New products

I've got two new things available in my Envelop shop - a tote bag and a cushion.

Playing

I don't play enough in my work. I usually stick to the things I know and the things I find easy. I am determined to play more and to experiment with new ideas because I'm in danger of getting bored of myself. I was in the studio blowing bubbles with ink the other day and getting very messy. They came out looking like little planets.


I composed an 'about me' page yesterday for the Helfa Gelf open studios next month, and wrote some rather pretentious arty rubbish about what I want to work on in the future. It sounded rather far fetched (I think the word 'philosophy' was used), but it's true - I want to try something new, to explore the ideas that preoccupy me and not to just go with things in my comfort zone. Even though the fun stuff is enjoyable to make and I love making people laugh, I know that I can try other things too.

office chairs

Sincere apologies for my absence, and the absence of any new work here lately. I have been preoccupied with studio preparations, namely the refurbishment of this beast of a work bench.


Thoughtlessly, I omitted to take photos of it in its original state. Here you can see I've planed off the dark, sticky goo that was deeply ingrained in its top surface. That job took days. I've just finished waxing the top now, and am prepping the base to be painted. It's been a tough job, but it will be such a useful piece of furniture once it's nice and clean!

The other thing that has been preoccupying me at least for the last twenty-four hours is the pursuit of a half-decent-looking office chair. It's a hard life I lead, I tell you. Now I hate most office chairs as a rule but I need something that is adjustable because I have such terrible posture and spend so much time at my desk that I am in danger of damaging myself. So what am I to do? They are so ugly! Of course I like the vintage printers' style chairs, but I wonder if they are any good for your back. I think I need something at least a little more modern.

There is one that I like: godfather of all modern office chairs, the Fred Scott designed Supporto task chair. It looks terribly ordinary in standard 'office' colours of black, grey, blue, but the coloured versions are a joy. I particularly like the low wide back version. Shame that they start at about £800 for a new one, and less for a battered vintage one. Deary me.


Twenty Twenty One, £990


eBay, starting bid £345


eBay, starting bid £125

Image from Supporto.

Image from Spaceist.

my studio

The previous owners of our house were two artists. One of them used the space above our garage as a painting studio. I haven't introduced you to this space yet, so here is a peek. There are two rooms - the large one at the back where he painted, and a tidier room at the front, with a window, which was more of an office. It's a lovely space, full of light: surely the perfect place for an artist to hole themselves up for a day of creativity.

However, it's not watertight or insect-tight. There is a recent leak in the asbestos roof that has soaked one of the beams and is causing me a bit of anxiety; the beam has sprung some orangey mould that I think will need addressing with some urgency.


It doesn't make me feel terribly creative, being surrounded by piles of dead flies, oil-painty floors, mouldy beams and staples all over every surface. It drives me mad. I like things tidy(ish) and clean. He left an enormous work bench that was covered in layers of oil paint and other unmentionable gunk that I have spent days planing, scraping and sanding off. There were other bits of furniture too - an old armchair, a couple of tables, a small snooker table - and a whole lot of junk including a picture of William Gladstone, piles of unused picture frames and some crockery. In a nutshell, it's a bomb site. A bomb site with potential, but I have a lot of work to do to make it how I want it to be. These photos were taken after several days of junk clearance and hard work, so you can imagine how awful it was before this, perhaps.

The studio and garage are in a building opposite our house - ours is the garage on the left, with the studio above.

In September I will be taking part in Helfa Gelf Art Trail, which is an open studios event for the whole of North Wales. I intend to be ready to welcome guests to this bomb site by then - not like 'finished' ready, but at least minus the dead flies. I am collecting inspiration for the space over on Pinterest, but right now it feels like a million years before I will be able to call this space my workplace. Give me a year to work on it. I'll keep you updated with its progress.

ok, ok...

So I haven't been as good a girl as I would like to be. It's hard getting back into blogging when you've been away a while. I am off to London tomorrow for a few days of galleries, museums, food and shopping. Meanwhile, I will leave you with a link to new site, Hipshops, which lists some of the coolest shops around the world. I just wish I could visit them all!

Image above: Hay House, Copenhagen, via Hipshops.

Italy

I'm back from a week in the sunshine. It is raining, but at least my runner beans and squash all survived my absence (they probably do better in my absence!). Italy was glorious, as always.

