mid-lothian

Revisited an old composition this afternoon and started the underpainting in oils. The materials have that lovely 'library smell' and are nice because they dry slowly (the drawback also being that they dry slowly).

I listen to fluff books while painting and picked the audio of Alexander McCall Smith's 'The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds' because it's a mystery that doesn't involve a murder and was surprised by coincidences with my recent activities. In the book are musings on Georgian architecture, which I was recently reading up on, the art expert in McCall Smith's story is a controversial figure in a non-fiction book I'm currently reading (about a set of possible forgeries), the family in the story lives in a country house in the exact area of Scotland that I've been concentrating on in my dad's genealogy, and their ancestors were also Jacobites (I only recently found this out about my family).

fountains

I love fountains and look for them when traveling. Growing up the sound of water was always in the background but now, living a few miles inland, I miss it.

The angel above is on the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, NYC, the dolphin baring its teeth below is part of a fountain in the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, California.

façade

Here's what's on the easel right now, a façade from Lille, France. After a while of working on those teensy door and window frames though my eyes feel dazzled and it's time to work on some drawings.

Most of my pieces are small but this one is even smaller than most at about 3"x5". It may get bigger, I haven't decided how to finish it yet.


Occasionally I pick up pieces of old lace when I go with my mom to vide greniers in her area but I haven't been using them lately so they were scattered, bits tucked away here and there along with other flotsam and jetsam. The other day I thought maybe I'd use some precious sunlight house to re-organise the studio but after working away for a couple hours it didn't look terribly different so I abandoned the effort and went back to painting.

pony

This was my favourite shote walking home from a horse fair, a most adorable pony tired at the end of a long day.

Although I don't own a horse I come from a long line of horse people and enjoy going to the fairs when I'm near one.

cornflower

The shutter holds in my mom's village are so pretty, most are women and either they or the shutters are painted this vibrant blue.

blue wip

WIP. A smaller variation on a previous piece. Mixed media, 8"x8" on wooden panel.
In the studio are a few pieces I'm having trouble finishing, the biggest one because I'm not sure which way to go with part of the composition, and a few smaller ones like this that just need some final tweaking.

camouflage

When the hounds and I came back from our walk the other morning this little guy was taking a nap on the front door.

neighbour

The door a few down from my mom's. The oldest records for this stretch of houses are from the 1590's because previous ones were destroyed when the town was sacked a couple decades before.

statue

Work in progress, acrylic on canvas. The actual statue playing the lute stands at the entrance to one of the mazes at Hever Castle (where Anne Boleyn grew up).