A Round the World Blog Hop

My latest work  Hand painted Silk Scarf Poppies steam fixed in the microwave and for sale on etsy here

Cath Stonard whose blog is stitchclothcolour invited me to follow on from her post.
http://stitchclothcolour.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/around-world-blog-post.html

It must be about 30 years ago that I met Cath. I was in awe of her watercolours and book illustrations. Years later we met up again at The Corner Gallery in Carshalton Beeches where we both show our work. Cath had moved on to working with textiles, quilting, embroidering, embellishing with the same creative energy and flair as I saw in her watercolours. I have just bought 2 of her works from the Corner Gallery.

We both started blogging at around the same time so I keep in touch with what she's making there and now through our Facebook pages too. As you will see if you hop on over to her blog she's full of new ideas and now working more in the direction of mixed media.

I have loved drawing and painting from an early age. I remember drawing on the wall paper behind the door when I was about 4 and then hoping my parents wouldn't notice, they did. From my teenage years I rummaged through the markets in the Midlands for dressmaking projects and have been a bit of a farbricaholic ever since. For years I have painted watercolours and then took up silk painting. It combines my love of painting and working with textiles.

Yesterday I painted 3 new silk scarves. One of them I sold online via my shop on  etsy, one of them is in the Corner Gallery and the other is shown at the top of this post.

I am also experimenting with marbling techniques on silk.

Much of the time I am dreaming up new ideas or collecting new art materials or techniques. I work on things in bursts and like to have a few juggling balls in the air, juggling between painting, writing and teaching watercolour and silk painting. When the classes are on holiday I might focus on creating a group of paintings for an exhibition and also have more time to go out collecting reference by looking, sketching, painting or taking photos.

This brings me on to the  bloggers that I would like to nominate, do hop on over to have a look at their blogs

 Helen White http://tiarahelen.blogspot.co.uk/

I first met Helen when I went to her for lampwork lessons. I was fascinated by the process, admired her gorgeous beads and made some of my own which I wrote about here 

Her crafting began with tiara making and she now quilts, paper crafts and teaches these skills so do hop on over to her blog to find out more.

The next blogger to introduce is Stephanie Guy http://www.stephanieguy.co.uk/

I met Stephie online through Folksy, where we both have shops. Stephie paints and over the 2 or 3 years I have known her the paintings have got smaller and smaller. She is currently writing a series of articles for a magazine about how to paint little paintings for dolls' houses. Stephie's post will be in January.

I would also like to include Andrea Neidle whose blog is called My Life in Poems https://andreaneidle.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/my-favourite-blogs/

I met Andrea  on holiday a few years ago and we exchanged blog addresses. Her poems gently gather up into words some of the times in her life, sometimes celebratory, poignant or moving that resonate with some of the times in my life.

You may have heard her reading her poems on the radio.

Andrea nominated my blog for the Leibster Award.