It is Cowal Open Studios weekend and I visited Jackie Stevenson in her new studio in the village and bought some of her gorgeous cards.

There are five artists showing in my village alone, and 52 over Cowal - a lovely buzz from the many friendly talented people who are taking part. (I was a founder member but am not participating this year....maybe next year - it's a really nice thing to be part of.)

If you are near enough I urge you to make the trip, if not have a lovely online browse..

..about being ill in bed for twelve days was that the sky didn't fall in and the world went on as usual without any input from me! Imagine!

Some mystery bug (not Covid) laid me low, strong painkillers and antibiotics are slowly working.

The weather has been dreary and still, with low cloud all day long.

Apart from brushing my teeth and doing some laundry (was sick on the duvet) I haave done nothing. For almost two weeks.

As I contemplate the beauty of this pear before I drizzle it with lemon oil and scatter it with crushed walnuts, I realise it is the first time I have been interested in food for a fortnight.

 I should have looked inside that book Never Lose Your Sparkle instead of just photographing it's jaunty cover!

I do hope this finds you all well and thriving.

Meanwhile..

A walk through the Botanic Gardens, a meal sitting outside on a warm evening in Byer's Road, a visit to Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery to view some of my favourite paintings, breakfast in their cafe which had just opened again that morning, and the purchase of a pair of cosy gloves from the museum shop.

It was only 24 hours but it felt like a long weekend and I enjoyed every minute!

Almost 'normal'.

Overstimulated by a trip to the city,  I was grateful for a gentle start to today.

The mist was slow to rise and the morning air cool and moist. It's turning inot  a beautiful sunny day, and I will be taking it easy.  A little painting, a little housework and a little planning...No news today.  I am looking after my mental health.

What are your plans for today?

What else can we do after all?   As MaryB said it's too soon to hunker down, but I love her idea of stocking up om preserves and harvesting. I helped a friend lift potatoes yesterday - very satisfying. And the path to the shore is thick with brambles. A few apple and bramble puddings in the freezer would be very satisfying too. Any other ideas for  keeping melancholy at bay would be most welcome...

..always comes over me when I have to acknowledge that summer is over..

....
If at first you don't succeed...have some cake.


It's often worked in the past, but oddly , I seem to have gone off cake! Which could in fact be useful as I am still trying to lose those pandemic pounds....

Charlie Mackesey's description of mole stuffing himself with cake in The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse always makes me laugh out loud.

MaryB mentioned that she was feeling haunted by the images  of 'woebegone' children in Joan Eardley's work, and I thought you would like to know that many of the children she drew went on to thrive. Thanks to post war Britain's welfare state - free education for all, free healthcare for all (the eye sqint was successfully operated on for example), free school meals, cod liver oil and orange juice, and slum clearance, the abject poverty of many families, including the Sampson family of 12 children, was alleviated. Not to mention  effective contraception.

Two of the Sampson girls, Pat and Ann, now work with charities in Glasgow which help the (thankfully smaller) homeless population.

Both heartbreaking and heartening, and all within living memory.

More honest and moving images here.

I have just learned that one of the common names of astrantia is Melancholy Gentlemen!

This lovely one is called Hadspen's Blood. I told this to a visitor on an open day (we used to open the garden in the yellow book scheme). She exclaimed Husband's Blood! That's a strange name for a plant!

Hadspen was a wonderful garden in Somerset, sadly no longer in existence.

My neighbour's sunflowers bring a big smile to the faces of passers-by...

It took five buses, one train and two ferries to get to Edinburgh and back yesterday on an impulse trip to catch the Joan Eardley exhibition on its penultiimate day.

It was wonderful to be in Edinburgh again, and in an art gallery again! And so worth it to see this exhibition. 42 works of breathtaking honesty, compassion and sheer bravery.  It takes courage to do your own thing and put it out in the world to be judged.

Reproductions are of course pretty amazing,  but nothing is so moving as standing in ftont of the real thing! How I have missed it. Have you?

My favourite little cafe/delicatessen G&T a few doors up from The Scottish Gallery has changed hands after many decades, but they do a nice cappuccino.

Life is looking up.

