exploring eating capturing
Bundi Palace in Rajasthan was by far my favourite palace I visited in India. I could have stayed for a very long time just looking and absorbing the crumbling, fading, colourful aesthetic. I love that it hasn’t been messed about with (yet). There is such …
Once I was home from India my head was buzzing with ideas and possibilities. I just felt like I needed to make big drawings. There is something very physical and all encompassing about working on a large scale, the simple movement and gestural mark making …
It was such a delightful pleasure to draw as I traveled around India. Everywhere you turn there is something interesting. The shapes, colours, patterns and people all provided a wealth of material.
I am british and I love tea. Its been part of life always. My dad had a pint mug for his tea and I seem to have his tendencies. As a teenager I tried to become a cool kid and drink coffee but never liked …
I am one for noticing the detail. Often when I come back from trips and look at my photographs a big proportion of them are of patterns, textures and marks. There are usually few people, I have a tendency to wait for people to go …
India is such a vibrant, warm and beautiful country. Yes it has poverty and problems but show me a country that doesn’t? What I did notice in most places I visited was the warm and contented spirits of the people. Again I am sure there are those that don’t fit into that category but I would say a large number do. It really brought some things into focus for me about being content with what I have, which in a world perspective is a huge amount. I love travel for that one fact that it does wake you up to see the good things and what matters and what doesn’t. Much can be learnt by walking through life with your eyes wide open to the many simple and beautiful pleasures that warm your heart and make you truly happy and I would suggest that is rarely if ever to do with money or things. It also struck me (as it often does) how my country has caused so much heartache in the world over years of power struggles and grasping for wealth. India you are beautiful despite all that and have retained your welcoming spirit which I applaud you for. Happy 70th year of independence and I look forward to visiting again soon x
I have been away this week and got back to very little food in the house. I did discover however that I had a good crop of ripe blackberries in the garden. I didn’t have enough for a jam making session so decided to make …
This is what 9lb’s of donut peaches looks like! The first time I visited my friend in Italy, she had made a peach jam that was flavoured with bay leaves, it was divine. When I came home I got a bit carried away and bought …
Since the age of about thirteen I have wanted to go to India. I grew up in a community with many Asian friends (I learned to make chapatis when I was ten) and have always loved their culture, food, colour and clothes. Finally some thirty years later I did. It did not disappoint. The colour, the people, the design and the food all lived up to my expectations and beyond. This image captures a really lovely moment between this couple. It expresses much of what I experienced, colour, beauty and kindness. The other reason I love this image is because the window (or possibly its twin in the same room) is featured on the front cover of my all time favourite book ‘Colour: Travels Through a Paint Box’ by Victoria Findlay 2002. If you are interested in history, travel and colour then this is a book for you. Full of interesting anecdotes about the origins of colour, starting with ochres in Australia moving on to white in China, lapis lazuli mines in Afghanistan, mango eating cows in India and on and on around the world. Well worth a read!
A few years ago after a trip to Florence I created a book for The Sketchbook Project in Brooklyn New York. I used images from my sketchbook and turned them into cyanotype prints and used some photos I had taken turning them into sepia images …