Tiredness Kills: Take a Break!

I am too tired to write my usual full blog since returning from down South.  The builders are back on site and a potential major problem has already been identified and sorted out (I hope).  The title of this post comes from the motorway warnings I seem to have been seeing constantly just lately, and it is a reminder to myself to not push too hard.

However,I had a day in London on Friday and  I can report that the following exhibitions are very good:

• Mira Schendel, Tate Modern.  Absolutely fascinating and absorbing as well as beautiful.
• Richard Rogers; Inside Out, Royal Academy (Burlington Gardens): inspiring.  I feel full of hope when I read Rogers' words and see his models for human, urban living.
• Li Songsong; We Have Betrayed The Revolution, Pace Gallery, Burlington Gardens. Great slabs of gutsy paint.  Loved them.  

I also saw Mexico at RA, but was too distracted by my lack of time to look at it carefully- I was not that impressed by the show but there is a good early Guston.  I didn't have time to see William Tillyer's work in Cork Street and I was sad about that.  

The reason I went down South again was to attend the seminar for SKETCH 2013 on Saturday. It was very interesting to hear the speakers talk about their own approach to keeping sketchbooks.  The discussion afterwards was thoughtful, although at present I cannot really recall much of it.  I am sure it will come back once I have some calm, quiet time.

I arrived home on Sunday afternoon with a little time to clear the kitchen of most of its contents in readiness for the great opening up of the new doorway and resulting dust and was up at the crack of dawn to finish the job before the builders came on site.  Then this afternoon, I was off to Scarborough for the second session of the short WEA course I have enrolled on entitled Ten Twentieth Century Poets.  Jonathan Brown our remarkable teacher enlightens and truly informs;  I always leave feeling completely uplifted.  I look forward to next week.  

Tomorrow, once I have checked the builders are OK, I'm off to Thirsk and from there Andrew Dalton and I are going to Leeds to discuss possibilities for the RAW flagship exhibition.

Meanwhile, I am considering participating in next year's North Yorkshire Open Studios and have sent off for the info pack.  I am longing to get back into the studio and at this rate, it will be the cold winter before I do, but I am learning to keep the faith and go with the flow, using my sketchbook to make small studies and put my thoughts down.  I am continuing to read, so it is not wasted time.

First Full Working Week: Friday

Pottered about a bit this morning, doing some chores and thinking about how the studies I am making might progress while I did so.  I took delivery of my cellophane; I'll be able to mount and wrap drawings as I go, to keep them clean for the show in April.

Finally got myself organised for a session of making some more small gouache studies and while I sat at my trestle, I soaked my feet in warm oily water and gave myself a cursory pedicure!  Got to be done sometime, and seemed as good a time as any to me!  Oh, and at around 3.25 pm. I noticed that the sky was lovely again:

Managed a few small ideas in colour in a sketchbook and prepared some small pieces of paper with colour washes to represent the seasons, which I'll work into.  I have decided to leave the studies I made yesterday as they are and do more to work on top of because I have a tendency to work on top of good things and lose them for ever, and I'd like to refer to them.

Had a quick meeting with RAW committee members this afternoon at 4pm, Penny Bank Cafe, Kirkbymoorside, a favourite haunt; lovely coffee, hot chocolate, cake, food and people!

When I go home, (through my new front door that gives me pleasure every time I use it,) I was greeted by my lovely husband, returned from an overnight business trip and we decided to go to our local for steak night.  We love our local; Chris and Linda are such welcoming people and the locals are really friendly.  The Ashfield Country Manor Hotel is a family run business, Chris and Linda's son in law does the cooking, which is fab and the beer is good.  My current favourite is Angler's Reward, by Yorkshire Wolds brewery. 



While I was waiting to go out, had a quick look in the local paper and, for the first time since I moved up here, there was a job advertised that I could actually do!  Printmaking technician supporting students at York College.  However it was for more hours than I could do at this time, whilst preparing for my show, so I rang my mate Andy, who hadn't seen it and passed on the info. to him. 

Busy day really, but not enough actual work completed although the studies I've started in my sketch book would develop into some interesting prints I think.

TGIF - wishing everyone a good weekend - we are braced for heavy snow up here.

Studies for Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn.  Oil Pastel, Acrylic and graphite.

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