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.