After a visit to the gallery yesterday to try to assess if I have enough paintings for my forthcoming exhibition -I have! - I allowed myself half an hour in the hammock. Lovely.

I hope you are getting some sunshine too. It's good for the soul.

..to hear this morning of the death of artist Elizabeth Balckadder. Prolific, popular and yet remained an artists' artist, and was hugely influential. Sophisticated and completely without pretension. She freed botanical painting from it's straightjacket. Life in every brushstroke,  she will live on through her wonderful work.


You are sure to recognize some of the images here.

Feeling lighter now that I have 14 paintings completed! What could make you live ligher?

More from the white area of Jennie's garden..

A lovely detail from Jennie's garden which goes from light in one corner, through all the colours, to dark in the opposite corner. Gorgeous.

I started work today on  two new paintings: Thundersnow, Edinburgh and Blizzard.

A day off and two lovely visitors yesterday did me so much good! Do you need some 'time off'? Can you arrange it for yourself?

Suddenly there's a whole new range of plants for picking. Persicaria, montbretia, japanese anemone, agapanthus and eupatorium.

Under a boundary hedge, quietly rotting, is a blue gate. A whole new story! But not now I tell myself. Paint!

I am so interested in your comments and questions and wish I had more time to answer them more fully. I'd like to write  about the magic of being 'in the flow' which occurs once the decisions have been made mosrtly, the way my 'paint first' motto  means that some of the decisions are made while doing the dishes or ironing, and the part that music plays in getting me in work mode...however I have put myself in the position of  having to do the work, not write about it. A bit of a push over the next two weeks I think.

No gardening but time to go out and look at the wonderful agapanthus with a coffee in my hand.

Please keep your comments and questions coming - they encouage me so much and I will always answer them - maybe briefly at the time and in blog posts later when the pressure is off a bit!

I LOVE  titles! One of my favourites is Where There's A Ffish There's A Lemon - the title of a small painting I own by Christine McArthur. The title makes me smile.

I will post a photograph of it soon (my computer is not letting me uploadd photographs today..)


With my painting Ice and Lemon  the thought process went something like this..I used irridescent paint for the sky and found myself adding more and more colours. The icy blue needed some lemon to make it sparkle a bit, and the painting was becoming more and more effervescent - almost party like. I thought of a G&T and being asked would you like Ice and lemon with that - Yes please! A fun title.

Oten the titles are very straightforward. Yellow Gate In The Snow, Snow At Chrissie's House. I am very aware that , especially in semi-abstract works, the title is often the viewrs way into the work.

The painting definitely does take on a life of it's own and evolves as a kind of negotiation.  In fact I have just had an argument with one! Highly unusual . I wanted  an area in Yellow Gate In The Snow to be a clearing in the forest, but the space kept insisting that it was a house.  I gave in in the end. It is now a house, and I love it.

 
How can I describe the creative process.  Demanding, exhausting sometimes. Exhilerating and really exciting. Every brushstroke is a decision (which is probably why it is tiring) and, like all decisions, you are often asking yourself Is it the right one? So between the actual putting of paint on canvas there is a lot of looking and meditating and judging going on. And at the back of your mind, as even the wonderfully talented pianist Vikingur Olafsson says is a nervousness about whether the world will like it! I have to make sure that thought is kept very much in the background or it would paralyse me...

There is still honeysuvkle to pick and summery drinks - elderflower cordial and limoncello, but the weather seems to have turned. Is it the ssame where you are?

A full day's painting today. The weather was good for that!

Or not!  The garden has collapsed, the birthday cake for a friend collapsed, but I am still standing.

The cake didn't collapse as much as overflowed and burnt on the floor of the oven. Same recipe, same ingredients, same tin as I have always made it in. Does this ever happen to you? The cake turned out all right in the end, but it took a while to get rid of the smell of burning and cleaning the oven wasn't much fun.

I am finding both music and the talk about music and creativity inspiring. You can hear this pianist on BBC Sounds in In Tune of 12th August, and in a video on YouTube -Vikingur Olafsson  Debussy Rameau   EPK/Trailer. I would love to know what you think..

The days are flying by and I am feeling quite tired, not having worked this hard for years!

This is the start of Ice And Lemon.