Blog Archive

Firewood, filing and faffing

The beginning of January is the time I should be packing my bags and my seasick tablets, uncrumpling my evening gowns and discovering that my swimsuit has mildew because it’s been stored at the back of my clothes locker. But alas, this winter I am not cruising, for a variety of reasons. – mainly because continue reading »


Scanning the horizon

I’ve been home for over two months now, trying to catch up with work and life in spite of the best efforts of a rather hefty virus to try and stop me, but I had to return quickly to what is laughingly known as ‘normal’ routine. It took a while after the luxury of ship continue reading »


September songs

So there I was in a swimming pool on the Algarve and in jump some Fisherman’s Friends (the Shanty Group, not the throat sweets). Folk Trio the Young ‘Uns are already in the water and mucking around with a rubber dinghy – two of the band are trying to tip David Eagle into the water continue reading »


How to catch creative ideas

It’s been an intensive time for teaching this last few months – watercolour courses, drawing workshops, demonstrations, small group sessions, in the studio or to art clubs – and the more I teach, the more I learn. Art techniques, like other creative skills, can weave you a net to catch ideas and inspirations. The better continue reading »


Staying afloat

There are only two things that stress a freelancer: one – having lots of work; two – not having lots of work. Luckily I’ve been under the first kind of stress recently, which is better than the second because you can afford more wine. Now I’m gradually catching up, and had time today to play around continue reading »