Topiary heaven

This week I was lucky enough to go to a photo shoot at Danesfield House which is near Marlow. It is a beautiful Manor house which was originally a Danish encampment. The house that is there now was built in 1899 and it is a beauty. From it's beautiful oak panelled great hall, the most intricate plaster cornices throughout  and topiary gardens that made me want to weep with their beauty and then the most stunning views over the Thames.  And then there is afternoon tea in the orangery. Heaven!

curious minds

A peek into the studio of the wonderful Clemens Steigleder. I love his work, studio and curious mind. His studio at present, is awash with thousands of cavorting frogs as part of a new series of works.
Clemens Steigleder

weekly sketch

 I draw everyday and I thought I would choose one every week and post it on to my website for all to share, instead of hidden in my millions of sketchbooks, sketches on the back of envelopes or the doodles on my studio walls. They are just random drawings from that week, no rhyme or reason just the fact that I couldn’t imagine my world without making them.

To see them so far  - weekly sketches

“Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic.”

Keith Haring 

On a mission

I have been gardening all year, but this week it started in earnest, anytime I could I have been out there and anytime when I should have been somewhere else. I apologise in advance that over the next few months my time keeping will be rubbish, as there is always one more little thing to do in the garden.

My garden is one of my favourite places in the world, it is very possible that if some accountant looked back on my life's spending a fair chunk of my money earned would have gone on plants, flowers, trees.

The garden smells beautiful at the moment the candy sugar pink Hyacinths send perfume out on the breeze and one of my favourite plants Clematis Armandii wafts a beautiful vanilla essence.

 This week I was in a florist and I saw something new a, Eucharist Lilly. When I first saw the Eucharist Lily, I had to lift the beautiful bloom to look at it . The shy lily seemed intent on hiding its glorious beauty from the world. It's so delicate!

It looks like very like a daffodil; only the petals are pure white and it has a pale green corona. Each fleshy stalk carries up to eight blooms.

Eucharis (from the Greek word ‘kharisma’) means ‘grace’ or ‘charm’, and in Latin, it means ‘elegant’. I think the flower has been aptly named.

So I am on a mission to find some!

things you never knew you needed

This is the place for all the things you never knew you needed. It's De Danann antiques in Dorchester, its a treasure trove of curiosities.  I have just bought the most amazing merchants wooden seed crates, which will be perfect for my new window boxes. Such a great place for mooching and finding.

It's a secret...........................

This last weekend I spent down with my family who live in Dorset, it is such a beautiful county, and always restores my faith in the world. I went  to Dorchester and stumbled upon a place that I so want to keep a secret, but everyone should know about. A little piece of treasure in and amongst the everyday! You know, those places that you walk into and they transform you to another world. This place caught my human magpie eye with its glinting chandeliers, wonderful sculpture and beautiful bottles of potions and lotions called Medusa Apothecary. We could not resist but to go in and are noses taken on a wonderful journey to every corner of the world. From frankincense to heady jasmine, blood orange to the beautiful zest of Sicilian lemon, a buzz of incense and then their are those dry woody aromas It was heaven scent! The decadent shelves lined with the most carefully chosen items, and then there was the wonderful service, so warm, friendly and knowledgeable about everything from  face creams, to the sharing of the ingredients that make up the layers of the perfumes. There is also a beauty room for the ultimate indulgence. It is so wonderful to go to a place where the products are so lovingly sourced and there provenance is paramount. I love Medusa and defy anybody to go in and not failed to be impressed by every detail and also not to buy anything. They have also just won The Telegraph small shop of the year in the health and beauty category which is so richly deserved. Just beautiful! 

pouring you heart out

Pouring your heart out - monoprints

I was sat this week enjoying the sun, when I looked over and saw a girl sitting on the wall crying, her face looked so beautiful with tears yet contorted with sadness. She stopped crying and sat for ages just looking down. I drew her from afar and then came home and made a series of monoprints, to try and capture that moment.