collections

I am a good thrower outer, I can be brutally un-sentimental about stuff that others would probably lynch me for throwing out, like photos, sketchbooks, old diaries, first drawings, love letters even my wedding dress. But that is how I have always been I always think if I hold on to old stuff, new things won't have space to come in to my world. This got me thinking about collecting stuff, and defining the word collecting and collections and am I a collector? I always think of collections being hidden away in cabinets or in pristine boxes untouchable objects, hidden from the world. Well outwardly some people would say I am, maybe my collection of old china all mis-matched well used and a bit chipped around the edges, my beloved collection of books, that are shared lovingly battered, torn, full of war wounds, read, loved and some held together by a wing and a prayer. Then there is my plant collecting which is off the scale from shrinking violets to an orchard I have been planting for the last 15 years. I don't define  any of these as collections, as collections for me are about collecting one thing and that particular thing only. So here as I write I start to look around and I am a collector, a collector of Vogue, Feb1987 - June2012 so far, every issue except July 1996 because I lent it to my sister, she read it in the bath and it drowned RIP. This collection is not immaculate, they are torn from, ripped, drawn on. They take up a lot of room. So why do I keep them?

bird talk

For the last few weeks I have been working on a series of drawings about birds in conversation with women.
They were inspired by a morning in my garden back along, when I am sure this blackbird was chirping away to me. It was really quite lovely and it made me think about this series of drawings.
I will be exhibiting them at  Reading Contemporary Art Fair  this weekend.

Inbetween the April showers

Spent the weekend out in the garden dodging the April showers, and then sometimes just enjoying the fresh, energy giving rain. My favourite things this week are the delicate violets and the un- furling ostrich ferns.

pulled a stitch

A Saturday afternoon listening to the radio finishing all the details and trying to do a bit of gardening in between the beautiful April showers.
To see more of the details Patchworkbutterfly

3 sides to my story

I have this thing about red shoes, it started as a child when I used to go shoe shopping always falling for the red ones they always shone out from afar. As I became older the obsession remained. I remember as a 7 year old me and my friend of the time, Amanda Scott used to spend many a playtime seeing how high we could kick of our shoes to see if we could reach the clouds. Until that fateful day when my brand new shoes, the ones with the red ribbon laces and red bead on the end, the ones I loved so so much were  kicked up in the air so high that one landed on the church roof. So high this shoe travelled, it may have well touched the clouds. Well suffice to say that I went home that day with one shoe missing with a tall tale about a shoe and a dog chase. Aaahh good to share that guilty secret. Nothing has changed I still love red shoes and have a fine collection. These shoes in the photo really do tell the three sides to my story!

poking around in my studio

Things I am making, stuff that inspires me and lots of tidying up that needs to happen as you can see!

The shed

I have fallen in love with the contents of this beautiful 1950s shed at Basildon House in Berkshire when I visited the other day.
I want that wheelbarrow it is a true handmade beauty, made from bits and pieces!