Food

There has been a definite food theme this weekend. I finally got to see Julie and Julia which I absolutely loved. The film tells the parallel stories of Julia Child who learned to cook whilst living in France during the 1960s and brought French cooking to the US and Julie Powell who set herself the challenge to cook everyone of the 524 recipes from Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in just one year. Not only that she blogged about it too. I remember watching Julia Child on TV when we lived in Massachusetts in the early 1980s but knew nothing of her story which was both uplifting and sad in many ways. Meryl Streep's portrayal was amazing although quite exhausting to watch at times. And watching Julie Powell struggle her way through the endless recipes in a tiny New York flat was equally exhausting. The film raised issues about blogging which seemed very familiar (who are we writing for... that buzz at getting comments that never really goes, etc) but it also told two very tender love stories. An excellent evening's entertainment... Stewart thought it was "OK" but a girl's film.

And so I came home inspired to cook... of course Birthday Cake was on the agenda

Mavis's excellent Apricot and Almond cake with just a few tweaks.

I also received my seed swap package from Twiggy this weekend which contained a fabulous array of goodies. Flower seeds all beautifully packaged with cross stitch labels, flowery fabrics, gift tags and not only a recipe for chilli jam but a sample jar too.

It looked so good I just had to make a couple of jars for myself... which was loved by everyone who tried it. In fact Ben, who was home for the day on Sunday took a jar back with him (along with half a dozen eggs, some damson jam and a bag of sweetcorn and tomatoes).

A good excuse too to use up some of my home grown chillis and some of the glut of tomatoes. I think we have had about 12 kilos so far... made into endless soups and sauces but still going strong.

After producing a vat of meatballs in homemade tomato sauce I finally tired of the cooking... and found another way of entertaining myself with tomatoes....

Happy Birthday Jacob

How did you go from this....

to this in such a short time? Can it really be 17 years?

Happy 17th Birthday my lovely boy.

Follow your dreams!

Keeping Warm

It's that time of year when thoughts turn to keeping warm... and that includes little Innocent Smoothies. It's that time when all smoothies require little woolly hats. And for every smoothie sold wearing a woolly hat, Sainsburys will donate 35p to Age Concern which of course will help lots of elderly people keep warm too. You can read all about the Innocent Smoothie Big Knit HERE where there are full knitting instructions too.

And there is still a couple of weeks before the hats need to be posted so time to whip up one or two if you are handy with the knitting needles.

Not sure how this one crept in in October....

So join in... knit a hat... and help keep someone warm

They are also the perfect displacement activity when avoiding the ironing... or in my case more drawing!

More Degree Work

I couldn't put it off any longer... I had to tackle the "deconstruction" and move on to making a further sketchbook for my first assignment. I chose to work from just this one image from my original sketchbook.

I photocopied the original drawing, tore it up into sections and then endlessly re-drew and re-worked the various sections. For one of these investigations I stitched eight individual sections in black thread on paper which when pieced together make up the whole... well almost!

My favourite two drawings were this one made with a stick and ink...

And another with a brush and ink but worked into with a stick

I also made a print block of the drawing and took prints - which gives a reverse image.

And I have to admit I've really enjoyed myself and perhaps I've being doing my tutor a disservice on the past couple of posts. Yes, she has been quite ruthless with me but ultimately I think it is starting to pay off. Despite all the usual insecurities I do know I can draw and make a sketchbook of passable drawings but that isn't really the point of doing the degree and it has only by letting go of the idea of making good drawings that I'm going to travel further on this journey. I still struggle with making a mess or making something that isn't "good" but I'm getting there... I think. My tutor certainly wouldn't have helped by telling me everything was lovely... after all isn't that what blogging friends are for!

Meanwhile I've been back to life drawing class where we had Tom modelling for us.

And now I've got to move onto the next part of the module which is all about the figure and movement and paintings like these....

Marcel Duchamp

Nude Descending a Staircase 1912

Giacomo Balla

Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash 1912

Oh heck! I can feel all that insecurity returning!!!

Pictures

The exhibition in our village church this weekend was a great success. Lots of visitors and several pictures sold which all helps with the upkeep of our pretty church.

We held the first one just over two years ago and had these boards made to fit between the pews. Below you can see some of the pictures from the Green family on display... including an original Anthony Green for £8000. A little beyond the pockets of most of our buyers!

More from the Greens...

Plus plenty of fabulous paintings from lesser known but very talented local artists.

including some amazing botanical illustrations.

and landscapes of places near and far.

A beautiful variety of work including this little stitched picture by a friend called Sue Blackburn. I fell in love with it... and Stewart treated me, so it is now hanging in my hall.

Although it is called Desert it reminds me of autumn with the colours in the trees. And talking of autumn, whilst stewarding at the church on Saturday it was a chance to catch up with some hand sewing and I finished off these brooches in autumn colours.

A pleasant change from all the drawing!

The drawing saga continues...

The second lot of drawings received a more positive response from my tutor "Much, much better, but...." The "but" was about using more variety of marks and making marks over marks (all of which I thought I'd been doing). So out came the charcoal again and I tried a looser approach but to no avail. Another tutorial and now my charcoal drawings have been declared "too waffly." Back to the drawing board it is then! (I confess I do rather enjoy the challenge)

For the next part of my assignment I now have to desconstruct my drawings (don't ask because I'm not sure) and produce a further piece of work that builds on the essence and identity of my sketchbook... I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile I had a enjoyable life drawing class this week where I did the following:

A four and then three minute sketch above, this ten minute sketch below...

And the following twenty minute sketch. A relaxed couple of hours without worring about outlines or waffle.

And should you live within easy reach of South Cambridgeshire, this might be of interest.

Featuring some interesting work from Anthony Green, Mary Cozens-Walker and Kate Green... one of whom just happens to be my tutor! If you come on Saturday I'll be there... do say hello!

More Drawing

Apologies that I've not replied to comments this week - it's been a little hectic to say the least. But as always I've read and appreciated every single one especially the kind observations about my drawings... unfortunately my tutor didn't agree! My tutorial started with "Your drawings are alright but you're a bit outline obsessed... they don't give any information..." There followed quite a lot of "Art School" speak about mark making, energy lines, opinion lines etc. after which I felt somewhat battered and deflated so say the least! But I've come back fighting!!! On reflection I do know what my tutor was trying to tell me and I can appreciate that the whole point of taking the degree is to move on and learn... not just to produce several pages of "nice drawings in a sketchbook." So there was nothing for it but to return to the lovely Matthew.... and instead of this...

There is this.... (nice bum!)

And I've moved from this....

To this....

And then feeling brave, and given that none of my men would pose in the alltogether I tried a more familiar subject and went from this...

To this... (yes, it is me!)

I think I need a lot more practise but I hope I'm starting to cotton on to what I'm supposed to be doing!

Anyway... moving swiftly on...

Julia of Marmaladekiss is hosting a seed swap on her blog and there is still time to join in.

I'm taking part and I plan to give away some of the seeds from these lovely yellow chillies. Toffeeapple gave me these seeds last year and I've grown about ten fabulous plants on my windowsill... it would be good to share them!