A Sensitive Portrait Commission and a Privilege to Paint

 When I was approached to paint this, I was a bit apprehensive. It all depended on the quality of the photographs that I could work with.  The father had recently passed away before his granddaughter was born. The family were grieving for the loss of their husband, father and grandfather. I was asked to bring him from spirit to hold his baby granddaughter that he had never met.

I will admit now that it brought tears to my eyes as the story was told. It was a wonderful thing for his daughter to want to have, for her mother, his wife, and I hoped and prayed that I could do this commission justice.

Working from photographs is not easy, especially when the lighting casts tinges and awkward shadows. I also needed to work out a composition to bring them together in a

The dangers lurking in the internet and taking back my power.
The World Wide Web - Traps and Pitfalls of the Internet

Yes, I've been quiet, and I’ve not shared much on social media lately, but sometimes we all need to take a break from the fast lane. I crawled into my shell for self-preservation.

I began to receive huge amounts of messages via social media that were scams, and even had my Instagram account

My Mum, Liesel.... In Memory... In My Heart Always






Life has changed and it is much harder for us all

I have decided to put up some pictures of real life.   Ones that have hit me hard.
We spent two years coping with the dreadful COVID pandemic and now we are all hit with incredible hikes in our normal day to day costs of living. I would love to say that we will all get through this, but it is tough, very tough for many.

When I look back over the last few years, I look back with sadness. Sadness at the enormous loss of life and the hardships that followed. Sadness for the struggling businesses. Sadness for the lack of human contact we all needed but couldn’t have while we isolated.  Most of all though, sadness for being denied the precious times I wanted to spend with my lovely Mum, knowing

Commissions painted on clay hearts

Commissions and an Exhibition

My “busy” is different to normal busy. Living with ME/CFS is challenging at times and requires careful planning so that I don’t run out of steam altogether. So, my being “busy” might seem to others like being in the slow lane, but for me I have been busy with commissions and enjoying the challenge of the varied work I have been asked to do. This blog image is just a couple of the requests that I have been given permission to show.

Recovering from keyhole surgery to remove gallbladder
Being in the best health you can be is a good start

It seems that my blog musings have been all about health challenges lately. In truth, that has been my reality and I’m hoping that this recovery after having my gallbladder removed is the last for the foreseeable future. It has caused me considerable pain for the last three years. Covid-19 interrupted surgical plans for everyone, including me.

Doing a Little Happy Dance Grateful That I Can See Properly AgainI have finally recovered from double vision and been discharged from the eye hospital and I’m super happy!

I must admit, four months of struggling to see anything without a double image did get me down, and there were times when I wondered if my eyes would ever get back to normal.

Sudden Double Vision is Scary and A Major Challenge for an Artist

Double vision is another setback but I’m not giving up. I’m figuring out how to deal with it.

Well life has thrown another curve ball. Not only am I still on hold, almost a year later, like tens of thousands of other souls waiting for routine surgery that will make my life a little easier, but over Christmas I woke up to severe double vision. It certainly creates a challenge

 The early stages of my painting of a corn flower. A work in progress.

Sometimes, a break from painting is as good as the feel of painting itself, and a break was much needed this summer.

Picking up a brush after a much needed break feels good. Sometimes life gets in the way of things. Health problems, other life pressures and not to mention a global pandemic of Covid that had quickly reached our local area. Everything just shut

 Art Doodle Sketch Welcoming in the New Year of 2020

Bringing in the new year of 2020 was a welcome hope for the future, not least because the entire Christmas period was a comatose blur under the influence of the dreaded flu bug!

All new years begin with hopes and dreams, and after the last year of sad loss and so many hospital visits that I’ve lost count, the hope of the sun shining on our lives is even greater.

Art Doodle Sketches of Trials of Life
The simple act of art doodling in a sketchbook can be very therapeutic. Sometimes pictures convey emotions more than words can.

Where does the time go when life just takes over? January disappeared into the ether while I lay comatose under the duvet suffering from flu. February threw curve balls left, right and centre.

Rushed hospital visits, tests and scans, not all mine, but family too. It really wakes you up from dreamily going through life. There is a saying that when life throws lemons at you, make lemonade. But sometimes, making

 Art Doodle 2019 New Year Celebration

The last several months of 2018 have been challenging. My health confined me, and for a while it was comforting to rest up and recuperate. It’s difficult, well almost impossible to be inspired when I’m feeling ill and in pain. But I am beginning to feel more able now, and no longer wish to be in confinement. It is time to throw back the curtains and once again say “Hello World!”

