back to blogWelcome to my weekly blog posts documenting my first 100 days of being a full time artist. I am running a daily diary on my instagram stories and this weekly blog post of what I've been up to, what have been the challenges, the surprises, what I've learned / discovered etc.
This is my tenth week which has basically been pretty much a painting free week as I travel to Iceland for a brief trip after my open studio event.
So what's happened?
So this week involved very little studio time. In fact the only studio time I had was to create my contribution to the Saltaire Advent window and to pack for workshops that I'll be running this weekend.
The reason for the lack of painting / studio time is a long awaited trip back to Iceland. We'd not travelled overseas or on a plane since 2019 so that in itself was a very strange experience. However we love Iceland and we were pretty keen to get back even if it was just for a short trip which didn't involve travelling outside of Reykjavik.
It was lovely to see this beautiful city again and to explore around the streets. It is a very colourful city with lots of independent shops to explore.
So I mentioned that I'd been busy creating my contribution to the Saltaire Living Advent calendar. Well here it is. Because we were going to be away when this was due to be lit up I stuck to one of our windows this year as opposed to the greenhouse which I used last year.
If you've not seen the Saltaire Advent calendar then do hop on to their Facebook page where they publish all the windows opening that evening. It is a wonderful event and something which lights up those dark nights in Bradford.
My window this year celebrates the creatures that live in our house and around our garden. We are lucky to have a garden, many Saltaire houses don't have one, and we do enjoy feeding the many birds that come to visit - from the noisy starlings, the robin that follows me around the garden and the odd sparrow hawk that drops in. We also have a family (or families) of mice in our garden which enjoy the food that the starlings chuck about the garden. And then of course there are our two fat bear cats, Bin-juice and Jack. Bin-juice is represented by the massive oversized cat on the the roof... he really is massive and not just fat. We think he is part racoon.
Out and about
I managed to pick up a cold at my open studio event which was pretty rubbish especially flying and trying not to snot all over people. I was grateful for the use of a mask to hide my dribbling nose!
My first free day back in the UK I headed to the studio and even though I was feeling pretty snotty and rubbish I wanted to walk through the woods to make sure I captured my weekly photo but also because the walk really sets me up for the day, no matter how snotty I am.
I found it really strange to travel back from a country such as Iceland which is not far from the artic circle to find the UK is actually colder. For that first day back the temperature in the north of England reached -7 whereas it was still a balmy -3 in Reykjavik.
So cold in fact the Leeds Liverpool Canal was frozen in places!
What next?
Next week I am back painting in the studio. I am a little behind so it will be early mornings and late nights to pull my collection together.
Check out my daily posts on my instagram stories for some sneak peeks.
