More Medieval - it is now July 2017 - oops.

   When I do portraits I am very involved - there is no other way to do it.  Most people realise the importance - and I am grateful..........   I gave my web address to someone and I felt sort of ill - so -
  I am editing  out the bit where I said I don't like sharing my life with syber space because I feel lost. I will pretend I am talking to a friend. I will pretend I am talking to someone who is interested.

             I have been making a medieval tent and costume - I drew portraits at a medieval festival last September at Passy les Tours and I was where I should be.

  I am in this room -  in theory it is the 'clean' room it has my computer and sewing stuff. The other Polly made of papier-maché was invaluable for costume fitting.  When I took this photo Nick Cave was playing on the computer and there was a rainbow outside the window. I've been exploring new music. I shared my life with Leonard Cohen for 46 years and he left me.

A nice exchange - painting for music

I swapped a fleur de lys for a small medieval orchestra to accompany my baroque recorder playing. Made on the computer - by a very nice guy called Tom - a professional pianist - and the wall decoration is for his Mum Lynne. I am editing this a long time afterwards... the orchestra was too much - what I thought was good, wasn't - but I learnt more about what I need and don't need.

  

A year - desk and other things - 3rd instalment

 Also last year I tried to make my perfect desk.  To write letters, poems, memoirs  ?... I needed a desk.
   

It is made out of scraps of wood and paper and cardboard.  Here are some photos about it's construction.

You can see it in these last two photos in situe in the far right hand corner of the medieval  banqueting hall. There is still masses to do to the hall. I tidied it up for my birthday in January and invited friends for it's own birthday - it was freezing!

 ( The end wall above the minstrels gallery had been rendered in horrible grey cement - so I painted the stones back onto it.)

Above the cupboards iether side of the room I made four small 'stained glass windows'.  I cut the 'lead' from lino, put blobs of glue for the 'solder' and painted it lead coloured.  Then I glue it to perpex and flooded each section with ordinary house varnish (water based) coloured with food dyes. ( I spent all day, feeling like an alchamist, trying to work out how to make transparent paint.)

Then glued the sides to the back of the wood where I'd cut the hole, and papered some cord around the hole at the front because it finished it off nicely. 

The cupboards are for a life time's collection of craft equipment and materials - and the lights in the cupboards shine through the 'stained glass'.

I had allocated February to painting a mural for a neighbour - he had see the one in the bar ( I mentioned it in the blog - but I haven't put pictures) and had set his heart on having one himself.  He spent two years decorating the dining room. (He was a baker in Paris most of the time - he is retiring this month). Also ' laisser secher' was mentioned a lot and the Pastis appeared.   That means  leave it to dry - time to drink. He said paint whatever you want - so I based the design on the ingredients of the drinks that people consume while visiting - because that is what happens in that room. 

A year

           As I mentioned, over a year ago, my husband Bill, the glassblower, had to stop work altogether. He had been a glassblower for 62 years - glass was his life. He was lost and depressed and just sat watching telly - which is completely out of character - he is the most determined person I've ever met, he would rise to any  challenge and would not let go of a problem until he had solved it - (which was sometimes a bit scary!).  Bill and I are opposites. I don't even peak over the rim of my pit. Then we somehow managed to have the brain-wave that he could redirect his passion to the hobby love of his life - fishing. My brother bought the things he didn't already have - competition fishing people seem to need a LOT of stuff, and my brother even bought him a big new telly and fishing videos and arranged things so that Bill could show on it the pictures of the fish he caught to visitors. Which he does.
             I also needed a new direction because I did not want to run the shop on my own, and working in glass is expensive - and I don't know when I will sell anything. So I decided to draw portraits in public. Nobody else in our region does it - people say that they've seen portrait drawing at Montmatre!  That's it.    Portrait drawing in public is like jumping off a cliff and hoping you've got wings.   It is exciting, rewarding and a privilege. It is also very little investment for immediate income.  Here are some portraits - not in chronological order, they are A2 charcoal sketches.
            ( My brother has tried to tell me how to make these photos all look black and white and the same - sorry Mike - and everyone else.  It's a pit-dweller thing.)

       I have been charging 10 € per person, and sometimes, usually husbands, as with this last lady, give me more, and the drawing before is of a man I know, a friend. He said he will put it in the window to scare off burglars - I think it looks just like him.....I told him he is scary.   Oh and I'd better say that the little girl with pointy ears really is a pixie - I was drawing at a medieval festival a few weeks ago.