wonderland

You know how excited I am when I get photographs back from the lab? Well following on from my recent guided tour of Limoux, I just wanted to share these with y'all, taken with the several kilo-weighing Praktica, great for those bingo wings. A few months ago I bought a job lot of Ferrania Solaris film, a weird Italian brand that has a group of die-hard devotees here on flickr. Well my jury is still out on whether it's complete and wanton disregard for reliability leads to very serendipitous pics; shut your eyes, jump in and cross fingers; or not.
The woman who works in the lab has already given me a stern lecture about using it, she can't understand why the hell I can't stick to Kodak and be done with it. She's in for trouble next week tho'; Romy is doing her week long work experience with her then, and she loves a good ruck.
So who's right, Me or Labwoman?

 

 

(of course you will pick me won't you?)

and for all of you, who like me, find that blogging is enjoyable but sometimes difficult. Hard to find the time, to be inspired, to find things to write about; but most of all to visit all the blogs you like to read, and to comment on them; reply to your comments and visit commentators blogs. Just read this post on  Ink On My Fingers. We are not alone, my friend.

Department of Reclusive Paranoia

Well it would seem some of you are a bit taken with my print featured here and I promised I would tell all.
So fact is, you may have noticed I'm rather keen on all things Radiohead, and that includes the band's artwork which is always the work of Stanley Donwood, although sometimes Thom Yorke gets in on the act too, calling himself Dr Tchock. The two of them have been friends since their art school days and they often collaborate. Stanley is such a great artist, he works in a wide variety of media such as  painting, screenprinting, collage, linoprinting, digital illustration and he also writes stories. My kind of guy. A couple of years back Stanley and Thom had an exhibition in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and they produced an extremely limited run of screen printed posters to publicise it. They were sold through Stanley's website Slowly Downward on a first come first serve basis for something ridiculous like 20 quid, and I was lucky enough to get in quickly, one VERY happy bunny.
I am also (cough) the proud owner of this beauty

This signed and limited edition Crying Minotaur screenprint was a birthday present 4 years ago. It's based on the artwork Stanley produced for the Amnesiac album. Oh yes, and to prove what a cool man he is; I emailed his agent when I was a student, and asked them to put a few questions to Stanley. Next day I got an email from SD himself saying 'fire away'. He not only answered my questions but he emailed me after graduation to ask me how I got on. God I love him, I don't even mind he's a slaphead. And no, before you ask, it's not an unhealthy obsession, I am in control.

 

Go look at his work here

saturday afternoon

I'm not a morning person, so I relish my laid back Saturdays. No school, drinking coffee in my jammies and listening to Adam and Joe until I feel ready to go shopping.
My local town is called Limoux, and it's here I have to 'do' the supermarket
but there's also lots of great places to go too
Fancy a peek?  Good job, cos luckily for you I had my camera in the bottom of my bag this week.
So, after getting the supermarket out of the way as quickly as possible, we head off to a café. This week we went to La Commerce and the best cappuccinos ever. A discovery made thanks to Urte, who I met up with there on Friday. She is delighted by the great comments left for her, by the way. Go Team Urte!

Then it's off to the patisserie and stare in wonder at the fèves and Galettes des Rois unfortunately a bit too pricey for us, so we just window lick

 

But hurrah, no matter! On the other side of the road is my favourite shop of all, Senteurs et 100 Thés. Smelling wonderful and looking gorgeous it sells yummies that you can't resist and I reckon a justifiable treat for braving the supermarket: Freshly ground coffees, the widest range of teas and infusions I've ever seen, herbs and spices, incenses, organic cosmetics......get the picture? Mmmm mmmm.

 

 

Then the afternoon gets rounded off beautifully with a trip to the secondhand shop, which I don't think I've ever once come away from empty handed. This weeks haul included a Bontempi keyboard, a Cacherel jumper, lots of buttons and these little beauties, a vintage Brio wooden bug and a 70s Fisher Price Happy Apple for 30 cents.

and this very cool mug, great with the Rooibos Soleil du Sud I bought earlier.

