An update

Thank you for your kind comments yesterday about my hand.

I’ve not mentioned it before now, mainly as I could only type one handed with my left hand (and I am right handed)........and well the hand was a bit sore.

I had a trigger finger on my right hand, which meant it wouldn’t bend properly and then it would sometimes lock in the closed position. So the surgeon had to cut the tendon and perform some magic. As you can see from the pictures, the bandage has become smaller and the stitches are due to come out this Friday. I hope then that I won’t have to be bandaged up anymore, although I don’t think that will somehow be the case.

I am a bit fed up with it now to be honest, but I remind myself that I am grateful to have a hand at all, as some people are not as lucky.

Day of the op. Excuse the miserable dodgy iPhone shot!

First bandage

Second bandage

Although I don’t mind getting out of the washing up, I am feeling frustrated at not being able to paint. I miss it so much. More than I ever thought I could. I had just got into a groove of painting every week and now it’s all on hold. I know it won’t be forever and the operation was needed, but it just makes it hard. I did try some left handed painting but it wasn’t happening.

I am getting more movement in my hand as I can now type using bandaged fingers which I certainly couldn’t do before now, so I may try some sketching. Holding a knife is hard and writing is difficult, but hey, this may well give me the abstract element I am looking to achieve.

Before the operation I was more nervous about everything going wrong and never being able to use my right hand again – drastic I know – but being an artist, that was a big fear for me. So I am hoping that I will have a hand back in action again soon.

In the meantime, I will enjoy reading other blogs, researching painting ideas and being grateful.

Blogs from Around the World - Claire Leggett

Sorry I've been a bit quiet but I have had a hand operation and it's put paid to a lot of things. However, I am delighted to be back with an interview with the very talented Claire Leggett. I cannot remember exactly how I stumbled across her blog, but since that day I have been fascinated by her artwork. She has a wonderful unique style and her blog is always a delight to read.

So without further ado, kick off your shoes, put the phone on silent and enjoy!
Where is home for you?
Home is an Edwardian house four miles outside of Birmingham city center in the UK.

How many years have you been painting?
One answer is “For ever” because I painted as a child, but in a formal sense after secondary school I completed a foundation year in 1997 (ouch! I’m old!) and then went on to do a three year degree in Fashion and Textiles, specialising in printed textiles. I quickly got side tracked into teaching Infant children (which I actually love) and it wasn’t until about 2002 that I dusted off my art supplies and began to fulfill my artistic needs again.

Other than creating wonderful paintings, what other creative things do you do?
Loads - I love making quilts, sewing, crochet, knitting, gardening, baking and especially decorating cakes. There are usually one or two projects on the go.

Your studio looks lovely and I’m very envious, what is the best thing about it?
My studio is fantastic! I realise what a lucky girl I am. Best thing, hmmm…having my own space to mess up as and how I like. It’s at the top of the house so it’s quiet and I like retreating to it.

I love your paintings and the different contrasting patterns you have. How do you go about putting a still life together? What is your inspiration?
It‘s instinctive to me. A lot of people try to develop a USP (Unique Selling Point) I happened upon mine while practicing and trying to just be me. I love fabrics and patterns and china and a mismatch and a clash of colours and certain objects that just appeal. I couldn’t try to do it like that – I can’t paint differently or see in things in any other way.

I’m inspired by other artists work that I like, I clip out magazine spreads that appeal whether that is a home magazine with a décor scheme that I like the colours of or maybe a sales feature on china that prompts a still life set up idea, flowers from the florists or plants I see in the garden center. Anything and everything!


What colours are in your palette and is there one colour you could not do without?
I think when I see my work side by side on my gallery page that certain colours are prevalent. Turquoise, pink and red reoccur at lot. But if I could only have one colour then it’s pink. It’s such a happy colour that I’d be sad if you took it from me!

Where do you get your objects from?
Junk shops finds, china from Anthropologie and Pip Studio, nice gift shops, Ebay sometimes, through magazine features, Cotton Patch fabric shop and other online stores, when traveling (Paper Source was a great find in Philadelphia when we were there). I’m a bit of a magpie and as I get older I’m happier to just buy and trust my instincts.


What is a typical day for you?
A typical week would see me in school Monday to Wednesday teaching. Tuesday is a half-day for me and I try and use that for housewifely things so that Thursday and Friday can be interruption free studio days. I usually have an idea what I’m going to set up to work on, by Wed night. So Thursday will begin by putting it together, drawing it and applying the background wash. Only then is it coffee time! I listen to radio plays while I’m working because I find it is the one thing that can silence the conscious part of my brain and let my instinctive side get on with it’s thing. I usually work till about 5 or 6pm. If I’m on creative overload I might work for longer or grab time over the weekend as it presents itself.


