Taking a break from sharing notes this week. Thank you for all your kind comments on last week’s post. I am pacing myself so that I can always make and share my best work.

Looking forward to sharing more with you soon.

Take care

Cathy x

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I hope you are well. It feels like a ‘just lovely’ morning here - sunny, not hot, the birds singing…..

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote to you about studio matters. Last week I shared my first ‘poetry salon’ with you - and I am so very grateful to everyone who read, participated with leaving thoughtful comments and responses. Thank you! I was nervous about the whole idea but now I am so glad I went for it. As now, apart from anything else, I have so many poets and books to explore in the future. The next poetry salon will be first Saturday in July (4th) - and I’ll be sharing some playful ways into writing poetry.

New Monochrome Paintings

There has been a shift in ideas, just lately. This happens. After a colourful spring I want to now explore some themes and pictures in monochrome - as well as painting in colour for my tiny works.

You may have seen the first five paintings in my poetry series - (they are in my shop currently, with four out of five sold, thanks so much). Alongside this series I am also working on a series of postcard sized works.

Summertime seems like just the right time to work on postcard sized paintings. These will all be 15cm x 10.5cm - gouache on watercolour paper.

So I have started on a series titled: Postcards from a Near But Distant Past.

Exploring the mysteries of our forgotten pasts, untold stories, family histories, dreams and intrigue. Inspired by a long interest in folk art and storytelling but always with an eye on how familiar themes return - ideas on women’s history, a fascination with antique photography and historical grand paintings.

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Shop News

Next update: Wednesday 17th June at 7pm with preview from 4pm

I will be continuing on with offering tiny paintings, alongside other new work (including the two you see above). Thanks always for your kind interest and support.

Free postage within the UK continues throughout June - and as always I try to keep international postage as low as possible. Link to my shop at the end of these notes.

Lucky Dip Drawings

I’ve been busy drawing lucky dip drawings. Here’s one complete (just needs to be trimmed up and packaged) and the right hand drawing is of course still in her early stages….

Here’s a recent drawing that has now gone out into the world. I make a few and then package, wrap in tissue so I don’t know which one I am sending out - that’s the whole idea with a lucky dip. The surprise factor matters to me, so I must make it so that I can’t see what I am sending.

Sculpture

I continue to explore my sculpture ideas. This is something I am particularly interested in, yet I don’t have any exact end result or exhibition, or final ‘product’ or ‘thing’ in mind. I am simply allowing myself the freedom to explore working in a three-dimensional way.

I am not making stand-alone sculptures or vessels. Not for now, anyway. It seems wall pieces are things I want to explore. So here we are, with much time going into the modest scraps of this and that, with painterly ideas. I want to keep things modest. I see various things and yet I want to keep leaning toward the abstract. I don’t want to make travelling altar pieces - even if this, for example, makes me think of such a thing. There’s no temptation to pull in any concrete direction. But I am calling these pieces sculpture however humble their start in life might be.

I feel I have needed to give myself this space for quite a while. The opportunity to explore and handle materials, very humble card, scraps of fabric, and simply manipulate and reshape things into something beyond themselves.

I’m thinking of the sculpture as working in the same way I might work in a sketchbook.

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New Writing

Three Stories

It’s been a while since I shared stories here, so three stories today. I call these stories, but they are, yes, pieces, fragments, ideas - and I hope you enjoy reading. Thanks always for your kind encouragement.

On the Table

A woman walks into a room. There is something wet on the table. She thinks it might be something the cat brought in, so wilted and shabby-looking.

The woman walks nearer and sees it is just a wet piece of paper. She is relieved and then not relieved as she realises this might be a painting. Who has left a painting on her table? A small, shabby painting on her table.

It has been years and years since she held a paintbrush the correct way in art classes. Decades since she attempted to render a jar of wildflowers. A muddy boot. A fellow student’s doleful face.

What is this painting on her table? She looks more carefully. Actually, it’s rather beautiful, in its shabbiness. She will not pick it up. In its wet state anything might happen. Most of her life she has felt to be like this painting. In a state of incompleteness and at the same time just too much going on.

She leaves the room, hoping. Hoping but for what she is not sure. The painting will wait for her, it might dry into something exceptional yet unexplainable, or simply disappear from her afternoon.

**

Broken Biscuits

A friend is talking again about her grandmother who worked in a broken biscuit factory. The two women listen attentively, understanding how they must not correct their friend. They know the grandmother worked in a biscuit factory but that their friend has always thought of it as a factory making, purposely, broken biscuits. It is their understanding this is not how things work in life, but to try to put their friend’s story right would be wrong. They have talked about the broken biscuit factory when not with their friend. They seem to understand what might be going on here.

So they listen to their friend talk about her grandmother who worked in the broken biscuit factory. There is something magical about this. Their friend believes there is something magical to this. She has believed since childhood that her grandmother coming home on the last Friday of each month with a box of broken biscuits is indeed magical. They let their friend have her magic. Yes, they say, your gran who worked in the broken biscuit factory. How lovely.

**

Orange Books

Most days she walks by the book corner and only notices the smell in a very subtle, fleeting way. Then there are days when she mistakes the book smell for something else, perhaps cigarette smoke rising up from below the building.

There are days when she will stop by the book corner and just stand there, breathing in the books. She is reminded of the times she went book-hunting with her grandfather. He loved to go to the old church in Christchurch with piles and piles of old books. They would spend a happy afternoon just wandering around and never finding anything in particular. Then she is reminded of the tiny secondhand bookshop in the heart of Cambridge with so many learned books all packed tightly on shelves. She could only go there when she did not have a child in a pushchair. She was often afraid to try too hard, to get a certain book from a tightly squeezed stack.

And then she remembers books are individuals with feelings and is troubled for them when she discovers there is not enough order to their display. Despite her dislike of colour-co-ordination, she is mindful of how there is one complete shelf of orange books. But these are Penguin Classics, all together, and are the main reason why her book corner smells so musty. They are all well-read, brown, not yellowed, plain old grubby. She has read most of them. The others are waiting. Altogether her books are indeed very smelly. Secondhand books with mystery histories. Some of them have obviously spent a great many years in the company of smokers. They can fill this part of the room with their stench, especially on a warm day with the window closed. She is not particularly bothered by the smell and no one else who lives here is bothered by the books at all.

photo: a recent tiny painting - portrait of a young woman (sold)

I look forward to continuing to offer tiny paintings to you.

