and the struggle continues

Well, here I am again - sat in front of my computer after a most frustrating week. You will laugh when I tell you what I have been trying to design - without much success all week. I am trying my hand at swimming pool design!

Well it makes sense really doesn't it. After all we are living in a country populated by people and pools, well and the odd goat too of course. So pools seemed to be logical and, as I thought at the outset, it must be simple enough. But no. I have made several attempts so far. Four attempts in fact, but none of them are coming up trumps for me right now. I am not going to show any here for that reason. I hate showing my work to anyone when it is not going very well and right now I am sitting here completely frustrated.

Otherwise I was just thinking how well we are starting to settle here and accept the weather along with the flies and mosquitos. We start to learnt the tactics for living with these other creatures we now find in our lives. Not without a slew of bites already in place though. Vic was saying how he has hardly got bitten at all for a change, so I have to remind him that it is because he is living with the number one mosquito magnet. I must have a label stuck on my back - written in mosquite of course - which says 'Fresh meat, sweet blood, very tasty and nutritious' We now have one of those mosquito repellant plug-ins in the bedroom. It seems to work very well. The scars will fade.

Vic saw a snake in the garden today! It was too quick for me and was gone before I got to the window. He said it was about four feet long. I don't think I would be too happy to meet that out while planting primroses, but I daresay he would run for cover rather than stay and fight if it came to it. When I looked out I saw a rather lovely yellow parrot flying past! Still quite thrilling.

Right - I will keep this short today, but will write again soon and hopefully with at least one successful pool design to show at that point. Watch this space....

I know, I know!

It has been longer than I intended. Many Ferias have come and gone. The last one with a medieval feel has just finished. It has taken an awful long time to get all my things sorted and stacked to a degree that I know where most things are and can start to do things again.

We had a lot of computer troubles too in the last couple of months and in the end I have had to bite the bullet and buy a new computer, as the screen on my laptop had died. we hadn't intended to buy a new computer at this time and as a result I have had to settle for a smaller, less powerful one than I was hanging out for. Still it is very nice: an entry level 21 inch Imac with a little extra RAM to allow me to work the way I like to with all my windows open and flapping in the breeze!

We also attended to hanging most of my drawings and paintings. I know that some of them are in the wrong places and some are at the wrong height etc. but it was important for me to get them sorted and up off the floor and out of packing. It has made an awful lot of space and slowly the place starts to get that airy feel about it that I was hoping for. We have put the fitted wardrobes on hold for a bit - until the money starts coming in again - but that too will clear things up even more as all the old hanging rails and open shelving will be hidden from view with all their clutter. I loved the fitted wardrobes we had in Norway as they were so big and deep that I could, if pushed, pick up all my clothes off the floor and just stick them inside on a ledge until I had time to deal with them. Instant house-tidy!

And now...I am designing again. Today for the first time since I came here I have lifted a coloured pencil and started a drawing. I do not want to elaborate at this point as it is early days, but I am just happy to be at least a little bit creative again.

I know that i still have no photo at least attached here, but I promise very soon to continue with a more visual blog again. More important at this time is to try to keep the creativity and words flowing.

And so, goodbye for now, but hopefully not for long

Por fin!

At last!

I am back online, with a dongle. Speed isn't the best, but at least I have access to the world again and the now the world has access to me too. Oh joy!

No pics today, just cleaning the cobwebs and trying to start to think again.

We are now living in Spain in a house that is nearly finished, but at least it is a place to call home and all our Irish possessions have also made their way here. I seem to have dumped certain things which would be very useful now and will most certainly turn up objects before too long which will make me say "why?" "what on earth!?" Still on the whole I am really happy to find myself re-aquainted (why can't I spell that!) with my own things; plates, cutlery, hammers, glasses and throws. I feel more whole again. But where oh where is the tin opener and my lump hammer and cold chisels!?

Anyway. I will have to sort out some photos - there are lots but I have completely lost touch in the last three months and then I will be back with a vigour.

Until then - enjoy the weather, if you have it, or your families or pets - I suppose I mean to say, enjoy life.

:-)

Self Portrait with a Man

Lots of thoughts going through my head at the moment - not surprising I suppose. So as I was thinking of Spain I put in a photo which i took on my last trip. It's nice and arty and also shows you some of the impossibly steep and narrow streets that we have in Alhaurin. Streets that necessitate many of these funny little convex mirrors all over the place.

