loosing myself for a while...

Here are a few girls I have been working on this last week... they are all in different stages of being completed, especially the one with the gaping hole in her stomach.  I really struggled last week, over thinking everything and especially thinking I had to so something completely different for my exhibition.  Then I suddenly realised on Saturday night that what I had been working on before was ok.  That is when it hit me, people who like my work don't want to come to my exhibition to see something completely different.  It's like when you hear a good song on the radio... you go and buy the cd, and find yourself really disappointed to hear that none of the songs are like the one you fell in love with.   

I can't really tell you the great sense of relief this simple thought has bought me.  It was amazing how angry and upset I got with myself when I was so caught up in what I thought I should be doing, I lost myself for a while.

But in loosing myself for a while, I did do this as part of a bigger painting and I really think it has potential for development.  I used a Golden medium (clear tar gel) on the bottom part under the wave line, you cant really see in this picture but it gives an encaustic effect.  So I think I am going to play with this some more...

a little spark of excitement...

I had the lovely Tara stay with me for a few nights during the holidays... I was a bit nervous as we hadn't meet before and I am a little shy with new people.  It didn't help that Hannah was worried she might be an axe murderer!  Anyway she didn't bring an axe and we had a lovely few days and time went so fast.  Although things didn't go exactly as I had planned, coming down from Te Mata Peak my car broke down.  I had to ring Mum and she was a bit angry with me that I didn't have an AA membership and had to use hers...  she said she's going to join me up for my birthday... (although I actually want an atlas for my birthday).  Anyway my wonderful mother lent me her car for the next few days so we could carry on with our site seeing plans (since then I have had to buy a new car, it is a white Dawoo something, for those that are interested).

Here are a few of my purchases from our shopping trip in Napier...

Some wonderful cards from Ooma, a French book (not sure what it is about as I can't read French but is just beautiful to look at) from Provincial Interior Designs, a lovely coffee cup from Brocante, a little Japanese pottery spoon from Raku and a new scarf also from Brocante... so much fun.

Lately I have been feeling this little spark of excitement slowly burning deep within... it is the kind of excitement which comes when a group of like minded women get together and organise something great, really great.  Our little local etsy group is growing and we are starting to develop a real network and support system for ourselves and each other... and this excites me very much.

a little change...

(flowers or snow flakes)

I have been meaning to change my blog title to Sleep and her sisters for a while to tie in with my etsy shop, so that is what I did today.  I am actually just putting off starting on some pieces for my exhibition in October...  I have not felt very inspired the last few weeks, and am getting those annoying doubts creeping in again.  I really have no idea what I am going to do for the exhibition and it really scares me.  I did have a few vague ideas but they just seem silly now.  In the past I usually have an idea of how I want it to look... but there is nothing.

What I have been doing though is pulling weeds (and no I didn't replant them into my neighbours garden) though as I was pulling them out the thought did make me smile.  We also got our winter wood delivered and I stacked it all in the shed... with the help of Hannah and Ben.  But after a while Hannah got a sore head and back and decided she would have a break and Ben just decided he didn't want to do it anymore.  But he did come out when I had finished to tell me I did a good job.

So I am glad I got these jobs done but the uninspiring mood I am in is scaring me a little.   Maybe it is just the out of routineness of holiday time?  I don't know, but I am just going to put it out there and see what happens...

please please please let me be inspired!!! 

odd thermostat...

So... I had two complete days of rest and I am better now...  nearly all better.  I spent the next few days catching up on some work for a few galleries and a few extras including this piece above.  I have been in a really weird head space lately, I've been dreaming of flying.  

Autumn is really settling in and it's getting a lot cooler, especially early morning and the evenings (although Ben still likes his bedroom window open as he falls asleep, he has an odd thermostat).

I made my lemonade scones... they were good.  I will post the recipe if anyone wants to try.

Lemonade Scones

2 cups self-raising flour

1 cup wholemeal flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoons salk

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup cream

1 cup lemonade

Sift flours, baking powder and salt into a bowl then mix in the sugar.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the cream and lemonade.  Mix quickly and lightly until combined.

Gather the dough together and pat out to 5cm thickness on a lightly floured board. Dip a cutter or upturned glass in flour and cut out scones.  Place scones on an oven tray and bake at 200˚c for 10-15 minutes, or until scones are golden and cooked through.  Wrap in a clean tea towel as soon as scones are removed from the oven.

bother...

OK so it seems I am starting the holidays with a sore throat, a sniffly nose, an achy head and eyes... bother.

night weeding...

(in my heart)

I seem to be surrounded by a lot of half finished paintings at the moment... at the end of this week we start our two week term break and I have a very long to do list that I hope to complete in this time.

• finish off 5 half finished paintings
• get the above ready to send to galleries
• take a trip to the post office
• pull all the weeds from the garden (I had a dream last night that I carefully pulled all the weeds out of my garden and then in the middle of the night I replanted them in my neighbours garden)
• stack fire wood
• try a few of the ideas in my head
• make some scones with lemonade
• make a big pot of vegetable soup
• start the wine box project

Things like this are inspiring me at the moment...




