It's not my birthday till next month, but my lovely OH decided to start early with these beautiful flowers, the lilies are enormous!!! I really would like to sketch them, maybe they'll last till the w/e and I'll have a bit of time .
Speaking of sketching, I was having a moan the other day that I hadn't been able to buy cloth backed sketch books since I was at college, 13 years ago, as the price has been going up and up. After much sourcing my OH found a company who was offering them at a sensible price and bought me enough to keep well into retirement, including some jumbo square ones which are gorgeous. Of courses it would have been rude not to use one so I started with the small sketches I'd done at the hat exhibition and created a double spread in one of the A3's. It was lovely, felt like 'coming home'. Inspired by Stephen Jones's Mohikan hats I found a lino print from my college days that I'd never used and had a go with that too. It was so nice to get back in my garden studio after the winter and make some mess.
We had a lovely afternoon out on Sunday enjoying the sunshine at Motttisfont Abbey. Everyone was really enjoying the Spring weather, having picnics and walking by the river. But true to form I was looking for the little things and found this wonderful pot with it's beautiful handle detail.
And then I spotted this amazing mosaic, I think it must have been a relic of the original Abbey, but I'd never noticed it on previous visits.
Lastly a bit of inspiration. We went to a lecture the other weekend given by a very well know landscape photographer, Jo Cornish. Now, as I've said many times in the past, I'm no photographer and don't aspire to be one, but Jo's approach to his photography really resonated with me, maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was an artist before he bacame a photographer, and as such I think he sees things in a different way.
I was particularly delighted to find that he had produced a book on Northumberland, which I've recently become very attached to, so of coures my lovely OH had to buy be the book (another early b-day present?) as like the Queen I never carry money :-)
Oh! and I insisted he had it signed by the author of course.
13 comments:
Those books look so good. Could make some fab covers for them!!
A lot of pages to fill. Look forward to seeing them as you fill them up - and what you do with the sketches.
Cheers
Shirley
We have flowers this week, too. After our blizzard, they are a nice touch of colour!
And what a lovely mess it is :-)
What lovely presents. Your sketchbooks look really interesting. I always love other people's sketchbooks!
Love your sketchbooks, love the hat spread. Would you share the link with me as I have been looking for some reasonable square ones, the square seem to cost a bomb.
I do admire the sense of 'freedom' in your sketch book. I still can't seem to get away from the neatly labelled look - but I will keep trying. :)
Love the colours on the front of the book. Would be interested to know what the conditions were and what time of day etc. etc. that he took that photograph. Gorgeous.
Gorgeous lilies and wonderful sketchbook pages. I love that pot handle and the fine mosaic and the picture on the cover of your birthday book just says Northumberland. Happy Birthday when it arrives.
Beautiful flowers Sharon and I love the lino print. Joe Cronish is an amazing photographer. Lucky you to have the book, I shall have to look out for it. Have a good Easter weekend.
Lucky you having that stash of sketchbooks. I'd love to have that book by Joe Cornish and that pot handle would make a lovely stamp.
Lovely flowers, great sketchbooks and fabulous photos - wow!!
Super post Sharon - enjoyed it immensely! Love your sketchbook of course - didn't know you could get fabric sketch books! Hope you had a lovely Easter.
It's nice to see your sketchbooks!
This photography book looks wonderful.
Mmm the sketchbooks look scrummy and I love your lino print. I think your approach to birthdays is very cunning :)
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