Hello friends!
How’s your week been? The kids have officially finished school and I’m officially off too. This is the last weekly journal I’ll post until mid August - I’ll be back in the studio/office Monday 11th August (at which point I will unpause paying subs and anyone can join again to see all the archives and join our live calls). I will resume posting these visual journals at the end of that week.
This week marked my first few days off but in reality, I was wrapping up quite a few commissions and other bits and bobs - I’m so glad I gave myself margins. I’m also tired and quite grumpy at times. Extra thankful for the margins, especially when my head and throat are sore today. Think it’s time to take a good break! I wrote in my journals a “rant box allowed” which included some of my feelings and frustrations. Sometimes that’s a useful way to acknowledge and shift. It sort of worked.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
Wentworth RHS - I’ve written a post on this and included a little snippet of it in my journals today (the temple and trees)
cutting flowers from our little garden to make posies for our school teachers. I wish we had more. I literally used all the blooms we had and feel a bit bereft now that the garden is bare but they’ll grow back and seeing the teachers’ faces was completely worth it.
my morning granola again, it continues to be a brilliant start to the day, sorry for being on repeat about that. It’s just so good.
a weekend at the Rabbit Room gathering in Derbyshire with poets, artists, writers, philosophers, musicians. It was a perfect blend of inspiring and nostalgic. I met so many new folk there and will probably stay in touch with a few - already dreaming up a winter meet-up.
getting the canvas out on my easel and painting the back garden (before the flowers got cut for the posies) photo taken by Ezra.
taking time out to draw a very old church which I also drew in the winter when the snow was on the ground and the watercolour turned to ice on the page!!
finalising orders for art materials and other details for the art retreat in Italy in September (that feels really good)
Sam Dion Baker’s online book launch party was so lovely, she had one of her sons on to chat. It was so sweet and I resonate with so much that she shared about her practice.
drawing the view from my studio outside in my Oroblanco sketchbook
the butterflies are prolific just now, in our garden, our street, our parks, everywhere and I’m so thankful for each of them, they are so stunning and I love them.
we have a new dahlia which is so vibrant red (I kept that one!), check it out!!
Wishing you all a wonderful summer and I’ll be back in August! Don’t miss the goodies before you go! Check them out below!
See you soon xx
SOME SUMMER POSTS (free to all)…if you missed them!
the monthly gazette has a bingo sheet to download as well as a summer cordial recipe. Don’t miss that!
my visit to Wentworth and the LIVE I did at the end of that day
a chat celebrating summer colours with my friend
a chat celebrating gardens with my friend
previous visual journals in which I share a painting of Cezanne and an obsession with cherries or this one which was very orangey!!
QUICK CLUB NOTES
This is a free post for all subscribers. I have paused all paying subscriptions until Monday 11th August - I will be out of office/studio for a summer break. If you are already a paying subscriber, you get full access to all the archives free of charge for that whole month - it’s a great time to catch up on any sessions/challenges/series you’ve missed. If you aren’t a paid subscriber but would like to become one, I’ll be back Monday 11th August at which point you can do that. Until then, please enjoy all the club gazettes (monthly and free) as well as my personal visual journals since January 2024 (weekly and free) and the LIVE chats I’ve posted with Raj and Emma (see above).
Share this post