The End of the Song.

For the past few weeks I have spent far too little time walking and far too little time painting. But I have finished the owl painting.

In the garden the green reflected in the moongold.

Now the painting is hanging in The House of Golden Dreams.

On some days I feel very much like the owl. On other days I feel like the wren.

Bags of bags

New bags have been added to the House of Golden Dreams Gift Shop. To buy go to cafepress.co.uk/JackieMorrisArtist.
Or go to cafepress.co.uk and do a search for Jackie Morris.

Distractions no 3

There are many ways to distract myself from work. I bought an iPad this week and went online to try and find a case, but all that I could find were masculine, functional and ugly. So I decided to make my own. One thing leads to another and now I find that I have a shop at Cafe Press, and it is to become the gift shop for The House of Golden Dreams. As time goes on the stock will grow, and it can also grow by request, so, if you see an iPhone cover but have a blackberry, just email to request something.
I haven't yet bought anything from cafe press but hope to get badges made in time for Art in Action and iPad cover when I can decide what I want on it. And with luck I will put a whole range of things on to coincide with the launch of the Cat and the Fiddle.

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.

One Cheetah, Nine Cherries

When I started this painting, months ago, I thought it was called 'One Cheetah, Eight Cherries'. It lay on the drawing board for a long time, something not quite right, until I picked it up yesterday, moved a paw, added a cherry and then it became 'Mine'. I have seen Elmo look at me like that when he has a mouse by the tail.

New Year's Day

New year. Yesterday painting for A Rhyme in Time, today for House of Golden Dreams, which will be a year old on 6th January, painting and gilding. Earlier, walking, past the great highland cows and the ponies with their dark eyes and velvet noses. We found a place where a fox had made a small feast of a songbird.

 

A Wish List

Thinking about sheep, painting a new cheetah.
On Amazon, wish lists make me think. 
A wish spoken is a wish broken, so I have written my list on a type writer, and taken a picture of it. 
 

Wishes can be added as comments.

Green light

Early morning sunlight on vegetables made the garden beautiful. Later today I will turn the spinach into bhaji and the courgettes into a prawn and courgette Indian dish. For now they look glorious.

Much to do. In teh garden there is spinach and leeks, courgettes and beetroot, a few roses clinging to the memory of summer and some honeysuckle. Also passionflowers climbing and twisting up the wall and the drain pipe. And ginger cats. The flowers on Kiffer's grave are strong.

1. Sign books for The Mill.

2. Tidy up computer desk and work table. ( I keep buying things, and saying, I will put this on my desk. Soon there will be no room to work. But I have a beautiful Amanda Popham sculpture that needs to sit on a desk, so it needs space.)

3. Draw out and begin to paint KNRT calendar painting. ( Maybe squeeze in a ginger cat and a polar bear?)

4. Roughs for I Am Cat.

5. Blog post. ( Listening to the lovely Karine Polwart singing.)

6. Check that there is an Ice Bear Powerpoint, and dragons and Little Bear for trip away in October.

7. Make list.

8.Walk dogs.

10. Find moments to read The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor. ( This is my book for September from Mr B's Emporium and it will have to be a good one to follow on from the wonderful Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea. His book still haunts me. Such a wonderful story so well told.)

11. Work on website and links on blog to website, and hang new work in The House of Golden Dreams.

Finishing things

Finishing the fox. Almost done. Glows in my studio.

While staying with Judy Dyble I found many a lurking lurcher in paintings, small statues and even a Wiz on the sofa, so have a small series of paintings inspired by her house. The above was begun at Art in Action where people kept disturbing me to sign books, so finished at home and destined for The House of Golden Dreams and then on to The Imagine Gallery in Long Melford for exhibition in September.

Wizz on the sofa next to Judy's piano and below the art cover work for Talking with Strangers. 

Hare and the moon.

A day of reading, walking, small painting, thinking. In the daytime sky a swelling moon. In the mind a dancing hare kicks at the drum of the full moon.

Loving the luxury of losing myself in a world of words. Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas could have been written for me and there is something very special about having an intimate conection with teh geographical landscape of the novel. It is set around Dartmouth and Torcross, a place where I thought I would live at one time in my life, and a place that I love. A couple of years ago I revisited old haunts and it was every bit as wonderful as I remembered.

The small painting of the hare is for sale, unframed via The House of Golden Dreams.

Ticking things off

Counting hares, three.

To see more drawings of hares go to

The House of Golden Dreams,

The Room of Hare Drawings

Work in progress

work in progress, for the Musicians Benevolent Fund mug design.

A steady day of painting brought some peace of mind. Yesterday a phone call from John Foley at the Imagine Gallery. John had sold the first of my big hare drawings. Good news as I have more in mind. So The House of Golden Dreams will be parting with a couple of its drawings and making space for more.

Boats and paintings and woods and shoes and drowsy water rats.

 

Milford Haven seemed further away on the second day. Maybe it was the bin lorry, tractors, red traffic lights etc. Just as well I didn't read the sheet of paper that told me that I didn't have to be there until 10 am, so I managed to arrive early despite the best efforts of others.

 

And Milford was dressed in beautiful winter sunshine. On Thursday I had managed to retireve a few more paintings that were hanging in the port authorty offices. It seems that the Waterfront Gallery had 'forgotten' to mention that they had loaned work out. Luckily I had remembered what was missing. They now hang in The House of Golden Dreams.

Today, walked in a wood, slept too late, thought about wings, found a shoe that had been left by a princess in the garden.

Some time ago the cats wrote about another old shoe found inside the house, on the cats' blog. It is a haunting tale of a hobnail boot that site in my studio, never to leave the house. So, I now have a studio shoe and a garden shoe. The white one was Hannah's, kicked off on a tree climbing, sun filled summer day. To find out about the other, follow the trail of the shoe link.

Singing bowls, the setting moon and the beautiful sun.

Early morning moon set over silvered sea then off to Milford where the library was dressed to look like one of my books! The Seal Children.

We summoned dragons with the healing bowl that sang and made the whole library vibrate with its sound, read The Ice Bear and I am a Cat as well as The Snowleopard.

 

  

 

I also managed to recover another five paintings from the Waterfront Gallery. It seemed they had  forgotten about the ones that were hanging in the office of the harbour authority. Luckily I hadn't forgotten them. Will hang them in The House of Golden Dreams next week. All five are from The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems.

Drove home via the scenic route and then took the dogs and the healing bowl down the beach for a walk and listened to the bowl sing with the waves as the sun set fire to the sea.