Getting excited...

Saturday is a big day - we are getting hitched! There have been lots of preparations afoot and it seems that the spirit of celebration has rubbed off on the work I've been making recently. These new works sing with colour and co-dependency.

Excuse the photo quality. My proper camera is packed for this weekend (!) so I'm reliant on my trusty phone for now.

Voyage in the Hebrides

Whilst completing my MA in Fine Art (more on this in another post), I was lucky enough to be asked sailing in the Hebrides. Despite never having made an overnight voyage before I jumped at the chance to explore this beautiful part of the world by sea rather than by land. Seven days and nights at sea, four swims off the boat, six sea otters and plentiful seals spotted, and one engine failure later, we docked back in the loch where the boat is moored.

Wild flowers next to St Brendan's Monastery

Our overnight berth at Islay

Watching the tide run

My soon-to-be Mr relaxing in the sunshine

It was a wonderfully varied trip with blazing sunshine and driving rain alternating almost constantly and our little crew of five bonded over meals in the cabin, swims in the nude and late night whisky.

 

Wild Coastal Swimming

If you know me at all, you'll know that I love swimming. Weekends often take me to the sea and alongside my beautiful friend Dot I've been swimming early alternate mornings in our local outdoor Lido throughout this winter.

Daniel Start's beautiful (oh so beautiful) book, Wild Swimming: Coast, has to be one of my favourite non fiction works of all time. Over the Easter break we headed to Pembrokeshire with Jamie - what better to do on that craggy coastline in the spring time than a wild swim?

St Non's chapel, where legend has it Non (as she was then) birthed St David (as he became) in 500AD alone in a howling night storm, acted as a guiding marker to the steep, stony wild flower-festooned path leading down to our launch point.

The remains of St Non's Chapel

The boy leads the way

Jamie framed by thrift

Beguilingly tropical

The third cave along was our aim

Lightening skies bode well

Launching

At this point we left cameras and modern-day reality behind. Swimming into and out of an ancient cave passage, marvelling at the murky heights above our heads and hearing the sea's sounds amplified through stony speakers left us all tired, elated and speechless with wonder.

Outer Hebridean Expedition

I've been a bit quiet on here lately. Well, truthfully, I've been very quiet while hunkering down to my MA (in Fine Art) over the winter months. This doesn't mean that the coastal expeditions have stopped. Before I post about the latest trip, here are some photos from our expedition last September in the van to some parts of the Hebrides (Skye, Harris and Lewis).

Looks a bit like a Caspar David Friedrich painting...

Weather moving in on yet another sheep

Boy doing his thing

 

 

Me doing my thing

What a trip it was! Assuming that wildness and weather do for you as much as they do for me, get yourself to the Hebrides.

Pays Basque

Sometimes, a girls' holiday is just what you need. As we set off in the van, driving down the west, Atlantic coastline, both of us felt our cares dissolving in the salty sunshine. Two weeks later we are back, sun-kissed, surfed out, and very relaxed.

 A big thank you to Natty for lending us his beloved van. Next stop - Outer Hebrides. It will be a world away from sunny France but I'm looking forward to some real wilderness.

Whitstable

We had a day out, just the boy and me by the sea. We swam, ate fish and chips and then tucked up for a night in the campsite. After the recent, enforced time indoors, it felt like magic.

The sea never fails to make us both smile.

Oil Painting

I did a week of oil painting with the artist Michael Major at the beginning of June. Two large paintings later, I only wish I had more time to keep playing.

Worm's Head

Winchelsea

Michael Major himself

Oil paints are intensely satisfying to use; distinctive of smell and thick with oleaginous promise. It was a great week.