**

Thank you for reading and subscribing. You are welcome to leave a comment, say hello - I always like to hear from you.

A coffee is always welcome

SHOP

I hope you are well. This week has felt intense - happily busy but also other things going on….

Here’s my drawing desk with a view of the horse chestnut tree - how I love this time of year when the window is filled with green leaves. The birds have something to say 24/7. Either that, or there’s a fox dragging a pizza across the car park down…

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Reading Poetry - a gouache painting (24cm x 17.5cm)

Hello Everyone

Studio notes is taking a break this weekend - instead I hope you don’t mind me sharing with you the first in a poetry-related post. (If poetry is not your thing, no worries, my usual studio notes will be back next week).

Welcome to the first in a series of poetry salons - exploring the reading and writing of poetry.

Once a month (first Saturday) I hope we can collectively share some ideas and ways-in to poetry. This is an inclusive space for anyone who is interested in reading poetry, maybe getting into reading more in depth, or exploring new poets. This space is also for the discussion of writing poetry. This is not about direct critiques or feedback on your work - I am not teaching a poetry workshop.

This month I want to encourage you to share your reading.

I am not a serious or learned reader of poems - but I like to discover, re-discover (reexamine), go off on tangents, stay open-minded and enjoy the diversity that is poetry. Both present and past.

What I’ve been reading in recent months

When it comes to poetry I am a dipping-into reader. I have a modest collection of poetry books in my home and I like to return to the books I love. I keep the poets I struggle with and hope for better days. I’ll open at random and read for a poem or two. There are days when a stack of poems by my chair (or bed) is just what I need. I’ll rarely read from cover to cover.

I used to be very mindful of reading contemporary poetry - as someone who writes poetry, I felt I should be reading and wanted to read other poets. I might have felt that ‘old stuff’ was not for me. But I have chucked that idea out of the window like a dead fly - there’s so much to enjoy, why not look back?

Knowing about the past, having some understanding of poetry of past eras, helps and enriches my reading of contemporary poetry. Why dismiss the past when it can help you understand now?

I have been looking again at The Metaphysical Poets, a Penguin Poets book edited by Helen Gardner. I wish I knew more about this time period, that I might have been taught anything about it at all - but I am really feeling my way around. And enjoying that not knowing! I am reading the poems without worry, in my own time and giving them plenty of breathing space. If I want to know more about George Herbert, John Donne, or Andrew Marvell, there is plenty to find out online and elsewhere. But for now my rather scant knowledge is sufficient. I am just reading for the pleasure of reading. There’s no essay to write (I was an English Lit undergrad) and no pressure to come up with grand ideas or reflections.

I have also been reading Light and Thread by Han Kang (translated from Korean by Maya West, e. yaewon & Paige Aniyah Morris). The book is a compilation of writing including poetry. There are journal entries, short and reflective poems and short essays. A sense of poetry lives throughout the pages/writing. It is a gentle book, with reflection, light and observations of the natural world.

I came across this book by chance. Someone I follow on Instagram, a garment designer/maker named Louise Charlotte Oates shared a page from the book showing the poem ‘The Coat and I’ - and I did something I rarely do - I went straight to my local bookshop and amazingly found the book and bought a copy. And yes I am glad that I did.

The third poetry-related book I have been reading lately is a biography of John Ashbery by Jess Cotton. I enjoyed reading about his childhood - I knew nothing about this - but I have since sort of lost interest in this book and need to pick it up again. Maybe I need to just make time for it. I’ve enjoyed reading Ashbery very much over the past thirty years or so.

**

What are you reading, poetry-wise, at the moment - if anything?

Is there a poet you have come across recently who you have enjoyed discovering?

How would you describe your interest in poetry reading?

Have you some classic favourites but are not sure what/who to read next? Maybe someone else will have some suggestions for you.

Please feel free to leave a comment and respond to other comments, as you wish.

A few simple rules:

Please do not share your own poetry here - but you are welcome to share a link if you have a poetry-related Substack or website.

Please keep this discussion poetry-related.

That book mark with ‘Dorothy Wordsworth’ in pencil - is to remind me that I would like to read more about her some day.

Thanks for reading - now over to you. Please feel free to respond to others and have discussions. Hope to hear from you!

A recent drawing I made for my lucky dip series.

Dear Friends,

I hope your week is going well. I am writing to you during a bright spell between showers. Since last week’s heatwave we have seen plenty of welcome rain. The days and nights are much cooler. A few days ago I found a dead bat in the alley near the entrance to my home. Not sure if the demise o…

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Here’s a video of a small book I have just completed it. This is titled Landscapes: May 2026 - and is, as the title suggests, a book completed during this month, exploring ideas on what landscape might mean, in paint, collage, paper. I hope you enjoy this quick look-through.

I am sorry I rushed the first page and covered it with my fingers! So here’s a better look.

Yes, I will hope to make this into a monthly series - with a new book for June. And wouldn’t it be good to have a whole year of landscape books? We shall see… These are books I am making for myself, as reference to look back on. More considered than a random sketchbook, yet still very much ideas in flux.

**

My work take can often become quietly chaotic as I work on several projects at a time, but I often find this way of working is fruitful, with one element working here and then this bit transferred to there, the shape of this working for that, and so on…..

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POSTCARD books

Over the years I have loved making small books using vintage postcards. I make them on and off, and have completed one recently for my own collection.

But I am now starting on a small series to offer for sale.

Here is a book I am working on at the moment. It is inspired by Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ - or that is at least my starting point. I may not give it that borrowed title, I have yet to decide.

Here I have used a mix of elements including painted figures cut out as ‘paper dolls’, alongside monoprint figures on book paper, painted fabric and scrap paper.

