Things I need to do

For my creative business.

Get a new website with a blog on it, on Wordpress. Make it clear that i do portraits.
Spend some time going through the HSHB course with regard to this particular business.
Experiment with styles and framing to find the best fit
Experiment with the idea of empowering self portraiture and the possibility of doing a workshop on this
Set some time aside for this each week

A day at the the Farm

On Thursday I went to Hawthbush Farm for a day with People Who Do.  It was a meet up of all those interested in becoming associates or working in some capactity with them, and a kind of introduction to the company and a chance to  hear where they are at, and discuss what our input could be.  Good news is that they have plenty of work and desperately want to step away from the deivery side of it.  Which is where I (and a few others) would step in. Good to know there is work there.  I was slightly overwhelmed when the talk was around business development.  I guess I feel really out of the world of business.  Perhaps I don't even really want to get into that side of it so much either? I don't know.  I guess if I knew the language and had some experience it would feel better.  For my part I am excited about doing the delivery side of it, and also the options to bring in business and how that might pan out with commission and so on.  What I really liked was the group of people gathered together.  A bright, creative, interesting and more importantly, interested bunch of folk.

The other thing was the wonderful place that is Hawthbush Farm.  One thing completely and utterly got me.  They had this beautiful function room, with this massive table, and they had had a dinner there the night before.  A chef had come down from Claridges and cooked a show piece several courses meal.  And they were going to do this, often, and it be a non profit, but for fun thing, with guests paying £30 and bringing wine.  OMIGOD yes.  This also made me insanely jealous. No, not jealous.  But you know sometimes when you experience something, and its some one's way of life, and you think.  BUT THIS IS HOW I WANT MY LIFE TO BE.  The big table thing.  Its so totally my dream.

But, see, the other good thing, is that People Who Do, want to book that experience, I will get to go there and have a splendid dinner. And while it may not be my table, at least I am going to get to eat at it.  Quite frankly I could not imaging a better way to spend my time.  Apart from doing that and spending the day painting and then having a big meal prepared like that.

At this beautiful farm there is also a large house to rent out and subsiduary cottages so that a group of people can stay there,

So my Art Retreat ears pricked up and my heartbeat grew a little faster at that idea.

I think I need a rebrand

Not me, nor this blog actually as its just my personal blog.  But I want to rebrand my portraits into something cooler and cuter and darker and more interesting.  At the moment they are just drawings of children.  And while that is FINE I just feel that it all needs a DIRECTION.  I have lately been utterly obsessed (in a good way) with the idea of THE DARK HOUSE.  Its like this total shift in the way I see things.  Hmm, I guess it has been growing for a while, but I so used to be about the beach house vibe, all bright breezy candy colours and now, this dark wood, slightly fairy tale sinister, cosy warm dark coloured thing.  And I want to up the price I charge for the portraits, and - well  - package them better.  Create a story around them, and more of a recognisable theme that is truly my own.  Maybe dark and twisted is not entirely the way to go with children's portraits.  But an element of darker colours, a touch of the fairy tale forest.  This is what I am thinking along the lines of.  And maybe starting a portrait focused blog.  Or a proper art blog.  And keeping this one as my own thing. I don't know exactly, I like being able to think out loud with this blog.  working it out as I go along. 

kicking the creative rut into space

Hello again.  I just wanted to say that I have spent the last hour or so immersed in creating freely.  I have totally and utterly had a lovely time and I feel happy inside. Inside my heart there has been some leaden feelings and they have been hard to shake off.  Hello creative play!  It so works.

I started out because i have entered into Louise Gale's Creative Colour Challenge.  And so like me, I have missed the deadline.  I have already received a delightful and delicate painting from Fur Will Fly and there's me, all in a huff and had forgotten all about it.  So with this beautiful reminder that came so unexpectedly in the post (how totally awesome to receive an unexpected parcel?!) (FWF I am on the case, it will be coming your way soon!! I Promise!) I came upstairs this evening to create my piece.  The theme is BLOOMING COMPLIMENTARY.  Its bloom and complimentary colours.  I chose green and red and started by cutting out green and read bits from a magazine.  Then I got some green and red paint and made a bit of a mess on various bits of paper. FUN.  And finally went for it.  I have used the words Bloom True.  Because this is the name of the workshop I will be doing with Flora Bowley at the Do What You Love retreat in May.

