..and gently does it.

As long as I concentrated on just putting like with like and designating a place for each category, binning only the obvious rubbish, I got on really well with clearing the studio.

I went in there this morning and my heart lifted! That has not happened for a long time.

At the end of day three it looks ordered and calm but that's very superficial!  A good start though. The next step is to go through each category making decisions about what to discard and what to keep.

This is where it gets difficult.

All those boxes, files and drawers are stuffed full of my history as an artist. I am reviewing my career here so this may be a time to remember the joy I've had (and hopefully given).

Marie Kondo suggests you start with the easiest things, so I may begin with empty sketchbooks and notebooks - the empty ones have least emotional charge and I may put some on Freecycle. A young art student was thrilled with some supplies and old frames which I gave away through Freecycle once and that felt good, and freed up a lot of space.

What are you currently clearing? And how are you going about it?

I really appreciate your support, insight and humour - you are helping me see this through.

I do believe I am beginning to enjoy it!

Before I could tackle the chaotic studio it was important to me that the rest of the house was calm and orderly. This took no time at all as thanks to Fly Lady routines which are second nature now, and my previous Kondoing, my house is, on the whole, a calm place - that 'click point' has been reached and I love it!

I have had a major block about my painting and unblocking is proving difficult. I've lost direction. Maybe I should write rather than paint. I've been a painter for twenty years. I've painted and sold several hundred works. Maybe I'm 'painted out'. I am hoping that clearing the studio will clear my way forward.

I will put that decision aside and deal with the practicalities of the physical stuff. Firstly I have created categories::

Saleable finished work large, medium and small
Finished works I want to keep (I may move these to another room)
Unfinished work
Blank canvasses
Work on paper which I will put in the plan chest (a major clearing task in itself)
Sketches, notebooks, cuttings, postcards etc - masses of this!
Materials - oil paints/watercolour paints/inks/pastels/brushes/pens/paper/sketchpads
Packaging (takes up a lot of space)
Old frames
Related paperwork (I have not been good at keeping records)

Quite a lot to accomodate in a space just under 3 x 4 metres.


One of the things I love about the studio is that I can play music there as loud as I like!  Oscar Peterson helped me on my cleaning/clearing way - it seems to take up part of the anxiety area of my brain....

I was going to spend half and hour.

I spent more than half a day.

Progress!

..on a major project.

I can't tell you how many times I have headed purposefully to the studio to declutter and organise it, stood looking at it and turned back and walked out, simply not knowing where to start, overwhelmed by nearly two decades of stuff....

I did the same again this morning.

The weather has changed to cool and rainy so I wasn't going to be gardening, and I have to say I felt somewhat invigorated by the change in temperature and humidity, but still I couldn't start, so I went to Marie Kondo's Spark Joy for some inspiration and found it on page 31 under When You Feel Like Quitting.

That woman is brilliant.

The photographs are taken after I had already removed a large seed propagator, the large glass bowl of a broken lamp, a bag of recycling, an old fire extinguisher, a pair of leaky wellies and a large tin of paint!

The gardens at Newby Hall were looking wonderful.

There are 25 acres to explore and the double border above is 172 meters long - I was really impressed at how very good it all looked in spite of the heatwave.

We were given a pot of this!

The most idyllic part was a boat trip on the River Ure - I loved how modest and un-commercial it was. Just a lazy half an hour on a simple boat with a relaxed guy who loved the quiet and the wildlife of the riverbank and enjoyed sharing it - he knew where all the nests were, was sweet with the children and never asked for the money. You just gave him the £5 as you got off and I had the impression he really wouldn't have cared much if you forgot...

It was also cooler on the river! 28/29 degrees is too hot for me.

Makes me idle.

An idle idyll is no bad thing now and then... thank you Lynne!


How has the heat affected you this summer?

Really?

