October Work in Progress

The only real signs of Autumn in my little back garden!

When I started selling my greeting cards online, a 'marketing guru' friend warned me that I would spend 80% of my time promoting and only 20% creating.

She was just about right, except for the fact that the 20% has turned out to necessarily include a lot of other tedious tasks in order to get my designs on products for sale! In recent months, this has been particularly true of Zazzle, where my sales are greatest. There have been changes to the 'rules' and changes to the website that all entail hours of work for the designers. All part and parcel of selling online but it means that time in my attic studio has been very limited again.

Thankfully though, there is some creative work that I can carry on with in spite of spending so much of my time on my laptop doing necessary 'house-keeping' jobs!

I've just finished reading Andrew Marr's 'A Short Book About Drawing'.  In fact, although it certainly is a 'short' book, it covers a lot more than drawing. I suppose that's inevitable because of the blurred line between drawing and painting. 

For instance, even in a 'painterly' soft pastel like this one of Hereford Cathedral in the Autumn, I feel I am drawing rather than painting throughout the whole process:

The most important thing I took from this very interesting book was the reminder to draw something every day! 

And because my drawing doesn't always consist of trying to make an accurate representation, but often it's something more like doodling, as long as I have plenty of paper and pencils to hand, that is something I can happily catch up with while I'm watching tv - especially if it's the World Cup Rugby as it helps to relieve the tension!

Here's one of my recent 'doodles'! 

Of course, if I'd set out to draw a village, I'd have gone about it totally differently. 

For one thing, I wouldn't have started with the church. I'd have begun with the school in the foreground and built up everything else behind it. That would at least have helped me get the perspective right and avoid paths and roads that go nowhere! And what on earth is that bush doing, growing out over the pavement (top right) and into the road?! 

But it's in the nature of a 'doodle' that it isn't planned, it kind of grows organically and takes on a life of its own, ignoring constraints of things like perspective and practicalities. That bush - or is it a pile of manure? - could become the starting point for a story about village life! 

My 'village' will get filed away with all my other doodles and maybe one day it'll be the starting point for a design - maybe not! The main thing is that I enjoyed it - and it lowered my stress levels during a nail-biting rugby match on tv!

Meanwhile, it's still incredibly mild for the time of year and the trees are late changing their colours. 

Trees across the road from my house changing colour at last

We had a very wet August and September and now, in October, there's hardly been any frost so I expect that has something to do with it.

My walk to the shops through Bailey Park is lined with beech and oak trees and in other years, the oaks have begun to change in late August, the magnificent beeches in September. 

This year they've only just got going!

If you click on the 'Thanksgiving' collection below, you'll see some of the cards and invitations I made from photos of those trees in previous years -

Thanksgiving
by Posh and Painterly

One of the very positive changes this year has been Zazzle's introduction of 'Collections'. 

I tend to design patterns in 'collections' in any case. But it's great to be able to break down my collections even further, grouping them according to products or occasions! I still haven't finished my 'Periwinkles' collection - greeting cards still to be added - but here are all the coordinating periwinkle patterns on 'Periwinkle Gifts for a Bathroom and Bedroom' -

Periwinkles Bedroom and Bathroom Collection
by Posh and Painterly

It's impossible to walk through the shopping areas of Abergavenny this Autumn without noticing that plaids and checks are still filling the windows of the clothing shops and boutiques. 

On a sunny day, it's hard to get a photo of a shop window without reflections but here are a couple that didn't do too badly -

Inspired by this continuing trend, I've gathered together all my fashion products with plaids and checks in this 'collection'. (Zazzle have just introduced canvas shoes for us to decorate with our designs so I hope to add some of them - as soon as I find the time!)

Plaid Ties, Tees and Tank Tops
by Posh and Painterly

Although I haven't had time to create much new art this month, I have been busy creating 'Collections' and building up my other blog, now called 'Posh & Painterly' to avoid any confusion. 

Each day, I'm posting a new Zazzle Collection in the hope that the blog can become a useful shopping resource for anyone who likes my style of Art and Design. Six days a week I'm hoping to provice a new 'Collection' to browse! 

