28th August 2018

Upcoming Exhibition:

Very pleased that I'll be showing some of my visual diary work at the wonderful new St Albans Museum and Gallery in November, alongside the beautiful work of Suman Gujral.  More details to follow - below is a picture clipped from the UH Arts Programme for 18/19.  You can see all of the exciting upcoming UH Arts events here

Tuesday 2nd January 2018

We have entered 2018.  Here's the last of the monthly flower paintings: December 2017

Looking forward to this year - hope you are too!

2 October 2017

Been ages since I've written anything here.  Here's a picture of an oil painting I made a couple of days ago for September:

and here's one I made a month ago for August:

Here's a photograph of the flowers drying on the table so that I can sew them into a bag and keep them safe.  I want to keep each of the bunches of flowers in its own bubble for as long as possible.  I now have a white bag of dead flowers for each of the flower paintings.  Not sure what for - at the moment all the flower bags are in a carrier bag labelled "Please do not throw away these dead flowers."

I'm also saving all the jugs and keeping them apart from the rest of the household vases.  Not sure whether anybody in the family will notice that all the vases are slowly disappearing - I'm trying to leave a few obvious ones but they are looking very tempting. 

A small selection of limited edition prints of flowers are available here:

I am still writing and drawing about my childhood and early life, including our daughter Bronwen who died a few days before her sixth birthday many years ago.  I'm hoping to acknowledge and celebrate her and also to examine some of the ways that her life changed our lives. I am fascinated by the way memory is fluid and I am sure that my childhood memories have been affected by my experiences with my own children.   

19th July 2017

Here's another oil painting of flowers from our garden.  Making one painting a month as part of a 2017 diary - you can see all the pictures and buy limited edition prints here:

Flower Print Shop 2017

Friday 23rd June 2017

Family Garden

Been a long time since I posted anything here.  This is a picture I painted today of roses from our garden.

I'm making a painting for each month of this year of flowers picked from the garden.

I'm also writing/drawing daily about my childhood and my children's early lives - I like the way different memories pop up, partly because of family anniversaries and seasonal reminders, but also because of my ever changing personal preoccupations - I am allowing myself to write whatever comes to mind - I hope to find some patterns later and expect it to fall neatly into chapters when I analyse it at the end of the year!

Here is a picture of a pull string strawberry music box that our daughter Bronwen played with when she was a toddler.  She could hum the song before she could talk: the verse of "It's a Small World" by the Sherman Brothers.  I have no idea what happened to it - it was very popular in 1983.

Friday 21st April 2017

Digswell Arts Trust has been in existence for 60 years, supporting Hertfordshire artists in the first few years of their practice.  I am now nearing the end of my time with Digswell and am very grateful for all their support first at Fenners in Letchworth and now at the Forge in Digswell.  I'm delighted that we'll be opening our studios at the Forge again on the 6th and 7th May.  There will be exciting work from all the artists and printmakers currently working at the Forge and I am very pleased to be part of this years celebrations.
I'll be showing some of the work in progress of my visual and written diaries and memories.

20th October 2016

Very much enjoyed the opening of my show at Artistsmeet in Rickmansworth last week.  It was great to show people work from the past five years of my ongoing visual diary.  Also loved running the 'thoughts diary' workshop afterwards as part of the Big Draw festival.  Thanks so much Elaine Johnson and all at Riversmeet for organising everything so smoothly and thanks to everybody who came along and helped make it such a nice occasion.

Great to meet Chairman Andrew Scarf and his wife Alison too.
https://threeriverschair2016andrewscarth.wordpress.com/2016/10/12/the-big-draw-steam-at-artistsmeet-12-october/

Next week I'm looking forward to our next Big Draw event: "DRESS THE GIANT" - a family drop-in event from 12.00 - 2.00 also taking place at Artistsmeet.

11th October 2016

Solo show this month at Artistsmeet in Rickmansworth.  Visual diary made over the past five years including books, animations, pictures and prints.Open evening tomorrow (12th October) from 5.30 - 7.00 followed by bookmaking workshop. Childrens drop-in workshop on Tuesday 25th: 12.00 - 2.00

Thursday 31st December 2015

So goodbye 2015. I've just finished my lines - started on the 1st January - one for each day of the year on a small piece of paper. Here's the process, started in my old studio at Fenners, and finished in my new studio at the Forge:

turn the page, artists' book fair, Norwich

Very pleased I'll be at turn the page artist's book fair in Norwich again this year - on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd May at the Forum.

I'll be showing the twelve pictorial diaries that I made last year and inviting people to create their own  diaries.

Can't wait to see all the other artists and their work - was great last year - very busy and with a great range of artists and books.

I spent this weekend finishing the diaries and I have been playing with them, deciding how best to display them. Each of the books opens out so that all the pages can be seen at the same time - I'd like to find a way of showing them so that people can touch them.  I have the perfect box for transporting them - an Easter egg box - I like the way they fit snugly.
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Wednesday 1st April 2015

Home and Faces

I have left my beautiful studio (and all my friends) at Fenners in order to move to a studio that I can cycle to (still with the Digswell Arts Trust but much closer to home).  Feels very strange to have left Fenners but also good to have a few weeks working from home.  Sitting surrounded by boxes and drawers full of all my stuff - planning to have a big sort out before a studio becomes available at the Forge which will probably be in autumn.

Meanwhile I am a print member at the Forge and spending a day each week using the wonderful facilities and meeting the inspiring artists working there.

I feel very grateful to have had the opportunity to meet and work with so many excellent artists at Fenners, and to work with other organisations in Letchworth.  Hope to continue to be part of occasional projects in Letchworth, although I will no longer be based there.

Been sorting through some of my work from the past few years - here are all the face pictures from 2013 - one for each day of the year: