I can't help but be proud!

This is Rebekah, my beautiful 11 year old Grand daughter, I took this photo when we went to the coast for the day, she came running towards me just like this and I snapped. This is so much a picture of how she is, always relaxed, happy and such a thoughtful and yet very modest person. I can't help but be proud though, because in a couple of weeks she is off to Glasgow to represent her country in her sport. She is the youngest I think that they have ever had. She is on the British Team and will be competing with gymnasts from all over the world.

She recently was asked how she felt about all this and they have quoted her modest words on the Durham City Council website which you can read for yourself here.

Rebekah trains everyday, she is very self disciplined and has to watch her weight, you see she is a top, that means in terms of Acrobatic Gymnastics that she is the one who has to climb on to her partners shoulders. She does sommersaults and allsorts from this precarious position. If she didn't watch her weight her partner wouldn't be able to lift her and do the very dangerous moves that they make together.

Rebekah has added problems, she is an anaphylactic which means she is highly allergic to lots of things including nuts. She also has other food intolerances which all in all make it really hard for her to watch what she eats. About a year ago she had another problem which affected her heel, quite a few young atheletes have this ailment but for weeks it meant that she had to train with pain to her heel and found it hard to land. She has exercise induced asthma too. All in all she has many problems but she overcomes all of them and carries on.

Now she has reached this very giddy height of representing her country. I just had to share this with you all. I'm just so very, very proud of her. Well done Rebekah and Nanny wishes you very good luck in your very special competition.

Struggling with my direction and some landscape work.

Even the title shows my muse has vacated. I just replied to a blog and this is what I wrote:

I have been reading your blog for some time now, I felt I had to reply to today's entry because I feel I am having similar feelings about my own art work.
The trouble with textiles is that there is the functional which is the everyday utility that everyone recognises. Then there is the conceptual. As well as this I have a real problem within my own art work in that I love decoration but always feel hesitant to use it.

Whilst I was studying towards my art degree in textiles we theorised on the use of borrowed images from other cultures and times. It always puts a big full stop in my mind to anything I would like to do; Gosh Art college has a lot to answer for.

Anyway, I also haven't been able to focus for some time, I flit from one idea to the other and I really don't feel that I am allowing myself the freedom I need. I am not sure whether any of this is the same or similar to the way you feel but I just felt I had to write and let you know, that if it does ring any bells with you, then you are not alone. Good Luck with your directions in the future. Tricia

As I said, I am struggling at the moment. I am wanting to make some meaningful artwork but the only direction that pulls me at all is landscape, I get so far and then I feel lost.

To that end I have been doing a lot of photography. Then I thought, why, it will cost a fortune to print all these pictures off in colour, even on a small scale. That made me think about something that I did learn to some use at college. We were taught that true sketching should be just that, sketching should just mean capturing the essence of a subject. We were always pushed to this end by making 2 minute studies of the life model. The model would pose and in 2 minutes the model would be told to change the pose. This way you were never able to get more than the essential down on paper. So I adopted that idea with my digital camera. After a couple of minutes it turns itself off when I am studying a scene. Below are my very early attempts at capturing the essence of some landscape photos I took recently. I know what the scribbles represent, and that's all that matters, I suppose.

It's the shape of the landscape I am trying to capture, not the detail.

It is harder than you think when you are on a self imposed time limit. Yes, I am rusty, I admit that.

Well, enough of that, here is a drawing I made of a photo I took sometime ago, not sure if I even know where the photo is. Anyway, the drawing was made in Oil crayons, perhaps I should move on to colour with the above drawings next.

I decided to try to make a small piece in felt from this piece of work. Here is the result:

I am not entirely satisfied with the result. I do feel my landscape work needs much more exploration and experiment before I will be happy with it.

Two Blog Awards in one day!

Two Awards in one day, Wow, what have I done to deserve this?
Thanks Jean.

Now that just leaves the difficult job of who to pass these on to.

I have some regular blogs who I visit because they are always a really good read. Then I thought, Ok whilst I am visiting some of these regulars I will take a look at a few others that I haven't looked at before. So the first few are my regulars and then I added a couple I have come across who I feel really deserve the award. So here goes:
http://paulahewitt.wordpress.com/
http://herewitht.blogspot.com/
http://www.thefabricofmeditation.blogspot.com/
http://shirleyannesherris.wordpress.com/
http://suebleiweiss.typepad.com/sueb/
http://jollygoodyarn.blogspot.com/
http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/spirit_cloth/

If you haven't come across any of these before, do go and take a look, they are well worth it.
Well, thanks again Jean, now to go and let all the winners know.