Keep The Magic

 I did a guided tour around my pop-up gallery today, the first since everything stopped in March 2020.

I had a lovely group of seven people and I think they appreciated that I had all the doors and windows open and we did everything possible to keep each other safe.

However, I did wickedly keep the curtains closed and the main spotlights off for a few minutes when they entered one of the upstairs rooms. This was so they could enjoy the puppet theatre and  dolls house with their own miniature illuminations to the full.

Then I had to let the daylight in and the magic out. My next   tour is on 3rd October.

Guided Tour Anyone?

 I haven't conducted an inhouse guided tour around my pop-up gallery since December 2019. However, I promoted my Virtual Tour in 2020 and earlier this year I did Open Studio, which saw visitors looking into my new garden gallery, studio and garage as they walked around the garden.

I now have my first booking next week for a proper tour around the house and I'll view this as a practise run for how I'm going to conduct the event in these Covid times.

I plan to keep all doors and windows open and only stop and chat about the pictures and objects in the three larger rooms in the house, though I'll still show the same number of paintings..

If that goes well, then I hope to be open for bookings from Sunday 3rd October.

Drawing Freedom

 I felt like a real artist the other day as I set off on my old bicycle, wearing my ancient panama hat to go off painting and drawing along the river Great Ouse for my new painting 'Dreamtime'.

I needed some images to represent 'freedom' to contrast the constraints of being trapped inside a Victorian puppet theatre (well it was a dream).

It was an extremely hot day and although I enjoyed the trip, the results were not amazing. As we spent alot of last year discovering the riverside, I feel this is the area I want to try and capture, as my painting symbolises escaping from Lockdown.

A True Confession

 I wrote an article in 2009 entitled 'A True Confession' (you can still read it if you scroll down the NEWS AND REVIEWS page of my website).

This was about a marionette I had been captivated by called Mr Turnip on T.V. in the 1950s. I later went on to use the puppet as a symbol for my childhood in a painting called 'Diamonds'

Recently I was contacted by a guy in Lincolnshire who had read the article and wanted to know more. It turns out he is writing a book about Turnip's creator Joy Laurey, whom I had met on several occasions while researching for the painting.

We had a very interesting morning together and I hope what I was able to show him (letters, photographs, drawings etc.) was useful. He is hoping for the book to come out later this year.