Urte

Do you remember how I was off to do a christmas fair last month? No? Well it wasn't the most successful thing I ever did, but something good came from the experience nonetheless. I ended up having a really good old natter with one of the other sellers, Urte, who makes the most beautiful ink drawings of strange, imaginary and amusing creatures.

where the drifts get deeper

It seems as if most of Europe is being snowed on right now. Our electricity is a bit hit and miss at the moment too, so this will be the third time I've tried to write this post. It's getting much worse as the strong wind is making the (still falling) snow drift and it's deadly out there. We checked on our neighbours, little old ladies Suzanne and Margot this morning, but honestly these french paysannes are like brick shithouses! I think they quite relish it, as it reminds them of the good old days when life was simple. And because they've always known a tougher kind of life, they are well prepared, have plenty of logs (which they no doubt chop themselves) stockpiled food from their summer homegrown produce and plenty of handmedown knitted blankets to keep them warm.  They don't give two hoots about the internet or TV not working, unlike us.
Luckily we have a log burning stove and a propane gas cooker not to mention the fact I AM the Queen of Candleworld, so we'll be just fine too.

I just hate it.

(photos Olympus OM10 and Fujifilm)

home sweet home

Well I don't know about you, but I feel as if a New Year should always be started with a tidy house and a tidy mind. So therefore I've decided to take some time out from studio work and try to get other areas of my life shipshape, before it descends into the usual chaos, punctuated by my frustration at the inability to find anything (normally it's in one of our various disaster drawers); kids asking "Mum have you filled in my form for the Barcelona trip/found my sport clothes/picked up my glasses from the optician?" and a long list of calls and emails to do whilst living in a house covered with a patina of dust and general grubbiness. The last few days have seen me dementedly cleaning and sorting, but it's a much bigger task than I realised and will probably take weeks, litres of coffee and doorstep slabs of brie.
The biggest motivating factor in getting some semblance of order is that we need to sell our house, and quick sharpish. All this travelling between here and Carcassonne for school is driving me crazy and so we need to move into the city, and before next September when Romy changes school. The house has been up for sale for 4 months but so far, nada.
How do you fancy living in the sunny South of France, halfway between the sea and the mountains, in a pretty and very typical village? Well, go on then, make me an offer!

And if that's not to your taste, we also are trying to sell a farmhouse we bought a year ago and have never done anything with, but still have to make monthly mortgage payments on. Honestly, it seemed a good idea at the time. 
Meanwhile, I'm snapping on the Marigolds and braving the back of the undersink cupboard. I may be some time, send help if I'm not back within 3 days.

out with the old, in with the new

So, you survived 2009 then? How's the hangover? I know I've not been around much lately, sorry and all that but I had better things to do, and I'm sure my Christmas/New Year is not of that much interest to you. But yes, we had a great time, thanks! I just have to tell you how we celebrated the close of the decade, though. We were Joe-less for the duration so we went with the girls into Carcassonne to ride "La Grande Roue": the Big Wheel. It was just the Best Fun Ever. Neither the Mr or the girlies have ever been on one, and I haven't since the Carnival used to roll in to St Albans, the city where I grew up. But this was so different,and  magical in the night-time. The whole city was so beautifully lit, and the Wheel was the cherry on the icing on the cake. The view from the top as you looked out over the city towards the medieval old town actually made my eyes mist over slightly.

So, I can't be bothered with New Years Resolutions, I won't stick to them anyway however much I try. I will, though post my plans and aspirations for 2010, as I reckon it will be good for me to chart my progress (or lack of)

But first, in a kind of Kate "gather, gather" Winslet way, I want to give a big thumbs up to all who inspired me in 2009. To be very serious for a moment, I think as an artist it is incredibly important to acknowledge those who inspired you, shaped your work, pushed you in new directions, opened your mind to new possibilites. Otherwise, how can you have your integrity and call yourself truly creative?

For, as 2008 was closing I was feeling lost artistically speaking. Although I had modest success with my sculpture I was feeling a bit dissatisfied and directionless. And so as 2009 started, I went back to drawing just for fun and it just snowballed; pretty soon I had drawn my Alice series. I didn't know what I wanted to do with them, but one day stumbled upon louloulovesbooks and suddenly I knew I had to make them into a book. 

I hadn't really been using the internet much before then, and a whole new world opened up once I jumped in headfirst and opened up shops on Etsy and Dawanda .

 In April, my oldest friends from, ooohh way back when, Carol and Jon came to stay. They are both talented artists and Jon inspired me to think of photography not merely as snapshots, but in a whole different way. And I just HAD to go back to film photography, dusted off my old cameras, bought my Yashica et ensuite.........another obssesion begins! I have to mention Victoria, who always inspires, a great friend, a talented artist and the one who kicked me up the bum and helped me apply for Artistes à Suivre on the strength of my illustrations, and so setting in motion a new direction for me. 

There have been so many images my poor old eyes have been flooded with, music my ears have heard, blogs and stories I've read in the past year. But I do feel that 2010 I need to make some changes.