nice surprises

The world of full time work has left little time for blogging recently and anyway, unless you want the lowdown on what a drawing of an oil rig sea deck looks like, there's been nothing much to report. Until today that is.

As a contrast to the computer rendering I've been doing all day, I'm getting the paints out to try my hand at some botanical illustration, partly because it's something I've been toying with the idea of for ages but I figure it'll be super useful for the Growing Boy too. It'll be therapeutic to take my time and focus purely on composition and the painting process for a bit instead of always rushing to an end result (usually to meet a deadline I've left until the last minute). This time there's no deadline, give or take the risk of shrivelling... The bad boys above are chilling in my fridge (for freshness!) as I type.

But what are the surprises? You may remember some of my work has been at the Hung gallery in Inverness for a while now. I hadn't, it's been so long in fact I'd forgotten it was there. But yesterday I got a surprise email from owner Kevin to tell me he's sold a Highland Cow print and the original Black Dog illustration "Both of which went to customers who instantly fell in love with them and have been given pride of place in their homes" Which is very cool.

But even cooler still is my new shiny sunshiny yellow FrancisFrancis! coffee machine - a fabulous [birthday] surprise which I'll be using to make my coffeecoffee! of a morning.

space to work

Having turned my tiny studio into a tiny bedroom when J was born, I've spent the last six years working on freelance projects haphazard style in various places around the house (the computer desk in the living room, the kitchen table, the worktop in the utility room). As a result, not only do I have bits and pieces scattered all over the place, it requires superhuman motivation to actually do anything, given I've to clear a space, find what I need and then clear up after myself (you don't want to leave a wet watercolour painting anywhere a cat might walk!). Superhuman motivation is not my strong point, so I'm totally excited that I've finally got round to setting up my own studio space in my bedroom. Right now I'm herding paints, pastels, ink, drawing boards, sketchbooks and other paraphernalia from all four corners of the house and organising them all in one place! I told you it was exciting. I'm also finding mucho inspirado in the Wednesday Workspace posts over here (where I found the photo above).

As well getting my mitts on a lovely new workspace table, I'll also be able to ditch my gruelling stool in favour of comfy seating - I picked up two fabulous chairs (for £10!) on a recent rummage through a Borders charity shop, which I plan to reupholster in lovely fabric procured for mucho cheapness on ebay... will post the transformation when I'm done (then all I'll have to do is actually sit down and get on with some work... maybe, just maybe, even this!).