Results from the Summer School

Well, Brian's Summer School is finished, he is off to America, we are off to Canada soon, and Anna is back to work. Anna has achieved a lot with a super painting of Izzy and Shay in Greece, Mike has started experimenting with oils, as can be seen fom his unfinished painting of a country road near here, and my painting of a young cow in Grasmere village is ok- but not at all the new start I wanted. I tend to paint with obsessive detail, crouching over the canvas with a tiny brush, and my glasses pushed up, while I long to paint big impressionistic canvases, full of light and colour, suggesting great sweeps of landscape and sky. So I am disappointed in myself, that I have stayed within my comfort zone, even putting in the stone wall in the foreground which has become a bit of a cliche with me. Must do better.... but that will have to wait until the new term in September.

First two days of Summer School

Got going in our first two painting classes: I blocked in my cow picture, and Mike did his first ever oil painting. We are now looking forward to next week when Anna joins us to paint. All we need is Kate to come and play for us!

Paintings of Maryport?

Might work on these two as a pair with similar shapes

Food for free

Found these in the garden, under the Bramley Apple tree. Picked the biggest and fried them in butter, waiting for the rest to grow. Perhaps if we leave one or two to go over and produce spores, we'll have a regular crop.

Baby Bird Production Line

For the last two years, we have had the privelege of swallows nesting in our carport. They have come back now for the third year, and have just raised their first brood of three. However, we were thrilled when another pair made an untidy nest under the eaves of the cabin- and their four are now zooming around after insects like mini flying hoovers, and screaming at us indignantly when we go in and out of the cabin! Now though, we have a third nest- under the carport again, but on top of a pile of pots. So far they have five eggs. Production figures are creeping up!

Painter's Block

For two or three years now, we have been attending regular weekly art classes, run by local artist Brian Campbell. The classes run through autumn, winter, spring and early summer, roughly corresponding with school terms, but when they end in May, there is a big hole in our week. That is, until Brian's Summer School starts, and we look forward to several days of concentrated painting. There is a real luxury in setting up all your gear and not packing it away at the end of a day, because you are going back to pick up where you left off the day before. Well, we are due to start in three days, and neither of us has a clue what we want to focus on: landscape, figures, portraits, still life, abstract, drawing media- pencil, ink, chalk, pen, oils, pastels, acrylics, watercolour- mixed media! We are both hoping inspiration will come some time in the next couple of days. perhaps getting out with a sketch book is the right thing to do..... or look through old and new photos.... has anybody else got any ideas?

Welcome

Welcome to the official Trifolium blog. This is the place to see all our latest pots, paintings and jewellery and keep up to date with our other projects.