I am packing today - well I have more or less finished now actually, which is why I am sitting at my computer. As you know it is not in my nature to procrastinate. If a job needs doing then spit spot I do it! Of course my tongue is well and truly in my cheek!

But seriously I have finished my packing organisation. There was still quite a lot to organise even though we have already shipped out a lot of stuff (that is my stuff carried out in 20kg quotas by my poor long suffering Victor). I still had my watercolours, pencils, various bits and all my electronic stuff to sort through and decide what needs keeping and what I can let go. To be honest most of that stuff has to come with me, it was really only papers and things that have been jettisoned.

I am amazed at the amount of paper one little household can generate. Even though I have got really good at throwing out - or recycling - paper and storing things electronically rather than in hard copy I still find myself drowning beneath printouts and documents from time to time. In fact I am trying to remember how many reams of paper I have bought since being here. i think i am on my third - admittedly that is quite new, so still mainly full, but still it does give you pause for thought. But then I am an artist and there is no point keeping all those images just on the computer - they do not make sense the same way.

However, i am pretty good at recycling. When I am finished with any printouts they are turned over and put into a scratch pile. This is great for thinking with a pen and doing sketches or when you suddenly get an idea that you want to jot down. Some of the sheets are also torn into four pieces and recycled as shopping lists. And of course once the sheet of paper has been printed and/or drawn on both sides it is either used to light the fire or sent to the paper recycle bin to be turned into something else.

I do try to do my little bit for the planet!

So, Christmas is on my mind too of course - Turkey and Mistletoe, Panto and Sleighs. I do like all the blitz and bling. Here I really like the decorations to be honest - they are very low key compared to Ireland and England, but the simple stars and wreaths hung in the windows entice you to look into the cosy little houses and imagine the smell of cinnamon and apples and woodsmoke. Mmmmmm!

Things on my mind then are, in no particular order: Christmas, moving, Spain, England, Ireland, On-line check-in, paper, packing, socks, Snow, bare trees, the smell of winter, old friends, christmas cards getting places, candles, houses, tapas, children, dogs with wet noses (but i think about them all of the time) and so on and so forth.

Right now though I must nip out to the shops to get a few little bits that need to be got to keep the wheels of this household moving on!

Hope you like the photo

Getting back on the Horse and a Happy Christmas

Well, lots of things have been achieved and lots of things have been wrapped up in the past few weeks.

Unfortunately my head has gone into a complete spin since my exhibition and actually doing anything has been rather difficult. Add to that 'Party Season' and hardly a night goes by that we are not celebrating something or other - this of course involves copious amounts of wine and food! Nothing wrong with the food, but the wine does tend to take its toll.

The exhibition went very well I thought. Perhaps not in terms of sale, although there are still a couple of promises which may or may not come in over the next week, but in terms of putting myself out there and actually organising the event it was excellent. In the end it was not so difficult to do everything. I could have pushed it a little bit more by putting an announcement into the local paper but I really wanted to keep it a bit low key. I felt it was more of a practice for when we move to Spain, there I can set up a small gallery at home and have a steady stream of exhibitions throughout the year with a constantly changing display. A lot of work I know, but if I wish to sell ....

On the day all the visitors were friends and neighbours so it turned into a very nice party, both to celebrate my exhibition, but also as a sort of going away party also. I liked that, because it was much more relaxing than having to deal with strangers and massive crowds! Although I know there was never much hope of the crowds - the arts are typically low key unless you are Damien Hirst or someone like that.

So, I now need to get back on the horse. I have been a bit lazy and a bit anticlimaxed and a bit preoccupied with other things that needed to be done as we wind up our time here in Stavanger. But now I am somewhat organised I must try to write my blog again every day. It is a shame to let it lapse, but as I have tried to explain it is part of how I operate creatively too.

Therefore, I will now raise a toast to a Happy Christmas, a new start in the New Year, an intention to write my blog regularly and the start of a new body of work from my Studio also in the New Year.

And I also raise a toast to all readers of my blog and wish all of you the best for Christmas and the New Year!

P.S. by the way really Vic and myself are blissfully happy together still. I swear the above photo was staged!!

End of year Show - and the cycle continues

Well, there is no turning back. The die has been cast and no matter what happens between now and next week I need to finish off everything and hang my exhibition.

