As mentioned in my last post, we lost our 18 year old cat Lucy on the 15th April. Friend artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins wrote a wonderfully vivid account of her in his Facebook post today, so I’m copying and pasting that to my blog here. I’ve dug out some photos of her at just 2-3 weeks…
I joined the Isolation Art Challenge because I thought it would be a good way to keep up my art practice. We’ve been doing house improvements recently so I haven’t had much time to get on with anything substantial, and this seemed a good way to give myself a couple of hours of productivity every…
I believe the Japanese have given a walk in the forest the meaningful term of “forest bathing.” As we’ve always had dogs, for the last 30 years I’ve walked, strolled, and, when I feel particularly energetic, even run through our local forest, up to the open fields about 2 or 3 times a day. Now …
I’ve been rather negligent with posting blogs this year, whatever happened to my intention to do so once a month? One reason is that I’ve had far less trompe l’œil and decor work this year, so I’ve had fewer interesting topics to post about. I suppose I could have been tempted to write about cleaning,…
Amongst the wild flowers in the lawn I discovered this spider with wasp-like markings poised unmoving in the centre of her web; looking it up on the web (!) I found that it is indeed called a wasp spider, and depending on its age it weaves a zig zag design on its web, much as…
In late June I found a wee swift nestling chirping frantically on the floor of my studio. The swifts had made their nest in a hole in the wall outside and somehow he’d fallen through to the interior landing softly on some fabric. I popped him in a nest I’d picked up years ago, and…
The month of June arrived as hot and sultry as can be, became cooler again, then torrential rain, it’s all very unsettled strange weather indeed. After a 4 year break from veggie gardening I decided to have one this year; being inspired by the no-dig method championed by Charles Dowding…. NO-DIG being the operative word…
….so I continue to draw our dog, she still inspires me, she’s so energetic and full of life I want to capture her energy and sense of fun. Gypsy is besotted by her red ball, whenever we walk her we have to take it with us, and we have to have ball sessions in the…
I missed my personal target of blogging once a month, never mind I’ll do 2 this month….. that’s if I have anything to blog about! My most recent commission was for a “fresco”, a painting really, but painted into plaster on board which resembles a fresco, so that it can be moved if necessary; the…
of the new year has passed already; however, rather than think of the speed at which time is flying by, I’m thinking on the positive side: at least Spring is drawing closer. I can’t wait for the cranes to pass overhead and announce warmer weather is on it’s way. Every year we honour the Scottish…
Happy New Year again, I hope it’s started well for you. Christmas is packed away now, here are some of our precious hand-made tree decorations carefully packed in their golden box. Trompe l’œil The most recent trompe l’œil I painted not long ago was a commission for a friend’s big birthday. His children wanted something…
It’s the last day of 2018 so I thought I’d better cram in my last bog of 2018, especially as I haven’t got round to sending Christmas greetings! So here’s my DIY Christmas card to all which is a Happy New Year card too. Print onto A4 paper and fold along the dotted lines. We…
I wrote this during the exhibition in August and didn’t get round to posting it as I had to rummage about looking for images to illustrate it: Sitting here invigilating our 2 artist exhibition at St Avit Sénieur has prompted moments of reflection. The purpose for coming to live in France (for me) was to pursue…
It’s heartbreak time again……it’s not easy to see them go. They give us such joy these 4-legged souls whom we choose to have as companions. A lifetime to them it’s but a few years to us; however for all the emotional pain it causes I wouldn’t change it as I wouldn’t want them to outlive…
There was a fascinating article on the radio the other morning about how spiders can “fly”. Apparently scientists, after much study have discovered how they manage to land on ships in the middle of the ocean, which Darwin noted when on board ship, but he didn’t pursue investigating it. Spiders have been filmed waving one leg…
Putting my thoughts about classical music into words.
Lily S. May--Life with Art
sharing the creative process of artist, illustrator, and book lover, Judy Watson
Sharing my work and thoughts....
painting...drawing...making small worlds
Essays on Mathematics and Culture
postcards from the hedge - a blog by Phil Cooper
views from the artist's studio.
ARTIST: oils, watercolours, trompe l'œil and design
lizkingsangster 