My daughter teaching me how to do films better!

Monday, Monday

Too many things are getting in the way of working today, including the mess of kingfishers and tigers, hares and wolves that have take up residence on my desk. My thoughts hide within porcelain eggs one minute and the next they are running and sleeping with wolves, hunting with a lynx in the snow watched by an owl, and then flying over the Rainwilds with a red dragon.
Meanwhile, downstairs I have a lovely desk that is waiting to nest and I have a determination to not fill it up with rubbish.

I am Cat, progress.

First and second spreads of 'I am Cat', to be published next autumn by Frances Lincoln. When thinking of books I think of the turn of the page, where the spine is, a balance for words and much more. And before the painting of the sleeping cat there is the cover, the end paper, the title page. The words for both spreads read....

I am Cat. At night I prowl, but in the day I sleep, curled in warm places, ammonite tight. And when I sleep I dream. 

I dream that I roam deep in the jungle, bright flame cat of the forest, striped like light, like shadow, sun scorched.

 

 

In the garden, in the studio...

radishes and tigers.

 

Creeping up on a tiger

Walking in search of the golden dancing iris at the airfield. There were ponies and foals and butterflies and orchids, skylark and linnets and the constant song of a calling cuckoo.

Back home. I have been illustrating now for almost 30 years and still I find the tyranny of the white page a strange torture. I have stalked toward this tiger for about three weeks, creeping up, hiding behind paintings of foxes, wolves, trying to catch the tiger while it was unaware . Now the piece is started, so the page is no longer blank, white, waiting. And now I just think, ah well, there's still time to spoil it.

So what is it about this process that I enjoy?

And what is behind the tiger that I am still stalking?

Sleeping with wolves

A dream

Some years ago I had a vivid dream of six kingfishers. It was bright with colour, and when I woke that is what I remembered. The sketch from teh dream lingered as a memory for a couple of years. Now I am trying to make it real.
But all of these owl and kingfisher paintings are just distractions from work. I should be painting cats and working on East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

Art in Action: Will be there again this year.

Titles

Working steadily, quietly through the day on a large piece to take to Art in Action. I want to try and catch the last light of day or the first light of day in the feathers of an owl's wings.

How much does a title change the way a painting is seen.

I could call this:

Huntier

or

Barn Owl

or I could call it

Hushwing, Bellvoice.

Or I could call it 

Soft Wings Silence Song.

It needs gold leaf, moongold I think. I will work on it a little more then finish it at Art in Action in July. Until then it will sit in my studio and I will watch and wonder, if the owl gets a meal, if the wren escapes to sing another day.

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.