Same Cup Different Day

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Yes, as the title suggests...No more cups tomorrow though, as we went fishing at Pyramid Lake, Nevada today, and I'm really inspired! I did one painting as soon as we got in, which I'll upload tomorrow.

Blue Cup

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I'm experimenting with compositions and colours I'm not used to today. There are certain colours I never used to use if I could help it, like green - which I had a bit of an aversion to for some reason - which I'm reconciling myself with.

The cup is a really pretty handmade one we bought in a yard sale when we first moved to Tahoe. We got lucky because it was Labour Day weekend and everybody, it seems, has a yard sale then, and we kitted out our whole new house in one very exciting weekend. I love yard sales and thrift stores, partly because I try to recycle everything, and partly because of all the unique things you can find which people have bought from all over the place.

Welsh Sale 2008

I've just mailed 8 paintings to Rogers Jones Auction House in North Wales, for their annual Welsh Sale in April! I'll be in good company - works by the late Kyffin Williams will also be on sale at auction. Contact Rogers Jones, UK for more details.

Taylor's Back

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As a climber, I have 'favourite' parts of the body, which fascinate me. Shoulders, backs and hands are particularly important to a climber, and usually the parts which sustain a lot of injuries too - so you become quite familiar with them on yourself and others. Taylor and I went to the 'Bodies' exhibition at the Carnegie Science Museum in Pittsburgh over Xmas, a fascinating collection of preserved cadavers. Some where whole bodies, in 'action' (such as kicking a ball) and the rest were dissected, skinned, cross-sectioned, in all manner of ingenious ways to show what amazingly complex forms we as humans are.

So of course at the hands section, Taylor and I were fascinated by the structure of the tendons, pulleys, and ligaments we've so often injured whilst pulling our body weight up on our fingertips. "Oh, there's the pulley I partially tore on both my ring fingers!, no wonder it made such a horrible sound" Anyway, I spare you the rest, unless you climb, it's as nerdy as Star Wars.

Muse

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Muse: A force personified; inspiration to an artist.

Lavender Shadows

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I'm not much of a gardener, but I'm trying. Lavender is one of my favourites, for the colour, smell and appearance. My friend Sue had a fantastically prolific lavender plant in her garden in Wales, and it looked like a huge crazy afro. Mine are just tiddlers, and I don't know whether they'll survive a winter indoors, but it's got to be better than being buried under 4 feet of Tahoe snow!

One of the coolest things about our house, which I've mentioned before, is the light. In fact, it was the light in the main room (courtesy of 15ft triangular windows) which prompted a rather desperate, undignified outburst when we looked at the place. ("we HAVE to live here!!!! Taylor, please say we can!!) I've done some other larger paintings of these glorious shafts of light, which I'll put on my website very soon. The long shadows which pan around the main living space all day are amazing. I've never lived anywhere like this before, there are just paintings waiting to be done of every corner and every time of day here.

French Press & Biscotti

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Ah, Italy....Coffee and biscotti.. reminds me of climbing trips to the Italian Riviera with my friend Sue a few years ago. The majority of my foreign travel over the years has been ostensibly climbing related, but I always carry my sketchbook and camera. Sue and I used to go to Finale Ligure, and climb great rock, drink great wine, eat great food and drink the best coffee in the world. I had pillar-box red hair at that time - it's been almost every colour, including bright pink (which it was when I met my husband, but he still liked me anyway) Anyway, I'm sure us freaky coiffed, foul mouthed, drunken Brits weren't exactly model tourists, but we had a great time, and I painted a lot from the sketches and pictures I took. Here's a couple: