It’s been a really hectic couple of months. We closed the tea lounge to work on insulating the ceiling and I had a lot of homework for my Poultry Science HNC, but the effort has got me seven weeks ahead! I managed to do just over 2000 words on my pirate book and read eight… Continue reading The Revolution
I am not even sure I wrote a post on The Tea Lounge. But for today, as its a hectic one, I am attending a poetry/writing slam to read parts of my novel, pictures speak louder than words in this case. The empty shell of a room is going to come alive with two themes… Continue reading The Tea Lounge
I have been painting now for three good years, mainly half hearted and rudderless, but this last year I pushed myself. I found my charted route, the wind in my sales and a compass pointing to where I would head. I asked for feedback, I studied, I poured over fine art books, learnt about colour,… Continue reading Folkart Flora and Fauna
Back in 2023 I was very ill. I had been given migraine meds that should never be given to those of us who have a history of low serotonin. I was literally frozen in a body and mind of fear, anxiety and unable to function. My writing and art stopped. I would be on the… Continue reading Reminding my love of 2CVs
It’s mid afternoon and we are waiting for Carrefour to open so we can buy snacks, wine and cheese for tomorrow’s big opening. I am baking cakes and brownies, quiches, and other pastry items. Friends are coming to help. My sewing friend will see her products arranged in the shop and after a year of… Continue reading The Tea Lounge opens tomorrow!
It’s been a hectic month. We have finished the Tea Lounge, painted the atelier and tea lounge entrance and the gallery house too. With our prominent position near the N145 at Gouzon, we get a huge flow of traffic throughout the day and we wanted our establishment to be noticed. Today people slowed down, tooted… Continue reading Costin and Castille
Very busy with the new tea lounge, painting brocante finds, finishing the shop cabinets and bookshelf. Using acrylics, chalkpaint, mineral paint, decoupage papers and braid to finish edges. I use a dry brush technique to build up layers to give a worn, soft look. It saves on paint too. I then use coloured wax or… Continue reading Paint, paper and braid
A lovely article by my tax business partners daughter, Alix Marshall. She is working through a degree in journalism back in UK and she visited last month to dip into my world and my journey to France.
After 2023 when I was so ill with wrong medications for migraines, and was literally on the floor crying and having severe panic attacks, I never imagined that this two year anniversary of that month, I would be painting candy colours onto our forthcoming atelier tea lounge! After finishing the gallery next door in time… Continue reading Time For Tea
After a very successful year, the Maison has proved to be a huge asset for us. Found in a very neglected state, with leaking pipes, a rotten kitchen and no floor under the bath, we have finally given its soul back. We provide many workshops here each month, on art, poetry and writing. We hold… Continue reading The Gallery
I finally got to England after four years away and washed up in lovely olde Hastings, to hunt for pirates and sing a few sea shantys. Writing a book on pirates around the 1730’s needed research and Hastings sure provided that. The Mini will be crammed with 35 books scoured from many a deep filled… Continue reading Ship Ahoy!
I am absolutely hooked on collagraphs. But what are they? Well they are a combination of techniques….collage, layering of paper and textures; drypoint, marking in the paper indentations, scratches, hatching, dots; Intaglio, pushing ink into ghe indentations and textured areas; and relief/ mono printing, laying down ink on raised areas and wiping off to create… Continue reading Caught by Collagraphs
This week I had my very first lesson in creating a plate with raised reliefs out of clay. I was hooked! It took about 2 hours to roll out the clay and put it on the form and trim. Then another 4 hours to roll, cut and attach the design, and add details, along with… Continue reading Save the Orangutans
With the Unesco Heritage city of Aubusson just a mere twenty minutes away, I have access to one of the best tapestry manufacturers in history. Encouraged by Louis XIV minister Colbert, in the 17th Century, Aubusson flourished and today it is a bustling place for tourists, cafes, tapestry dealers and other artisans, including the tapestry… Continue reading Aubusson inspired
I started a project with the local Micro-Folie in Gouzon, a weekly creative hub for young children. We have been producing illustrations for a book I will pull together in January. Whilst helping the children with ideas, I decided to work on a selection too in watercolour to add to the book. I’ve not really… Continue reading Space age
Excuse the tiny pun, but it’s Christmas exposition time in France. They are almost every weekend from mid November and our creative hubs are on full steam making, crafting, painting and printing. I have my notebooks and prints, but wanted to try and create some craft pieces, word blocks and felt tree decorations. I love… Continue reading “Home” made blocks
Excited? You bet! My very first children’s book is being published this month. I was found by an Americsn author after three years of disappointments and I loved the story and the challenge. From day one author and writer worked closely, do self-publishing, so not traditional publishing, where often Illustrators are allocated and have little… Continue reading Hello Hen
