A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do

Robin

Lilies

The Challenge

As my blog approaches its first birthday I’m ready for new challenges. Over the last year I’ve found blogging wonderful as a motivator to be creative. However there’s a bit of a problem with it – there’s an awful lot of sitting – which leads to that syndrome – blogger’s bum. I’ve discovered that I’m the perfect weight – however only for someone 6' 3" tall. So as growing taller doesn’t seem to be an option I’m going to have to do something about the horizontal measurement instead.

Weight loss, exercise and dieting are all so unutterably boring that I’ve decided to approach the problem laterally with an art challenge.

So this is my challenge.

Walk a minimum of one mile from home. Record where you’ve been with a drawing, sculpture, photo or painting and then walk back. Every day for a year.
A mile may seem pitifully short but I chose a distance that would be bearable in the freezing cold or pouring rain and in any case it’s only a minimum distance.

I’m setting up a new blog just for this challenge. If any one is interested in joining me I’ll add you to the ‘One mile from home’ blogroll.

So at the end of the year I’ll have 365 pieces of art, I’ll have explored where I live in an environmentally friendly way and as a bonus I might be nearer the right weight for a less Amazonian woman!

A thought

I think I’ve come up with an idea to combine art, blogging and fitness. More about it later when I’ve thought it through. However don’t bother to come back to find out if you were involved in last weekend’s London Marathon. By fitness, I mean blogger standards of fitness which as we all know is a little less strenuous.

Weekend in Wiltshire

Lacock village is a perfectly preserved National Trust village dating back to the 13th century (used as the backdrop for the film of ‘Pride and Prejudice’) and at the edge of the village is Lacock Abbey, formerly the home of photography pioneer Fox Talbot. I was disappointed that I forgot to bring my camera into the house and thus failed to do the tourist thing of photographing the oriel window that was the subject matter for the very first photograph. Never mind, lots of pictures of the children pretending to wave wands in the cloisters – which was one of the locations for the latest ‘Harry Potter’ film.
We also visited Avebury megalithic monument which was far more impressive in real life than photographs lead you to expect. Maybe it’s the scale of the site that needs to be experienced in reality.
In the evening we went to Lackham where Alison made a gorgeous bride. The party, complete with a children's entertainer and chocolate fountain, was wonderful.

Final wedding picture

Off to lovely Lacock to celebrate Alison and Iain’s wedding — and the original painting is framed and mounted — all by the skin of my teeth! Thank you Robert for being my co-conspirator and providing me with all the fantastic reference photos.

Spring is sprung

Sneak preview

At last the wedding present painting is finished. Alison and Iain (who after producing three beautiful children, have at last decided to tie the knot) will presumably be far too busy to be looking at my blog, so you can see how it looks in patches before I stitch it all together. In the meantime I need to sort out mounting and framing the original – in one day!

Too busy to blog

I haven’t posted for a few days because I’ve been spending blogging time working on a large (for me) watercolour painting present. A bit scary because the painting includes three portraits - so get one face wrong and the whole painting is screwed. Anyway the deadline is Friday (the wedding is on Saturday) so I’ll post the results if it turns out ok. Cross your fingers for me.

Happy Easter from Xavier

Mummy played with my picture in Photoshop. I feel a bit like the green rabbit at the end as I have had chocolate at breakfast, lunch and dinner and I found lots of Easter eggs in our friend’s garden.

Spotted working on Illustration Friday

Quickly drawn (so very inaccurate) whilst cooking melanzane alla parmigiana. The scene was less peaceful than it looks. There was a lot of ‘Hey, I’m using that yellow, give it back!’ and ‘Turn down your MP3!’ Anyway have a look at what they’ve done here and here.

All that marching can take it out of you!

Addictive TV

Sexist perfumerers

Boys get all the best scents, but I’m not going to let a bit of packaging put me off.

Smooth paper

New sketch book, perfect for pen and ink

And so to bed

Sparky's,Chuck's, Lydia's, Hopper's Brooklyn

You need to go to Crack Skull Bob to understand what is going on here. He threw out the hot potato, I don't know if anyone else caught a piece as well but now I'm passing it on - catch!

George spreadeagled

I was feeling a bit rebellious this week. Our teacher Jan is a great fan of tone, she says ‘People do not have a thick black outline around the edge of their bodies’ but my tonal work was looking so horrible I sneaked in these two drawings.

BCFF-The view out of your window

Blind lines and colour added using Photoshop.
Go to Inkfinger to see all the other participants in Blind Contour First Friday

Illustration Friday - SPEED

Robin trying out Flo’s speedy new laptop computer. Okay I admit it, yet again a very tenuous link between the challenge and the illustration.

Illustration Friday - SPRING

Stretching it a bit. Spring flowers in my kitchen, lovely husband cooking.

How to increase your blog readership!

Nothing like including the phrase ‘pictures of naked men’ on your blog to have your stats go through the roof! Sorry to disappoint you new visitors!

Flo with her birthday laptop

I was probably the only mother to get a volcano for Mothering Sunday. The boys made it out of paper and filled it with Belgian truffles. You can see it on the worksurface in the background left side of the picture. Can anyone beat that for unusual Mother’s Day presents?

My unembarrassable husband

I was ambivalent about whether to post this but then I thought, sod it my blog is full of pictures of naked men anyway – why should yet another one matter.
I’d had to miss my weekly life drawing class because of work and had just gone out of the living room to pick up a sketchbook and brushpen. To my amusement this was how I found Robin when I got back!
The censored label is to spare the children’s blushes – Robin couldn’t care less.

Shell

I love shells – who needs ornaments on the mantelpiece, when one shell is so perfect.

Hugo after sea cadets

Hugo is off to Weymouth this week with Tom, learning canoeing and sailing.
Apropos of today, the kids reminded me of the April Fool’s day trick I played on them a few years ago. We had booked our annual summer holiday in January, our first Greek flotilla sailing holiday. We were so looking forward to it. When the kids arrived home from school I told them I’d received all the holiday details, but unfortunately hadn’t realised we’d booked the naturist fortnight. We’d paid a big unreturnable deposit, and it was too late to book another holiday so I said we would just have to accept the conditions with as good a grace as possible! Any of you who know the desperate need for privacy that takes over children as they enter their teens will be able to imagine the shrieks of horror for the few minutes I managed to convince them! Have fun, try it on your own teenagers!