Posh & Painterly

blog 

- it's all about style!

So please pop over and take a look - you might even find some ideas for Christmas presents amongst them (even though the flowers in my back garden make it seem as if Christmas is still a long way off!). 

Annual Godetias and Pot Marigolds, grown from seed
- nearly November and still in bloom!

Spreading the idea of the Seasonal Door Wreath!

It all began with Pinterest last spring, when I was putting together boards to represent the four seasons!

That's when I discovered that hanging a decorated wreath on our front doors isn't restricted to Christmas-time. This discovery fired my imagination so much that I wanted to drop everything and make a spring wreath straight away. 

But where to get the base? Naturally, I did a google search for sources of bases - which led me to a website with lovely clear instructions for making my own and I plunged right in!

You'll find more about my Spring Wreath

and a link to the 'Modern Country' blog

where I found the instructions

HERE

In the summer I didn't have time to make another wreath base from scratch so I cheated and filled a pretty heart-shaped wire basket with (artificial) summer 
flowers. 

But with my honeysuckle hedge growing like a triffid this summer, sending out such long shoots that it's barely possible to get past it to refill my bird feeder, I was determined to take advantage of the fresher stems to make the base for my autumn wreath!

The honeysuckle threatening to strangle the climbing roses!

I somehow still didn't get around to having my wreath all ready in time for the 

first day of autumn. But we were still having unusually summery weather so my 
poppies, daisies and cornflowers didn't seem too out of place.

I finally found some time to cut back the honeysuckle last Sunday afternoon and the sun was still so warm in my garden that I decided to use the stems I cut off to make the wreath base outside in my garden, to save the mess in my kitchen. And all that bending and trimming the stems can result in quite a mess, especially if you haven't removed the leaves and berries!

During the week, I've begged or bought all sorts of bits and pieces for my Autumn Wreath and found some more in the park. 

A word of warning if you think of making something like this: try to use flowers 
with stems that are thin enough to slot into the wreath base - or at least thin 
enough to cut easily. I bought some lovely sprays of berries and so on from the local florist but the stems were far too long and almost too thick to cut. So I ended up having to use wire to keep them in place; not a disaster but not ideal either.

In most matters of design, I tend to prefer 'balance' to 'symmetry' because it's usually less formal; and I just followed my instinct when I created my Spring Wreath.  

But I thought it would be good to make a change and try to create a symmetrical Autumn Wreath - funny how that strong instinct of mine took over and I ended up with 'balance' again!

So here it is, finally finished and hung on the door, just as the weather has finally turned chilly and damp, much more autumnal -

The seed-heads on the left are Granny's Bonnets (Aquilegia) from
my garden, the beech-masts and cone are from the park and
the dark seed heads at the top are from a neighbour's garden,
 Rudbeckia, or something like that, I think.

I'm not usually very enthusiastic about our British habit of frequently importing 

ideas from the other side of the pond. Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I don't like the idea that 'globalisation' can blur the (positive) differences between countries and their cultures too completely. 

But the idea of a seasonal door wreath is one idea I'll happily borrow from our American friends and I'd love to see the idea spread over here too!

My front door isn't easily visible from the pavement so the best way to promote the idea is through my blog.

So - all you clever and crafty Brits, 

what are you waiting for?

Watersoluble Crayons - Perfect for Autumn Leaves!

In a few days’ time, here in the UK, we will be putting our clocks back an hour as we come to the end of BST – British Summer Time.

Not that it’s been much of a summer and the little there was of it seemed to give way to autumn very easily and promptly this year! And even the autumn has been wetter than usual, with fewer than usual bright, crisp days to show off the changing colours of the trees in all their glory. The usual ‘carpets of gold’ have been replaced this year with something rather more soggy and mostly less colourful.

But there have been a few of those ‘golden’ October days, though I’ve never happened to be out with my camera on those days.

