One Magical Day, Nothing but Happiness

A friend of mine got married recently and I couldn't get to the other end of the country for her wedding, but she did send me some mementos, including the wedding favours of shortbread biscuits with a Scottish theme.

It was these shortbreads I aligned in a few poses and then began to paint.

One Magical Day,
I wanted to say "wedding" all over it...

and then I wanted to play with paint some more,  so I arranged the favours in the shape of a four leaf clover and with an Irish blessing in mind, I painted this:  

Nothing but Happiness

May your troubles be less
And your blessing be more
And nothing but happiness
Come through your door

Blessings to you all! 

Days out, sketches and snacks.

While all the renovations were going on, I had a couple of days up in London.
One day I went to meet my Australian friend, Glynis. She has a lovely hubby Craig and a darling daughter, Tilly.
Sadly they didn't get the best summer this year - though the day G and I went out was fine. We sat on steps to a statue in Covent Garden, drank coffee and watched the world go by as we talked. We visited the National Gallery (Fighting Temeraire is fab in real life) and we stopped at a cafe for lunch.
Had the most wonderful cheese and parsley scone from a vegetarian cafe.
Then we went bag hunting in Covent Garden and G picked out just the right bag for me! Thanks, G :) 

Came home and made some myself - and here are some sketches from the day too.

On my second day out I went to the British Museum to specifically see a Modern Chinese Ink painters exhibition. No photography allowed in that exhibition, but it was fab. It had paintings by Liu Dan and Wu Quangzong which were eye watering in their beauty and feeling.  If you google them you'll see images which are stunning, but yet, not as stunning as seeing them in real life! You have until Sept 2nd to see them, should you wish to visit.

I was allowed to take some pics throughout the rest of the Museum, so I'll share those with you - and my attempts at Chinese Ink painting, freehand, with no prior drawing! ( I can see faults in them, but was pleased with how they were considering I winged it - and hadn't painted for a month!)

Completed!

Well, my friends, apart from some cleaning up, we're all completed with the works.

The before photos are a few posts old, so just scroll down and you'll see them.
The after photos are these pics here:

So, that's my house all spruced up, hopefully I can now go back to painting, writing and following your beautiful blogs .
xx

Hello again!

Good morning blogging friends!

We're on the clearing up stage of our works, so I took some time this morning to come back and say hello :)

Also I really wanted to show you something which arrived in the mail a few days ago. A portrait of Missy done by the very talented Kathryn of Studio at the Farm HERE

I'm completely enamoured of this dreamy portrait! Kathryn's style is so different from mine, which makes this portrait even more special .
Kathryn, we utterly love it and it will be hanging in our newly decorated home very shortly!

Kathryn does take commissions - so contact her if you'd like your pet immortalised in paint :)

New floor and news that sparks a change

Hello my blogging Friends !

We are part way through the works and we have new floor, as you can see here.

We still have some way to go, but pleased to say my internet is on and I can access my netbook if not my desktop. I'm still aiming for a proper return in Sept.

I read some sad, but understandable news, that two of my dearest blog friends, Judy and Tonya, are taking a break. Blogging and commenting does take a lot of time; with this in mind I have introduced a change to my blog.

I have added "Reactions" to the blog post, so that you need not comment, if you are rushed for time. You'll find them at the bottom of each post.
If you wish to add them to your blog, I found them in "Layout"
In the "Blog Post" square, I clicked "Edit" and reactions is an option. You can change the words to suit your blog. I wrote fab, ok and not my thing - as a quick solution before I get back to house improving! If you can think of anything better I would love to hear it.

Of course, if you still wish to comment, you may.
I'm just trying to make life easy for all.

much love
Pat xx

New painting and some news!

Good morning all.

I'm so glad you all liked The Starlight Express :)
This painting was inspired from the same book. 
The train used to approach via the Pleiades, a constellation more commonly known as the Seven Sisters. I decided to make my Seven Sisters more abstract and colourful - I hope you enjoy them too.

The Seven Sisters

In other News, 

we are carrying on with the works in our house.

We have removed some of the brickwork, the old carpet is gone as you know, and we have just two weeks to clear everything out from the whole of the downstairs in our house, before the builders come in. 

This will be my last blog post until after the works have finished and we have everything back to normal. I should be back at the start of Sept. 

I'll leave you with the first few photos taken of the work in progress and wish you all a wonderful summer. 

See you all in Sept! xx

The Starlight Express

I was reading a very old book, by Algernon Blackwood, first published in 1913.  Called "A Prisoner in Fairyland."

It tells the story of a financier who, having made his money, gives up the city to follow his long held goal of being a philanthropist.

Firstly he takes a short break to the place where he grew up and is surprised that the dreams of childhood come back to him so easily.

From that moment on, he is a prisoner in fairyland - and the way he travels there each night, is on the train that comes down from the sky to pick him up... the Starlight Express.

Its a lovely book, with a flying train, a net of stars and a cave of starlight, which once placed into people lightens their load and makes them happy; children and adults who come alive in their sleep and go about doing good; it exhorts us to send good thoughts into the world, because by doing that we do great things.

The story was so appealing to me, it fired a few paintings in my mind. The first was The Starlight Express.
Here's my vision...

The Starlight Express

15" x 11"

Arches 140lb rough paper

WN aq paint. 

A Prisoner in Fairyland is available as a free e-book. 

It can be downloaded HERE in epub, pdf or kindle format.

There is no hidden benefit telling you this, just sharing a delightful book :)