 Creating a Garden Is Like Creating a Painting

Gardening Is Like Painting, The Spade Is My Brush, The Flowers Are My Paint and The Ground Is My Canvas

They say gardening is great for mental health, and it definitely is. It has helped me to pick myself up, dust myself off and re-evaluate what is important in life.

Art, painting wise, has been a bit of a barren few months where I seem to have lost my way, maybe because I found myself in a situation that was unsustainable. The decision to put my brush down for a few months has

Doodle Painting in between both lovely Mums

The subject of old age has been thrust upon me this last year with both my own mum and my mum in law needing extra help and support. It’s beginning to make my own life feel more fragile as I move towards my 60s. Not being in the best of health it brings home to me the need to make sure we have things in place to be able to cope as we get older, rather than be completely unprepared as both mums are. Will my current struggles with M.E. just end up being masked by infirmity as I get older?

Outside the Art Studio is a mess
"Update - Open Studios and Art Week/Trail has been cancelled sadly"

Vic Selby , my Dad and the Books that he wrote
Vic Selby, Author And My Father

There are times in life that are hard to bear and this has been one of the toughest. My father passed away just before Christmas with most of his family around him. It was expected, though not nearly quite so soon, but no matter how much I thought I was prepared, it wrenched my soul to see the light in his eyes slip away. He will always have a piece of my heart.

 Gratitude for the studio art space to paint in

When I'm creating, I lose myself completely in the process. Time stops still and the random thought chatter of daily life fades away to a silence that I can only describe as "the zone".

I drew and painted my way out of a dark hole when I was ill 15 years ago and I hadn't stopped until recently when I lost the space to create. After a few delays, my studio has been given back to me and the last remnants of the kitchen are in the kitchen. Now I need to clear the space in my head and free the cobwebs to release the inspirations that have been

 My art studio stuffed full of boxes with little room to paint

It is surprising just how far reaching the impact can be when building works are going on at home!  We moved into our bungalow for the pleasure of having no stairs to contend with. We also knew it needed a bit of updating and extending. Project management though doesn't always go to plan. The kitchen was delivered before the extension was ready and my studio has been floor to ceiling with boxed kitchen units for the last six weeks.

 Miniature paintings Artist Trading Cards ACEO

All that's needed to create ACEOs or Artist Trading Cards is a little space

It's been a difficult few weeks and my studio is stacked full of large boxes from floor to ceiling. But I do have a little space to work. It actually reminds me of my imaginative childhood when we created little dens out of boxes to play in. So, I am for the time being working in a little den!

 Oh My...The earth is not moving for this digger in our garden!

I love my studio. It's not the biggest, but it's big enough for me, and big enough to share with a fellow artist during a studio event. It's light and airy, and insulated enough to keep lovely and warm in the winter. But oh dear... the view leaves much to be desired. A digger and a heap of building materials does not lend itself to having an Open Studio event!

 Peace lilies sketch in response to ME CFS

I'm writing this blog because there is a silent group out there who have daily struggles that others are completely unaware of. I don't often talk about my "disability" because it puts me in a box, but very occasionally I feel the need to shout it from the roof tops.

 Having Fun Experimenting with Book Making and Paper Cutting

Having Fun Experimenting With Different Art Techniques

I'm a painter first and foremost, but when I can, I take the opportunity to go on a workshop by an artist working in a different medium. Not necessarily because I want to work in that way, but to open my eyes to new possibilities in my own work, a sort of cross pollination of ideas and techniques.

 Learning Computer Skills Takes Time and Dedication

Sometimes I wonder how much more I need to learn. In the grand scheme of things, I actually love learning, though nowadays with M.E./CFS it takes me much longer and I make lots more notes! My website is a classic example.

Twitter Art Exhibition Donated Paintings

Twitter Art Exhibition 2016 Charitable Art Donations For Great Causes

It's time to come out of my shell and reconnect with the world, and for once, the sun is shining! There comes a point when I get fed up of being poorly, and even though I still am, I can somehow handle it better when the sun shines.

 Oh No! My Blog has disappeared!

 It is that dreaded moment when you click the button to update the system and your Blog disintegrates before your eyes! Any number of reboots, restores and re-installs continue to leave your Blog Page blank with an ugly system error pasted across it. This has been my headache. I've ranted, raved and finally resigned myself to bringing all my posts back over one by one to a simpler system, one that will hopefully withstand updates in future.