I hope to have this book finished for my next shop update

SHOP NEWS

My next update will be this coming Wednesday at 7pm UK time - with preview from 4pm. I hope to have a mix of new artworks including tiny paintings, at least one book page artwork and more. I am continuing to offer free postage within the UK. Postage to elsewhere is kept as low as possible. There is a link to my shop at the end of these notes.

Last Wednesday I quietly launched my new lucky dip - I purposely only made mention of this in my Instagram stories beforehand, just to give this one a gentle start, and then added to my shop. I was not sure how many people might be interested, or might see it - but have been very happily surprised to receive a good number of orders. Many, many thanks.

So now I will tell you about this lucky dip here. I like to offer my artwork at modest prices and offering a lucky dip allows me the freedom to do just that. This new lucky dip is for a small drawing, one you might enjoy all by itself, or you could start a collection… The lucky dip is available now.

here is the info as seen in my shop:

A new lucky dip series!

You will receive ONE tiny drawing per order -

an original monochrome pencil work on cream artist paper

measuring approximately 8.5cm x 7.5cm

signed on front

how it works: I have a small tin of drawings and will be adding to the tin. Once the drawing is complete I package and wrap in tissue. When someone orders a drawing I then pick one from the tin not knowing which one it is!

the subject matter will vary, but all will be inspired by my interest in historical folk art, embroidery and antique illustration. The drawings are made intuitively, with a strong love of nature.

please allow me 7-10 days to have your order ready to send - I will always aim to send asap

the drawings shown here are examples only - I do not accept special requests

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Beyond the sketchbook - sculpture

Yes, I am continuing on with my ‘something’ sculpture pieces. Thinking about shape, evoking memories, hints, relics, colours, wear and tear and time….

I have had interesting discussions about these pieces with my daughter, we finds them intriguing enough to puzzle over with me.

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Poetry zine news - or, I might say: zine woes.

I mentioned a few weeks ago I was having printer issues. I like to print zines myself, to keep the cost low and to be in control of exactly how many are printed etc… But my printer is having issues with its paper feed mechanism, which means I have to fiddle about with every page being printed. Very time consuming and precarious. I am not going to buy a new printer. It’s just not viable for me to do the printing right now, and looking at this in a pragmatic way, I am putting the project on hold.

But this does not mean I can’t share the poems with you. It was never about producing a zine to make money - as they never do. It was about having the poems in your hands. But I’d rather share them here and so over the next several weeks I’ll do just that.

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New Writing

Three poems from my sequence ‘something & something else’. The sequence of poems is like a notebook of creative living and working, observations, walks around the churchyard. At the time of writing I was also dipping into reading metaphysical poets such as John Donne.

**

Grief

Thomas Carew wrote:

griefe is a puddle, and reflects not cleare

and I think of this emptying

a small jar of painty water.

All that is gone and gone.

The paint, eaten.

Misstepped. Lovely gloom.

**

Foxes

Foxes remain elusive,

or is it just that they aren’t to be seen?

They have scribbled and barked

their way from the picture,

red kings and queens,

forgetful of appearing

for our curiosity.

**

Angry

The angry water is making

all wrong, unevenly hilarious.

I must stop but giddy motion

of flowers might still

be all and moon-like,

a recipe for bright haire and bone.

Yes, little reliques in

the afternoon, thank you,

John Donne for your

guardian angels trampling

their gold all over my pictures,

sketchbooks keeping miracles.

Incidentally, let’s put the kettle on

before it’s really too late.

****

Crow jug with roses - a gouache painting in brown paper (sold) - this is another in an ongoing series. I’m painting a similar jug each time, with a slightly different crow and ever changing flowers. What flower will be next? More roses? We shall see….

Poetry Salon

I mentioned a while ago interest in hosting some kind of poetry workshop event. Then the idea for a poetry salon came to me, and as I explained to my paid subscribers a few weeks ago - the idea just clicked and felt right.

Rather than teaching, I would like to host open and informal discussions about writing and reading poetry. Why do we write, who do we write for, ways into poetry etc… I’ll be hosting these salons as monthly emails on the first Saturday of each month. An email will go out to all subscribers on this day and you are welcome to join in with discussions via the comments section. If you are a poet, interested in writing, or learning more about ways into reading - I hope you may find the poetry salons a good place to spend some time….

I look forward to sending the first email next Saturday!

**

Many thanks for reading here and for your kind support. Please feel free to leave a comment here. I always look forward to hearing from you.

A coffee is always welcome

SHOP

Dear Friends

After a week of very hot weather, working each day, I am properly tired - and that’s putting it politely. But I wanted to write to you as I do have things I would like to share. It’s been a good week with ideas flowing and painting many tiny paintings has been a great distraction from the heat. Above is a drawing I made recently (now sold) -…

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A new tiny portrait - woman in a painterly dress. This work will be included in my next shop update.

It is a very warm weekend here in the south of England - and a bank holiday tomorrow. We are so used to rainy, dismal holidays no one is quite sure what to do with themselves - well that is not quite true. I am certainly staying as cool as possible (not very easy in this attic, but we have our methods). I won’t be sunbathing but I will be relaxing, painting early in the morning (as I did this morning). The hot weather is set to last into next week.

So this is just a brief one.

Thanks to everyone who has visited my shop and purchased work recently, much appreciated. I have a couple of paintings currently available, including this one:

Dream of a Walled Garden (29cm x 29cm) - I am particularly happy with this painting and enjoyed planting all the textures of this imagined landscape. I wonder if it’s just one of those paintings you have to see in person to really appreciate all the detail and colour.

My next shop update will be Wednesday 27th May at 7pm UK time with preview from 4pm - I hope to share a mix of tiny paintings, new drawings and more. (link to my shop below)

‘Busy children in a garden’. A very tiny painting for my next update, just completed this morning.

I am not afraid of painting sweet scenes, just now and then (sweet is fine, cute - big nope). I know there is a belief that to make your work stand out you need to do edgy stuff that is ‘relevant’ - whatever that means - but I’ll just continue on making work that I want to make and share with you, thank you. I’ve never chased trends or wanted huge fame. I am grateful to be doing what I do. So I am grateful to you for subscribing here and showing an interest.

my new zine is coming soon and I have lots of ideas to explore over the coming weeks

Thanks always,

Best Wishes

Cathy

SHOP

Here are pages in a very tiny book. Propped on top of a stretched canvas. I am looking forward to painting more pages over the coming days. The book’s pages are brown paper and I am layering up with linen, paper and gesso.