Things will be back to normal around here now, I hope!

Mervyn Peake and Maeve Gilmore

Most people know Mervyn Peake for his Gormenghast Trilogy, but few venture beyond those books to discover his talent for drawing and painting. He was an illustrator as well as a writer, bringing to life on paper the products of his extraordinary imagination. I would definitely recommend reading Letters from a Lost Uncle, a fantastically strange and often hilarious series of typed and illustrated 'letters' written by an Arctic explorer to his nephew. It is a work of genius.


I received a notification this morning of a new exhibition of some of the work of Mervyn Peake and his wife Maeve Gilmore, to be held from 9th July until 28th August at Viktor Wynd Fine Art in London. The gallery is associated with the Last Tuesday Society, which you should check out if you're a Londoner - pretty weird and interesting stuff to join in with, if that's your kind of thing.

Images courtesy of Viktor Wynd Fine Art, The Last Tuesday Society, and an unknown source (for the Letters image) on Flickr.

I am off to Italy tomorrow for a week, so it's goodbye until then. I hope to resume more regular blogging once I return - hopefully the work will ease off a bit for the summer and I can spend more time doing my own thing. Pigs might fly.

i'm here!

Well, I'm here for a few days and then we are off to vegetate for a week in Tuscany. We will be staying at Fattoria San Paolo, an agriturismo with a bio-pool, which is like swimming in a pond, only a bit less murky. I am beyond excited and definitely ready for some lazy days in the heat and a lot of good food.

Everything here has got a bit out of hand - the house is a mess, my studio roof has sprung a leak, and the garden needs attention rather badly. Progress on the house has come to a standstill.

What else has been going on? We went to an absolutely delightful wedding at the weekend where I saw some old school friends. If you happen to be in Llangollen this week for the music Eisteddfod, check out some of my work at the Helfa Gelf stand. Work is easing off at last. I will be back with some more nonsense later this week.

This and that

Well. I'm nearly there (she says). Merely days away (I hope) from finishing the latest crazy round of work. I have been drawing bits for Honda again, doing some Top Secret character drawing for some anonymous clients, and drawing houses and stuff for a website that I will tell you more about when it's published (which may be a while yet!).

After all this, I plan to be on holiday for a while. I don't know what I will do. I hope that it will be very little. I am bad at doing very little, so probably I'll be messing around in the house, doing a lot of window shopping for things I can't afford and generally wasting time pottering about. Hey, maybe I'll even draw something funny, although I haven't felt funny for a while. We may, if I get my new passport in time, go abroad for a week but we will have to see. I feel a strong urge to go somewhere with some sunshine. Wales is not the place for sunshine. I am finding it hard to form well-considered sentences.

EDIT: Guess what? A new job just landed in my inbox. I think I will say no. Will I be strong enough to say no?

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Apologies

for my absence. Work has taken over my life but an end is in sight soon. Give me another week or two, and I will be back. I hope.

Varoom interview

Pop over to the AOI's Varoom magazine to read a little interview about my artwork for Honda's recent press ads.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine was the best I have had in a very long time - a great group of friends, lots of food and a wild walk (or two) in the countryside. Bliss.

Now back to work!

the weekend

Did you have a good weekend? I worked all of Saturday and a little of Sunday, so it wasn't amazing, but at least the good weather is back after what has felt like weeks of sodden greyness. The husband worked like a trooper, cleaning, moving stuff, starting on our skirting boards, mowing the neglected lawn and generally trying to make the house feel more like a home. We have seven guests and a baby landing on our doorstep from Thursday onwards, so it will be a hectic weekend. They are friends from when the husband and I were students at Cambridge and I love them all to bits - we are very excited to be hosting our first weekend party at our new house. We are hoping that they won't mind slumming it a bit here although if the weather continues fine, I think we will spend a lot of time outdoors. In other news, we put up a bookcase and unpacked some of our boxes. It felt like a really big step forward. OK, there's no other furniture yet, but we're working on that.

checking in

Hi all. Sorry things have been a bit quiet lately. I've been a bit busy/tired/distracted. Work continues to pile in. I am meant to complete 60 seconds of animation by Friday afternoon and haven't even started yet (not my fault!), but it's going to be a crazy few days. This may also coincide with the go ahead to colour another six pieces for Honda. I may pop. This could be messy. I need a holiday.