While I was gone...

 I hadn't planned to be away so long... I know it's only been just over a week but it feels like longer... but you know how it is... I've been busy, easily distracted, caught up with other things. So what have I been doing?

I've been researching.

For a while now I've planned to do some research on my family tree, but in the spirit of my 60 x 60 and "what am I waiting for", and spurred on by my friend Liz I've joined ancestry.co.uk and I'm finding it a little compulsive. I've gone back to the early 1880s on my Mum's side of the family. The photo above is of one of my great aunts in a locket the size of a 50p piece. The photo below is of my Dad (he's the little one on the bike at the right) with his brothers and little sister. It's fascinating! Yesterday we visited a couple of Cambridgeshire churches in the hope of finding some evidence of relatives in the churchyards. We were out of luck in finding anyone but instead we did find a wonderful church inWillingham complete with the most amazing wall paintings. One thing leads to another...

I've been cooking

lots of meals from scratch using loads of vegetables, continuing to follow the advice of Dr Chatterjee. Stewart was overheard to mutter "Your Mum will have biscuits" when we were on our way to see her this weekend... he wasn't wrong. I fear my attempts at healthy eating might be failing!

I've been planning

New classes in a new venue and it feels exciting

I've been stitching

more little hoop portraits. My Marc Bolan caused some debate on Facebook... is it Brian May, is it Phil Lynott, is is Roger Daltry (someone even suggested Noel Fielding)? No... it's MARC BOLAN!!!

Bob Marley was a little more recognisable it would seem.

I've been drawing

More daily prompts on Instagram... houseplant, beins with "L", suit (Chanel and Armour), can, wheels, paint, denim, row...

I got as far as 'hug' but have fallen by the wayside over the past few days...

too busy researching all those ancestors!

Doodle a Day

 I think I may have mentioned in my last post that I have been taking part in a Doodle a Day for January following creative prompts on Instagram. I know I have done things like this before... like last summer... and have usually not got further than about a week but I'm trying to stick with it... despite waning enthusiasm over the past day or two... because it has had some knock on effect on other creative endeavours, plus it is a chance to try different techniques and different styles.

  

The prompts for the first nine days were: Happy New Year, Cocktail, Sleep, Penguin, Fringe, Sailor,  Building, Bath and Cloud.... I'm hoping you can work out which is which! That fringe was my Mum's handiwork... it's from an old school photo from when I was about six! Day eight was "Bath" and when I got home at lunchtime that day I discovered Jacob had given Hector a bath. Once I got over the water and hair everywhere I could see the funny side especially as Hector was not very impressed so he became the subject of my drawing that day.

I really enjoyed drawing the little penguins and they have become the subject of an applique with free machine embroidery that I consequently turned into a zipped pouch. I always imagined making zipped bags would be really tricky but they are simple when you know how... so suddenly everything has become a zipped bag! I struck lucky with the lining for this one.

Yesterday's prompt was "Houseplant" which reesulted in two drawings... a little water colour of a Monstera plant...

And some little cactii...

Which also got turned into an applique that will be a bag very soon.

And not content to stop there I made a pencil case sized bag from these appliqued owls.

I still feel as though I am working a little haphazardly, jumping from one thing to the next but I might just amass a little collection of bags for my Etsy shop at this rate.

 

Meanwhile if you want to see my daily doodles you can follow me on Instagram at

Gina Ferrari Art

Melting in the Heat

How does that happen? Blink your eye and two weeks go by. I certainly never intended to stay away so long but somehow writing seems to be elusive. Occasional thoughts of blog posts have drifted by, come and gone again so that I forgot what I was ever going to write about and I wonder if my blogging days are coming to an end. Meanwhile life goes on, busy as ever. I have taken on another little income stream... at least I'm hoping it will be an income stream as other sorces of income seem to be dripping rather than streaming at the moment.

I have become an ambassador for Tropic skincare. Selling doesn't sit easily on my shoulders but I really do love these products - totally natural skin care - so I'm hoping my enthusiasm sell will rub off and I can make a success of it. I don't for one minute believe I will sell much on line but should you be interested I do have an online shop here.