Apparently it is international tea day. Every day is tea day in this household. But I thought I would share with you how …

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A recent sketch/sculpture - card, paper, linen, glue, gesso.

I hope you are well. I seem to have a so much green going on at the moment. The rain comes, the hail passes through, a rainbow appears - and all is green.

Somethings and Tiny Book

Above you can see one of several small sculpture pieces I have been making. I call these my ‘somethings’. They are very modest bits of sculpture, sketches to be held in the hand. The starting process involves gluing together of bits and bobs.

Alongside the sculpted sketches or somethings I am also working in books. Yes, sketchbooks and tiny artist books will always be my primary places to figure things but adding in the somethings just adds more playfulness. And that happens to be a good thing, for me.

So here are a few of the pieces I have made recently and as you can tell the green is dominating. But I do not expect these to all be green-themed. It’s just at this moment I look out of my attic window and see the brilliant greens of the horse chestnut tree and all the other trees surrounding, and I walk across the road to the churchyard (my adopted back garden) and see all the green there, the cow parsley and yes even the nettles….

The ‘somethings’ are fixed, meaning they do not fold and I will have to store them in a box or better still, perhaps, on the wall. They take time and paint, paint and time to create but I think are worth my attention. They allow me to explore ideas in a more three-dimensional way and I have always wished to do this, either through making vessels, dolls, embroidery or these - these somethings. I would love to explore sculpture over time, more deeply. Although I do not crave the making of large sculptural things and will not be putting on my Barbara Hepworth hat any time soon, I do admire sculpture in all its various guises. And let me be honest, I just love figuring out bits of this and that.

Story of a Painting

I thought I would take you along with me as I paint a larger landscape in gouache paint on watercolour paper.

I shared a painting a couple of weeks ago and this is a similar start - earth and sky. Though this time I am sure the sky will change, as it so often does. The earth is a grounding and I will be planting things. My only main idea at this stage is a need to paint a rich cottage garden, a mix of wild and deliberate.

At this stage I find it’s good to play and not worry over detail - it’s far too soon for me to do that. Unlike watercolour, gouache paint allows for layering in a richer way.

So I find a figure and I know the woman will not be visible for long - she will indeed become an old tree. What a lovely thing to happen. But I know and now you know she is always there beneath the plants and shapes and green. This happens quite often in my work. I know the gardener is there.

Yes, its time to find shapes and tones that will be visible.

And then a lot happens and I do not photograph every stage - this is not in anyway a tutorial. But you can see here how I have laid down areas of plant life and green shades and other garden colours. I want the house to be there but not the main part of the story. It will be kept simple yet obviously an integral part of life in this landscape. it has a timelessness and I am happy with that.

The finally complete painting:

Here is ‘a cottage garden between spring and summer’.

The plants I have found to place in this garden are from memory - some may be recognisably marigolds or daisies of some kind. But when I am looking at gardens I am often more interested in leaves than flowers, and I wanted this painting to reflect my interest in leaf colour, shape and the ‘jungly’ look of some gardens as they suddenly brim with life.

This is a larger painting at 29.5cm x 29cm - and I enjoyed the space I had to really get engrossed. So I will definitely be making more paintings on this scale - though I will also be making smaller (and tiny). I am particularly pleased with the colours in this patch - not just green, but so much more. With special thanks to my tubes of paint. I get through so much paint these days! My local art shop knows now that I use yellow paint most of all. I love mixing my own greens.

Shop News

I will be updating my shop this coming Wednesday at 7pm UK time - with preview from 4pm. I hope to offer a mix of new artwork, including the painting above.

Thank you so much for all recent orders. I am grateful for all your interest and support. Free postage continues for UK. There is a link to my shop at the end of these notes.

**

New Writing

I had hoped to be sharing with you my new poetry zine - but it needs a little more time. The zine is called ‘Something & Something Else’ - and features a sequence of poems that often relate to painting and creativity. Due to printing issues I need a few more weeks and then it will be available.

I mentioned the zine to my paid subscribers last Thursday - and shared a poem from it. Here is another, which I feel relates very much to the sort of painting I have shared with you today (see above).

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Picture Book

I want the house to have

a picture book quality

and price tag

(ten shillings a year, shall we say?)

and if it gets lost in all the green

so be it, albeit

a muddle of flowers in

the afternoon of this place

is enough, just.

Through hushed light and birdsong

I might claim my one true home.

The lines of this and that hasten.

But there is no door yet and the

roof needs a mend. A different

shade of hair-earth-sky.

**

I had to take a photograph of the rainbow view a few evenings ago. This is in my sitting room. It is a quiet space filled with collections of ceramics, books and paintings, and textiles and knitted things - much I have made myself but not all. Now I want to paint a landscape with a rainbow, and will do that soon…

Thank you for reading here and please do say hello, leave a comment if you enjoyed reading. I do appreciate hearing from you.

I send my midweek notes to paid subscribers most Thursdays.

A coffee is always welcome, thank you.

SHOP

I hope your week is going well. The ever-changing weather here is a little discombobulating. You think I would be used to it by now.

Whilst I am busy painting my ‘green and pleasant’ pictures I am also, quietly, working on a monochrome body of work. It feels like a way of balancing out all the green and is also a way to connect with my past s…

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I hope you are well. It has been a few weeks and I have several things I would like to share with you.

This week I am sharing some in-progress photos of my sketchbook so you can see how a page may be developed. I’m also sharing here some notes on the power of quiet. Shop news. A new tiny painting. New poems. More progress with paper vessels…..

Sketchbook

let me begin with the completed pages

In this new handmade book I want the pages to be quietly ‘rough and energetic’ with a simple palette of mostly blacks, whites, burnt sienna brown and a little green with spots of other colours here and there. I am going to work on bits of this and that - scrap brown paper, fabric and so on. I’ll be using gouache paints.