A couple of years ago I bought my dream car…a 2CV tin snail. I loved it. I named her Amelie after the film, and she got a brand new windscreen and hardwood and chrome steering wheel. Then Covid hit and she was stuck in my atelier. I was then very ill last year and sadly… Continue reading Amelie
It’s been great fun designing our sets of note books, A6 with illustrations for the local craft boutique in Aubusson, here in Creuse. Aubusson is home to the famous tapestry museum and weaving factory and I feel very lucky to be able to share my own designs in the town. Now it’s autumn, I’ve designed… Continue reading Pocket sized
I published my first book! I met a wonderful poet, Kate Rose and over this year we decided to collaborate to produce an anthology of 33 Sea and Estuary birds. It was a fun and educational project, involving reading field guides, watching numerous videos and learning about their habitat and hunting behaviour. I used AI,… Continue reading Whispers of the Tides
Back in 2021, I drew Pipi my guinea and posted her online on a guinea forum. I hadn’t illustrated since a child, but after 35 years of accountancy and tax, I wanted to follow a dream of being an artist. The guinea fowl forum in America gave me such support with their enthusiasm, I continued… Continue reading Going all guinea
Today at the gallery we had the lovely Celine Excoffen teaching the art of Cyanotype. With a combination of chemicals, it was a mix of photography and chemistry. After coating paper with the chemical mix, potassium and ammonia, we laid out feathers, letters, flowers and anything that hid sunlight. Then squeezing between glass to keep… Continue reading Cyanotype
I am immensely impressed by AI Dalle 3. Being able to create my book into images that help me visualize better, is helping me develop three dimensional characters. My captain hare has quite a journey to make and often times he has fallen prey to too many ales at The Salty Pig, taking on too… Continue reading The Hare
I do have a great love of American folkart, featuring homesteads, poultry,old tractors and red barns. I am not sure exactly why but I think it’s alot to do with poultry, strong flat images, often made with chalk paint, using wood to paint on, country style interiors, traditional trades and homesteading…make do and mend, recycle… Continue reading Folkart for fun
Garages get neglected. Often left full of unloved or spare things. Full of cobwebs and oil stains. Sometimes with doors too stuck to even open. When we bought the atelier in Gouzon, an ex paint factory, it came with a house in bad repair. We are currently decorating it after our tenants left and it’s… Continue reading Pretty in mauve
A good year ago, I was lucky to get a lovely commission to illustrate a children’s book about a hen. I worked closely with the author to get the hen right as I felt she shoukd appeal to both of us. So often in traditional publishing the author is far removed from the artist, often… Continue reading Children’s illustration
I have a studio full of toy, children’s books, crayons and coloured pencils. They bring me joy and ease my anxieties in life. My studio is a reflection of what goes on in my head…stories of pirates, of naughty geese and silly ducks. Over my career in accountancy I have trained many employees on software,… Continue reading Teaching joy
The last few months I have been working on new project that will involve my love of fabric, needlepoint and tapestry; my love of Poultry, fishes, birds and Folkart will feature alot. For many years I’ve loved these bright coloured domestic scenes, often painted on wood panels, or embroidered on family heirloom cottons. I made… Continue reading Contemporary American Folkart
After copious notes, migrains, a bout of strong depression that lasted six months, and the fear of not being able to continue what I started, AI came to the rescue. I know it’s controversial, but for a writer, as I feel now I can at last call myself after getting to around 40,0000 words, the… Continue reading Tales of Yo Ho Ho
The studio is almost complete. Boxes have been unpacked and 1950’s to 1970’s inspired fabrics, objects have found their home. Its a place of colourful happiness for me and hopefully it will find its way into my creative work. Full of toys and more to be brought over soon from my Farmhouse studio, its a… Continue reading Retro studio
The French love expositions, artistic ones, wool fairs, potatoes fairs, poultry fairs, if it’s a rural, local pastime, there will over the long summer and into autumn, be an event occurring in a quaint little village. Our area is no exception and this year has been a good year with Crocq, Auzances, Orsenne, and just… Continue reading Autumn Expositions
Back in 2019 we purchased a 1970’s car paint shop just on the outskirts of our local town of Gouzon. It’s a bustling little town conveniently situated very central to the historic towns of Boussac, Aubusson and Auzances. It came with a house too, which we redecorated, removing alot of the issues a house lacking… Continue reading Recreating Retro
It’s hot and sweaty here in Central France, 36° today and hoping for storms. The dogs sleep most of the day and tumble listlessly on their day couch as outside is a furnace. But when dogs are sweaty, it’s bath time! Sake and Bella have always been bathed and actually love the whole process, getting… Continue reading Soapy Dogs
