It is May and I've decided time for a challenge. I enjoy working within a set of perimeters that a challenge can bring, things like the 100 day project come to mind. Setting yourself a challenge can test and push you to discover new things by way of process and I feel like my work is in a place where it needs to be challenged and new muscles flexed. I would like to stretch and practice my writing skills. Words, writing and thought have always been a big part of my studio wor

One week of turning up. I’ve set the intention to be in my studio everyday in June to see what effect the act of being present will have on my art. The ball is rolling. I’m enjoying the lightness of my experience. Previously, time in the studio felt precious and limited because it was, I didn’t have much time down there. Each visit felt pressured to be worthwhile and productive. I learned that this wasn’t always possible and yet the feeling of wasting an opportunity felt big

At nearly a week into this creative challenge- visiting my studio everyday in June- I am feeling it settle down into something I’m now actively thinking about, beyond the physical challenge of it. The last 24 hours for me have been a total indulgence of my creative self. Yesterday, I went to a private view at centre space gallery, ‘seeing differently’ is a group show by Jessie Woodward, George Henry Rowe and Emma Anne that presents their unique approaches to abstraction to q

Yesterday I took a series of photos and films of the shadows of trees. It was a windy day, sunny spells broken by heavy downpours. When the sun appeared from behind the clouds the contrast of the burst of light was strong. Like a theatre light, the shadows from the trees along my path suddenly and drastically cast shadows as if in a spotlight. This, with the wind, gave a movement that felt distracting. How could I walk when such a show was being performed. The shadows moved a

It’s only day three of this month long experiment into turning up and being present in my studio and I felt the resistance. The weather was atrocious, the traffic bad. Wednesdays are busy made more so by my husband working away this week. A poor nights sleep meant all I wanted to do was curl up in bed with a cuppa. However, I have set the intention and looking at the way the day was unfolding I had to make the most of a two hour window this morning. So I grabbed my raincoat a

I’m still feeling that buzz of novelty, when tonight I stepped out of the door to go to my studio at 8.40 - a time I’d usually be thinking about pjs! The quiet evening with next to no traffic put me in a good mood. When I arrived in my space I remembered that I have a few primed boards about a3 size so I took one of these and started laying out a painting in black oil. I chose black as I didn’t have the energy to select a palette. Painting shadows I’ve have mostly avoided bla

Having spent the whole of May engrossed n my writing, I am feeling inspired to continue working in my studio and excited to test out new ideas

31st MAY Writing challenge draws to a close. Things to note. I enjoy working from inside perimeters A month can seem very long A month goes by in a flash Keeping to a routine is hard when you are on a family holiday - but not impossible I love writing It can be tricky sometimes to think of things to write about, so not thinking and just writing is the best way I still have half written ideas on my laptop There’s always something else to write about It helps doing this sort of

Stained glass in a small chapel. Light pools in colours, warming cold stone. Lines trace shapes, piece together a whole, like patchwork. No painted faces of long forgotten saints here. The colour is universal and speaks of joy and the landscape. It can only really be experienced from inside. Step over the threshold of the church. Walk inside to know the true colours as they harness the power of the sunlight. Like watching a screen. Each window unique but colours work in harmo

Island I would like to live on an island, I know that I technically do, but what I mean is an island where the boundary and the edge is visible or at least felt at all times. A small spit of land that when viewed at a distance is consumed in its entirety as a rock or island. I like the idea of containment and self sufficiency. I don’t mind other people living on the island, a small community, made bigger by tourists and visitors. It doesn’t need to be tropical either, but san

Sitting, legs folded on soft green grass. Plucking little white stars. Delicate flowers that can form a long chain. Strong together. He loves me, he loves me not. Each petal, a dash of white with a blush of pink. One at a time to tell you of love. Innocent love that is either in or out As white as a daisy, uncompromising Only opening her face and her beauty for the sun. I press my nail into the stem of the plucked wonder, Plucked from a sea of flowers that grow as weeds Finge

What to do on a beach. Set up camp. Beach tent, blanket first. Towels and bags inside the tent. Buckets and spades ready. Sun hats on, suncream too. Urgh the stickiness of the suncream and the sand. Everyone agrees this is the worst but sunburn is worse still. In recent years we have rash vests as we are more sun aware. I have memories of being on a beach in the full midday sun, sparing amounts of factor twenty in the hope that genetics might fail and with enough will power I

White horses. White against landscape of greens, pure beauty like a moon stands out, Catching eyes and breaths To be seen, to be looked at Whispers of look can you see? Carved muscles in living white marble, monoliths to man and beast Yet so otherworldly and unreal Carved into hillside chalk, etched out to be remembered Ghosts in the twilight, made real by the weight of their shadow against the passing light Carriers of omens good and bad depending on your upbringing. I see t

We have escaped our usual life. Slipped away in the early hours, car packed to the brim with playfulness. Summer clothes, buckets and spades, a beach tent. A lot of organising to then be free. To set up camp, miles away. To play pretend house for a while. Sun-kissed cheeks, bbq lunches and a sun cream smell in salty hair. Memories being made, a feeling of summertime joy. The light seems different here, but how can that be? We haven’t ventured that far. I wonder if it's the fa

Waiting For news For change For it For the weather to change For spring For summer For autumn For winter For next year For when I'm ready For when you’re ready For what’s next For another option For confirmation To feel better To feel confident For snow For a sunny day For a holiday For the tide to turn For the ship to come in For my luck to run out To wait is to be like a ghost, haunting the present with half heard echos from the future. Sometimes it's all we can do.

I grew up with the sea in the background, taking for granted the views of it in between houses and out of windows. It was a constant edge and horizon, giving me a direction, a coastline to follow. Sea to the left or sea to right. Cornwall or Devon depending on which way you are facing. When I moved away from this coast, I missed it. The channel and harbour of Bristol’s landscape never has had quite the same energy or placement in my life. I’m not sure what exactly I missed bu

Tiny squares. 100 days ago I started something new, a tiny square filled with a drawing each day. I set the perimeters. One square a day. The square measures 3cmx3cm drawn on graph paper in rows of five. Numbered as I go, not in advance and not dated. I’ve missed some days here and there and so these can be back filled, not ever missing more than a couple in a row. Creating these has become a special ritual at the start if the day and something I plan to continue.This was not

Garden as in making. I spent an hour in my garden this morning. I nearly didn’t go out, the weather was a bit iffy, the tools put away. It would be better if I had more time. These thoughts I recognise as similar to the ones I have before making work. It comes with overwhelm. The garden is full of jobs at the moment and I don’t really know (with confidence) where to begin. With my making there is an endless list of things I could do, should do, have to do, that starting and c

Last winter solstice, I decided to set some new intensions for the season ahead. Between the winter solstice and new year there are 12 days. I wrote out 12 intensions I would like to focus on in the coming months. The first few came easily, things that I thought would be beneficial or fun. The last few were harder to pin down and these ended up being things that would be nice but not necessarily goal driven. I wrote these 12 wishes out on small bits of paper, folded them up a

Moirai Clotho Lachesis Atropos The threads were being spun long before you were born. The shape of your life and all its colours, light and shade measured out by the fates. Lengths and lengths of silk that are your stories and memories ready for you to drape around your shoulders. One spins, one measures and one cuts. Spin, measure, cut. Moth-like in the darkness of decision. Measuring your life and mine. The cut can be sharp and clean or it can fray as it reaches edge becomi