Fleeting Memories

This is my Mum, as I remember her in 1964…a very long time ago now…50 years ago. I created this ink and watercolour drawing of her during my first semester at art college in 2006, and I named it Miss Newquay 1964…she wasn’t… but she could have been.

My Mum was always very glamorous and I thought she was beautiful with her red hair and trendy 1960s dresses…she had clothes just like the ones I now search out in charity shops, with those special ‘Vintage’ labels, that cost much more than they would have done then to buy or make. In the 70s, after learning to drive, she got a job driving for a motor factors delivering to local garages; how she must have wowed them with her hotpants and long brown legs.

Mum loved to make things; she was a keen dressmaker and my sister and I suffered matching outfits even though we are eight years apart in age…the pompom ponchos spring particularly to mind here…my sister Hayley will know exactly what I mean!

Mum loved to have a go at anything creative or crafty. Many’s a time when I arrived home from school to find old chairs with a complete smart new suit. She gardened, stitched, arranged flowers, and hand stitched carpet squares in our hallway, a white and green checkerboard, till her fingers bled. She made clothes and stitched together some fantastic outfits for my ballroom dancing days – and yes, she stitched all the sequins and beads on by hand! When my children came along, she crocheted the most beautiful shawls, knitted their cardies, and again stitched, stitched, stitched…the highlight has to be the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle outfits she made for Steven and Hannah complete with padded shell, mask, anklets and wristlets – I wish I had a photo to show you – they were amazing!

Mum was diagnosed with dementia in 2009 and now lives in a care home.  I’m not sure she even remembers that she did any of these wonderful things, or how much of an influence she has been on my creative life. When I talk to her about the things she made, she nods her head but her eyes are far away and I can see she is trying to search for some recognition in the memories I share with her.

A Good Book

Something I share with my daughter...we both enjoy a good book.  Hannah was an avid reader from a very early age.  My efforts to get her to put down her book and go to sleep usually failed - she would read by torchlight under the duvet or by sitting on the bedroom window ledge with her book lit by the streetlamp outside!  The above embroidered image 'A Good Book' started life as a very quick loose drawing on a prepared etching plate, early one morning when Hannah was visiting and I was going off to college...she was engrossed as usual in her reading and I couldn't resist trying to capture the moment.

The resulting etching I have returned to again and again as a starting point for other work.  When a friend commissioned me to create an embroidered image for her, this little etching became the influence for a new drawing in which I tried to capture her enjoyment and passion for the story...it looks like at that moment she has just come across a really juicy bit which she just has to read out loud and share with me.

 Thanks for the inspiration Han!

Light at the end of the tunnel

Hello World

This is my very first blog post.  The above image is one I created in 2013 from a photograph I took whilst walking through a long tunnel underpass in the gloom with bright sunlight sparkling ahead and lighting up the graffiti on the walls of the tunnel, quite magical and lovely.

This image is created on paper with watercolour and machine embroidery, entitled 'Light at the End of the Tunnel'.  It's symbolic of my ongoing pursuit of a more artistic life and my continuing creative journey.  

I'm still walking...little steps towards the light...