Painting: A (nother) New Approach

I started a couple of nice square canvases last month and had another go at them yesterday and today. I've used some ten year old bathroom paint. I used it on the bathroom ceiling last Spring and it has peeled off here and there. I assumed it was some kind of damp and/or poor prep but it has cracked on the canvases too. I like the effect and am looking into crackle paint and crackling medium. In the meantime, i used oil paint and turps, and oil paint with white acrylic, and some sand.

The 'new approach' is about the feeling i have that my more outlandish ambitions have left me. This is a tremendous relief. I may exhibit again but i'm not craving awards or praise anymore; finally, all i want to do is paint, to absorb the therapeutic affects and fulfill as well as i can the mental pictures i 'receive' which make me paint in the first place.

And i am not going to bother nagging at myself about sphere repetition anymore, either. I like circles and ellipses. Magical geometry.

An Awfully Big Adventure

Absolutely Big Day!
   I sat in complete shock as i saw the alien email in my googlemail which was telling me good news. I sat and sat and after exhaling, loudly, felt sad.
 Here is the darling who has been bought from my Etsy shop:

He's off to Massachusetts, which apparently is snow covered at the moment. Oh Lord, i've only just realized thanks to the spell checker that i spelled  Massachusetts wrongly on the package...

They all said goodbye.

This, ofcourse, could be the first and the last sale.

But let's hope not; i'm evangelical about it now, i want BovisBears to re-populate the nurseries of the planet!

My Shop @ Etsy.com

On March the 2nd i opened my shop on Etsy! This is the start of my big push for financial independence and elevated self-esteem, better late than never at all. I am challenged in the mental 'elf department which has meant that for the last few years i haven't needed to work, thanks to our excellent social welfare system. I have had a welcome break from the washing-up and cleaning jobs which kept me going, by the skin of my teeth, in the past. However, changes are afoot and David Cameron and co. may soon be leading me and other ill equipped people back to the grind-stone so i thought the most sensible thing for me to do would be to attempt to be my own boss. That way, when a week-long fit of the vapours occurs, i don't risk losing another job, or Boris and Morse ringing CatLine on me, i only risk having to go a bit faster on the sewing machine when the fog has cleared - i think it will suit me fine.
    As long as i have some customers!

Here are the future customers' future bears so far:

Greatest achievement of the week: i cracked claw embroidering!

It was hard, putting the first two up. It felt like adoption of the worst kind, for money! So, as i said to my friend Andy, i am trying to see myself as the bears' midwife rather than Mother. A kind of feminized version of a Hans Andersen-type toy maker illustrated by Arthur Rackham. Oh, i can feel a new self-portrait coming on! I have decided to offer free arcto-veterinary after-care and to ask for a photograph of the bears in their new homes.

they're such happy bears - caught them doing the conga the other day!

HKZ3AKPPV7EF

pets for Mrs Sims and son

My friend Mike's cat, Mr Fluffy was run over in 2007. Since then, he has had several cats move in and then move on. He's fed up with it, so i have knitted him a replica of the last little urchin. Hopefully, it will know which side it's bread is buttered on.

And for Mike's Mum, who used to have Springer Spaniels but is now past dog-walking age, i have knitted her a low maintenance one from a pattern in the wonderful book Best in Show.