Congratulations on being represented by galleries. How did that come about and how did you feel when you saw your work for sale for the first time.
My first foray into exhibiting was at the RBSA I had an epiphany moment when I thought to myself ‘How could I start right now, here in the place where I live’. I did a google search and found it. I had known about Purple Gallery for a while. For that I did my research, took a deep breath and jumped.

It is very surreal seeing your work up for sale on a wall. When I see my work, I see me staring back. I find it hard to be objective. But once I’ve pushed that aside I feel elated, humble, excited, grateful, encouraged and over the moon.


Which artists, dead or alive, inspire you?
I am constantly discovering new ones. Today I discovered Harold Harvey! (Who? Go google him) I would hands down just love to be Kaffe Fassett’s female artistic clone, followed by being anyone who works for Anthropologie designing patterns for products, followed a close third by being Tricia Guild’s clone (Designers Guild). I love the painters Winifred Nicholson and Mary Fedden as not only their work but the way they lived, inspires me to paint surrounded by my home and family. Jean Martin has had a big influence on me in recent years. Her work is still the place I’m hoping to arrive at some day in terms of its complexity and inventiveness. My husband bought me a piece of hers for my 40th birthday and I visit it like a shrine! In terms of business inspiration I have found the artist Kelly Rae Roberts ecourse and book Flying Lessons really important in giving my dreams firstly some validation and then some structure in how to go about seeing them realised.

What do you love most about ‘blogland’?
The wealth of inspiration out there at the touch of a button, the community of like minded people, the friends I have made who turn up to leave comments cheering me on, the world wide nature of the contacts you can make and the traveling you can do without getting out of bed.


Have you an ambition which is yet unfulfilled?
Apart from being a Kaffe Fassett clone or being employed by Anthropologie or becoming Amy Butler or Anna Maria Horner…

I hope somewhere in the future that this could be my fulltime job and I’d have time to paint and design patterns and see what happens.


What advice would you give any aspiring artists?
Prepare to plod. Quick success can be fleeting. Look for the longer journey it’s less disappointing and more valuable anyway.

Read, blog, talk to people who will cheer you on no matter what., and learn to tune out the doubters! Just keep turning up to work and the rest will follow in time. Be true to yourself.

Well I hope you have enjoyed reading all about Claire. Do check out her website and also her blog, I promise you won't be disappointed!

Talented people

It's Saturday morning, I do not need to get up early and commute in to London and here I am awake before 7am! I wonder if it's an age thing....needing to go to bed earlier so you are up earlier. Anywho I am browsing blogs through my google reader, drinking tea and eyeing up my sketchbook. I feel a doodle coming on.

I just wanted to share this post which I read yesterday. I absolutely love this brooch and it works so beautifully on this cardigan. I wish I had both of them!

You can read more about Kate here.

Well I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I shall be painting my hallway and stairs today, with my lovely Jim.

Have a great weekend!

Helen

Becoming aware

Inspired by this post and this video, I made the time to paint last night. And it was as ever, wonderful. Fellow painters will know exactly what I mean. Loading the palette knife with paint and being bold on a painting that I really didn’t like, was fun and liberating. I've still a long way to go on it, but I wanted to see some texture on the painting - it was too flat. Here's a snapshot of part of it.

Experience is such as a great thing as I can now look at one of my paintings and actually work out what it is I don’t like and know how to fix it, rather than thinking ‘something’s not quite right’ but just being bogged down in the picture to actually see it. I still have a long long way to go, but I realised last night that I have learned a lot over the years.

I admire artists who produce work of an abstract nature. I especially love those paintings that you can tell exactly what it is and yet be entranced at their brush strokes and their mark makings. I will post some more about this another time.

I hope you all had a lovely evening. After painting whilst listening to Bonnie Rait, I then made dinner for me and Jim and then not long after that headed for bed.

Perfect!

I'm still here part II

So there she sits and waits patiently for me to return. To pick up the brush and palette knife and redo her. And my desk is littered with stuff that isn't conducive to painting.

But hey, thanks to lots more work from my lovely Jim we are getting somewhere with the cottage renovations. It's funny, but when you are near to completing something which means you can make life changing decisions, it all starts to get a bit scary. Crazy eh!

Apart from the usual stuff going on, I turned 40 the other week and this is where my life now officially begins. And for my present, lovely Jim bought me Wyanne's Paint Free class and I am over the moon. I have yearned for this in ages and I am so very lucky.

Life is good. It's not easy but it's filled with amazing people who I love and care for, so what more could a girl want (other than canvases, paints and wonderful classes!!)

Hope you are all having a great week xx