gsm Arches paper.  103cm X 153cm I’ve been working on this drawing all summer and now it is finally finished and off to the framers ready for the Beaux Arts show in October. The first spark of inspiration for the piece came from a walk down to Frenchman’s creek with... Read more »

Work

                                                                                                             ... Read more »

Three more moths

March Moth, (left,)  December Moth, (right,) and Winter Moth, (below.) Three more moths from the ‘Seven Winter Moths’ suite of drawings.  All are 12″ x 8″ in charcoal, inks, pigment and watercolour on Aquari hand-made paper. Click on any image to enlarge for more clarity. If you have enjoyed looking at this blog, please consider... Read more »

Anisoptera

Nothing is ever quite as perfect as it can seem at first glance.Although the latin name for Dragonflies is Odonata  their infraorder is Anisoptera which comes from the Greek meaning ‘uneven wings’. This is my second attempt at a dry-point of the same dragonfly. What attracts me most of all is indeed the play of... Read more »

Nothing Lasts

Nothing Lasts. Nothing is so delicate or so finely hinged as the wingsof the green mothagainst the lanternagainst its heatagainst the beak of the crowin the early morning. Yet the moth has trim, and feistiness, and not a dropof self-pity. Not in this world Mary Oliver(Proof of Magpie Moth etching on studio wall –  etching... Read more »

The finished print

“These things come unbidden”The finished print from my earlier post – Printmaking at  John Howards’ studio. I found this Hare at the side of the road, very early one morning in March.  Eye-bright and leaping but stone-dead. Taking her carefully home, I drew for days, strangely compelled to sit with her and try, despite knowing... Read more »

Sand Martin

Sand Martins are the smallest of the European hirondines.   Flying all the way from south of the African Sahara, this one made landfall in South Devon at the weekend but probably died of exhaustion after Sunday night’s storm. I was moved to tears as I drew, thinking that this tiny, weightless, and now lifeless... Read more »

Printmaking at John Howard’s studio in Penryn

This week I’ve been printmaking at John Howard’s print studio in Penryn.  Love it as I do, I don’t really think I’m a proper printmaker.  For me it is just a wonderful extension of my drawing practice, so I tend to stick to the labour intensive but direct methods of dry-point engraving and mezzotint, relishing the chance... Read more »