I began with finding scrap brown papers - already with marks on, as I used this paper to work upon previously. But I don’t like waste and especially don’t throw away sturdy paper if I can work with it more.

I dug about in my sketchbook basket of bits and bobs - and found some calico I had painted months ago. I added a few pieces to the pages. Already I am thinking the left page will be a still life with the brown painted fabric a table surface.

And then to paint - and already I am seeing something - someone but also, having second thoughts about that green painted fabric on the right page. I can’t quite work with it and the girl coming through the paint - so I move the fabric.

The girl needs a collar/ruff - oh certainly that happens. I find I like the marks on the brown paper seeping through. The whole thing feels old-hearted and yet modern. I like that playfulness. My work is all about time travel, you might think. Yes, I managed to get that fabric scrap moved over to the left page and now I’m seeing things better. Of course, there are many stages, marks and moments of indecision along the way here - and I can only show you so much via a few photos. But I hope you can see how things are coming together - though keeping it loose.

And here we are at the completed pages again. I look forward to sharing more of this book with you here in the coming weeks.

**

The Power of Quiet

I had a few quiet days at the end of last week - much needed. I was feeling exhausted, physically and mentally, and knew I just needed to stop. Frankly, I am not good at stopping. I love what I do and feel fortunate to be doing it, but at the same time my creative drive can become too much (and I am getting older, I have to admit that I need a little more rest than my twenty-something self might have needed).

So I had a dose of quiet. No work. Stillness. No radio, no YouTube (I don’t watch or own a tv). No CD’s. I listened to the ambient sounds of town especially the gossipy birds. I had conversations with the people I live with. I read a variety of books and articles/essays all on paper, no screens. I checked my phone for brief social media moments only a few games of Scrabble online with friends. I was too tired to go for a walk, which is a sign, of ever there was one…

No knitting or stitching for ‘pleasure’. I have noticed recently I have this tendency to allow my hobbies to become work projects - to the point that I will stop painting for the day and then I begin on my ‘other work’. I want my hobbies to be relaxing - not work. So a break from them has allowed for a small reset.

The change in me from having a just a few days of quiet is remarkable. It’s not just about energy levels or mental state. The power of quiet as a medicine is extraordinary.

As someone who has got into the habit of always listening to something beyond the ambient sounds around me, who would often multi-multi task on things - I can tell you, there is a remarkable difference when I just stop overloading on everything.

Nothing at all remarkable in being quiet for a few days, you may right say. But I found the experience quite remarkable, revealing - and will repeat as I feel required. Until then, I will be just a little quieter, generally.

**

Here’s a new tiny painting to show you. Two friends in conversation. I am particularly fond of the left figure’s yellow legs. It’s a look I don’t think I’d ever be able to pull off, personally, but painting figures allows me this opportunity to dress up without having to - if you follow me… I love the texture of these tiny paintings and a big part of them comes before I even start to paint - that is making the support. Using mount board, linen scraps and gesso, I can create a unique combination of textures and shapes to paint upon. Then the paint happens and the possibilties for storytelling….

Shop News

I am grateful to everyone for all your interest in my artwork and recent sales. I look forward to working on more tiny paintings in the coming days. I hope to have a new selection in my shop this coming Wednesday - including the one above. I also hope to have a few new book page artworks available.

Next shop update: Wednesday 13th May at 7pm UK time - with preview from 4pm

Free postage within the UK continues.

There is a link to my shop at the end of these notes. I currently have just one painting currently looking for a home.

New Writing

Here are two new poems - I hope you enjoy reading and thank you always for your encouragement. These are poems that may still yet be revised, changed.

Bats!

My spring evenings:

chamomile tea and watching bats.

Standing in the attic kitchen in duskiness.

They’re quick inky darts and then nothing.

Specks of dark on an old cine film.

Drift, lift and sink to never-was.

As if on invisible wires, yet feasting.

Odd flickers from odder-still neighbours.

Could it be they’re dipping through

not just insecty air but time itself?

Doing this night, after night, after.

A pause. Dead ladybird

on the windowsill, the colour

of cherry brown shoe polish.

Just one more bat, I whisper,

sipping flowery tea.

Don’t blink,

you’ll smudge them out.

**

Blackbird in the Churchyard

The blackbird trots out from beneath

hedge but looking with one circled

eye seems to be looking

right through my shape and I remember

to a blackbird everyone here is not really.

We’re all tricks of the sun, phantoms.

And so he does not mind

my shadow lingering over his patch.

I ask, Mr Blackbird, are these Welsh

or Californian poppies? But he has

so little opinion on the matter. They are

tugs of colour becoming rattles.

What do you think? Are these Californian or Welsh poppies? I think the latter. I love the churchyard all year round, especially though when there are so many wildflowers as there are in May. Just in this photo I see, poppies, buttercups, daisies, dandelions, plantain, that blue flower I think is not a forget-me-not so might be? What else?

Meanwhile, I am continuing to explore my love of paper from old books - in vessel forms. Here are several at various stages of development.

And here’s one completed. I decided this jug would have a cottage landscape. I like her way of leaning and old lady posture.

If you would like to watch me painting (and faffing) a cup - then I shared a 15 minutes video with paid subscribers this week. I send my midweek notes most Thursdays to all paid subscribers and share a variety of more behind-the-scenes and side projects.

Thanks always for reading here and for your kind support

A coffee is always welcome

SHOP

Today I have a video of me painting a book page cup - and a few photos showing the completed little cup.

I hope your week is going well so far. It’s a warm-ish, sunny-ish day here. I have spent most of the day putting packages together and sending out orders. At this time of uncertainty in the world I feel especially grateful. We have local…

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I am having a quiet weekend and so I do not have studio notes to share with you this Sunday (but please see below).

Thank you always for your interest in my work and for your kind support. Thanks especially to everyone who has recently purchased artwork and/or a paid subscription.

My next shop update will be: Wednesday 6th May at 7pm UK time - with a preview from 4pm. I hope to have a mix of new artwork available.