Just this week a writing group in a town just a short drive from me, started. Being so rural, any social group can be a lifeline from feeling buried, but with all my building work going on right now, sometimes I have to miss quite a few..but I still keep up on social media and… Continue reading I have to begin…
What a dirty, messy day. We finally installed the chickens and Bovril into the old coop and cleaned the garden again. It’s been a mammoth task after having left the garden for three years! The chickens are now scratching away happily. We had a horrible week with a fox attack and lost two of our… Continue reading Dirty Day
Finally after wrangling lime mortar, paint pots, breeze blocks, tiles, sewing machines that broke needles, the barn apartment is ready to rent. It’s taken about a year but so happy with the results. And why Giant Pea…Well we are artists and I am writing a story book about lost family and friendships and finding them… Continue reading The Giant Pea Cottage
Yesterday I had a wonderful surprise …..an order from a lady in Georgia, USA, which given the enthusiasm of the Southern States for my guinea illustrations, mugs and fabrics, wasn’t in itself a surprise. I believe with their strong homesteading roots and often paired with religious fervour to till the land, guineas feature heavily in… Continue reading Unlikely combinations
I thought I would show you a little of the daunting white space I get in the home run of an illustration, along with a couple of experimental ideas. I have been on a journey the last two years finding my feet on how to illustrate, paint or pencil, and what to illustrate. Birds seem… Continue reading Backgrounds
A recent opencall from a lovely gallery in Neath, South Wales, led me to be a little cheeky. I didn’t want to risk loosing my original illustrations, sending from France during the end of year postal problems, but also collecting could be a slight issue. So I asked if I could send prints instead, and… Continue reading Going to a Gallery
After an initial wobble through etching and finding it rather messily liberating, I embarked on a little Garden Bird project, reinforced by a small local exhibition coming up in March at a local La Poste. Very kindly the post lady has a spare area and monthly allows artists to display work. My friend kindly invited… Continue reading Little birds
Trees slumber and this quiet time allows them to create majestic frost covered winter monuments in the landscape. I love the detail of twigs and branches now leafless and the parasitic ivy even looks pretty.
Love my girls. Many have passed over the Rainbow Bridge 🌈 but Doobie is now six years old and aging gracefully. When they had their new table top perch, to save my back re bending, it caused mahem. Everyone wants to sit at the front, next to the cockerel and be first to do it.… Continue reading Pecking order
Some years go by and the poultry garden changes with the addition of rescued and adopted birds, and new chick’s and ducklings. Younger members of the flocks suddenly mature and their characters form fully and relationships are formed and friendships bond deeper. Then the clock ticks and certain milestones arrive…three years, six years and maybe… Continue reading Over the Rainbow Bridge
Last year I started illustrating fish. A challenge online to complete illustrations in set colours got me thinking about fish. I had never illustrated fish and never really thought about them. I wanted to work on crustaceans, lobsters, Crabs and suchlike, but never lent a thought to fish! The first scheme was green and red… Continue reading Figuring out Fish
I have never etched anything. I haven’t ever really thought about it until reading a book on printing this year. It was a sort of mystery…copper plates, acid, looked complicated. But then I read more and found it could be simplified, if only to practice, try techniques and get a feel for it. I bought… Continue reading Etching after sketching
We bought this barn for a song, way back in 2015 and since then have had a roller coaster of events, all lurking somewhere on this blog, from failed businesses, to property investments, new career paths and health scares. But, and a drum roll please……we are in and its cosy, bright and beautiful! Since buying… Continue reading Home at the barn
Back in October I started a thirty day Birdtober challenge to illustrate 30 birds. After a wobbly start with a cockerel, my next bird did not go well. I was trying to move temporarily away from whimsical to try my hand at a more fine art style, if for no other reason that to show… Continue reading Seabird portfolio
Myrtle was the first chicken I lost. I felt helpless as the vet couldn’t diagnose. She couldn’t breathe and I read every book I could, but everything led to the same diagnosis, which I now know is not always right. It was supposed to signify gape worm, but I honestly now believe it was sadly… Continue reading Little Souls
I have lived in France for quite a few years now and although I managed to visit the memorable tapestry manufacturing museum at Aubusson – St Jean – I had not entered the Unesco Cite Internationale de la Tapisserie. But today on a bright November Sunday afternoon I made the half hour drive and yes… Continue reading Tapestry at Aubusson
Sometimes you get a commission that’s a little extra special and such a joy to work on. In this case a lovely bedcover for a two year old to be an heirloom piece. The little girl has three hens, one white feathered and two with black and copper. Her mum says she’s mad about them… Continue reading Three French Hens
A French Creative Life 