doll Friday

hello, this is Miss Bird

she is one of two dollys that I have added to my shop today (also a new painting has arrived there....)

Thank you for all your kind comments and emails this week.

Tomorrow is October - very hard to believe considering we are still very much in our belated summer spell here in England....

And tomorrow is the start of a new project for me....... 100 Portraits on Brown Paper

I will be sharing this project on Flickr - but will add a link from here to there, and will most likely share a few here as well.....  It is not a 'daily' project - I will add portraits when they happen, but hope to make them quite regularly. I'll share more about the project as it (I hope) unfolds.....

have a very good weekend

the ghost tree

the ghost tree

a pencil drawing

I have not worked in pencil for some time. But I have this very smooth paper sketchbook and I decided to draw rather than write on the blank pages. Though both might happen. As is often the case. Notebooks filled with poem notes get used for a quick shopping list. Or three.

Apologies for no Doll Tuesday this week. It had been my plan to share but it's one of those weeks when I am reshuffling my plans.

I'm feeling slightly befuddled by this very warm weather we are having. It is autumn and yet not. The sky today is faded denim blue, clear. The trees are full of crisp leaves. It is hot in the sun. I am thinking what would people like to see me making in the next few months? Trying to get my head ahead.... But right now with this rewind into summer again I feel slightly in a daze.....

I know many people are working on upcoming shows and events. This is something good to work toward, I am sure.  Due to my family commitments, I am happily homebound and don't do shows. So my selling is mostly online. In the future perhaps I will get the opportunity to 'get out there' but for now it is not for me. Therefore my personal projects are really important in giving myself something to steer toward, for example making a new zine. Not sure what my next book will be just yet...... have you seen my latest 'Neighbourhood'? It has been selling quite well and I have had very nice feedback for which I am grateful always.

This late-late heatwave is set to continue for a few days yet..... I hope your week is going well....

Mosaic Monday

1. Forget-Me-Nots gone to seed, 2. mossy fingers, 3. papers 0911_0004 per P P Limongelli, 4. Once before, 5. Untitled, 6. flickr.com/photos/20163360@N00/6179912931/, 7. encroachment, 8. INSOMNIA. Técnica mixta. 2011, 9. Emaki study 20110920, 10. sewing1, 11. Sunflower radiation project, 12. new canvas 1, acrylic on canvas 3' x 3', 13. Black & Gold, 14. gufi3, 15. "With all her children by her side.", 16.IMGP7693, 17. Berry paintings, 18. return to breakfast in the kitchen, 19. found, 20. new color for little jade plant

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

A Happy Monday to you..... it is mild and trying to be sunny here..... many thanks to the artists and photographers featured in this week's mosaic....

September is always a busy month, so little wonder it feels like it really can't be the last Monday of.....

This week I am again working on all sorts and hope to update my shop toward the end of the week with a variety of 'new things'... Many thanks for your visits and faves.....

Wishing you a very good week ahead - apparently we are going to have a mini heatwave this week?? we shall see......

come along with me

This is a photograph of a gouache painting - 'come along with me'.....

(now in my shop today, along with two new dolls)

I am challenging myself to paint a little every day. If I let go of expectations and 'just paint' - then interesting scenes emerge. Sometimes.

'My people' have stories and they want me to tell them, in a way that can be told......:)

doll tuesday

This is Miracle

one of the dolls that appeared in my shop last week and is now on her way to a home over the ocean.....

I am working on new dolls and hope to have a few in my shop on Thursday or Friday, or maybe both....

Meanwhile, I thought I would 'raid the archives' for a few doll photos, something else from a while back...

A basket of textile dolls, from more than a few years ago now. These were my earlier dolls that I first sold on Etsy in my novembermoon shop (which has closed now, as I now have my namesake cathycullis shop). It is interesting to look back and see what I made and how my days were spent busy with stitches, or otherwise...

I've created a variety of dolls over the years, but they are all 'me', or aspects of me in their own peculiar way! ..... & I always feel at home making them.

I look back and smile........ what a colourful past......:)

mosaic monday

1. Untitled, 2. Her Slip Was Showing, 3. Exposição Bibelô, 4. 04, 5. Self as a building, 6. trees in progress, 7. Shopping In Wool Slippers, 8. seven - rust print, 9. blanco, 10. dollies9, 11. something happened but i was unawared of it - My Art Journal 2011-07-1 #004, 12. INSOMNIA. Técnica mixta. 2011, 13. freehand heart embroidery, 14. KAPOW!, 15. Coke can, 16. composición, 17. Jazz Hands, 18.peach path 2b, 19. The truth about the primitive man is not hiding in the past. The early human beings live within us, 20. Rustic Rag Rug

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

Good Monday to you...... from a slightly chilly and clouding over England..... many thanks to the artists featured in this mosaic... two white 'mystery' images for you to discover too...

This week I am again working on all sorts. Many thanks for all your visits to my shop and of course this blog. And for all your kind comments. Tomorrow is Doll Tuesday... I am busy working on further new dolls...

Right, must get on..... Have a very good week

I took this photo between rain showers yesterday...... this is an old vine in our tiny garden, and for the first time I have seen it so healthy.. the grapes are sweet if a little pippy.... Grapes like these remind me of old still life paintings, their soft varied tones....

Not sure if I shall try brewing some wine with them, I don't know much about that. Many years ago when I was a teenager my older brother made wine, I think it was apple wine. The big jar of it fermenting in the cupboard beneath the stairs....

