Liliane Tomasko

Images from here,here and here

I was googling the work of Sean Scully, when I came across the name of his wife Lilane Tomasko, as is often the case her work is more beautiful than his, and yet he get the publicity, and she very little.

This is one of the many issues that we can investigate at college, but I think it is so big I would not have the time to do it justice. After my last lesson on Monday I woke in the night with my heady almost pounding with acquired information, and nuggets to explore. The sessions are excellent, but why give us so much now, why not spread the good out a little more?

Still at least it has picked up, and better still I have a much clearer vision for my exhibition next year.

Do we always have to dress to flatter?

It is always nice to look slim, especially if you have remained so through diligently exercising and moderating your eating habits. I have long since given up dieting per se, but I do watch my calorie intake, so that yes, I eat butter on my toast, but no I no longer eat a take-a-way curry. I monitor the quality of what I eat not the calorific value.
That said, yes, I am bigger than I was, not majorly so but after I had Leyla I gained a dress size and it has clung on since, mainly hugging my midriff, so that I shun anything too body con or tucked in. For me comfort trumps style and whilst I would never wear anything to clingy I don't mind if sometimes I am hidden beneath woolly layers, sometimes style should be fun, cosy, cuddly and above all warm. So please ignore the shocking quality of the photographs, I am so blind I can't see the smears, sadly the camera can! Instead I give to you some cuddle and some bargains. Last Friday I had some weird epiphany moment, I suddenly thought I should go to the Uniqlo on Oxford Street, because the sales are almost at an end and last summer I grabbed two wonderful pairs of +J trousers for peanuts right at the end of the sale. Jil Sander has now designed her last collection for Uniqlo, and I missed out online, it pretty much sells out the first hour past midnight.
Amazingly I was able to engineer 2 hours of time up town and so I went, and seriously how weird is this? On one small rail was just a few pairs of trousers, 4 in my size, plus a skirt. The skirt was a no, (I stuck to my rules on that one) 3 of the trousers fitted, (the other pair was a size 10, I misread the label and yet I did pull them on!) 3 pairs! all beautifully cut, all fully lined wool. What I love about +J is that they are cut very generously and are high waisted, which I find so comfortable. 2 pairs were wide legged, but they were so lovely and only £19 each, I had to have them. How is that for luck?
And there is more, I was desperate for a pee, so went over to John Lewis, I tried very hard not to look at the rails of grey cardies, like sirens luring me onto the rocks. Bastards. But they won, kind of, as the fair isle jumper on the left is not grey, and yes, it is a jumper, but the sleeves are woefully impractical and it is less than flattering, but hey, with my new trousers ,I LOVE it.
Next up is my new, not in the sale grey cardie, worn with the other wide legged +J trousers, a lovely deep moss green. In the middle, I spied near Bond Street, a girl wearing this outfit, clearly younger and slimmer, but I do like the idea of cosy wool layered over flimsy silk, so I may give it a go.


Enough about me, two from Bond Street. above a gorgeous outfit as seen in the Hermes window, love the trousers. and below Tory Burch, I have heard a lot about her and now have seen the clothes, Love them, but would need to be twenty years younger I think.

I had a glorious couple of hours wandering around with no agenda, the morning was bitterly cold and crisp, and London was very quiet, just how I like it.

Sunday was all about Leyla, she finished her final exam and so dragged me around the park with her bloody Rollerblades, which she can't use, and then to see War Horse, which I thought would be dreadful, but is in fact fine. It was not the horse that made me cry, it was the battle scene, all I could think of was how on earth did my Grandad survive?

Maison Martin Margiela

I once used to wear black suits, back in the day before I had children when I harboured notions of managerial positions, this was my look. It is the look that seduced Emin, boy did he feel conned when I reverted to type!!

Now this is what I hanker after, in my fantasy world of lottery winnings tumbling past my ears these are the clothes that would envelop me during the cold dark days of winter.

Style Icon Lucinda Chambers

I wish there were more photographs of Vogues fashion editor out there in blog land, she is responsible for some of Vogues best fashion images, how brilliant does she look?
Photo from here

And this one from the excellent Anne Bernecker

The view from here

The field next to his aunts house, as I paint I am surrounded by a moving carpet of red beetles, yet only the ants climb into the paints, I sit on an old chair and paint so can't go too far, their is no need when it all looks this lovely though.

