Away with the Faeries...

Having recently been accused of being 'away with the faeries', so I took particular pleasure in doing just that last week...

I went away with a group of wonderful and inspiring people to Lough Arrow, Co. Sligo, Ireland. A time to breathe, heal and come back to myself while wandering in the wild places...

Walking the sacred land in wind, rain, sun and even hail...

To huddle in cairns and caves while wondering if I could fly...

...to dream of the Morrigan...

...and be lost in the mists of time...

...to hear the stories of the Tuatha de Danan and the Battle of Moytura...

...of Duirmuid and Grainne...

...to feel the Gille's tears of grief fall upon us at Lough Gill...

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..and meet Queen Maeve at the very top of the world...

Open Studios 2013

Last weekend was the second of two weekends of the Saffron Walden Open Studios.  My first ever event of this kind, as I haven't had a proper 'studio' until last year, I was very curious to see if anyone would venture out into the wilds of my little hamlet to see me.

I decided that it was time to paint the inside a light colour as it is a bit dark in there, so the week before the event saw me frantically painting the walls with cream wood paint...

Inside unpainted and messy studio

Problem was I didn't have a tin big enough, I realised in the middle of it, to paint all four walls with the required two coats...

Bare walls

The solution was to paint the main back wall with two and the side walls with one, the doors and surrounding wall remain natural wood for the time being...

Painted back wall hung with pictures

Once I'd finished and let the paint dry, I put all the furniture back in and put up my framed pictures...

I also wanted to make it into the home of The Spinney Witch, so in the corner sits her besom, hat...

...and a witch's cat!

So the first day dawned and I was out putting up signs along my road, hoping that at least a few people would find me...and happily they did!

Flossie stands guard!

Despite wild winds and rain showers I was visited by 30 lovely people, many I hadn't met before, all of whom were wonderfully encouraging and enthusiastic. I was asked several times if my illustrations were in books, sadly no but I feel inspired to try!

One of my favourite times was with a family who piled into the studio, 7 of us in all, and spent ages looking for Red Riding Hood's wolf and listening to the fairy tales and stories behind the paintings. 

They had some fantastic ideas for things I should do, such as a button for people to press next to each picture so they can hear the story :-) I wish I'd thought to take a photo of them all there!

In between visitors I painted...three finished and one nearly.  It was wonderful to feel that I could be in the studio all day and not have to be anywhere else. I had time to think and plan where to go with all of this. My feeling is that the period of 'giving it a go' is now over, I've had a great response to my work and I know that people like it so perhaps it's time to take the next step...