Catching up

I started this blog in October 2006, and like many people I wasn't sure I would be able to find the time to keep it up or find anything much to say. I'm not the most talkative person, my work is pretty self-explanatory and I don't use the blog as a sales tool, but for ease and speed of use it beats my website hands down, and it tends to be the latter that I forget to update!

The most unexpected and welcome pleasure from the blog however has been the doors of communication it flings open, including the instant connection with other artists many of whom like me lead a fairly solitary working life behind their easels. I guess it's the cyber equivalent of stopping by their studios to see what they're up to! And I can still have a cuppa at the same time.

Its very flattering to receive an award from your peers isn't it, and I must apologise for being so very bad at getting around to responding. A recent flurry has given me a boot up the backside, and I'm really sorry if I have left anyone out. I hope its ok to put them all together...they all appear to have rules, but I'm just going to have to do it my way :)

Thank you to Gayle Mason for the Art Y Pico Award last August. Gayle is an superb artist working in pencil, pastel and acrylic, and always very generous in sharing her work in progress and techniques over at Fur in the Paint. Thanks also to Theresa Miller for tagging me a while back. Theresa is a very talented watercolour artist in Switzerland.

Thank you very much to Chris Beck for her award. Chris is a brilliant watercolourist over at I'm Painting as Fast As I Can who also hosts a wonderful new showcase blog Brush Paper Water. Also to Lene Daugaard - Lene specialises in animals working in pencils, pastels and watermedia at A Zoo. A belated thankyou as well for her award to Sally Lancaster, an outstanding equine artist.

And finally thank you to Kim Ratigan for her Passion For Painting Award. Kim does gorgeous watercolour portraits, and also some great minis. She is one of the artists who originally steered me towards miniatures. (Kim's son deserves a mention I think for holding the fort recently while mum had surgery!)

For some of these awards I am asked to list seven things I love, and what better day to do it. I plan to enjoy them all today (except the pigs sadly). Could easily have gone on....and on...but these were the first things to pop into my head:

1. My Family
2. Orchids
3. A peat fire
4. Tea
5. Belgian Chocolate
6. The Sea
7. Pigs

I am to nominate other blogs and since Kim's was the most recent, I am passing on her Passion for Painting Award. It isn't easy to pick only seven and I would rather just suggest everyone on the list on the right; actually it was very hard and I won't be doing it again! They may or may not have the time to join in or pass this on, but I do hope you will take a moment to visit them:

Lesley Ann Hartman; Judy Schrader; Pablo Villicana Lara; Jeanette Jobson; Doris Joa; Terry Banderas; April Jarocka