Hello! Happy New Year! Nice to see you again.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by friends and family and that 2022 is treating you well so far ^_^
We had a teensy little break in Suffolk, which is always nice, especially this time around after having spent Christmas on our own last year. And it's always a good excuse to explore, do something different and refresh some ideas for the "Inspiration & Creation Department". On Christmas Eve, we had a cheeky little escape to Southwold in the morning, a beautiful seaside town on the East coast of England, and making our way down the High Street our first stop was at the "Black Olive Delicatessen", to try freshly made sausage and vegan sausage rolls just so we would stop drooling outside the window.
After browsing through endless books at book shops and charity shops, we stopped at what I think is called the "High Tide Southwold & Wave Bungay" on the corner of Trinity Street and East Street, an independent shop for cards, prints and gifts by local artists and there I got a birthday card for my dad by Stephanie Lambourne.
Before we left for Suffolk, I sculpted around thirty little houses and shops so that they had plenty of time to dry and I could get painting straight away when I got home. I am hugely inspired by little old English village shops, their shapes and colours, and the simplicity of illustration that seems to go straight for my heart. I guess is that "childlike" look at the world that always remembers the highlights and I love that and I hope that shows through my work.
I have about thirteen houses and shops to paint still and about 4kgs of clay to sculpt - but I'm not complaining. I'd like to have a go at sculpting Amsterdam houses - we are currently watching the BBC series "Baptiste" after watching "The missing" and the first season is in Amsterdam where as it happens when series and films are set in picturesque locations like these, I can't stop thinking about how I would sculpt them or paint them, or just say "Aw, that's so beautiful" every five seconds. I also get drenched with this sense of "I have to go there" but sculpting them and painting opens a window into these places and in a way I feel like I'm traveling there.
I don't know if you noticed, but some of these houses have a glossy finish which wasn't my norm as I wanted them to have a matte look in keep with the illustration style. But I wanted to try using gloss varnish to finish some of them, what do you think? Do you have a favourite finish? Do let me know.
This last house in particular I called "Blue Night" house...I guess it's a combination of factors: the fact that I usually get my ideas in the evening, late at night and while I sleep and sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to see this really bright light streaming through the window. I always think to myself - and I should know by now - that it must be the neighbour's light, but every time I stand corrected. It is the moon. And the sky is always this blue hue, never black, that my own house sleeps under.
And the fireflies? That's a borrowed memory from my childhood in Argentina where we were surrounded by fireflies in the summer. Luciérnagas, as we call them.
I'd like to leave you with this heartwarming thought - we are still those children, different shells, same spirits.
Forever timeless
Love to you all and my deepest best wishes for this new year and every year yet to come,
Thank you for reading and I'll catch you next time,
Maive