I have decided to take it very easy - I am not going to work myself up into a terrible lather over it. I will do what i can and throw our house open on that day and then what will be will be. If one person comes or one hundred it matters not a jot. I also am not going to bank on selling all my work. If it goes it goes. If it doesn't I am already planning to approach the Casa de la Cultura when we get to Spain and see can i not organise something at that end. It would be a bit longer obviously and I would not have to host it myself which would leave me freer.

So there. All my goals and ambitions for Norway have now been met - or at least they will be after next Sunday. I can't believe that our time here is nearly at an end. And now that it is of course I start to get sentimental. I am certain that I will be crying into my beer before we leave.

Still I am so looking forward to the warm sun on my back and not having to live through another dark nordic winter. The dark does get to you actually.

So, what have i been doing over the past couple of weeks? Well obviously I have been busy organising for the show. My 'secret' project has been posted, but shock horror! It has not yet arrived at its destination which causing me a bit of consternation at the moment. If it does not arrive tomorrow I will have to reprint everything and DHL it at great expense! I could scream. In fact I think I might have let out a little shriek!

I am trying to finish off two large paintings on canvas which I started months ago now, but obviously lost interest in and put down. To pick them up again is causing me great effort and I am not certain if I can do it. But I will put one foot in front of the other this week and see what I can do. I have enough work without them so am not worried. But I do hate loose ends.

Of course I am still working away at the Spanish - which moves along, probably better than I think. There are moments when I think it is all hopeless but then I look at what I have learned over the past three months and have to be a little bit proud of my achievement. Of course that does not always satisfy me. In my head I am already reading Spanish novels in their original language. I yearn for that moment. I want to be able to go to the art college and meet other artists and be able to discuss the ideas and methods of the moment with them. I want to be able to ask neighbours how they are and what their children are doing. I want to be able to ask about the past as well as the future and most important I want to understand what the people are saying to me! I know this last will be the hardest - I can already read some headlines in newspapers etc but trying to catch the meaning of what the Spanish say as they career along at breakneck speed is going to be my greatest challenge. Add to that local dialect and .... !!!!! You catch my drift. Sure, when I moved to Ireland first - even though i spoke English and the local people spoke English - i could not understand a word that was being spoken to me. It took me ages before the strange colloquialisms and accent started to make sense to me.

Aside from all those things life does go on. I cook and clean and go shopping for vegetables and lentils (I did tell you that we are economic vegetarians at the moment did I not!). I am also making plans and arrangements for our great move. And in short and tying up the loose threads over here.

In my (blood) family my cousin got married and my nephew too, my little girl is sitting exams and my boy is working toward a new album so things are happening for everyone, new beginnings all round. On Vic's side things are relatively quiet at the moment apart from several birthdays including his own. But his children in their youth are now poised on the edge of life really with it all before them, so that is very exciting too.

You see now how everything in my work revolves around the cycle of life. Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn and then it all begins again.

I will leave you with that thought to ponder until I write again.

On my Mind

Blogging is an art. There is no doubt about it. You have to be dedicated and you have to be organised I am both of those things but not all the time. Or at least in my life I have always been guided by obsessions. These vary from time to time as things come in and out of my life. At the moment I am obsessed with three things.

1. A little job that has come my way - which i am not at liberty to discuss here right now, but will when it is over.

2. The Spanish house, which after grinding to a bit of a halt has begun again with vigour, but now urgently needs decisions made and budgets balanced.

3. Learning Spanish for our impending move - very soon now - and I am still struggling with verbs and tenses.

There is a fourth thing which will come into play when number one is put out of the way in the next few days.

4. My exhibition. This will take quite a bit of organisation. Posters and flyers need to be made and put out and about, there is a little bit of work that needs to be completed and of course the pictures have to be hung.

I found that writing my blog was easier when I was actually working regular hours as I was when I was painting and printing. My life was more ordered and at specific times of the day i was eating meals, going for my walks, learning my Spanish, painting or blogging. It all fit in quite nicely and gave me variety in a day which, when spent and worked entirely on your own, can sometimes become tedious. I am always fascinated by artists, writers etc who work on their own - have to be on their own to work indeed - but even though driven to do whatever it is that they do they cannot work more than say 4 hours on the trot, before having to at least stretch, eat an apple or more importantly get out among people a bit, whether it is just to go shopping or meet someone for a sandwich.

I know you will say, I am just making excuses. And perhaps I am, but more importantly I am just trying to keep this blog open for the time when I will have some regularity again as a part of my working day which will include a little slot to write again.

So to all the people who used to read me regularly - please do tune in from time to time and I promise things will pick up again.

For now though - Hasta luego!