When going through automatic ticket barriers at railway stations don't put your case through in front of you but pull it behind, or you may, like me, get trapped in the vice-like and painful grip of the snapping flaps. I could not move a millimeter and the strong staff member who tried to free me could not prise them apart and so was frantically pushing buttons to open them while I protested 'This is hurting me!'

Ouch.

I do worry they could injure a child....so take care.

I am amazed at how green the grass has stayed in the heatwave.

I watered it every few days when the weather first turned hot (before Open Days) but not since. I can only suppose that all the early season lawn care - scarifying, feeding and  weeding - got it into really good condition and that has seen it through, and in the last couple of weeks we have had the odd rainy day. Just enough to keep it fresh.

Short blog break coming up (to keep me fresh too).

I am delighted that Glasgow School of Art Mackintosh Building will be rebuit!

I do feel it is the only possible decision.

Who would be the one who decided No? I have not heard one good reason not to rebuild. Sad, pastiche? The Parthenon was largely rebuilt in the 1920's. Knowing that, It is no less of a thrill to stand there in awe today. La Fenice in Venice has burned down and been rebuilt three times since the first fire in 1790. To attend an opera there was an utter delight. Was I sad that I was not sitting in the original? No I just marvelled and was grateful that they rebuilt so beautifully. Dresden was rebuilt after the Second World War. Do we look at it and call it sad? (As one writer claimed a rebuild of The Mack would be.) No, we admire the resilience, determination and the wonderful skill with which it was done.

Stone is stone and wood is wood. They are not sentient. The feeling is in the designers, the viewers and the users. It is not which exact stone is in the design - how the materials are put together - the proportions, shapes, volumes - it is the choices the architect made that create the magic, the thrill. The Mack was/is unique (it still, thankfully, exists in digital form!). Architecture is a precise art. The money will be found. And one of the best decisions made by GSA - to have every student who gets a place at Glasgow have their first year in The Mack - may yet be implemented. 

I was lucky enough to have that experience for four years. I would not deny it to future generations who I expect will treat it as we did - irreverently kicking open the doors when you had a large painting in your hands, dropping paint/clay/plaster  on the floors and walls, hanging your coat on the statues. Using it, living and creating in it. New students will add the patina of use over time and we will have the thrill of seeing it as Mackintosh did. New and still, as the old one was, uniquely fit for purpose.

I would love to see GSA acquire the land between the Mack and Sauchiehall St and launch a competition for a new campus building to stand in front of (and not obscure!) The Mack and Steven Holl's Reid Building. (I am a fan.)  What a challenge for young architects!

I am sure Mackintosh would approve.

..at this decision!

..till the time is right.
The flowers on papaver ruprifragum are over by mid-day and the buds fpr tomorrow hang their heads until the next morning. Dozens of flowers, day after day for the whole season.

..have

too many

flowers.

A solid day's rain.

Refreshing, and good for the garden.

Not so good for my visitors.


Two crows in the tree....

And a wasp nest in the bird box.

Hmm.

Crow still comes and sits in my tree most eveings.

Like a sentinel.

He left me the most beautiful gift recently, right by the hammock where I was sure to find it.

..where Love means nothing is on the tennis court.

One of the commentators after the brilliant win by Anderson over Federer said of his (Anderson's) composure and psychological strength He turned his brain off and got the job done.

I will remember that! There are times when my brain just gets in the way.

It's raining.

How lovely.

Another part of my start to the day.

It keeps me mindful, sometimes with just a sentence or two, sometimes more.

I like this am/pm format (from Paperchase). It simplifies my day by stopping those thoughts which sometimes rattle around all day long - by putting them on paper I clear my mind. At the end of the day I have sometimes, without realising it, resolved them. It's a process.

I keep the notebooks for a while, but not forever.

This one has occasional prompts, soft focus photographs and gentle humour...

My word for the year is gently and it is working very well for me.

Is your word helpful to you?

If not, remember you can change it.

I love breakfasts so much I sometimes have two.

Especially when I get up really early which I have been doing since the heatwave began.