Meanwhile, I thought I would share a post with you that went out to my paid subscribers a few weeks back. It features a small mixed media book created recently. I have made this available for everyone to read - just for the next week or so. I hope you enjoy this and I hope to be sharing more books in the future.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend and take care,

Cathy

Dear Friends

I hope you are well. It’s a very warm, summery day here - hard to believe it is only the end of April. This month has felt very busy, with so much greenery taking over my environment and paintings.

Above you can see a trio of ladies in all their monochrome splendour. They are drawn using a paint brush and black gouache paint. I am not entire…

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Crow visits the forget-me-nots (21.5cm x 17.5cm)

A new painting featuring a crow/jackdaw visitor to a wild garden. I spotted a new patch of forget-me-nots flowering in the churchyard and said ‘yes - forget-me-nots time!’ Which allows makes me happy. Now the daffodil season is just about over.

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are well. We are enjoying fine sunny weather here - and many of us can’t quite believe the forecast as it seems the sunshine is here to stay for a while yet. Will this be the best stretch of weather this spring into summer? I cannot fathom how it will be May very soon.

This week I thought I would take you on one of my walks close to home. Despite living in the heart of a busy town, I am fortunate to have green spaces near where I live.

Yes the sky was really that blue. Here is a meadow area, where small cattle have grazed over the years. The church in the distance is the one I see from my kitchen window.

But what I am interested in is the smaller details, the wild beauty like these dandelions growing by an old wall. The way light and shade works, the greens and the mix of plants.

So if you should see a woman photographing ‘weeds’…..

In the churchyard there are forget-me-nots, dandelions and buttercup varieties thriving in the uncut grasses. I hope the churchyard maintenance team will not cut things back too soon. This is one of my favourite old stone graves in the churchyard - can you see the face peering out?

Back home and I am inspired to paint. I won’t work from photographs directly, they are just on my phone for prompts. I will literally glance at them now and then, if and when I feel the need.

First washes -

I like to think of the earth below the greens and how that gives a good grounding. All my recent painting on brown paper has also taught me how brown can be a good starting point. I am working in designer gouache paint on watercolour paper.

Happy with the sky and here’s a detail of first marks. Keeping it loose and playful.

Finding plants and mixing greens - dock leaves in the foreground help to lend a contrast with all the smaller stems and leaves.

More leaves! More green please

And then, what’s this - a bird you say? Well also many yellow flowers. This painting is more about the greens and yellows than anything else. But the bird adds a sense of a moment in time - the invitation to dive in…

The completed painting - crabapple blossom in the meadow - 29cm x 26cm gouche on watercolour paper.

And then, many, many brushstrokes later - the crab apple blossom has appeared and I feel like I am almost back in the meadow. This is my imagined version of the space. I am not a painter of a specific place, more a painter of a chance mood.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how this painting evolved. I am particularly happy with all those yellow wild plants and how they work together. Of course I could have shared more steps and photos but this is not a tutorial and that world of sharing is not my thing - but I am grateful to know, from your comments, that you like to see some of my ‘in progress’. So I am happy to share and thank you.

**

SHOP NEWS

I will be updating my shop this coming Wednesday. 29th April, at 7pm UK time - with preview from 4pm. Expect to see a mix of new artwork including the two paintings I have share with you here. I hope to have new book page paintings also.

Free postage within in the UK continues - and I am going to extend this into May. I am grateful to everyone for your interest and kind support. There is a link to my shop at the end of these notes.

**

New Writing

A poem and a story/observation for you this week. I hope you enjoy reading and thanks always for your kind encouragement. A poetry workshop is coming soon - hopefully at the end of May. More infor soon.

Multitudes

One shade of green

is an impossibility.

Quietly, quietly give me

hands together, dancing greens -

a little yellowredblackblue

will allow a small multitude

of green, and not quite green

and with a flourish,

light care and chance

more green, more green

unto the green sky.

Yes, the sky feels green today.

**

The next generation goes shopping

Three lads in the bread section of the supermarket and one of them reading the ingredients of a sliced loaf. E147a, the boys says, sounds like a fighter jet. His friends agree. I have no idea why they are so concerned with the contents of a loaf of bread. I get a feeling they could either have been told to look at it for a school project, or they are simply killing time whilst their friend chooses a box of cereal. When I encounter them again it is at the self-checkout, where they are paying with cash because they have never paid with cash before and want to see how it works. They all contribute, adding coins into the machine as if about to win a jackpot.

***

And finally, I thought I would share with you some of the paper vessel making that quietly goes on alongside everything else. I like to make the most of a book! Over the years I have made many paper vessels, mostly small cups and jugs. Some are painted, others have embroidery included or monoprint drawings. These days I am inclined to keep them just as they are, concerning myself with the shape and texture. But we will see. The small jug to the left is complete - but the larger jug still needs a little work. The vessel on the right is still very much in progress. I am experimenting with rounder, different shapes. My starting point is usually a piece of lightweight card twisted and formed into a 3D shape and this is covered with layers of book paper and glue. The process takes time but now we have warmer days at least the drying time is quicker… I will share more with you soon.

Thanks always for reading. I send these studio notes to all subscribers on Sundays. My midweek notes go out on Thursdays to paid subscribers. I have recently been sharing a mixed media book.

A coffee is always welcome

SHOP

I hope your week is going well. We have blue skies and warm weather this afternoon.

I have completed my newest postcard book! And as I so often do, I looked at a random sheet of text and found a title: ‘In the old days, maybe, yes’

Here are the pages I have completed since last week.

This is the centre page. I had a blank postcard back to work with and wanted to keep it simple, dynamic - so black gouache paint and allowing the bits of text to peek through.

The next pages are more complex. Here I have used recently stitched-by-hand figures - I have kept the handwriting with the address of the hospital one of the cards was sent to. You may remember one of the four cards used in this book was sent to a poorly little girl by her mother. The hospital, in London, still exists but is currently closed for an upgrade.

Here is a closer look at the stitched figures - I like how their simplicity works alongside the monoprint drawings.

More monoprint drawing and a little stitch too. Her arms/hands are actually the reverse side of stitching by hand - which I personally find more interesting!