The village sits high up on top of a mountain, the view above is from his aunt's veranda, she spends the weekdays looking after her grandchildren and returns at the weekend, the house is big and was part of a farm, but it is sadly falling into disrepair, her husband died of cancer many years ago and she had 3 girls all of whom have flown the nest. It looks idyllic, but if this painting had sound all you would hear is the constant bickering from a neighbouring house!

This is the view from Emin's house, on the front veranda, I have used considerable artistic license and removed the junk yard that is attached to yet another smallholding lived in by a very deaf old lady, the same old lady that proclaimed she had goats in her garden prettier than me!

This is the view to the right of Emin's house, sadly the mountains have bleached out but on a clear day they rise up majestically.

Down a small lane, 10 minutes walk away is this view, they are all of the sea around here, there are places where the entire horizon is just sea, it gives the landscape a wonderful hazy glow when the sun is out.

This is a heavily reworked painting I sat in the garden of a house that has just been built on the outskirts of the village, it overlooks the valley, across to another village. During the call to prayer there is a small time delay which allows the call to echo across the valley, it is rather beautiful and something I would like to capture on tape. Emin apparently owns a scrubby patch of land down there!

Finally there is a scrubby field 5 minutes away where plants have reclaimed once ploughed land, I love the colours of all the different tress, although I never got to grips with that ethereal silvery beauty of olive trees. I would love to return at Easter one year to see the flowers too.

I painted double this but these I felt were the better ones, they are visual notes for me to paint from, rather than accurate representations, I am also conscious that I use watercolours like oil and often layer them up rather than allow the paper to create light. I half wished I had taken pastels too, but I like the way just using paint forced me to mix colours and focus on how the light changes colour almost every second of the day.

The second week was more rewarding than the first, simply because I finally warmed to the subject and got to know the colours better, I'm going back next year, but perversely will probably approach the project from another point of view using a different media.

Benim guzek Africam

I too love all things African, a fairly trite statement, I know. Not unlike proclaiming a love of all things European, or Asian. Sadly I am not educated enough to specify the origin of sculptures, textiles and jewellery I love, but on retirement when I steal from my school resources it will be the box of African artifacts that will vanish with me.
Situated on a very industrial estate, just outside of Magusa (Cyprus) is a large bakery, it sells all manner of greasy pastry and overly sweet cakes and ice cream, but it does have free wi fi, and so you can sit and watch the locals come and go whilst simultaneously deafened by a music channel, whilst downloading the latest Guardian. There are worse places to spend half and hour, and for me there was a battered dog eared Vogue from Turkey, inside was this lovely page of jewellery, the text I can't translate, the jewellery I love. This too is fabulous, although a little too theatrical for me to wear daily, I do love the concept.

Both from Anita Quansah

Was it a Merry Christmas?

Oh, the tales I have heard about Christmas, they would make last years play Seasons Greetings by Alan Aykbourn seem tame. I have heard 3 different versions of the same story from my mother, my sister and my daughter. The conclusion to my daughter's moody antics is for my mother and my sister electing to spend next Christmas in Australia. Far enough from Daisy to not feel the bitter chill of her frosty glare.

Kitty too at the opposite end of the country with the other family had to suffer, but she did so graciously in silence whilst her new baby brother was spoilt rotten.

And me? well, had the day fallen on a weekday it would be business as usual, Leyla would have gone to school and I would have painted. Instead it fell on a Sunday and so I decided we should have a jolly day out in Bellapais...Sadly rain stopped play.
We drove through torrential rain and it only stopped for a brief moment the entire day.
My uncle is a big fan of misplaced Santa's and so this one was for him.

The oranges were abundant hence scrumping, since the restaurant we planned to eat in was closed.

Is it me or is there something wrong with this picture? Clue, woolly hat + sun glasses!

But I did get to church!

and despite the grey rain soaked skies it was as beautiful as ever

Just a lot greyer.

but we did see our first double rainbow

and some blue sky on the way home.

By now we had fine dined at a Burger King! and I had endured a very expensive tantrum on the phone with Daisy. I decided it would have been cheaper to fly her out to spend Christmas with us next year, which is more likely than she thinks!