I eat something good for me. I set a nice tray or table and sit down to it. I take my time and I eat it outside whenever possible. Perhaps if your weekday mornings are too busy to do this you might enjoy it at weekends.

The first post on this blog was under Simply Eat and I am happy to say I am less stressed about the whole subject and actually quite enjoy shopping for food. (See this post.) I am much clearer about what I want and am able to pretty much ignore the 70 - 80% of the store which has nothing for me.

Focus was the answer for me.

In fact that has been the value of the blog. I have focussed on each category in turn to clarify what I need and want.

Would you make any changes to your breakfast routine?

Ah yes, getting dressed. I was reviewing how my life is simpler on a daily basis since I started writing Live Simply Simply Live... From when I open my eyes in the morning, listening to the first sounds and getting washed and dressed..

Isn't life easier in good weather? Cotton underwear, loose chinos and a linen shirt with sandshoes have been my 'uniform' for six or seven weeks now. So easy. So simple. Old comfy ones for gardening, newer crisp ones for going out for meals with friends - all in great colours with perhaps an added string of beads.  I am treating this heatwave as a holiday at home and as we now have a village restaurant within walking distance I am taking full advantage of it.

I've loved having worked out what I like and what suits me and have pretty much stayed with that look since this post.

Fewer decisions.

fewer mistakes.

Have you figured out your style? And thus simplified your wardrobe? And your life?

There are quite a lot of posts to browse under Simply Stylish (clothes are my fun!)

I know I've used this line before, but I like it. :-)

My vision varies.

It's hard to know why - there are  so many variables.  Light levels make a difference and I need a good light to read by. When I go from a light place into a darker place my eyes can be very slow to adjust.  Screens can be difficult, and pale or coloured print. Oh, and I have cataracts. Thankfully most of the time I can see very well. (You can't drive when you can only see well some of the time, sadly, and I do miss my car a lot.) But yesterday I watched Wimbledon on my laptop. I could see the ball! So exciting!

I take a supplement called Macushield, drink freshly made juices every day - mainly carrot, apple and spinach adding cucumber, ginger, broccoli, kale, celery and other things for variety. I also check my vision on an Amsler Grid.  Sometimes straight lines can look wavy and this can be, but is not always, a sign that dry AMD is changing to wet AMD which requires quite urgent treatment (and is pretty scary).

I do quite a bit of research online.

But I don't think about it all the time and no longer make notes every morning - only when I notice a change. I can't monitor everything in my life when I am busy living it, and looking at  and rejoicing in sights like this -

Thank you for reading.

18 months on from the retreat, and making fresh juice every day, my pattern varies between this

and this

Twice I have woken to no blind spot at all just a faint blur in the centre of my left eye.

As I have recorded before, having been told there was no treatment and no cure for dry AMD but that eating brightly coloured fruits and vegetables might help, I decided to get as much brightly coloured fruits and  vegetables into me as I could. To this end I went on a health retreat where I had freshly made juices three times a day and a vegetable soup once a day. After five days of this (which was really enjoyable and I was never hungry!) my pattern changed to this -

As you might imagine I could see more. Still patchy, but more.

I bought a juicer and made fresh juices every day.

After a time I realised that I was crossing the road more confidently, and noticed that I could make out what coins were in my purse, and was very surprised to find myself reading the tiny print on a tube of cream. I was even more surprised when I realised I did not have my glasses on.

 
This was the shape of my 'blind spot' the area on my macula which blocked my central vision. (See the video in Saturday's post.) Perhaps because I am an artist I could see it so clearly that I could draw it. It was especially clear when I opened my eyes first thing in the morning - it was as if it was projected onto whatever I looked at and If I looked at the white wall of the bedroom I could see it this clearly, and also see that it changed sometimes. I began to record what I could see.

I developed my own sort of code...

which makes perfect sense - but only to me!

I plan to stay on this topic for a few posts. Writing them helps me think clearly and if what I have learned gives even one person out there some help (the blog had over 10,000 page views for the first time last week) I will be delighted.