And here, inspired by the theme of a mother caring for her child, I have a figure holding her hands out in anticipation…. I always like to include someone on a bicycle in my postcard books, it’s just become a thing…. And of course birds.

Here is a video look-through of the completed book. I hope you enjoy taking a look through.

This little book will have a box for safe keeping and I will be working on that next.

Thanks always for your kind support and interest in my artwork. I look forward to sharing more with you soon.

Cathy x

I hope you are well and enjoying a little spring (or autumn) sunshine. It is a bright start here. The blackbirds seem to be busy elsewhere at the moment and have moved on from the trees nearby.

I am still so inspired by birds and especially the smaller sparrows and other ‘hedge birds’ that find themselves a home around town, maybe in a garden or a municipal hedge, by the river or in the park….

Here’s a new book page artwork - with bluebells.

A new book page painting - I create a collage of papers from old Penguin paperbacks as my starting point. Then I paint scenes within scenes…

I thought I would share with you a painting yet to be completed. This is a larger one in progress - another in my series of wild gardens with visiting birds. I am inspired by all the wilder spaces that I see on walks. My preference for wilder gardens is something that has come about in recent years from living in town without a garden. It’s seeing those ‘untouched’ corners and spaces that do their own thing with opportunist flowers and visiting birds, as well as other creatures such as bees and butterflies - those otherwise little scrappy bits of ‘not gardened too much’. The churchyard is good at offering inspiration, as is a local meadow walk and seeing the back-end of gardens.

Here you can see the beginnings of a painting - the main structure is there, to some extent. I wish I had taken a first photo earlier in the process.

Here you can see how I have developed my ideas. I’ve layered up and found room for a few bluebells. We have peak bluebell season going on at the moment. They are popping up all around (see my poem ‘Grey Area’ below).

Here’s a detailed view of the bluebells.

I will share a photo of the completed painting in my substack notes - sometime in the next few days.

I want to keep this painting free, lively in its brushstrokes - I don’t want it to get muddy. And I was so tempted to paint at least one visiting bird - but I told myself: don’t you dare! There’s always this tendency, when sharing work online, to have to make sure you have the completed thing - to rush to the end is never a good idea! So, yes, I do have to rein myself in a bit and will be stern. Or I will allow myself the opportunity to shift my energy to something else - put the thing I want to finish because I want to see the complete thing to one side - and then work on something else. That is why I nearly always have more than one painting in the go. I don’t have the space for many paintings in progress, but I have enough to juggle a few. And it’s that juggling that saves the paintings (I hope) from being rushed or overworked.

This is always why I don’t have so many photos of completed paintings to show you today. It is now a rule for me not to rush things just because I am sending my studio notes to you - and I hope this makes sense.

Gone are the days when I would worry about having something to post on Instagram each day. That place has become less interesting to me. Hectic, or just plain weird to me reels - not my cup of tea. Anything sped-up just prompts me to move on. But I will continue to share my work there because I have a following that I have worked hard to build and maintain, and I’m not about to let that just slip. I am grateful for people being interested in my work and what suits one person (reading here) may not suit someone else who enjoys the fast-pace scroll. I often get told by people ‘I am not seeing your posts on Instagram’ - and I understand this frustration. The ‘favourites’ feature is erratic or simply disallows over a certain number. Sigh.

But instead of bemoaning the state of social media for too long - I thought I would show you these tremendously frilly daffodils. They were a reduced bunch from the supermarket. Quite honestly, if I thought they were going to be this frilly I might have not purchased them but - you just can’t argue with a bunch of daffs can you?! They are lovely because they make me smile. I will keep on painting daffodils until they are no longer around. My painting does shift with the seasons but saying that I am wondering if I might do a ‘Christmas in July’ small collection this year. It might be an interesting challenge?

Shop News

My next update will be this coming Wednesday, 22nd April at 7pm UK - preview from 4pm.

Thanks to everyone who has purchased artwork recently, your support and interest is much appreciated. Free postage to UK customers continues….

There is a link to my shop at the end of those notes. I have just a few artworks available at the moment.

**

New Writing

Three new poems for you this week. I hope you enjoy reading and thanks always for your kind encouragement and comments.

One Duck

The river is a blank and then

just one duck comes along.

One small wren bounces from

the nettled hedge. One small blue

butterfly settles momentarily

on the corner of my paperback

with blue flowers on the cover.

The weather is pleasant.

We could hope for more, always more.

A magpie inspects papery daffodils.

An elderly woman on the bridge

nods at the one duck.

**

Just a Bit More Yellow

Just enough yellow becoming

ochre soon. Just enough

yellow for a fistful of leaves.

Just enough yellow to brighten a room.

Last chance for a chartreuse mood.

Just enough white to make a lemon smile.

**

Grey Area

Bluebells by the door

in amongst chickweed

and rat traps and late daffodils -

the man who comes to bait

the traps has trampled down

the comfrey and I’m angry.

I enjoyed the sudden pearly flowers

and so did the bees.

This courtyard is a bit of a

grey area, not maintained

but sometimes disturbed.

I plant quiet things in corners,

tuck in bulbs. When we first

moved here I worried about

the weediness of it all

and gave a Sunday to tidying but

now I leave it be.

I watch the wrens, clematis grow

through rusted stones,

smaller unknowns flowering

between centuries-old brick.

I take bits of moss upstairs,

put them in pots to turn gold.

**

Reading

Here is the book I mentioned in the first poem above. Seeing this cover artwork reminded me to look again at the painting of Suzanne Valadon, whose work this is. As for the book - I am really enjoying this one. I have not read anything by Mary Hocking before now and when I read the back blurb that said ‘Mary Hocking is confirmed the successor to Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Pym’ I felt I should read. A lucky find for me as I looked through the shelves of a local secondhand bookshop for older Penguins (to pull apart).

**

Thanks always for reading here. Please do leave a comment, say hello. Tell me what flowers are blooming in your part of the world.

A coffee is always welcome

Paid subscribers receive midweek notes most Thursdays. At the moment I am sharing how I am working on a new mixed media postcard book.

SHOP

I hope your week is going well.

