Back To It

This is the last day of a two week holiday so tomorrow it's back to it. My holiday has been the chance to relax, catch up with friends, slow down the pace and get some reading done. Also time to appreciate my lovely garden:-

At the start of the year I set myself the task of doing a sketch a week...and I had fallen woefully behind; so I am  now bang up to date, feeling good about it, and determined to keep it on track.

I have also finally had the chance to sit down and binge-watch the tv phenomenon which is 'Stranger Things'. I watch very little tv, and I never binge, but this was so good!

I also have an idea for my next project and it would have been great to have started it this summer but there is only so much time.

One day at a time.

Amanda
xxx

What To Do??!!!!!

I haven't posted for a couple of months, and I feel really guilty about this; but I had a really bad back that was agony, then some sort of throat bug, and, interspersed into the mix, random shots of peri-menopausal symptoms. My motivation and sleep were badly affected and it took all my energy just getting to work. Anything extra just had to slide.

Coming back to the blog has caused me to question whether I actually want to do it anymore. My day job is incredibly busy and demanding; it can be hard to find the time and the head-space to do my artistic projects; so I can't help but wonder about carrying on with a blog. Why am I doing it? What do I achieve from it? Is there any point to it?

Looking back through some previous posts it's interesting to see what I was doing, what I was thinking, what my aims were. Last February I was determined to make a concerted effort to commit to the blog, and then life just rushes by. But I'm still just not sure...

So, I'm still here for now while I figure it out.

My garden is looking fab, although I want it be even greener and wilder.

 

And I finished the last piece in my 'Sleeping & Crows' Series:-

Sleeping & Crows #8

I haven't decided yet on the next project. There are quite a few ideas I've been thinking about but as you can probably tell I really don't know which direction to take. I've got this post done so that's one thing I can tick off the list. I think it's time to go and do a bit of brain-storming.

Amanda xxx

I Love Spring

Spring is here again, as wonderful as always, as the earth slowly comes back to life. I do enjoy the introspection of winter, cosying up, losing myself in the printed word and my own imaginings, but there is something breath-taking about the awakening that occurs at this time of year.

My living room window frames a pink frothy exuberant profusion of blossom. It looks incredible in sunshine, ethereal under grey clouds, and it seems to glow at night time; and the breeze scatters a confetti of petals all around.

I'm also thoroughly enjoying a book by Isabella Tree called Wilding which recounts how she and her husband, Charlie, took the decision to turn the ancestral farm in Sussex back over to nature. After intensive farming practice had taken it to the edge of bankruptcy, it is now a leading light for conservation in the UK.


It's an incredible read - fascinating, informative, eye opening, poetic. I'm finding myself turning over the corners of so many pages that are filled with revelations, and it's challenging my perceptions of our historical landscape. It truly is a book that gives you pause for thought as well as being current, relevant and pertinent. For example, when first venturing into the idea of re-wilding, they visited a landmark nature reserve in the Netherlands, which had in turn been looking to Africa and the Serengeti as a benchmark for how a successful ecosystem works. No sooner had I read about this than I opened up the newspaper to discover that wildlife of the Serengeti is under threat from human development. Link to article here.
Isabella Tree and husband Charlie Burrell are now part of a network of ecologists and environmentalists working hard to protect, conserve and nurture our precious wildlife and the book about the work they have done so far is an engrossing and inspiring read.



So when some trees that I had ordered a few weeks back arrived, I was all fired up to get them planted out and play my small part in giving nature a helping hand. It was hard work, I ached everywhere, and I was in bed before it was fully dark, but it did feel good.

Amanda xxx

Struggling Through

January felt like a difficult month to get through at times which is probably why I didn't manage to do a post for the whole of that month. I was busy and tired, and the dark dreary days seemed to encourage dark dreary thoughts. I did manage to keep up with my reading, I'd be lost without books, but anything more just wasn't happening. So the day I had off yesterday, with sun no less, seemed to hold the promise of spring just around the corner. I hung out my first wash of the year; an occasion I always feel worthy of note:-

How lovely does that look?

And there are definitely little bursts of colour here and there:-

One thing I have actually been doing is a sketch a week. This is something I'm determined to do this year in order to try and free my drawing up and not be too precious about it; I have to do at least one sketch a week and spend no more than 30 minutes on it, finished or not. By the end of the year I will have at least 52 sketches. These are from the start of the month:-

Last week there was a Front Row special with Mary Beard in conversation with Philip Pullman. Now Philip Pullman is one of my literary heroes so this was a real treat and it lifted my spirits. The interview was conducted in a book-lined room in his Oxford home and as I curled up with a warm drink in my armchair I almost felt like I was there with them.

Front Row Late

Amanda xxx

Slow Sunday

Thought I'd better get in my last post of the year. I'd planned to post something the first week of December but here we are in the final hours of the month, and the year. In all the rushing about one of the things I've missed most is seeing daylight...I've been heading out to work in the dark and heading home in the dark. Today I had a day off, which I made sure was a proper day off  apart from a bit of ironing, and it was pure indulgence to read a book at the kitchen table gazing out over my garden. No radio, no TV, just me and a cuppa. It's been grey, drizzly, but I think these winter days can be quite magical. As a new year rolls around you can feel the history in the earth of all the years gone before, and all the possibility that a new year can hold.

As I head into the new year it's with the intention of doing more sketching. Sketching just for the fun of it, as well as doing my projects. I've already made a start:-

Happy New Year
Amanda xxx

Dreaming Spires

Last year, as Christmas approached, I re-read 'His Dark Materials' by Philip Pullman. I wanted to revisit the story before I read 'Book of Dust' which was about to be released. I enjoyed the books even more second time around, so much so that I had a yearning to visit Oxford and the colleges that were Lyra's playground. Me and my best friend from school went there last month for a short break which I thoroughly enjoyed. In my mind I'd envisioned a magical place...it didn't disappoint. I was utterly captivated by the layers of history.

School of Divinity - Bodleian

My current project is inspired by the transforming power and magic of books, and there I was in a city dedicated to knowledge. I couldn't help but imagine myself as an Oxford scholar.

The Dining Hall - Balliol

As for my project. The second and third pieces are now complete...

Sleeping and Crows #2

Sleeping and Crows #3

...and I'm quite pleased with them. I've been trying different stitches and techniques with each of them so that although they are obviously part of the same series, they have some differences. I'm working on freeing myself up more, not labouring over a piece too much. There are still another five pieces planned for this project and I am eager to see what I will do next but this is always the busiest time of year for me so it will happen when it happens.

Amanda xxx

Stitch By Stitch

Time for an update on my current series of work I think. I would have liked to have more to show but I'm at the stage of doing hand embroidery and it does take time. I've completed the first piece and had to overcome my frustration at the slow progress to change down a few gears and appreciate the simple pleasure of sewing with a needle and thread. As well as time it takes a fair amount of patience, both of which seem to be in short supply, but I managed to find some, and I now have the first in a series of 8 done. No idea when the others will be done but I'll be sure to post progress.

Sleeping and Crows #1

The original inspiration for this series was books, storytelling and the worlds that those stories take us to so this feels like the perfect time of year to be absorbing myself in this project. For me the cold dark nights are all about cosying up with blankets, warm drinks and books, books, books. Perfect.

Amanda xxx