My daily 15 minute drawings seem to have turned into weekly efforts as I still struggle with motivation. I was encouraged last week when I did a quick copy of a Japanese plate design featuring three pots. I was inspired to interpret it into a little collage using some previously printed papers and I tentitively hoped it might be a spark of something. But I haven't opened the sketchbook since... so much for that!

I'm finding time to read, mostly slowly and have finished these three books over the past couple of months. I quite enjoyed His Bloody Project despite its guesome triple murder, enjoying how well it conjured up life in a rural Scottish community in the 19th century. Bill Bryson's Little Dribbling was a light but entertaining read that made me laugh out loud and I have thoroughly enjoyed Olive Kitterage which is a collection of inter related short stories that all somehow involve the afore mentioned Olive, a somewhat prickly retired school teacher from Maine.

Tomorrow we have our monthly bookclub meeting and the choice this month is Vermeer's Hat, a collection of essays that examine the objects in six of Vermeer's paintings and relate them to trade at the time. I received it as a Christmas present a couple of years ago and never got past page 14. I did try again this month and actually completed the first chapter before I decided life is too short. I love the paintings and think I'm quite intetrested in history but I realise I have absolutely no interest in 17th century trade whatsoever.

Instead I picked up this Jo Nesbo from the charity bookshelf in our post office after clocking the name here and read it in three days. I don't often read crime drama but when I do I can't put them down. It felt like being on holiday, sitting outside in the evening heat reading for hours. I have a hunger for more Harry Hole especially having started with the seventh book in the series, but no doubt the current heatwave will end and I'll put down my books and pick up my knitting in front of the TV instead.

Of course there have been cakes too and I've managed to turn out all these in the past couple of weeks. I seem to know lots of people with birthdays  in June! The chocolate one in the middle melted in the heat yesterday and slipped off its board onto the kitchen counter but fortunately that one was for us not a customer! It was scooped up and rescued and put in the fridge.

This was yesterday's haul... a week's supply for the coffee shop carefully avoiding anything chocolate that might melt.

And this was today's... ten Victoria sponges! That's it for this week which is a relief as it really is too hot for baking. At this rate I'm likely to melt onto the kitchen counter

Too hot for very much at all really... except perhaps for a slice of this gin and tonic cheesecake which is utterly divine, even if I do say so myself. Healthy eating habits have gone clean out the window and frankly my dear I don't give a damn!

And so that's it ... pretty much everything I've been up to over the past couple of weeks. I hope to be back again before too long but I'm making no promises!

A Creative Challenge

Back in September 2014 I started a creative challenge to do a drawing everyday. For two weeks I made daily observations of things around me and it became a sort of visual diary. Among others, there was a pencil drawing of ivy seed heads...

A quick sketch of my lunch...

 And a drawing of a Goldfinch, because I happened to be reading "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt. Some were quick sketches and others were more carefully drawn observations.

Then on the 12th - 13th September I spent a weekend away with The Textile Study Group, a weekend spent drawing, with a view to joining them. My entry in my little visual diary that weekend was as follows: "... the weekend ended with me not being accepted by the group. My work lacks variety and depth apparently. It's a huge knockback and I'm struggling to see the point of carrying on with any sort of art".

It was a huge blow and I wrote about it here and here, but always one to bounce back it wasn't long before I was immersed in whatever was happening in my life at the time... my Mum's 80th birthday party I believe! But three years on I realise that my art practice has virtually stopped. Teaching has gradually been cut back (not always my choice) and I am no longer a member of an exhibiting group - I couldn't afford the membership and hanging fees to stay with Prism. When I wrote and explained why I wouldn't be renewing my membership I didn't even get an acknowledgement which made me feel undervalued once again. And I realise that I've stopped making art. So when someone posted about a 30 day instagram project to make a 15 minute drawing every day in June I decided to join in.

For the first couple of days I managed a few quick doodles... no judgements, no worries about being good enough, just the act of creating a daily drawing.

I've not managed every day bacause I'm still srtugging with the motivation. But then that is the point of just a 15 minute sketch... it is simply exercising that creative muscle until it becomes second nature to pick up a pencil or paintbrush. For the first time today I actually started to lose myself in the process and liked the outcome so maybe it is working.

