The prize in the Contest of Beauty.

The Contest of Beauty continues and more links will be added, but just to encourage those who have not yet taken part above is the drawing that the winner will be sent. A pencil drawing on board of a moon gazing hare, signed and titled.

I will add more links and images as more things come through. Check out the posting to see how things are so far and for those who have sent me things so far, I will be adding them, but the days are too short and I have too much to do. I will share, and I have so enjoyed seeing, reading, listening.

Still working on ideas for covers.

A book can become very successful with the right cover, sink without trace with the wrong one. I thought I had got the 'knack' of covers but have been struggling with this one. Maybe getting somewhere now but just want to try one more thing I think.

Covers, ideas, thinking aloud and a window.

Beautiful Distractions

The day began with walking the dogs ( and Elmo). I then became trapped in the garden. I was distracted by:

potting seeds, salad leaves and coriander,

 

courgettes,

planting tomatoes and watching the butternut squash grow,

 

hanging up washing in sunshine,

butterflies,

 

Tirion's flowers, planted in my garden by her dad, because they are her favorite and reminded her of him.

Finally I made it into my studio where I drew for a while, before becoming distracted by blogging, taking in the dry washing, planting out the baby leeks and weeding one of the raised beds.

Sleeping with wolves

Facebook, foxes, inspiration and owls.

Many people criticize Facebook. It has its problems, doesn't always work as it should, reminds me always that I have a fat belly ( thanks for that facebook! every time I look at my wall! with it's specially chosen facebook adds). At the end of the day it is free.

And I have found that from facebook I have been able to connect with other people who are sometimes like minded, sometimes not. I have been able to make a closer link with my peers. I have found a supportive community of people and there have been times when I have been inspired by facebook, for example when Kathryn Evan's son Archie said that while he believed in faeries he didn't believe in foxes because he had never seen one! The result was the painting of The Strawberry fox.

 

Sometimes I feel challenged by the opinions of some people, often I find links to beautiful things, always I find that my time becomes tangled in the world of others and very often I find inspiration, so, my thanks to both Jane Hill and Richard Mabey. Jane posted a response to something I had written.

"from Richard Mabey's 'Nature Cure'. The book I was reading this morning, a description of seeing a barn owl at dusk: " it was winnowing the grass, threshing it for food. i could see the last light from the west shining through its wings, marking out the dense primaries from the almost translucent trailing feathers. it seemed at that moment to have four wings, two in the day and two in the night...."

 It reminded my that walking and watching and sometimes standing still and watching is good for the soul, and has drawn me back to the depiction of owls.

 

Other things I have done with facebook:

bought books recommended by others,

sold books,

sold paintings,

met people,

cemented friendships,

learnt things, 

wasted time,

talked nonsense,

argued,

invited people to events and exhibitions,

seen things of beauty.

Drawing a dragon

Norfolk Libraries posted a short film clip of me drawing Little Dragon Small at their event for the book awards. Try as hard as I can I couldn't get the share link to work so click on the link to the library to see the film.

Finding cats

Working hard on drawings for I Am Cat and I have had help from the cats, but especialy Pixie who managed to cat-sneak into my studio in order to act as editor and designer, and life model all rolled into one.
Putting the pages together so that they work as a book, illustrate the text, add to the words, is always difficult, especialy when there are so few words.

Small sketches come first, doodling around a design, asking questions. Like dreams, in my head I can see these in colour as finished pieces, the drawings just remind me later, what goes where and how. And sometimes pages change altogether.

The sketch above is for the last but one page and I realised half way through that it needed to change to be more intimate, closer.

Still have a cougar and a leopard to find.  

 

A confusion of blogs, a charm of goldfinch, and an alarm of blank pages.

Morning walking and looking back towards home from the airfield. I can see my house in a pool of sunlight. Goldfinches fly, bright flashes of colour, beautiful charms.

Back home, working on the cat book roughs for Frances Lincoln to try and get work finished and ready for Frankfurt book fair. All the time I am watched by my cat editor.

Sand and horses.

Home. I was only away for a few days and they were beautiful days of sunshine and warm winds, willow trees and herons, paintings and sculpture, old houses that tumbled and twisted and held hidden nests sculpted by wasps, flint, big skies, tall cloud castles and golden fields, lazy ousing rivers, lost lanes, lost villages. I travelled to Robin's by train, intending to work on roughs on the journey, but instead began to read and spent the next four hours in Mexico with The Hummingbird's Daughter. This is the best book I have read for years. I am sad to have reached the end of the story, so far, but love his blog and website.

Home now and the rain is singing on the roof. Heavy showers and blue sky, and I have much to do. Today is my birthday and Robin bought me an hourglass, because he knows of my musings on time. It is darkly perfectly beautiful, and I have found myself just sitting and watching the sands of time run through. (More on the Hour Glass later, when I have more time!)

Horse Feathers no.1, Mother and Child is finished and I have to move away from drawings for a short while to work on I Am Cat in time for Frankfurt Book Fair, and the KNTR foundation calendar piece that is already a month late.

And I want to post pictures of The Imagine Gallery.

And paint hummingbirds.

The frustrations of a busy day.

Outside it is now so dark that to see your hand in front of your face you have to lift it in salute to the bats to see it silhouetted against starlight. And what starlight! The Milky Way stretches like a star dragon in the ink dark blue.

I found some time to draw in between the hectic happenings of the day. Not enough, but some.

Tomorrow I hope to do a little more before catching the train.

Sunshine on the garden and the Love Cats.

Early morning sitting in the garden with cats and only the air through the wings of a high flying raven to disturb my peace as I travel through the power of words from Pembrokeshire to Mexico. So peaceful even the flight of butterflies make a small whisper of sound.

John came back and loaded the car with hares and hounds and a fox and a heron and cheetahs and cherries, then headed off to Amanda's, though however he will squeeze anything else into the car I will never know.

The rest of my day has been sunshine and painting punctuated by reading in the garden, cats and thinking. Peaceful, perfect, undisturbed.

Small pink roses blossom in a pot and in my newfound enthusiasm for growing food I think I will turn the small sheltered square of back garden into more space for planting. I need a garden diary, so that I know what to plant and when and I think with my moon love I will go for the madness of biodynamics and plant according to the phases of the moon.

Watching the spinach re-grow does not make it grow and faster, so next year I must plant more. I have a beautiful recipe for spinach bhaji, with onion and spring onion and garlic and chilli and a little salt and black pepper. So good, just perfect. And next year two courgette plants should give us as much as we need. More leeks, more onions, more beetroot and maybe I can persaude the slugs to let me have the carrots by growing carrots in pots.

And in the meantime something John Foley said has made me revisit the Two Cheetahs Two Cherries. But this one will be called The Love Cats.

The cheetah and cherry paintings seem to develope along quite conversational lines.

A tiger in a tea cup and a cheetah on some cherries.

Two and two, one and seven.