sea blue sky abstracts

Having been a bit slow to post, again, I have included quite a few photos by way of compensation, starting with an unexpected gift from a return visitor to Art Space. Tomoko first called in at the gallery earlier in the year and came back a couple of weeks ago - with her daughter this time. She brought some art cards, including a view of Mount Fuji........ A blank canvas for me to paint..............(click the pic to view the Japanese script on the back of the postcards) And what do we have here? Wow! What a wonderful piece of material, measuring 44 x 41 inches, I'm bowled over by the design and colours. What to do with this gorgeous stuff? My preferred option is to get it hemmed for use as a tablecloth to be arranged diamond fashion over a plain white rectangular cloth on special occasions, like Christmas for example. Beautiful design, screen printed onto 100% cotton. Thank you Tomoko, it was great to meet you again, and your daughter. Interestingly, a little investigation v

I'm wide awake when I should be asleep, so now is as good a time as any to post! Yesterday's rain, and did it rain, non stop for hours - has been followed by a day of bright sunshine. Quite brisk and breezy, good for drying the washing though and warm in little spots out of the wind. Walking the dog at around 4pm and passing through one of those sheltered spots, I was delighted to see an absolutely perfect Red Admiral, flawless and richly coloured, with wings spread resting on a bramble and soaking up the sun - having surely just emerged from its crysalis. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera, so by way of compensation have included a small painting completed many years ago depicting a Red Admiral feeding on a fallen apple. Night, night.

Yes, where has the time gone? Blogging in September - following, reading, commenting - yes, posting - no, not once! Life has been turbulent, personally and professionally, for weeks and weeks, so I'm hopeful that October brings a period of calm. Soothing and comforting, like the photos below taken on Porthmeor Beach today, at around 5.30 pm. There would have been more, but guess who forgot to charge the battery! That's not all, the best pic - which showed the leaden sky in the West also included an area of sunlit blue sky and blue water to the East - couldn't be included because of a badly sloping horizon. Does anyone know of a programme that can correct this? Using old photo editing software for my camera, it was possible to tilt and crop the image a little at a time until the horizon was straight (Fotostation Easy for Nikon) but it doesn't seem to be compatible with Vista. Any advice will be much appreciated. Talk again soon, Lesley x

My Etsy shop has been updated with some additional photos and artwork. This first is an A4 giclee print, 'Sunrise' taken from a watercolour/gouache diptych. This print is entitled 'Porthmeor Rocks'. 'Let's Dance'! 'Lucid' The next is an original painted on primed card and is called 'Gannet Seas', because we often see Gannets diving here in such conditions. This too is an original on primed card - 'Seascape & Headland' - I'm not always so imaginative when it comes to titles! I forgot to include close ups of 'St Ives Harbour & Godrevy' in the previous post, so here they are (below) - makes it easier to see brushstrokes, texture and the grain of the wooden support.

Oh I have had so much fun with this painting, though am unsure as to the title, something along the lines of 'Floral -Planters' or 'Floral - Patio' , what do you think? It's not framed yet, is rendered on canvas board and started out as a figure study! The figure wasn't coming together at all, so I rashly slathered black paint onto anaglypta and printed onto the surface and then glued a piece of the wallpaper on for good measure, as in the collages featured earlier in this blog. Next came the green paint applied with a knife, which made me think of leaves, the leaves of Montbretia, so I mixed a lovely orange and tried creating flowers, again using a knife. Later I picked some Montbretia flowers and painted them (the two on the right hand side of the painting). Then, my daughter gave me some beautiful magenta coloured Gladioli and so they were incorporated too, it was such a pleasure to watch them open out from deep, red buds. 'Summer Bay' or 'St Iv

Walking in soft rain: Birds sing Wet vegetation gleams Earthy scents sweeten the air. I think of those who cannot share The quiet joy Bound to beds without ties Imprisoned in rooms with open doors. There is no reason to complain when Walking in soft rain.

Well, it's a bit embarrassing - warning that I might be offline for quite sometime, possibly a week and here I am, back after less than 24 hours! Luckily, after half heartedly trying again in the hope that some computer miracle would happen e.g. switch on, wait 30 seconds and hey presto windows desktop appears, displaying most importantly the Internet Explorer shortcut icon (didn't happen) I realised that there were some options open to me, thanks to those little F keys - no, I'm not swearing - F9 I think, allowed me to opt for a 'System Restore'. So that's what I did, restored the computer to its factory condition. Wonderful! Everything's so fast, because, apart from the Internet connection, the computer has no files! I'm not too worried because there should be some back up via PCWorld. So for now, the sea-blue-sky-abstracts Etsy shop will remain in Vacation mode until I can ensure that the relevant image files are back on my computer. Thanks for

Dear All, I am unable to get into my computer (why do these things always happen at the weekend?) - the hard drive I think - and am quickly writing this post on the laptop at my parents house. So please don't think I'm ignoring visitors or not interested in the posts of all the terrific blogs I follow because that's not the case, it's all the computer's fault and I'm effectively silenced for a while, boo hoo. Have a great weekend everyone and hopefully I'll be back soon! Lesley x

Today, we headed off to picturesque Portscatho on the South coast of Cornwall, to visit the long awaited Home Spun Fair . Although quite cloudy, the weather was bright and warm - the village is much quieter than hectic St Ives, too. Here's Jane who organised the event with Christine of 'The Sea Garden' Portscatho. Pictured here are some examples of the wonderful wares that Christine has for sale in her shop - including lovely sewn pieces by Gertrud Strahl. Truly beautiful hats by Clare of Daisy Darling millinery. Abundant bunting on the left and Niki's 'Vintage Magpie stall on the right - her home-made mohair teddies are adorable. Cynthia of the Spindrift Gallery, Portscatho, with examples of her lovely artwork. Here she is, the one, the only, Viv of Hens Teeth fame ! It was great to actually meet Viv and the other bloggers today and I hope it won't be long before we have a chance to meet up again. Viv chatting to other stall holders. Clare with her t

Rather a lame title, a cover for not really having much idea of what to blog about this evening. Workwise, I've almost completed the commission for Beverley - it's a view looking across St Ives Bay, with The Quay (Smeaton's Pier) on the left showing Godrevy Lighthouse in the distance. There's no photo yet. The support is a thin piece of wood from an old wardrobe, primed with 2 or 3 layers of gesso. Right at the beginning of this blog, when I first posted in mid March 2009, I mentioned spending a day a week at St Ives Ceramics, selling studio pottery - and have included this link http://www.st-ives-ceramics.co.uk/ today for Julie's benefit (see her quirky and individual work here ). I have bought in a small way, mainly pieces of domestic ware for myself and as gifts for family and friends, loving the combination of beauty and function. The photo shows soup/pasta bowls by Peter Swanson and a Kaori Tatebayashi plate. Was interested to note recently a new publication l