Iceland the gift that just keeps on giving

First they invaded and colonised our high street, then they stole all our money, now they are about to bankrupt our airline industry. On top of which they are preventing me from seeing Leyla.

After the first week Lucy asked if I missed her, in all honesty I had been so wrapped up in walking and drawing I had not really had time. Plus the side benefit was a huge amount of time was spent with Kitty who has, even though I say this myself grown up into a delightful teenager. She has been quite frankly fantastic throughout the two week break. So I guess I was not missing Leyla too much.

Week two and we were so busy trying to spring clean the house I did not think about it too much, then when they stopped the planes I cried like a baby and realised that the hollow emptiness was a GREAT BIG Leyla sized hole.

They made it to Istanbul, worse places to be stuck. They are very lucky in that they have friends and family there and Leyla is as I write at school there too. Emin can work from his laptop so for a couple of weeks they are good to stay.

After that I think they will get a coach. Can you imagine? That is a seriously L-O-N-G way. If however all calms down they are booked on a flight to return Wednesday. We shall see.

Some of her schools friends are stuck as far a field as New York and Japan, I feel an ocean liner revival coming.

I am now going to play catch up on reading various blogs. I have absolute power over Leylas apple as I am working from home today...Yeah right. Tomorrow it is back to the chalk face and I will be uploading a smorgasbord of images including some drawings. I finally did it and took less photographs but stood a drew plein air.

I may be gone for some time

Well two weeks actually, but I need a break from posting.
I have plenty of ideas for some painting in week one, hoping to be inspired by the work of Fancis Davison.
and Margaret Mellis whose home town I will be visiting for a week.

What is curious is that her artwork only blossomed after her husband died, it must be terrible to be hamstrung by someone you love. Life it appears is all about the compromise. Alongside the painting will be some invigorating sea walks judging by the weather forecast! As well as rereading The Rings of Saturn by W.G Seabald a cliche I know to read about somewhere whilst you are there but I really enjoyed it the first time round. And if that was not enough excitement I will be breaking my no alcohol at home fast and visiting a number of excellent pubs, oh and fish and chips. I think I may be spending some time in the gym on my return! as well as attempting to spring clean the house and visit some shows, before returning to work for some well earned rest!

Daisy elected to stay at home over Easter to revise, the clock is ticking and she is conscious that at least she has the luxury of an offer from her chosen university which is more than many of her far more diligent friends have got.

She has flapped ever since not knowing how she will cope with looking after herself so I put together the above plan.

The reality will be more like;

10am wake up fumble downstairs and let the dog out the back.

10.30am log on and chat to friends via Face Book.

11am start foraging for quick easy gratification snacks.

11.30am back to bed and read book.

11.45am doze off.

1.30pm wake up and go searching for food.

2pm wander dining room aimlessly and create a functioning work space.

3pm take dog to the patch of grass 100m down the road and back.

3.10pm do some revision.

4pm warm up a ready meal eat watching television.

6pm finally sit back down and log back on to Face Book.

8pm go to bed exhausted and watch some more tele. On alternate night run a bath and doze off.

Repeat daily

I survived but only just

In the end I took 3 of Leyla's friends plus Daisy and Kitty. The hit my poor wallet took was immense, although I had cunningly opted for a home cooked birthday tea which went into the weekly shop that Emin's pays for.. Ha result. So they had pizza slices, kettle crisps, tiger prawns, olives and cherry tomato's! you may arch your eyebrows but most of it was eaten. This after they had consumed a large box of popcorn, half a box of chocolates and a bag of Dorrito's in the cinema!
The film was shall we say less than the sum of it's parts. Each character stolen from other better productions and I didn't even get to see my Robin Hood trailer.
Friday I met Kitty after work, I rarely collected them from school yet whenever I did always welled up with emotion such is the amazing joy I get when I see small children going home. Now I well up because she looks so grown up. We ended up in a pretty soulless Pizza Express simply because I had a raging headache and had lost the will to live after failing to navigate the labyrinth of Canary Wharf shopping center which is scythed in two by the DLR so the only way to traverse it is to go down and under, or as Kitty worked out wait for a train and run through the carriages to the other side!
We spent an age trying to find Leyla a nice outfit in Zara, rather horrifyingly the kids clothes now cost the same as adults which when you consider how quickly they grow is cruel. Kitty fleeced me royally too.
The exam season is now underway and I am busy preparing stuff to take with me on holiday next week, I am hoping to paint, but may like Barbabra Hepworth did with her first bursary just look and absorb. We shall see.

Happy Birthday Leyla Monster

9 YEARS OLD TODAY

Tomorrow I will be taking her and 3 other giggling monsters to see Alice in Wonderland, followed by a birthday tea at home.

Mother & I

My entry for the Sartorialist prize, I have scanned this picture taken by my father when I was two and my mother a youthful 22!
I covet her coat A LOT.

The World of Interiors

I have some issues dating back to the eighties, every now and again when I need to top up my inspiration tank I get a few down a have a rummages through the articles. I am defiantly of late drawn to white houses, the first scores a triple whammy as it is the perfect house in the perfect place (St Ives) lived in by an artist who moved in after it was vacated by Breon O'Casey one of my favourite artists. Stella Benjamin's home

This is a random page that illustrates my perfect mix of African artifacts with paintings by St Ives artists.

This house in the south of France is beautiful, you can spot the 'light' a mile off it gives such clarity when you move south. Again the house belongs to an artist, Elizabeth Koetsier

I love those bentwood chairs.

Her early artwork is lovely too.

Finally this stunning house is in fact an apartment on top of one of those amazing tall houses you see in Stockholm, it is stunning.

It would be all too easy to be depressed by such lifestyle porn, but I am not because I try to project that this will come to me too one day, none of the owners are young, and many will have endured hardship whilst raising their families, so I am pragmatic. Plus I once read that an owner knowing her house was featured in the magazine bought a copy and failed to recognise it such is the styling that goes on.