Work in Progress

It’s been a slow start to the year … but I managed to finish a commission and the client is happy. I agonise terribly before sending a photo of the completed piece off - although I send a drawing and often in progress pictures so they know what to expect, I’m always full of trepidation ! Thankfully she responded straight away to say she loved it. It’s from that lovely Robert Frost poem - ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ which feels appropriate for a winter piece. I am so seasonal in my making. I feel the urge to start bringing in signs of Spring coming upon me!

I’ve only got a few days in the run up to the Edinburgh Artists’ Bookmarket to make work so I am spending this weekend painting book pages for some ‘Bee Books’. The text is from Andrew Marvell’s ‘The Garden’ :

What wond’rous life in this I lead!

Ripe apples drop about my head;

The luscious clusters of the vine

Upon my mouth do crush their wine;

The nectarine and curious peach

Into my hands themselves do reach;

Stumbling on melons as I pass,

Ensnar’d with flow’rs, I fall on grass.

Oh that makes me long for summer … even if in Northumberland I certainly can’t grow any peaches, curious or not !