There’s a few reasons I’ve been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately.  We still have lots to do to sort out the house – this weekend I got the guest room to a state where we could actually have a guest to stay now.  It took a while as the bed had become a dumping ground for all curtains (the last house had 23 windows!), wardrobes, random clothes without hangers, empty hangers without clothes and teddy bears.  Adrian worked on the garage and even though you still can’t get a car in, he at least has everything in a much more organised state and knows where his tools are – something I’m sure you’ll all agree makes for a happy husband.

I’ve also been absent from the internet from time to time as the big mac (as we affectionately refer to my main computer) just would not remember the wifi settings at all after I upgraded it’s operating system.  Each time I wanted to get onto the internet, I had to remember the hideously complicated network name and password and set up the network from scratch as it would just forget all about it.  Irritating is putting it mildly, but after much Apple forum searching, I found a few ‘known issues’ and (fingers crossed) one of the fixes seems to have worked.

But probably the biggest reason I haven’t blogged much is down to paint.

One of my Christmas presents (from me to me) was an online class.  It’s called Bloom True and the teacher is Flora Bowley, an artist I’ve admired for a while.  I just missed out on taking a real class with her a couple of years ago and I was actually gutted to realise she’d come over from the States and been teaching in the Yorkshire Dales, less than half an hour away!  [Flora, please come back and teach here again ...?]

Anyway, her style of painting is very intuitive and free and from some of the comments I’ve seen from other class participants, it’s a step outside the comfort zone for a lot of people.  For me, it’s like coming home – it is everything I hoped it would be and I am absolutely loving it.

These are all unfinished underpaintings.  The process involves many layers and things change a lot as you go.  There’s a lot of trust and letting go of control and expectation and she encourages you to work BIG.

I have a large piece of watercolour paper which I use at the end of a painting session to use up any excess paint.  It might become a journal when I’m finished.

This is week 3 of a five week course and I think the plastic carpet protector will just about last until then!  I love having cream carpets, but it’s not the most practical of floor coverings when painting on this scale.  I also put it over my table so I don’t worry about splashes of paint on it.

I’ve become quite adept at the quick change act from craft space to art space and back again.  Lesley and I made birthday cards for her hubby on Sunday after I spent Saturday flinging paint around.  This was my card featuring our steampunk stamps coloured with ColourSoft pencils.  I added some grey shading around it to make it pop with my imaginary light source coming straight down from the top.

If my wifi problems are finally over, then I hope to get back to a more regular blogging schedule.  We have new stamps coming out this week which I think you’re going to love.  I’ll also be picking a winner on the DT blog this Friday too, so if you missed the news about the giveaway, click here for the post.