reaching for the sun

This week has been terrible, one blow swiftly followed by another kind of time. But my children are over all their exams and school is finished till September, and I really, really need to be with them more than ever during the summer while we restore ourselves. I am scaling down my work to e-course preparation, guest blogging and commission obligations for the next little while.

I am shutting down my etsy print shop. Head on over there if there is anything you would like, as now's the last chance. My Dawanda  and Big Cartel shops will remain open for the time being. 

Praktica/Agfa APX 100

Natalie

I love poking around in artist's studios. My dear friend Natalie Magnin is an incredibly talented textile artist, who lives with her sculptor husband, two very cute girls and rather a lot of cats and chickens. The other weekend we sat in her  garden sipping vervaine and she showed me the pieces she is working on with old found fabrics and paper, rust and natural dyes, shells and stitches for an upcoming exhibition starting this weekend. Her atelier is one of those that makes me drool like a labrador; flooded with light and space with a huge worktable and groaning shelves of goodies. I shot everything overexposed by one stop with an aperture of f2 or 2.8, sometimes defocussing to reflect the softness and ethereal nature of her art.
Pentax Spotmatic/Solaris 200

cherry picking

Between you and me I think I'm missing my art school days too much. You know, when you could just create and see where it takes you, instead of always thinking about having to have a goal.
Have a great weekend!

Pentax Spotmatic/Solaris 200

happiness

the chosen ones

Thank you to everyone who left me thoughts on my last post…..too much time spent on the computer and not enough actually creating anything that nurtures my poor, neglected soul has made me a bit of a grouch, please bear with ~ I'll figure it all out.
I do know however that I need to disconnect a little and just go with my own happy-place flow.
{The series of photographs here are the ones picked by the Ouverture Festival jury}

transport, motorways and tramlines

I swear I wasn't deliberately shooting with a theme in mind, maybe it just got stuck in my head and refused to budge. Happens quite a lot.

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Canon AE-1/Fujifilm 200. I've decided what the problem is with this camera. It feels lovely to use, bright focussing screen, and delicious shutter sound. But the results are such a let down ~ mine has a really crappy lens; I can't focus in any closer than 60 cms.

chilled

I mentioned a few days ago that I had taken some time off, and I took these back then. As ever, my blogging seem to always be out of alignment with my life. When I do finally get the time to scan and upload pictures, whatever it was I'd been talking about is lost in the mists. How do you lot manage it, eh? All the blogs I follow all seem to be far better organised than mine. I know many people schedule blog posts, even keep a little blogging diary and have a couple of weeks worth of posts tucked up their sleeves. Well, if you are one of those I also bet you where the kind of girl at school who probably did her homework and got picked for the netball team, while I was busy chatting or doodling.

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All taken with Canon AE1 (still not too keen, maybe it will grow on me) and Fujifilm

in black and white

The black and white developing tutorial I posted a couple of months ago has been revamped and tweaked about with. Ladies and Gentlemen for your viewing pleasure I give you In Black and White ~ a 5 page file for you download and save, print off (if you want to) and keep. For nothing. Just because. 

Just send me your email address, and I will send you the link! 

seeing double #2

SUZIE

(rushing in, breathlessly)  See, I am still alive? I took a few days off last week as the kids had a 4 day holiday, so I left webworld for a bit, did some thinking and planning; soaked up a little inspiration and faffed about here, pottered around there including:

• Going out for a day with just me and Harry (something we've not done for years) to see some of this year's Artistes à Suivre 
• Finally finishing reading Notes from An Exhibition by Patrick Gale, as recommended by my sister. Good one Jules!
• Handpainted ravens on Lady Madeline Usher's..….I mean Milla's bedroom wall. 
• Gorging myself on cherries from our groaning tree, only to discover later some were a bit maggoty and I swear I could feel the buggers wriggling around my innards
• Getting out on my bike (given up trying to power through the hip issue with running) and starting to really feel the benefit. Feel my muscles!
• Romy going camping only to turn up next day with 5 soaking wet and bedraggled mates needing to dry out and fill their boots with coffee. I still have their tents and clothes hanging in my basement.
• Finishing up four rolls of film 

The best part of that last one is Monica and I have finally completed a new double exposure project, 'Nostalgia'. Above are a few pictures but the full set is up on fortyfivenorth-sixtyonewest, the blog that we share. Please do take a look, and tell us what you think!

And when your done with that, I have a new Shoot Film! post over on Indie Fixx if you're not sick of me by then.

Ciao!

(Exit stage left)