Some discoveries of delight and pondering while I recover

You can tell I have been poorly because I started a new blog and didn't publish it - see below!  I am happy to say that after four horrible weeks, I am now well again although pacing myself because I don't want to relapse.  I am now fit enough to start preparing for the open studios next month; my plans are reduced, but I will still be able to put on a good show.  I'll blog about it in more detail shortly.

Thank you to everyone who sent me good wishes for recovery, especially when I was struck with a chest infection on top of the ears; I really appreciated it.

I did manage to stagger down the garden and take some photos of Spring amongst the wildness too!

So here I am, still stuck indoors and feeling a bit sorry for myself as I struggle to recover from a double ear infection, the result of a nasty virus I became ill with a week before Easter.  You can imagine my horror at not being able to prepare the house, new sitting room and all, in time for Easter and my two lovely daughters' visit.  Mind you; for the past two years they have become very used to arriving and staying here among dust, partly finished plastering, stud walls not finished and a lack of proper dining facilities.  They both told me they didn't mind not going anywhere over the Easter break because it is just nice to come here and chill out after some busy weeks working.  I worry too much. . . 

Antibiotics finished, but still feeling as if I have my head stuck in a goldfish bowl full of water, with maybe even a couple of fish swimming about, the doctor has told me I will feel like this for another ten days. TEN DAYS!  And then it will be another four to six weeks before my ears are properly healed.  I remember when I was a little girl having six weeks off school many times after ear infections and to have to be patient when there is so much to do, is really intolerable. But; there's nothing for it but to devise a gentle strategy of working that does not involve any bending down (makes my head and ears hurt very much), and too much walking about, (makes me feel a bit dizzy). Sigh.

But looking on the bright side: I have just re - jigged the written insert I provided for the simple give away I designed for my solo show last year.  This will be used for publicity and as a give away for NYOS 14.  I have to contact Liz Bailey in the hope she has a spare box of the brochures as when I opened what I thought was my box it turns out I picked up the wrong set. So frustrating!  I will take a gentle run out to Rosedale once I've sorted that problem out, to deliver some to the lovely Kate Jones and Stephen Gillies of Gillies Jones Glass, they are always a pleasure to spend time with and talk to.  http://www.gilliesjonesglass.co.uk/

Meanwhile, over the last couple of days,  I have been trawling the tinterweb, checking out various artists web sites that I have found via Twitter or Facebook.  It is such a joy to find artists that I'd never been aware of, whose work makes my heart leap!

Freya Purdue - http://www.freyapurdueblog.com/
Tom Climent - http://tomcliment.com/
Kim Tillyer - http://witchmountain.wordpress.com/    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Witchmountain/113930678656104

RAW Directory Launch and Other Plans

I have a car full of boxes containing the newly printed Ryedale ArtWorks Directories plus 23 boxes stacked up in what will be our new sitting room once we finish the building work. I aim to deliver the ones in my car to Sawmill Studios this evening, so that they are in place for the launch meeting on 25th, 7 pm.  I think it is the best Directory we have produced so far; there are some new members both in the gallery and the artist/makers section and the standard is very good.  I hope the members like it as much as we do.
http://sawmillstudios.com

As membership secretary of Ryedale ArtWorks I have been working with the other committee members, Andy Dalton, http://www.andrew-dalton.com  Liz Bailey and Jenny Pepper  http://www.jennypepper.com  and we are delighted to be able to announce some exciting developments for this year that will benefit all members.  Lots of stuff has been going on behind the scenes as it were and we are very excited! http://www.ryedaleartworks.com


Unfortunately I will not be at this meeting because I am going to see singer songwriter Tom McRae in York - really excited about this because I have followed him for years but not seen him live for a while.  I love his work, very dark and beautiful.  http://www.tommcrae.com/


It is the last few days of my exhibition, which comes down on Monday 29th.  Tricia, who bought Winter, is arriving on Sunday to collect it and so I will go over to the museum to remove it from the wall and wrap it ready for her. It will be nice to see her again.  I have also sold one of the pieces in the browser, which a lot of people think are prints, but they are all original paintings/drawings, so a snip at £85 for the largest ones and £45 for the small. I will reflect on the experience of creating this solo exhibition in a later post, once I have allowed the dust to settle.

A few of the pieces in the browser, the top piece is actually the only print and consists of 3 mono prints on Chinese paper mounted on paper, the rest are all original paintings/drawings.

The work has been well received from both artists, whose opinion I value and the general public.  I have spent the last couple of days making space in the outbuilding at home, which is where all my work is stored on racking.  I think there is just about enough room for History Painting, which is eleven and a half feet wide, it will be partly on the racking and partly on blocks of wood as it is too long!

During the next few weeks, I need to get my storage units out to my studio and reorganise the space properly.  These storage units, plus plan chest have been in storage since I moved up here and they will enable me to use the space much more efficiently and will provide me with more work top, which will be great.

After that: I am planning to spend the rest of the year making two more large canvases that will complete the quartet; two are already in the show at the moment:

New Beginnings (Spring) acrylic on canvas, 5' 7 1/2" x 7' 5"

How Many Endings (Winter) acrylic on canvas, 5' 7 1/2" x 7' 5"

Then I will develop a series of prints; at the moment I am not sure which methods of printmaking I will use, I will spend some time thinking about this and experimenting.  It may also entail visiting some printmaking workshops in order to fulfill my intentions, I have experience of all the different types of printmaking but am very rusty.  I have in my possession a vintage folding screen printing table, so it would be fun to get that up and running.  I will probably start with lino and collagraph as these are simple and I can use my mangle to print them with.  

Alongside the prints, I am planning to make a series of artists' books and this excites me a lot.  I have been interested in these for many years and I even planned a module of work for the AS/A2 students when I was teaching that developed an artist book alongside their contextual study.  It was really successful; interestingly I was looking at the facebook page of Cleveland university yesterday and they run a similar module for contextual study too.   Most of the books I have made in the past I gave away as presents but I do have photos of most of them in an album on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SueGoughArtist

Some shots of the exhibition, before it ends this Sunday:

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