You can follow my progress on Instagram... along with lots of photos of cakes of course!

My week in drawings

I've continued with my daily drawings in September, joining in with Laura Kemshall

 

 

On Saturday, I stuck a printed page into my sketchbook. painted it with a light coat of gesso and then drew this goldfinch using Inktense pencils... as a reminder that I'm currently reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I was inspired by some work I had seen by Anne Kelly.

 

Sunday morning we walked to the neighbouring village to buy the newspaper and despite the glorious weather there were signs that autumn is definitely approaching... lots of conkers already on the ground.

 

On Monday I was preparing for my day teaching at Art Van Go and realised the canvases that I had planned to use as samples were in an exhibition in High Wycombe library... so I had to put together the one below in order that I had something to show the students. As a result, this is really my drawing for the day, done with the needle. But I put together a scrappy little sample to go in my sketchbook, just to mark the day.

 

On Tuesday I noticed the huge amount of work that needs to be done in my sadly neglected garden... but I didn't do anything about it. I just drew a Nigella seedhead instead!

 

And because there was a stitched square on the opposite side from where I'd stitched in my previous sample, I turned it into a frame and put in a different view of the seedhead. Two drawings for the price of one!

 

Wednesday, the weather was still glorious so I went for a three mile walk first thing... I was that mad woman going along at a pace singing along to Frankie Valli!

 

Thursday I thought about doing the housework... I really did. Think about it that is... I  never actually did any.

 

And Friday... well I've not done a drawing yet because I've been busy getting ready and travelling down for an exciting weekend away. I'm sat in a room overlooking the beautiful Vale of Evesham... more about that next week! So that's my week... I thought about the housework and the gardening, went for a couple of walks and had a day teaching!

I hope you have an exciting weekend too... anything good planned?

Five on Friday

A round up of my week using the ever so convenient Five on Friday format....

 

 

One

I made just one cake this week - a Dorset Apple cake using windfalls from my neighbours garden. It looks pretty squished and sunken in the middle but it tasted okay... honest!

 

Two

I finished the two bunnies, using Julie's pattern. It's the first time I've made the little boy bunny and I just loved knitting that tiny jumper!

 

They have now been delivered to their new owners.

 

Three

I read three books in August.I finished my year in books choice - The Death of Lucy Kyte by Nicola Upson and really enjoyed it. I'm not sure I like the writing style enough to read any more by this author but it was a gripping story and a good mix of fact with fiction. I also read How to Build Girl by Caitlin Moran. It wasn't exactly bad and was even amusing at times but overall a bit of a disappointment... actually quite a big bit of a disappointment. I like Moran's writing as a journalist but somehow it doesn't really translate into a full length novel for me. All a bit samey and a tad boring. But the final novel I read in August was Peter May's Extraordinary People which I thought was an excellent fast paced thriller... and which I couldn't put down, reading it in just three days!

 

My September choice for the Year in Books is The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt which I am really enjoying... I'm already half way through!

Joining in with The Year in Books with  Laura at A Circle of Pine Trees

 

Four.

Another joining in thing... this time with Laura Kemshall for a daily drawing each day in September... and I have done another four drawings. I liked Laura's drawing of keys so much that I thought I would try a key on 2nd Sept...

 

Then Laura suggested going larger so I tried it with a different key on 3rd, but I was starting to get bored and could see me giving up...

 

Then on 4th as I was taking the bin to the bottom of the garden I noticed all the wonderful flowers on the Ivy and drew those and I was much happier. I also made a note that these were spotted when taking the bins out and it occured to me that making it almost like a diary of what is going on each day will be far more interesting to me than drawing random shiny objects

 

So this morning I made a quick sketch of a pretty little ceramic jam pot that I bought years ago. I'm not sure I have ever used it for jam but at least it is a record of all the jam making going on here this week. And I'm really enjoying the daily drawing again.

 

Five

Which brings me neatly on to number five...

 

Because whilst out walking yesterday I managed to pick another five pounds of various plums and damsons just from the hedgerows... which will mean an awful lot more jam. Guess what I'm doing this weekend!

Hoping you all have a lovely weekend.