Wouldn’t it be nice to be a cat…. hey I will just take up this cardboard box in the sun, settle down and not worry too much about anything. I mean what else is there to do. Simba loves boxes, the rustle of some cardboard and his ears are pricked. Such simple tastes and happy times.
When you see artists exhibiting their wares at Christmas Fayres or in the high street hoping to catch customers in the festive season spare a thought not just for the hard work and creativity that goes into their craft. Some time will have been spent agonising over pricing before an attempt at selling either original work or prints. Framing is a conundrum, customers like to buy items ready to hang but how do you choose a frame that works with the image and works for the customers taste.
With prints and cards there is plenty to frustrate the eager artist. Enduring a fickle printer is a test of patience when it starts spitting out blank paper or prints which are off centre, the wrong size or the wrong colours and then horrors of horrors sometimes it will not work at all.
Mounting the image is an issue of its own, lining up the print and taping the print, mount and backing board together in a professional looking way before putting into a celophane bag. By the end of it all the place is littered with off cuts, cut fingers, bits of tape everywhere, torn up prints and hopefully the printer has not been despatched out of the window.
You may have guessed that I have just completed a printing session ready for a Christmas Fayre at Horseworld Rescue Centre, Bristol, UK next weekend. Leaflets, notices and business cards are ready printed too. Just need to pack a blanket, hot water bottle and a flask.
Oh and in case you were wondering the printer is still where it should be, in the studio… 🙂
You know that if a cat appears to be meditating by staring into the corner of a room that something must be in that corner. Tucked behind a bookshelf back to the wall was Mousie, looking quite wholesome and undamaged. I think Simba Fangcat brought it in for a game or perhaps we have mice in the walls (as opposed to Wolves in the Walls -a favourite children’s picture book of mine, especially the illustrations).
It took me an hour to sort out the situation with everyone surviving intact. I mean catching the mouse took a relatively short period of time. Guide Mousie towards container and pop container over. The rest of the time was spent finding a suitable container, moving items off the top of the bookshelf, clearing the area, putting the cat out and blocking the catflap with a bin, finding something to encourage the mouse out of the corner and a light to trac
k progress behind the bookshelf, and finding a glove in case I needed to grab it on the way. I also had to find a piece of card that would fit over the container which was two floors up in the attic studio. At one point in trying to encourage Mousie out he was straddling wall and bookshelf in the gap like a furry mountain climber in a ravine.
After dispatching Mousie to the far end of the garden I had to get the cat who had now come outside back in again or else I might to repeat the procedure over again
. I still had all the stuff to put back and away….whilst Simba got back into his basket to continue his nap as if nothing has happened.
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So Digger fancies himself as being a bit like his ancestors, although I am not sure what a Fox Terrier might sound like whilst trying to howl like a wolf….
Whilst designing and painting this image I wondered why there is a plethora of images featuring wolves and a full moon……but it seems is just a human association. “Wolf howls serve as GPS systems, sing-alongs and fire alarms — all rolled into one. In fact, the purpose of wolf howls isn’t terribly different from the reasons humans raise their voices to the wind.”
A proud Basset Hound finished today!
Titled: ” My Best Side” .
Diane Young Artist 