42...Blooming June



Apple Blossom Rose

 Back to France this week and the garden was a joy to come back to. I've been away for more than 3 weeks and the garden would normally be a jungle by now, but luckily a local friend, Sebastian, has been looking after it for me.

Pink Pom Pom Rose

The thing about gardens is that it's really difficult to enjoy your own as all you can ever see is the work that needs to be done. However, I find that because I come and go so often, for the first half hour when I arrive back, even if I have only been away for a couple of days, I can view the garden with fresh eyes and just enjoy the changes that have happened especially at this time of the year when it is all growing so quickly.
This got me thinking about my work too. Most artists I know find it difficult to view their work objectively. You can look at it and see all the work that has gone into it....but always with a critical eye. The only time I find that you can see it as others do, is to come upon it unexpectedly..perhaps in a place that you had forgotten about. Then for a few seconds until you realise it is one of yours....you see it just as it is.

Back in the garden, there is now plenty to eat, and these are some of my favourites, Artichokes.

There is also Strawberries, Raspberries and loads of Blackcurrants,

 and more cabbages than I know what to do with,

and I'm really excited by my ripening Apricots....I check them out every day but I think there's a way to go yet!

I should really have been back in the studio getting down to it this week too, but I didn't seem able to settle into it. So on days when lethargy sets in I find the only thing to do is clean.....sad but true. So the studio has had a spring clean, and now it feels like a sketchbook open at a new page, and tomorrow I can go in there and start making again.
This little piece above is a commision piece from the Brighton festival. There will be 3 heads on the sculpture when it is finished, but for the moment I am trying to get the colour right for the client, it has to be on the mauve rather than the blue range....tricky but we'll get there.