It has become sunnier today and the geraniums are blooming…. I will need to take cuttings and give each plant a trim soon (and a feed, or repot). They seem to do really well up here in the attic….

This week I am sharing with you part one of creating a postcard book. The video below shows the book as it looked b…

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I hope you are well. We have had such a mixture of temperatures and April weather - from chilly to baking warm. The geraniums on the attic windowsills are making flowers and I have yet to sow any herb seeds. Please remind me in a few weeks if I do not share news of seedlings!

Here’s a new painting, completed just yesterday. I enjoy tulips even more when they start to evolve into something more otherworldly. I waited for tulips to flop but some have become ever more twisted and dark, whilst others have indeed flopped and made themselves into static whirls. I kept the tones quiet, even hinting toward wintry, to allow the tulips to have their moment.

‘Still life with going-over tulips’ a new painting in gouache on gesso-primed watercolour paper 28cm x 22.5cm

I like to work on gesso-primed watercolour paper for several reasons. The gesso creates a gentle resist, so the paint needs to layered and can create interesting texture, with variations depending on how the gesso was applied. For example, I used the edge of a piece of card to spread the gesso over the paper for this work. I might have used a brush but the surface quality would have been a little different. Another reason I like to use gesso on watercolour paper is that I like to work with layers and if the paper is primed the paper will take more paint and brushwork without becoming so easily damaged. Of course, I will also work straight on to watercolour paper often enough, but I am always exploring different surfaces for paint.

**

New Mixed Media

I’m working quietly on new mixed media pieces including hand stitch elements. You may have seen the two collages I added to my shop this week. I’ll just slip a few new pieces into my shop, as and when, as ideas come alive.

Here are some monoprint figures I have made. I use water-mixable oil paint for this using a direct drawing method (laying the paper on a paint-smeared glass surface and drawing into the back of the paper with the eye of a needle). I particularly enjoy the look of these figures on yellowed book paper. As if characters are emerging from the margins of stories.

*

(Re)Reading

I’m currently re-reading my favourite novel ‘The Corner That Held Them’ by Sylvia Townsend Warner. Each time I read this book I pick on new details, I enjoy the atmosphere of the fourteenth century in different ways and am never less than dazzled by the prose writing. I often have to re-read passages as I go, such is the depth and joy in the writing - I can tell that STW loved writing this novel. The book is a story of a convent in Norfolk but is so much more than that, and with no one protagonist the reader is encouraged to enjoy a wider landscape of life as it was in those times. It is not a romantic telling of the period. And I must say I am not someone who would otherwise read a lot of historical fiction. There’s just something about this book and I encourage you to give it a go. The reason I mention it is because I am sure my re-reading is influencing the figures I am drawing and the colours I am painting at the moment.

I am a reader who loves to re-read. The books on my shelves are often returned to. A book I enjoyed earlier this year is Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns - another favourite author. And oh this book!* I could have started to read it again straightaway. But I do plan to re-read this summer. Perhaps some people are put off from re-reading books because they feel they must always add to the number of books they have read, but I have given up on that. As a pleasure reader, no longer a reader with an essay to write, I am just grateful to return to wonderful books. I would be interested to know, do you have favourite books you enjoy re-reading?

*Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead, pub 1954 - is the lively, eccentric story of the Willoweed family set in rural Warwickshire - the inside blurb of the book gives you an idea: ‘Strange things are afoot in the English village where the Willoweed family live. First, the river floods in June. The family wakes to find ducks sailing around the drawing room and dead peacocks bobbing in the garden. But the flood is only the beginning of their troubles’.

**

Shop News

Thank you so much to everyone who has purchased artwork from me recently. I really do appreciate your support. I am attempting to price all artworks as modestly as possible and that is never easy.

Unfortunately, I have had to recently revise my postage charges due to Royal Mail increasing their prices once again. Now international postage is £12 for smaller items and £13 for bigger. I always combine postage.

I am offering free tracked postage to all UK customers at the moment and until the end of this month. The cost has increased but I am offering it for free - because I know we’re getting hit with higher prices here and every little helps. I only wish I could offer free postage to everyone but alas…

My next shop update will be: Wednesday 15th April at 7pm with preview from 4pm (UK)

This week I will have a selection of artworks and also wool embroidery brooches - I had hoped to have brooches last week but really did not have adequate space or energy for them. I am working on trying to pace myself and manage my own expectations a little better! Anyway, this week I will have brooches…

There is a link to my shop at the end of these notes. I currently have a few artworks available.

Here’s a bird brooch alongside a yellow jug brooch I have yet to fully complete.

**

New Writing

Two poems for you this week. I hope you enjoy reading and thanks always for your kind encouragement.

Casting On

Good morning crow,

I have no bold plan for the day.

Let me cast on just enough stitches.

At your reply, I will stop casting on.

How is the weather at the top of the tree?

The yarn slips easily between breaths.

Yes, I’m still casting on and anticipating

though I have no plan for this moment;

the yarn itself is a comfort of hope.

What’s that you say? I may stop.

And now to knit a thousand-thousand rows.

**

Summer in April

The swans have departed up or downstream

and on this hot April day paddlers have

taken over the water. A father and son

are dredging the riverbed with a yellow net,

or the father is intent on this, bent in deep

concentration as he sees into the shallow murk.

But Daddy, the boy says, hobbling on stones.

A small girl lingers by, furiously shivering in sunshine

as the father talks of weeds and sticklebacks.

Meanwhile, on the riverbank, a group

of dark-dressed women picnic in the shade,

their headscarves flapping in green breeze

and behind them children in the tree

are climbing, nimble and alive in limelight.

I thought you might like to see some of the spinning and knitting I have been working on recently. I enjoy spinning with a spindle very much - and have no plan to invest in a spinning wheel at this time. The spindle is so portable, of course, and allows me to walk about the attic and watch the world from a window. Or I can sit.

The beginnings of a new garter stitch wrap using finely spun shetland fibres - a mix of two natural shades. I love to work with different British wools and natural colours: browns and greys and blacks.

**

Thanks always for reading here and thanks for subscribing.

I send midweek notes most Thursdays to paid subscribers.

A coffee is always welcome.

SHOP