After the last few days, and my work load of late. I am so absolutely and utterly taking this time out to go and immerse myself in wild and free creative painting.  Posting about Amelia's Journal Your Dreams workshop (and YES I am going to do it again!) earlier this evening, got me thinking about how I had used a photo of Flora painting in her studio as part of my Journal.  And how she came to symbolise what I want to be as a painter and how I had journalled about wanting to find the time and space to CREATE.  It all sort of came together with Beth inviting Flora to be one of the workshop leaders at her Do What You Love retreat.  I felt that it was all a bit pricey for me, and my husband definately is not sure its something I should be spending the money on...... but I am sure. And the work that has come my way since, and this unexpected insurance payout.... and EVEN this horrible fit of the blues I have just gone through..... this finding the time and space to create is TOTALLY necessary to me.

So Bloom True.  It was so good to create a piece that means so so much to me right now.  In honor of all the magical coincidences and dream manifesting and creating community I have found here in the blogosphere....

Oh and I am going to be adding a new word to my WORD for 2011.  SPACE.  Its yoga and its about space for me to Bloom True to myself.

Later::: I just found this.... its just EXACTLY what I need to read just now.... 

now this is what I want to be doing....

I do enjoy drawing in the classical way that I do.... but in my heart I hanker after doing something a little more uniquely MOI...  (yes I am that pretentious!  ha ha !) Today I found THIS...... a brilliant website by the portrait artist Kim Scafuro

And its SO the kind of thing I want to aim for..... I do need to develop what i do and find my particular groove.  But I want it to be something along these lines.  Not copied.  Not imitative.  But slightly kooky and unique and from my heart.  INSPIRED

the universe provides

It has been a good Monday. I think it followed a good Sunday. Yesterday the weather was deeply vile. Windy gales blustering and rain lashing cold against the windows. Not a day to venture out. Bub concurred, "I don't want to go anywhere today" he said. "Don't worry, we'll stay in ALL DAY". And so, while Hub grappled with a slightly uneccessary hangover and mainly slept, Bub and I hung out. Due to a spilt milk incident in bed, we had to change the sheets and do laundry despite the rain so we had the heating on, and the house smelling of freshly washed bedlinen. We made playdough (find the recipe here) we made green glittery playdough. And Bub played with the dough for ages. Then we both did washing up. All the while listening to a slightly crazy Sunday Worship radio show from WDVX all very gospel, bluegrass and southern fried. After lunch we made scones. Then I knitted and Bub played various games, happily, by himself, reading books to himself, doing giant floor puzzles or making train crashes (his favourite game). I just felt that it was so lovely that there was nothing really to "do". It was a relaxed day, in which Bub and I had lots of quality time together, sometimes doing something together, sometimes just in the same room or house, doing our own thing. Beautiful.

In the evening Hub and I WENT OUT - TOGETHER! (neither happens very often) My friend came to baby sit and while she indulged in a night of X Factor trash TV, Hub and I went to see the very amazing Neil Hannon play live at a small venue in BRighton. Oh he is a genius of songwriting. Proper cabaret stuff the likes of which Jacques Brel himself would have been proud. We were transported. It was wonderful to go and see something so LIVE and beautiful and inspiring and intelligent. Its the kind of thing that really lights up your soul and leaves you reeling with joy for several days.



And so to today. Today was good. I dropped off a book I sold on Amazon, saving the postage. AND The work thing seems to be happening right at last! The Lancing job (which I was so scared of) was not interested in me, because, quite rightly, they felt I would be off the moment something better came along and that it wouldn't interest me. Fair play. I chased it at the agency, so I did my keeno to get a job part. And I stressed again that part time would actually really suit me. Because today I got a Supergroup (with the possibility of another 3 dayer), the BBC rang me with a 2 week job and S is going to come around tomorrow to pick up and pay for 2 portraits. Bring it on, Mrs Universe! sending out rays of gratitude everywhere.

job hunting.....

I went to Reed Accountancy today. Apparently I have lots of financial skills and they are going to rewrite my CV highlighting my experience in accounting terminology. Funny hearing that you have credit control, forecasting, cashflow, final balance etc etc on your CV....

Bad news is the expected rate I can get here in Brighton is £6.50 an hour or £15,000. OUCH. Talk about entry level.

On the plus side there maybe part time jobs I can do (I expressed a preference for part time, plus not Wednesdays so I can continue with my playgroup, the idea of not doing which really makes me sad. I love my little playgroup.

And on the very plus side, in a last ditch attempt to get a part time job that was not an employment agency minimum wager, I asked a friend about Christmas shop work and she came up trumps. I now have a Saturday or Sunday job in a lovely little Art and Craft Gallery. And that, makes me happy. I expect it will be at about the same wage level, but its a pretty place to work, and fits in with my desires to be involved in the arts world. Its a Polish Art Gallery. Its really cute.

http://www.bluedoggallery.co.uk/about+us