Day 2 Art and Craft Trail

Day 2 of our Art and Craft Trail and the sun shone on us again!!! You must realise that for Scotland that is one big deal!! We had a bit of thunder rolling around in the afternoon but then headed off in another direction!
We had more great familes visiting, lots of children doing the workshops - we have been so impressed with their artistic abilities! The little boy in the white jacket made a fabulous beach stone model yesterday and brought all his family with him today to make a stunning driftwood creation! Some kids chose to make lanterns but the beach art was more popular!
Lesley and Becky's jewellery has been selling like hotcakes both days. Up till today I had sold only cards but today 2 paintings were snapped up much to my delight!!! Our potter has had steady sales too!
We all agree it is lovely to have the footfall, meeting lots of new people - I especially enjoy to see visitors returning from last year - sales are an added bonus!
Our cream tea numbers were down, I gave the remaining scones to my neighbours to enjoy! We must be getting used to the buzz and hard work - we are not so bone weary tonight!

Day 1 Art and Craft Trail

The trail is now underway! Day 1 completed! My first job of the day was baking a huge batch of scones for serving with our cream teas! To say I was stressing a little is perhaps an understatement! Lesley ( my daughter) and Becky, my jewellery makers, went round town displaying posters and placing markers and arrows to our venue ( my studio in our garden).
My dear friend Lorna came along to help, she is a born saleswoman!
The sun shone on us, we couldn't believe it! People piled in, perusing the paintings, jewellery and ceramics and buying a little along the way! We met a lot of lovely people.
Our lantern and beach art workshops went down well too. With only one scone left at the end of the day, the cream teas were a roaring success! I enjoyed that last scone with raspberry jam and a cup of tea this evening!
The girls are fast asleep and I am nodding off during this blog - so goodnight - I'll keep you posted on the following 3 days

Feeling the Pressure

I have been in the throws of making my own frames! Out of the 10 I put together only 2 fell apart! I must have scrimped with the glue on those ones! I've been doing my still life oils, trying to stretch myself, adding more crockery, flowers etc and wonder if perhaps I'm trying to run before I can walk! It has been difficult! On Sunday I set about painting an 8" square canvas. I am happy with the finished article, a little cream jug with cherries.  Our Art and Craft Trail takes place the first weekend in August. We have a fundraising event during that time - artists are given a canvas square and asked to paint whatever they choose, they return the canvases, which are put on sale for £10 each. We can't sign them, we just put our name on the back. They sold like hotcakes last year, no wonder - at that price!

I am opening my studio again this year for the Trail and am trying to get the garden in order, as well as painting and making frames. I have been relatively calm up till this point but can feel the pressure closing in on me! It's not conducive to good painting! I will have to CHILL!!!

Sketching at last

It is over a month since my break in the Cotswolds and I finally found the courage to go out sketching locally -I am very self conscious or have been up till now! Our little cocker spaniel came along on the last lovely day we had the other week. I left the house at 8.30am with my flask of coffee and packed lunch, meaning business! We headed for Balcary near Auchencairn. I decided to take the inland route, just incase the dog went too near the cliffs. Then I read a sign saying "cows and feeding calves, can be aggressive," so we took another direction! Millie bounded through the fields, having a whale of a time. I stopped to sketch some lovely foxgloves. Many years ago I used to wear the flowerheads on the ends of my fingers and pretend they were my pink painted nails! I had been told by my Mother not to touch them, as they were poisonous. Obviously I didn't listen, I was only 6 or 7 yrs old.

I had just completed my little sketch when a couple appeared behind me, they told me where to carry on with the walk and went on their way. Unfortunately they had disturbed a large herd of bulls, cows and calves! They managed to get over the hill and out of sight, Millie and I weren't so lucky! We were stuck in our field with the choice of either stay where we were or go back down to the car! I settled down to do another sketch while Millie snuffled about looking for mice and suchlike. It felt so liberating and I couldn't believe that I was, without thinking about it, only putting down a tiny bit of the vista before me! Previously I had the big problem of feeling there was so much "landscape", where would I begin! 

On Monday at Rockcliffe I attended a charity workshop to raise money for the Macmillan Nurses. Frances and David's garden was utterly gorgeous! I sneaked away to a little corner and managed to put down another little sketch in my book.

I am hooked! Now when I want to go out sketching, the rain won't stop!!!!! Sod's law!!

No rest this Sunday

It has been a busy day - this moring I took photos of all my small paintings for my website - I do that out of doors in a shady spot. Owing to the fact we haven't had a great deal of sun here lately, I knew I could get this tedious job safely completed with an hour! The weather has been horrendous, rain, more rain and then more rain!!! Nearly forgot about the wind, it was like Autumn!
I took my bar stool out of the studio and put the painting on the seat, resting against the chairback, as straight as I could get it. My camera was on it's tripod and I had it set to click on timer delay! Great, all set - five, four, three, two, one - click goes the camera - BLOW goes my painting right on it's front - I had many photos of the back of the chair, which I duly deleted! So it took a little longer than anticipated!
This afternoon I headed down to the local church hall with my homebaking to help with the coffee/tea afternoon raising funds for our local Arts and Crafts Trail. We worked in conjunction with Scottish Open Gardens, once everyone had viewed the gardens, they then headed to us for refreshments! It was pretty hectic but great fun.
Since coming home I have spent my time updating my website with the photos I took this morning- I have been trying to do this for months! It's done  - fab-u-lous! http://www.margaretsmilligan.co.uk/

The Outdoor Life

My lovely friend Annie from Boulder sent me a beautiful gift of a pochade box! See the photo - isn't it just gorgeous? I have filled it all ready for use! The rain has been hammering down all day, no let up and the forecast isn't looking too good either! I am baking tomorrow - we have an open garden event in town on Sunday, we will be serving teas  - all in aid of our Arts and Crafts Trail fund! I hope for everyone's sake that the rain has stopped by then!

Life Drawing

Yesterday was spent life drawing for 6 hours! Exhausting but exhilerating! This was the first all day workshop I'd organised. Since March 2011 I've ran 2 evenings a week, in blocks of 6-8 weeks. No tutoring, the artist just get stuck in! We have a great band of models - we are really lucky in this little rural part of South Scotland
I tried producing larger pieces of work yesterday but found it really difficult - I am too used to my sketchbook and water soluble pens!

The top sketch was done yesterday in 2 minutes, the middle is from our last evening session in May, a 20 mins pose. The bottom sketch took 30 mins