So one day recently, when I was waiting for some paint to dry on an illustration I’m working on, I suddenly had the idea of getting out my watersoluble crayons and creating some autumn colours for myself.

 

It really was a case of ‘mucking around’ and only took a few minutes. I’ve had these wonderful crayons for some months now but never had time to really explore their possibilities.  On this occasion, I loved the way I could add water to some parts to make a smooth wash, while leaving other parts in their original, raw, crayon-like state!

After scanning and cleaning up, I used Photoshop to make a 'half-drop' repeat template from them -

- which I then repeated over and over again to make a basic pattern.

By making the white parts transparent, it was easy to try out different background colours. I started with my usual favourite deep blue that I often seem to use in conjunction with orange. But then I became a bit bolder - after all, when you are working digitally, there's no expensive paper or paint to waste!!

Perhaps surprisingly, this one turned out to be one of my favourites -

Next it was time to create some coordinating patterns.
Instead of the summer-y check ginghams I've been making to go with some of my flowery patterns, I felt that a  houndstooth check would be more appropriate; warm and woolly for those days when there was a definite autumnal chill in the air.

And then, by this time firmly in experimental mode, I went on to have great fun with this rather more complex than usual stripe!

And finally, the real fun bit - putting together all the patterns that resulted from that first quick 'scribble' with the watersoluble crayons -

I could have gone on and on - adding a matching polka dot pattern or some conventional stripes - where does one stop?

What has really surprised me is how easily the handpainted and the digital elements work together! I rather doubt whether I'll ever be tempted to create a pattern entirely on the computer. But even with the rather meagre level of digital knowledge I possess, clever computer programs can open doors to pattern developments that would be practically impossible by hand.

Can't help wondering, though, whether William Morris's patterns would have been any different if he'd had a computer!
 

Images of Autumn..

on my other blog today!

'Autumn Leaves' Coffee Mug by helikettle
More Autumn Mugs

The Music and Magic of Poetry

I think we can safely say that Summer is over and that Autumn has well and truly arrived.  

At the moment, most of the leaves are still on the trees but it won’t be long before they fall and turn all the pathways into ‘carpets of gold’, a phrase that never fails to remind me of the Headmaster of a school where I taught in the late 1960s.

  
Queenswood, Herefordshire

I had previously taught in a pretty little Victorian school in the leafy, suburban commuter-belt of Surrey.  It was a typical Victorian village school, obviously old but very well kept; everything about it and its surroundings was comfortable and attractive. So it was quite a tricky transition when I moved to a large, rather drab ‘modern’ school, with a catchment area  mostly consisting of a huge council estate. Lots of concrete and a generally dreary and yes, drab environment. The pupils were very different too. It took me a while to adjust to the fact that it was the norm for nine-year-old girls to wear nail varnish and earrings in school and to hearing tales of mothers running off with the milkman!

But the headmaster, a Welshman, was in a way, a light in the wilderness! There is a saying that the Welsh are all ‘teachers or preachers’ and Mr F. was a bit of both.

Away from the children, he had some of that typically Welsh gloom that underlies their famous sense of humour. He was often to be found lurking in the stock cupboard, where he would complain endlessly about his chronic sinus condition – ‘a tight band around my forehead!’, seeking sympathy from anyone who popped in to pick up some supplies. One of his more annoying habits was to appear in our classrooms about ten minutes after the children had all left, with his coat and hat on, obviously all ready to leave, asking, ‘Haven’t you people got homes to go to?’, knowing full well that we, the teachers, had several long hours of work still ahead of us.


So we were not fully appreciative when he addressed the children in assembly, extolling the ‘carpets of gold’ which very few of them would ever have seen! 




 Queenswood, Herefordshire


 Another of our Headmaster's pet phrases for use in assemblies was ‘the magic and music of poetry’! And it could be extremely irritating when he insisted that all written work that was put on display must be decorated with a coloured border. In fact, no work written on sheets of paper, was considered complete without its decorative border.