Written and directed by Angela Kohler and Ithyle Griffiths
Music by A Fine Frenzy.

counting lollies...

I started this last night and when it is finished I think I might do another one, I also started another  painting with three girls and then I counted the lollies in my apple lolly collection... 73.

back up plan...

(faces waiting for bodies)

Well I had a big plan for myself this weekend... but that plan didn't actually work out so it was just as well I had a back up plan...  which was to watch 8.5 continuous hours of Dawson's Creek on dvd (and that is what I did).  It turns out that my back up plan was actually the best plan.

After thinking about it I realise that the life I am living now is not the plan I had for myself...  I am actually living my back up plan.  Of course there are a few things from my original plan that I would still like to happen in this plan B life, but I am ok with it, quite frankly I am more then ok with it... I am totally ok with it.  I am learning that it is good to have a back up plan, even if your original plan seems fool proof or is exactly what you want for yourself, sometimes there are outside forces that get in your way, taking things entirely out of your hands and preventing you from getting what you want in life.  So for someone like me a back up plan, or two is a really good idea. 

So I transfered my original weekend plan to tuesday... and above are the results, all ready for tomorrows plan (or maybe tomorrow's back up plan)? I am open to options.

hey it's little old youB...

This is what I say to Ben sometimes when I see him for the first time in the morning.  He smiles big and then he screams and sometimes does a funny little dance!!! (a good way to start the morning).

(hat not quite finished yet...)

I have been working on a few pieces for a local gallery this week and when I get them done I am going to start on some more multiple girl paintings.  Also I had better start thinking about something for my Exhibition in October... I have had a few ideas tossing around in my head but nothing substantial.  I am doing the show with an old friend Sandor, we meet at art school nearly twenty years ago... good god!!! (in my head I feel about 23 so that would make me three when I started art school) hmmmm... anyway best not think too much about time... Sandor and I have had a few joint exhibitions and we work well together, so it should be good.

Hannah is off this weekend to do the Tongariro Crossing with her geography class...she says she isn't looking forward to it... "walking for miles to look at burnt wood and rocks... yay" were her exact words.  I am thinking she will probably really enjoy it, whether she will admit it will be another thing.

clever code fixer man...

(I'll save a place in my heart)

This is a commissioned piece I did of three sisters...  I have really enjoyed doing these three girls and I think I might do some more paintings with multiple girls very soon.   I seem to have so many thoughts and ideas in mind lately but am not really getting around to doing them (big sigh)...


But I have got the radio in my car fixed... It hasn't been working for nearly three years and I finally went to see someone about it today, all it needed was a code to get it going again.  I told the clever code fixer man that it hasn't worked for three years... he looked at me like I was bonkers and shaking his head very seriously said  "I could never drive without the radio".  I left thinking he was a little bonkers.  Anyway that is all that has been happening around here lately.

every now and then...

I just thought I would share this little mono print with you, where my girls began, where they took their first steps from my imagination and onto paper.  This little print makes me smile, it is so familiar to me... these are sleeps original sisters.  Seeing this reminds me to look back, which I think is important every now and then...  learning from the past enables us to move forward.

As I type this I am sitting in my studio (aka my kitchen table) and my toes are cold, I am liking that they are cold and am not going to rush off and get my slippers.  Autumn is coming... I can feel it in my toes.

a small dot...

(if you were the ocean I'd learn to float)

Sometimes I feel I am getting lost in this online world...  I'm just a small dot in a sea of many, struggling to make my way, not really sinking but not exactly floating either.  

On Sunday that feeling of being lost, of being one in many lessened somewhat as I got together with the Hawkes Bay Etsy group.  We had quite a few new comers and it was actually a little overwhelming listening to these people talk about themselves, it was so so good to feel I was a part of it.  It kind of felt that each of these people represented everyone I have had a connection with in this online world, everyone was there.

I now realise that within my little piece of this online sea, I have a place and I carry around with me a sense of friendship, a strong sense of community and belonging... thank you.

Pendant winners are...

Thanks so much to everyone who entered this giveaway, and thank you for all your kind comments... I wish I had a pendant for all of you!

Congratulations to the winners!!!... Susannah, Tracey and Oksana.

Can you please send me your postal address to my email (katherinequinn@xtra.co.nz)  and I will get them in the post to you.  

 

9... Susannah

20... Tracey Clark

2... Oksana

A really lovely blog friend, Tara has arrived in New Zealand from England for the first time on a bit of a holiday.  She will be heading down this way sometime soon and I can't wait to meet her (she was a winner of a previous giveaway).

I just signed off on the proofs of my cards the other day... so now they just need to be printed.  I can't wait to see what they look like all professionally printed up!  Imagine going into a shop and seeing your cards displayed on the shelves!  I am feeling a little excited about this.