Kimonos and cabin fever

After all this rubbish rain and dull days (okay bank holiday was lovely) it has been a bit depressing and staring at the same four walls doing the web stuff till today (well yesterday now) was giving me cabin fever and a slight case of agoraphobia, which I found out later seems to be common amongst those of us who work from home. Can't wait to get out, but some invisible force is keeping us in and when the other half gets home and just wants to loaf we are desperate for them to go straight out again with us not them on their own. Oh you know what I mean. I needed to get out and I needed to get drawing, but for some reason I just could not get motivated. I know what is good for me, but CBA was taking a hold. The worst case of Cabin Fever.

I tricked myself into going out by doing a very boring job in the garden. . . it's one of those creative block things. By doing something mundane you suddenly realise you'd rather be doing something more interesting etc. etc. I wish the urge to create would kick in after the first load of laundry rather than the 10th though. So boring job alert: sort out the lawn with J Arthur Bowers Weed and Seed - a heritage product as recommended by the Secret Garden (it's our local Garden Centre - this place has everything!) . So I weeded and I feeded being very careful at weighing the 1oz of weed and feed for each yard(well I thought it's bigger than a metre and the job would get done quicker) . I was so careful at weighing and so lax at measuring the yards. Far too impatient for that. Luckily there was odd stick and dog poo to remind me where I was. I think it was okay. I'll know in a day or two. By the time I got to the cowslips under the chestnut tree I could not wait to get out of the house. Job Done. You see. It works.

So at the studio, that is nearly mine mine mine - tomorrow! I had a lovely chat with Mig about what he's been up to and that helped me - I was babbling poor man- having not spoken to a living soul for hours and I am the woman who will strike up a conversation with a lamp post (according to best friend) so poor Mig had no chance. Never mind his holiday, what about me and my rantings! Found out we are both entering the Lynn Stainer Painters Prize competition on Sunday. Had a look on Google Earth and it's a trek up the the Mall to see if someone likes our stuff for an exhibition for realist painters. Then the same again for me next Monday after my race for the ING. Pfff. Oh well at least I'll know where I am going.

It's funny how for some reason I always feel like I have no ideas then suddenly I find a few old sketches and think oooh. How about that and I am off. A couple of people have said I should try drawing a bit more before I start a painting or just do some from those. . . I found this one little sketch I remember doing at Bluewater when out Christmas shopping of a pylon (mmmmmmmm said in Homer Simpson thinking about a doughnut kind of way) on a chalk face - that is like a cliff, not a clown although that might be a bit more Dali. The trees looked like the pylon and I thought ooh man-made tree. Anyway that little sketch triggered off a little bit of motivation in me and I did a drawing, then a start of a painting which prompted me to start working on my ING painting again. Hurrah. I was having a lovely time of it. . . then came the creeping tri hunger and it was straight to Domali's for scrumptious fakey sausage sandwich. I am starting to feel a bit predictable as that is all I seem to order in there, but it is soooooooo nice. I digress, but you see food is something I never really enjoyed until now. Now I can eat and eat and eat. I feel hungry. I should not have said that. I am hungry again now. At 1.37am no I am not going to raid the fridge. Thank goodness there are no scales in this house.

So to Art Club. This is a life drawing class held every Thursday evening in Antennae Studios with Caron who gets the models and sets the programme. Today it was a Japanese model (Oriental Silk is her stage name) which is very unusual by all accounts as it is considered to be like pornography to take your clothes of in public. She was really interesting to listen to talking about Japanese culture and how people are still trained in the art of how to cut a man into 5 pieces before he hits the floor, but without the death row convicts they used to. She is doing an experiment to see how it feels to take her clothes off for this and how it affects her confidence etc. or was it there is a project that psychologists are doing to see. Either way. Cool.

I said if I had the balls to do it I would and someone piped up that would indeed be very lucrative. That'll learn me. Oh how we laughed.

I have been doing more print-like sketching using felt tip to make me think more carefully about what I put down and gives a really nice feel to the drawing.

We did a couple of 5 mins and 2 mins sketches which seemed to go well for me then onto a longer pose. I was well chuffed with the results and with all the other stuff I have been doing feel great about this week so far.

Hopefully back in the studio tomorrow to spend a couple of hours on the ING project and finish off my drawing from tonight.

Here is the longer pose, it's mixed media - felt tip, chalk and charcoal. I am happy with this. It is ridiculously late so off to bed if I can sleep. I am either a lazy lathargio or the opposite. I guess I could read for a bit and try and sleep. Stop typing now.