The last couple of weeks

The last couple of weeks.

Last time I posted here I said I was off to Ayr to visit my daughter for the weekend, that was a couple of weeks ago and I seem to have been busy ever since. The weekend was wonderful, daughter and grandson were great,

we took the dog Daisy to the park and gardens of ‘Oswald House’,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auchincruive

we also took the ferry over the Isle of Aaron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Arran

,and of course we spent time at the stables with her horse Bertha.

I’m still working extra hours at work every day to pay back my time off but it was worth every second.

Last weekend was my much anticipated meeting with the coffee shop manageress who offered to display my art. The meeting went really well. She took a total of 11 pieces, she is asking rock bottom prices and if any sell she will take 20% commission but it’s a start.
I love the venue, it has a peaceful, calming atmosphere and every one is very friendly. It’s a new business, a coffee shop plus alternative therapy centre and gift shop. Anne-Marie, the manageress wants to encourage and promote local arts and crafts.
She sells beautiful  jewellery made by a local housewife, there are individual hand made greetings cards by a young local lad, hand made candles and soaps and of course paintings and drawings. I’m the third local artist she has taken on. She is also advertising for me for commissions for portraits (people or pets).
My appointment at the coffee shop was early,  9am Saturday morning, which gave me the rest of the day to do other things. I couldn’t afford to get the canvas paintings framed but I did take some of my drawings to a man in the high street who does framing and mounting.
He also displays and sells work by just a couple of local artists.  He put some of my pastel drawings in mounts, backed them and then wrapped them in cellophane, its amazing what a difference that made.
Anyway………….my daughter gave me a lift to the coffee shop with my work and helped me carry every thing, she saw the drawings that had been mounted and said she wanted the portraits of her dog that I did a while ago mounted in the same way. So; I took her dog drawings to the same man and he was very impressed with them, apparently he likes drawings over paintings and particularly likes pastel drawings, especially if they are pet portraits. I get the feeling this man could prove to be a valuable contact.
After taking the dog drawings into him for mounting I went into another local coffee shop. I know the owners of this place, it’s a local coffee shop with a difference, it’s a coffee shop combined with a second hand book shop. It’s a registered charity, a non-profit making organisation which promotes the use of fair trade produce. They put all profits from the coffee shop back into community projects like music evenings, film shows and suchlike. By the end of that visit I think I had volunteered to start a community book club in the shop AND the owner offered to display and sell my paintings.

SO;………..within one weekend, I’ve gone from never displaying or selling any of my art, to displaying in one coffee shop, producing more paintings to display in another coffee shop and making contact with a local man who frames and mounts work as well as showcasing local artists.

This is like the fulfillment of a prophecy. I’ve recently become estranged from a (previously) very close friend. We didn’t argue or fall out or anything, she just resigned from work and now that we no longer work together she seems to have distanced herself from me. Initially I was quite upset  but another of my very good friends told me that some people come into your life for a long time and some for a short while and we shouldn’t feel bad about this. She also promised that when one door closes another always opens. What a very wise friend she turned out to be because that is exactly what seems to be happening. My friend from work seems to be leaving my life but new people and opportunities seem to be opening up to me
And that, in a nutshell, is what’s kept me so busy these last couple of weeks.

THIS N THAT

THIS N THAT

And suddenly its summer, long may it last.
This week it’s been hot, dry and sunny. Utterly frustrating having to go to work when the weather is so good and there is so much to do. Every day I wake up and think, ‘this time next year I’ll be free from work forever’.  These 6 weeks, last two in May and the whole of June are often the best here in Scotland, last year when school finished at the end of June, so did summer. I’m hoping the same doesn’t happen again this year, and then I remind myself, if it does, it will be the last time it effects me because next year……..I’ll not be working at all after March.

Now that I have a venue to show my work I realise how unmotivated and disorganised I’ve been in the past. I have so many bits of drawings and paintings that are unfinished, none of my drawings are mounted, my system is, fill up a sketch book, throw it in a draw and forget it, start a new one. Now I’ve become selective, framing is far too expensive but the local man who has a shop in the high street only charges £6.00 to mount drawings and wrap them in clear plastic. That makes them clean, tidy and presentable enough to show without putting the sale price too high. I’ve left 6 of what I thought were my better drawings with him to mount. I have THREE unfinished paintings on canvas that I’m rushing to complete within the next couple of weeks. When using canvas to paint I paint all the way round the sides in a neutral colour and that way, they don’t need expensive frames.

I was asked to get together some information about myself and present in a way that can be left in the coffee shop for people to look at. I ended up doing a potted history with pictures saying how; while I loved Art all the way through school and Art College, once out of college and into the big world of grown up life; jobs , bills, kids etc, seemed to get in the way of art and I virtually gave it up. That is until about 5 years ago when I found myself living alone, no dependents and the freedom to do exactly what I wanted to do, and promptly took myself back to art classes. While writing all this out, I realised how little I have left of those days at college, I found a picture of me in the studio at college age about 19,
and a couple of pictures, both now lost, that I painted at college.
Its very weird looking at them now, a whole lifetime has passed and it’s as if  I’ve gone full circle.
Am I alone I wonder, in feeling that I don’t quite fit anywhere anymore? I remember a similar feeling as a teenager, neither a child nor an adult, a sort of in-between, one day one thing the next day another. That’s the way I feel now; too old to be going out, drinking and clubbing with work colleagues in their 30’s & 40’s, way, way too old….. I’ve neither the inclination nor the stamina, but no where near old enough to be hanging about with the over 60’s (which I now am) who seem to moan about every thing and anything at every opportunity. The more people I get to know of my own age, the less I like them; on the whole they seem a pretty right wing reactionary lot, the ones I’ve met come across as  far older than me in general, while only a year or so older in actual age. It’s all very confusing. Much as I love my afternoon ‘leisure art class’, its full of people in their 60’s and 70’s who seem so ‘old’ in attitude, I sometimes feel I have more in common with the young full time students than I do with my fellow classmates.

The countryside is full of yellow rapeseed at the moment, a terrible thing if you have hay fever, but a painters dream. I’ve been busy taking photographs and once I’ve organised myself for the coffee shop, (I’m meeting the manager with my work on the 9th) my first new project will be these beautiful yellow fields.
Being Saturday, I’m not at work, and its one of the hottest days so far. I’ve spent the morning in the garden, there was quite a lot to do, I even had to get the hose pipe out for the first time last night and despite the soaking I gave it then, every thing is bone dry this morning.
The garden is a great place to be right now, the birds are singing and splashing in the pond, the last of the bluebells are still waving around in the periwinkle and the pink London’s Pride is in full bloom.
I still think I’ve lost a lot of the veg I planted due to the wind, frost and torrential rain, but what is left is looking good.
And now……………………..back to the business of painting, I’m working on finishing a portrait and a landscape this afternoon.
Have a great Saturday and enjoy the sunshine while you can.......

The two paintings from my college days... just for Nemo


 


 

Life drawing class

I started back at the life drawing class a couple of weeks ago, I've been away from that class for more than a year, its so good to be back. Drawing gives me something I can't put into words.

Drawing class Easter to Summer

The one thing I made a point of not missing has been my monday evening drawing class.