Marathon Sketchbooking

The more I watch the Olympics and see all these active people, the more I want to sit on my bottom and play in my sketchbook!
 I have only a week or so left of my year of my Creative Sketchbook course and I need to get to finishing Module 4. I've had many a week where creativity has been at a low ebb as my mum moves toward the end of her life, but this past two weeks I realised how much art can be a therapy in these situations. It buys time to ponder and time to refocus.

I have decided to make a journal quilt each month pointing out where I have found peace. I am working on this in the sketchbook and as this white dove descended into the garden last week I resolved to begin the work this month,

Pockets from a photo are handy for collecting ephemera - in this case some feathers which I might use as printing inspiration.
See the end of this post for August's quilt.

This little pottery dove sits by my front door and the stars, so reminiscent of quilt blocks are on the floor all the way down the hall of my Victorian home.

Various cut pages.

Roll on Autumn - I love pumpkins!

I pressed this Bleeding Heart stem earlier in the year and have just taken it from the flower press.

A pencil rubbing of a lino block....

THE RESULTING QUILT

It was all ace. It was a part of my peace.

Monochromish

 Strange, how subconciously I opt for this rather monochromatic colour scheme every January / February. This year I thought it wouldn't happen as we have had no snow, the daffs are starting to bloom and our general landscape has been pretty green and verdant.

And still it happens. After Christmas it's as if the eyes need a rest.

These Japanese woven fabrics are just the ticket for some kind of relaxation and a sense of peace.

Even if they do turn into a chicken quilt without me really thinking about what I'm doing! This  one is for the kitchen table as Spring approaches.

Unbidden, this afternoon, six inches of snow fell in six hours. The first of the winter.

More fabrics laid out. More of the same easy hues.

I'm not sure what will happen to them!
But they lie here, winking!

A note in the sketchbook - snow surrounds the terracotta pumpkins.

January's diary shows a little more vibrancy. The month has been a difficult one with my Mum's failing health. After two months in hospital she is taken into a nursing home. We feed and water her. We make her comfortable.

Some solace in the sketchbook as printing is explored. Acrylic pears stamped with hand cut expanda-sponge and a watercolour dye wash.

The snowmen that my very good friend Tracy made me for Christmas are at last feeling at home in the seasonal weather.

Printing Pilgrim

a pilgrim can take a journey for its own sake - with no destination

printing today

without intention for the end product

for the sake of it

for the journey

a pilgrim in paint

sometimes things start to happen...

...and then elements come together and another perspective is gained.

From this I can remind myself not to judge - eventually a better overall picture is gleaned.

In which the Mad Mummy tries to cram everything she ever wanted to do all into one day because the kids break up from school tonight....

No work today and the children break up at 4pm and are then here for seven and a half weeks...

Most Mums would be getting nails and hair coiffed. Oh no, not me. I have been a whirling dervish as I have made lino prints and red currant jelly at the same time. It can be confusing as you imagine.
I am doing an online lino cutting course with Dijanne Cavaal at the moment and I made the first prints today. It's all a lot easier than I remember school lino cutting ever was. The lino can be warmed in the oven (along with the jam pots) and is lovely and soft to cut. The cutting tool is sharp and glides through the grey matt lino beautifully unlike that hideous shiny brown stuff that I seem to remember (my art teacher would say I have "false memory syndrome" but I beg to differ Kate!!). That stuff used to make the cutter slip and slide and head right for the main artery between one's thumb and first finger whereupon it became instantly as sharp as a dagger and sliced lovely gouges from one's fingers causing the printing paper to have an instant hand-dyed red effect!

Anyway this is much better and I'm happy with my first results.

Here's a little picture of one of the wild ducklings in the garden (see posts labelled Mallards).

Oh yes, and can anybody tell me how a massive bowl of red currants yielded half a pot of measly jelly??