Our classroom displays were to be works of art in themselves – which is one of the main reasons that we staff were stuck in our classrooms for hours after the school day had finished. We seemed to have a copious supply of coloured tissue paper which was liberally stapled to display boards. And there was always plenty of white card donated by a nearby factory that used it for their packaging, which we used to make white ‘frames’ for the artwork displays. This sometimes gave rise to friction amongst the staff as we vied for possession on the guillotine to cut the card into strips for the frames. Somehow, however hard I tried, I never managed to get mine to look square and my inability to perform such an apparently straightforward task caused me more frustration than it would have if  'presentation' hadn't been so high on our Headmaster's agenda!

At the time, I think most of us seriously questioned the value of all this ornamentation. But looking back, when I met up with one of the teachers not so long ago, we agreed that maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all. The children, few of whom would go on to shine academically, certainly learnt to take a pride in the appearance of their work, if nothing else. And the brightly decorated classrooms might have given them a glimpse of an environment rather different from that drabness that otherwise surrounded them.

Whether the ‘music and magic’ of poetry – or was it ‘magic and music’? -  made any impact on them, I really can’t say but what else can you expect from a Welshman?

‘To be born Welsh is to be born privileged, 

Not with a silver spoon in your mouth, 

But with music in your blood and poetry in your soul.’

Early Autumn in Castle Meadows, Abergavenny

Back to School!

  I was talking on the phone with my daughter yesterday evening when I noticed that one of the trees that I can see from my kitchen window was beginning to turn an autumnal shade of yellow. When I mentioned this, my daughter was a bit depressed by it, ‘I’m still waiting for summer’ she said. But, although it had taken me by surprise, seeing this first sign of Autumn when we are still in August, was welcome and, well, almost exciting.

Maybe I’m peculiar, but this time of year, when the last days of Summer melt into Autumn, is my favourite. I can rationalise it by claiming that it’s because it’s easier to work when I’m not wishing I could be outside in the sunshine – or away on holiday. But in fact it goes back a long way and is rooted in my classroom teaching days.

Here in the UK, the Autumn term begins some time in the first week of September and for me, as an erstwhile teacher, that’s a time filled with hope and excitement about what the new school year will bring. The tiredness and often frustration of the end of the previous school year that ended in July, are forgotten. Those dreadful, exhausting Parents’ Evenings at the end of the Summer term, when the reports that I’d laboured over all weekend were handed out. And the embarrassment of being utterly unable to recall the face of the child whose fond parents are waiting nervously to hear my verdict on their offspring’s progress! The Sports’ Days, the Prize-givings, the School plays, the discos and the disaffected pupils who can’t wait for the term to end. Now all well and truly forgotten.

Forgotten for now and replaced by the optimism of a fresh start with, for once, a well-polished classroom, filled with eager, shiny-faced, neatly coiffed pupils, proudly clutching new pencil-cases – with bobbles, all of them as filled with hope and expectation as I am, the feelings that we usually associate with the coming of Spring or maybe at the start of a new year! For once the Nature Table looks inviting, with its display of acorns and conkers, berries and colourful leaves and pictures of squirrels and birds gathering on the telephone wires for their pre-migration briefing...

It doesn’t last long, of course, the class villain soon begins to make his presence felt (and yes, the first one is invariably a ‘he’), the leaves on the Nature table dry up, the fresh white backing paper becomes torn and grubby as it becomes a repository for pencil sharpenings, chewing gum and all the other odds and ends that nobody can be bothered to put away.

And so the magic fades, to be replaced by the humdrum life of the classroom, punctuated by the occasional uproar when the above-mentioned villain decides to trash the stock cupboard in break-time. Or the even less frequent, almost tear-jerking, moment of exhilaration when a struggling pupil makes an unexpected breakthrough in their learning and makes the whole thing more than worthwhile!

But each year without fail, as the days grow noticeably shorter, and the ‘New Series for Autumn’ begin to be announced on the television, that excitement returns, that 'beginning-of-the-new-school-year feeling', that triumph of optimism over experience, and for me, there's nothing quite like it!

New School Good Luck Card by helikettle
More School Cards