Woot-woot-mc-toot-tooooooot!

Fancy The Spurs winning the cup for Mike's birthday present!! How did they know?! They should have come round and partied with us. Ramos wouldn't mind- low fat posh prawns on their diet is allowed surely? I did enough as per!
Back down to earth today, having finally caught the lurgy. So instead of working hard, I've played instead. Posted a colour sketch of a dusky beauty I want to do in oils- think her chin is too 'Jimmy Hill' for comfort! I'll work on it.... but not today!

Headspin!

Phoo-eeeeee these paints smell- nice result though. It's been too cold to open the window, so I have gently been gassing out the office. Makes a change from the toner ink dust we normally inhale! I use these solvent based pearlised glass paints quite a lot, purely for the sheer exuburence of opaque colour I get from them. They shift and change whilst drying so you can never be sure just how the paint will sit. I've added a close up so you can see the mottled effect that happens. The paint comes in a variety of nice bold colours- just up my street. Nothing wishy-washy here, oh no! Looking at them is like a 'blammo' to the senses, an assault on the eyes! ( And up your nose in the raw state!) Hope you like them- I especially like the square plate for it's shape and clean colourway.

I've started... so I'll finish!

Busy week again at Serenarts, which we're all for! More big canvases printed off, and for the first time, large format photos printed off onto heavyweight vellum paper. The resulting images were immaculate- real depth of colour captured. The paper is more expensive obviously, but the end product looks 10 times better (feels nice too, soft and warm!) We can't wait to get them back from the framers. All this printing work though doesn't leave much time for blogging- hence the gap in posts!
Took a little time off today from setting out a new brochure for the glass works side of the business, by doing a wee spot of...painting! (Ha! Just can't help myself.) I'm not sure how I managed it, but I started what was supposed to be a quick idea on a plate... and ended up three hours later with hand cramp! Everyone's been there, right? My little idea of lacy bubbles became a lesson in sheer determination to finish before I got too much older. Night fell, so I shall colour it in tomorrow! (The other pictures are of bowls with different paint finishes, and a new deco lady I'm calling Zeta, purely because she looks vaguely like that welsh beauty Catherine.) Must away- hope everyone has a peaceful week. Take care.

Popping colour!

Poor ol' Arthur. He's our 'getting-on-a-little-bit' Iveco Daily (or rather, Diy because some of his letters are missing!) van. We feel a kindred spirit to him, as the bodywork has definitely seen better days, but the engine is still going strong as ever! He's had quite a past by the looks of it too- there are umpteen different logos and stickers underneath his current paint job. Every time it rains another company shows up on his sides! We thought it would be a swell idea to board him out properly, to transport paintings and glass work etc, safely, and make a solid base for a camper conversion. It was a great idea up until the removal of the final old board at his back end..... how the complete end hasn't fallen off is a miracle! (There's a lovely view of the road now, like one of those glass bottomed boats at sea!) So Arthur now has to spend a little holiday at my stepdad's workshop for welding work- which is really cool, 'cos it's at a working farm full of real live cows( and very real live cow poo smells!) chickens, stray cats and all these old tractors lined up in various states of repair. I've taken so many photos! After work today I played 'let's Photoshop' with one of the tractor pictures- my husband is "font of all" and told me to check out something called "popping colour." I'm hooked- who needs telly when you can work in Photoshop! Hope you like the picture; even if tratties aren't your thing, it's a very nice red! Happy weekend!

Never say never again!

Well, we've gone and done it! After promising ourselves that we will never weaken and do a trade show ever,ever, EVER again, we have just gone and booked one. Rubbish, aren't we?! The last one we attended was an absolute mare. We had decided to use the option of going down there the day before, to set up and stay on our pitch overnight. The weather went from appalling to downright inhospitable. Arctic really (Ben Fogle would have struggled, I'm telling you!) Still, there was this tiny sliver of hope, that the weather might suddenly play nice, so we set up the stand and battened down all our hard work tighter than a corset on Dita von Teese. That's when the fun started. Have you ever watched those P.O.W films where naughty prisoners are sent to a tin box in the middle of the compound for punishment? Where the temperature drops at night so severely below zero that you are too frightened to move your fingers for fear of them snapping clean off, and teeth go past that chattering stage straight into lockjaw? That was us, that was! In the back of an uninsulated, borrowed Renault Traffic Van, squashed between an oily wheel arch and the biggest built in tool box I have ever seen. Mike started to suffer from head freeze, being as bald as an american eagle, to the point of really hurting him. Desperate measures were called for, so he spent the rest of the night wearing my bra on his bonce- one cup neatly over his crown, the other cradling his chin! We were laughing hysterically to ourselves, but the laughs were coming out as little wheezes! When first light came we had to thaw out drinking unhealthy amounts of coffee (sheer nectar.) The weather got worse, the show organizers called the whole thing off, and then all hell broke loose because nobody could get off the site, as torrential downpours overnight had "glastonbury-ied" the showground! Hours it took to get rescued by a bleeding great tractor! So, 'never again' became our war cry......until today!
We thought it might be a good idea to do a little dress rehearsal before my exhibition- get me out practicing my nearly forgotten people skills. Well, just to get me out really! That's the trouble with working in a studio with the sum total of '2' in it. Yep, me and the hubby. I can go days sometimes without speaking to anyone else!! The other reason is I'm terribly nosy and I enjoy walking around just looking at other peoples works! It's also right on top of my 40th birthday- so what the hey! Let's all party down at Sherbourne Castle amongst the classic cars (Jul 20th)- we'll be there with our fibreglass topped van wearing bras on our heads. You can't miss us!

Poppy Lamp

Another productive day, and a nice little surprise to boot. I've been using alcohol inks recently on several types of glass, but hadn't got round to trying these paints yet on frosted glass. So, up rolled the sleeves, down went the paint, and look what happened! I am really impressed with the finish- it is just like a watercolour effect, only shinier. There was some degree of difficulty however, keeping the colour from spreading in any given direction. Not a good idea for detailed art, but a nice, loose flowing design works beautifully, I think. Any comments gratefully received, especially if anyone knows of a protective 'varnish' I can use that won't lift or wrinkle the paint. I'll be staging Heston Blumenthal-like experiments otherwise!

Lost my desk again!

What a day- I have painted anything that has stood in my way today! Umpteen bowls, plates and lamps adorn my tables. I have no more room, but I cannot stop! It's like an illness. I must be a reincarnation of Copelia, but with paintbrushes! I think all this glass work is making me a little frustrated though, because I haven't 'played' with any oils yet for quite some time. Must rectify that, the minute I can find some work space again. Just for a busman's holiday, we decided to paint the bathroom this afternoon too. Mike being a whole whisker taller, took the top half, which left me the lower portion containing the loo area and all those fiddly pipes. I think I may have started sulking immediately, as there was no comment at all on my haphazard "slapping" technique, which came with an constant, audible huffing noise! I'm going to wear heels the next time paint delegation occurs. Cheaper than being stretched at the chiropractors.