This is just a brief hello and to wish you a happy rest of the weekend. I am about to post something more over at my poetry blog nevering... 

It is pouring with rain again here....

doll tuesday

Tuesday is now dolly day..... just so as you know.... here is a new one, her name is Story and she is one of several I have been making recently..... They are time-consuming little people, despite their simple attire.... but making things by hand, sometimes time needs to slow down and let you get on with it carefully.... it is really rainy here.... hope your week has started well

mosaic monday

1. original art work, 2. Untitled, 3. JIm Harris: Untitled, 4. Untitled, 5. zigulì, 6. Untitled, 7. thread river, 8.Untitled, 9. Untitled, 10. Sprout Purse, 11. Emaki study 20110910, 12. Almost ready, fabric weaving, 13.Late Afternoon, 14. Saoirse Ronan, 15. Me about 60 seconds ago...;), 16. Reflections, 17. under the wings, 18. les amoureux dans les collines, 19. carrossel, 20. Collage 09-08-11 B, 21. "one way of defining what you are is to define what you are not", 22. Untitled, 23. porthole prints, 24. Cleveland Foreclosure Quilt - detail of community garden built over an abandoned residential lot, 25. Mist

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

A good Monday to you..... greetings from a windswept, rainy England.....

Many thanks to the artists featured in this mosaic - lovely stuff - via my Flickr contacts....

I've been quiet over the past few days, haven't I..... things are quietly brewing.... This weekend I felt like being quiet. It was a good, reflective quiet. Now I am ready to make again... 

I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the need to make - and then the need to be quiet. If I listen to this, everything usually works out ok.... I am attempting to listen to my own advise more often these days:)

Thanks for your lovely feedback re: my newest zine Neighbourhood. Thanks always for your kind comments here and elsewhere....

So this week: I have a couple of new paintings - both I really like and hope you will like too - and will be adding them to my shop later today.

I'm going to start to add the first of my new mixed media dolls series to the shop, most likely later in the week.... so I'll let you know here or on facebook or just visit when you feel like it.....

many thanks! have a happily creative week ahead....

no farewells

no farewells

inspired by the change of the seasons..... I've been watching the shifting bird patterns, the light and shade so different, all of a sudden it feels.... I quite like that wistfulness....

this new gouache painting is now available as an original in my shop - along with a selection of drawings on tags and one other painting....



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little black dress

A folk doll - in papier mache, wearing a hand-stitched linen skirt and a little pearl..... She is one of a new series I am working on right now.... I am aiming at the middle-end of this month to have a selection completed....

Until then, back to work on her sisters....

hope your week is going well

mosaic monday

1. (hipsters...), 2. Stitching New Landscapes, 3. Bat necklace, 4. some things, 5. Hand-cut & drawn cards., 6. Merge, 7. tricycle, 8. 6x8 inch wip acrylic, 9. bravo, 10. Love Letter II (Everything), 11. Untitled, 12. new sept pretties, 13. back to work on this, 14. antique coverlet pillows, 15. rabbit hole1, 16. Untitled, 17. Emaki study 20110903, 18. SM-nestingSept11-08, 19. Untitled, 20. fata / fairy, 21. girls with yarn drawing, 22. Linden Falling, 23. Pickled Beets, 24. illu bird 4

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

Happy Monday to you.... September's here again and here is my first 'favourites mosaic' of the month.... many thanks to the artists featured for sharing their work via my Flickr contacts.

It's a blustery, sunshiney start to the week here. We are getting ready for the return to school. And I still get butterflies in my stomach.....

Many thanks to all who have ordered a zine or something else from my shop. I have posted several out already, I have a batch to post later today and will be sending a few more tomorrow.... Thank you!

This week I am working on all sorts.... and hope to update my shop again some time later in the week....

Have a very good Monday and creative week ahead....

lists of things

two gouache portrait tags - there will be a selection made available next week (most likely Wednesday)..... many thanks to everyone for visiting my re-opened shop.

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I like to write lists of things.... and thought I would put together a few lists to sum up the things I've been reading/watching/listening to etc... over the summer and continuing with.... in no particular order...

Reading

Of Mutability - Jo Shapcott (poetry)

various Greying Ghost chapbooks - I enjoy this small press very much
see their website: greying ghost

The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt (fiction)

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (fiction - reread, I've read this book more than any other)

One Secret Thing - Sharon Olds (poetry)

Tongue Party - Sarah Rose Etter (fiction)

Stories for the Nighttime and Some For the Day - Ben Loory (fiction)

Perry Grayson - Jacky Klein (art)

Mysterious Wisdom, The Life and Work of Samuel Palmer - Rachel Campbell-Johnston (biography)


listening


Laki Mera - The Proximity Effect
Kate Bush - Director's Cut
Brett Anderson - solo material various
Sufjan Stevens - various tracks
Suzanne Vega - various tracks
Joan as Police Woman - The Deep Field

and a lot of chilled-out late night music especially listening to the Late Lounge on Jazz FM


watching

Arietty - movie from Studio Ghibli
Bored to Death - HBO comedy
30 Rock - US comedy
Frasier - classic US comedy (my son calls me a 'Frasier fangirl' ha.... I find it is one of the shows I like that I can watch in the evening when he is around and nothing about it worries him, as he is very sensitive)
BBC Four arts & music shows - especially When Rock Goes Acoustic
looking forward to - Hidden Paintings this coming Tuesday on BBC4

and a lot of news... this August had a lot, didn't it.....