Cats, Charcoal, and Pale Umber
My recipe for happiness in stressful times
Mid February and the Camellia bush in the garden has its first bloom! I saw loads of snowdrops yesterday in the country park. Spring can’t be very far away.
Lost and Found
Too many cold, damp grey days, bad news on every channel, and mood swings brought on by going cold turkey on sugar (again) made last week hard to bear at points. I was seriously wondering if anything would ever go right again after misplacing my passport, which I needed as ID for an essential admin thing that time was running out on. I remembered where it was - somewhere safe. Phew! Only, I couldn’t access it because…I’d lost the key to the safe place. It wasn’t where I knew it should be. I searched everywhere but it was useless. I’d lost the key, lost the passport and was on the way to losing my mind. It’s no surprise that the painting session that day was also a complete disaster, (and already painted over). Decided to call it a day and slouch in front of the TV for the night.
Of course, after a proper sleep and decent breakfast everything came right. I tidied up methodically, and looked through my bag properly, found the damn key! Found the passport! Irritating admin task ticked off the list. Time to move on.
Perfect Pick-me-up
Not everything has been so fraught. I scheduled in some art time, which was comforting, rewarding, and every now and again downright blissful! I can't even begin to describe all the feelings drawing and painting bring me! It really takes up space in my mind and pushes aside any anxious thoughts. Honestly, it just makes everything feel so much brighter. It also helps that the worst of the sugar cravings have abated.
Still painting cats.
I treated myself to a tube of paint in a colour I’ve never used before, pale umber, which is a light greyish beige. Quite an unassuming colour on its own but it makes a nice accompaniment to brighter colours like pink. Slathering it on the paper and scraping it off again with a palette knife is my definition of fun! Not done a drawing as large as this for a while. It’s A3, so not huge but big enough to make decent sized marks with charcoal. Expecting to do more charcoal drawings this week. We’ll see.
Shop News
New in the shop, a small cat painting on card called Melba Being Cute.
And, if you’re on my shop news email list you may have already seen this special clearance offer I put together. It includes Stevie Seagull, a unique hand painted and embroidered hanging bird ornament, a hand printed and stitched linen and cork brooch, and a bright yellow linen hand printed zipper pouch. All for only £35. See more details.
Bluesky
Did I mention I’m on Bluesky now? I already left Twitter a while ago when Elon Musk took over and my longer term goal is to move away from Facebook and Instagram completely. It’s difficult because it’s how I stay in contact with a lot of people and previously both sites were also an effective and free way to market my business - I’ll probably miss out on much needed sales if I leave. However, they’ve completely lost their charm in so many ways and I’m already spending much less time on them both. Bluesky is refreshing because you can actually see everyone’s posts chronologically, like in the olden days. I’m finding a lot of new artists to follow and so far I’ve not encountered any bigoted nasties. This Bluesky quick start guide is aimed at craft businesses but has everything you need to know to decide if it’s for you or not.
I’m not abandoning Substack any time soon. It’s a great place to write more in depth and has been a helpful tool for organising my thoughts. I really appreciate everyone who reads and subscribes here!
Bye for now, Julia