Time flies by ...

.... I cannot believe it's over 2 months since I've updated my blog. I upload everything to Instagram at the moment so if you click the link at the side, you can find me there. But here are some of the photos from my Autumn walks and things I've collected plus of course Finn doing what he does best!

weekend

Finn's first trip

We've been away to the West Country - walking the coastal paths - which is my favourite thing to do. This time we've had Finn with us - his first holiday (that we know of). I was unsure how he would behave as he's a very impetuous dog and can be hard to handle at times. I needn't have worried - he was a good boy. He became bored easily while Gra was searching for fossils and I was drawing but only disgraced himself once when he did a runner from our hotel room and was eventually stopped by a German guest with a very large suitcase! I think we wore him out in the end.

Busy

I've been busy with work lately so here's a pictorial update of what I've been up to.

I visited West Dean Gardens - it's so inspiring there - I must go more often with my sketchbook.

I've been doing housework - as you can see Finn is very settled - when I change the bed he always snuggles into the washing pile!

I had a birthday and a lovely long weekend of dinner in the Horseguard's Inn, a day walk at Firle Beacon, a picnic and visit to Goodwood Sculpture Park and an afternoon in Arundel to go around the art trail and have afternoon tea .... phew!!!!

olive trees

I've just finished my latest painting - inspired by olive trees in the garden with sunlight dappled through their branches.

Dizzy

I've always admired the artist Bridget Riley and been fascinated by her work but have only seen the odd painting in the Tate, so when I heard she had an exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill I had to go. We've been to the Pavilion before and it is a beautiful building which has some great exhibitions and events. Obviously I knew the paintings were optical art but I was totally unprepared for their effect on me - amazing, the colours are vibrant, painted to perfection (which is important as I love a perfectly flat colour!) but I couldn't look at them - the whole wall of painting moved - swam - jiggled - flowed and made me feel completely dizzy. It was as if I'd taken a hallucinogenic drug and things were moving that shouldn't be - I eventually found looking through one eye helped but I was disappointed and quite shocked that a flat painting could have such an effect - but then that is the point!
The other photos above show a few shots of Bexhill, a garden dedicated to beach clean finds and Normans Bay - one of the 1066 beaches.

Stamp

Yay - my illustration for 2minutebeachclean has been published in the great Uppercase magazine - issue 26! The brief was to design your ideal postage stamp and seeing as I am slightly obsessed with beach cleaning, I decided it was a good idea to highlight this cause.
Thanks for including my work Janine.

Happy Birthday Finn!

Today is Finn's 5th birthday - as far as we know - it was roughly worked out by Allsorts Dog Rescue when we got him. The picture on the left shows how he was in the dog pound in Ireland and the one on the right as he is now. It hasn't been easy to get him to this point as his behaviour has sometimes been pretty wild but he is calming down and Gra has worked wonders with him. 
It's lovely to see him enjoying his life and having adventures. He found a fox in the shed and was obsessed with that for over a week even though there was no more sign of it. He eats my blackcurrants and gooseberries off the bushes and traumatises the sparrows and pigeons in the garden. He's found his voice too - it took him about 4 months to bark - I'm sure the neighbours are delighted! He's very loving and funny too - a great companion - I'm glad he found us - Happy Birthday Finn!

Painting update

As I wrote earlier I've been planning a new painting and came up with several ideas but none of them seemed to be quite right. Then it occurred to me - there was too much going on (well I had a little input from Gra too!). So I simplified it a lot and this is the end result - I finished the painting last week. What do you think? 

Beaches

While walking Finn I cannot stop beach cleaning. Martin Dorey - the founder of 2minutebeachclean was on BBC2's Springwatch last week - he's doing an amazing job. I've discovered that each beach I clean has a different type of rubbish: Wittering was littered with lots of dog poo in bags - I can only think that after bagging it the dog's owners didn't want to carry it around with them so discarded it - even though there are many bins around. Pagham has lots of matted fabric caught up in the dried seaweed. I didn't realise what this was until I'd been clearing it for a few weeks - WET WIPES - disgusting. Apparently they are becoming a real problem as people are using them more and more. Then there's Bognor - clogged up with beer cans and takeaway rubbish - just left behind regardless of all the bins along the promenade.

I also cannot stop photographing boat bottoms! I love the layers of coloured peeling paint and the textures. I think they look like abstract paintings.

Painting

I've been putting together drawings from my garden last year - trying to plan out a new painting. My last two attempts have been abandoned half way through as I've realised they are not working, which is disheartening - I find it difficult to judge what will work or not until I've spent days on the painting and another canvas is ruined!

Shoreham

We visited Shoreham last week to see the houseboats, which are weird and wonderful and constructed from all sorts of paraphernalia - coaches - planes - even a robin reliant. I did not want to spoil it (if you are going to visit) by photographing them all, so this is just a taster. Park in beach green car park and they are right in front of you. I'm still doing my 2minutebeachclean as you can see.

April

Oh dear I missed April completely. Finn has been taking up my time and a myriad of family problems unfortunately, but that's life I suppose. Here's a photographic montage of the missed month - it's my favourite time of year - so beautiful to see the Spring colours with leaves and plants unfurling in the woods and the blue sea sparkling in the first warm sunshine. 
Finn is settling in well, he's a little wayward and has eaten all the wild garlic in the garden and scared off the birds which is a shame. It's a year since Bill died and Finn has made me feel better about everything, as well as being a great walking companion.

new obsession ....

.... making pictures with objects found on my 2 minute beach clean!

The start of new mini-adventures

I've been lost without a dog and it was so painful to lose Bill that I was unsure whether to get another one. But life was not the same and we had no companion to share our adventures with - then along came Finn. Last week we went over to East Sussex to walk part of the South Downs Way. It was a beautiful day - I get a real sense of freedom when walking in the countryside. We met a man who was out hunting with his Jack Russell and Harris Hawk, which Finn was really interested in. The bird would not move while he was around as another dog is apparently a threat to his pack - fascinating.

2 minute beach clean

A couple of weeks ago I saw pictures on instagram of #2minutebeachclean and Martin Dorey's brilliant idea of doing a 2 minute clean every time you visit a beach and now I've become mildly obsessed. On our last 3 visits to Pagham harbour, Chichester harbour and Pagham beach, Gra, Finn and I have collected up a tiny bit of the enormous amount of rubbish we saw. It is amazing how much is out there, we've found some interesting things too as you can see below. So does this inspire you to do one?

Jays

I've been fascinated by Jays since childhood and have found quite a lot of their blue stripey feathers over the years. To look down and see the bright blue feather on a muddy path is pretty exciting to me but as I've said before I don't think I get out enough! Lately several Jays have been landing in the tree outside our bedroom window and it has been my first sighting of the actual birds. I've always thought they kept away from people because they were very shy.

New Year, New ......

We have a new dog! He is a rescue terrier cross called Finnegan but as that name is such a mouthful he will be known as Finn. I'm so delighted - he's fitted in well apart from raiding the biscuit tin, trying to jump the garden fence and retrieving a quality street from under the sofa and stuffing it down. I managed to get most of it away from him as dogs and chocolate do not mix. 

It all happened rather quickly - we had seen several terriers online at Battersea and Dog's Trust that we liked but each time they were reserved before we even had a chance to visit, so we decided to wait until after Christmas before looking again. My sister saw Finn on the Allsorts Dog Rescue site and we applied. They responded - saying he was already reserved but then on Tuesday of last week they contacted us again as the man had changed his mind. We had a home check on Wednesday and went to see him on Thursday, loved him and brought him back there and then.

He's gorgeous but quite naughty, completely the opposite in character to Bill although he looks similar. I think he will provide us with a lot of fun and love and many stories for this blog!