They were Bluebells! and they were lovely - my grapevine was all wintry hibernation but nestled at it's roots up came the bluebells and now they have had their glorious show of blue they have slipped back into dying elegance and tuned white and withered. But all is not lost for like taking a baton from a runner the grapevine has burst into fabulous life and even has tiny grapes peeking forth from between the leaves.... now this may all seem a bit over the top, but I love having a garden and whilst we were on the road in our van it was the only thing I really missed about having a house, (that and having a bathroom which admittedly I did occasionally miss). This is the year I will get to see my white poppy bloom - we had a near miss with it yesterday when boy child nearly wiped it out with a basketball, but fortunately it survived the ordeal unlike the ones he decapitated in the past... I am so glad he's old enough now to understand that whilst pulling the heads off flowers might be immensely satisfying... it's really not the done thing R.I.P my alliums.
aye well here's the nub of it - I've been working as a face painter and keeping my little lad occupied (home educating = not much time to myself). But I have very excitedly amassed some new supplies - I've been gradually buying bits here and there for making my icons, which so far have been a labour of love. Today I put in an order to Cornellissens in London for the last of my pigments (for now) and hopefully will be getting the gold leaf soon (the real stuff, no fake nonsense) I have to admit I could have done it all a lot sooner if I hadn't stuck to my belief that it all had to be pure in some way - I feel like it is an alchemical process creating these things. I bought a very nice glass muller and slab for hand crushing and mixing my pigments, have prepared all my gessoed boards myself including making the gesso to a traditional recipe, which is centuries old. and learnt how to water gild and make egg tempera. Which I have wanted to learn about since I was a teenager and finally I have! - yay, persistence! For anyone who is interested in such techniques, I attended a course at West Dean College in West Sussex, England. http://www.westdean.org.uk/ which is perhaps the most extravagant thing I have ever treated myself to, but was worth every penny, gorgeous setting, skilled tutors and yummy food - what's not to love? Not only were we taught the relevant techniques for making icons in the byzantine style, we were taught some of the history, symbolism and spiritual connitations of these pieces. My only complaint was that I ran out of time to complete my piece which simply put was because despite the tutors warning that I was picking a complex one for the time allotted, I had to go and pick it. The tutors name is Peter Murphy and you can see examples of his work here.... http://www.petermurphyicons.co.uk/ truly a lovely bloke and extremely patient. Now I finally have my pigments ordered I can hopefully finally finish the piece from the course (plate type thing in hand and hand, lettering etc) and get a move on with more pieces, it'll be fun deciding on new themes - they might go a little unusual... watch this space as they say!
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