April Showers At The Cottage, Little Women And Victorian Poultry

I thought today would be a lovely day to share with you a few things about my art.

{Because everyone wants to know that, right? {Smile} I'm going to pretend you were all cheering me on after that question like those animated cartoons with the humans in a stadium background with no faces. Ya know, cause baby has conversations with self, pretends to answer self after asking self questions. Don't blame me, I have no real physical friends since lockdown, and someone's got to be my quarantine guinea pigs. Lucky you. No really though. This IS MY life 24-7, I'm just saying it's because of COVID-19 so that you won't feel pity for me. Err... Welcome to my life.}

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program. {Meh}

Where was I? 

Oh, yes, my art. 

I may have written a bit about my art before, however in the absolute excitement of the many ways I paint and create my art and projects; I can barely contain myself.

This morning is a beautiful day. A little feel of England is in the air; drizzling and dark. I'm sitting in the rabbit room, staring out of the cottage window, with Oliver underfoot. He's actually sleeping on top of my picnic basket, which is utterly quite a sight! Yesterday, I spent the day doing various projects, one in which included painting Scarlette Rose Cottage. I then baked my Momma a patty cake, wrote a few posts for my blog and did some sketching. My paintings really create an excellent way for me to become a better artist. But that's a trifle in comparison to how painting makes my heart beat like a kettledrum! Do you hear it?

”What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood?”-Beatrix Potter

I have been keeping quite busy at the cottage. My brain is spinning and swirling with ideas of how to make my artwork more detailed and magical. I continue to take in Little Women/Mermaidling portrait requests each week, and my days are filled with dresses, mermaid tails, muddy swamps and great blue herons. {Speaking of which, would you like to order a little painting for yourself or a loved one?} Did you know that when I make my paintings, I use water that has been sitting in the sun charged from crystals? I'm hoping to get back to the beach and collect several more bottles of ocean water, as that truly enhances the spirited properties in my paintings. I am extraordinarily passionate about my work. I infuse the paper with aged seaweed, flower tinctures and floral notes that I created from my garden here at Carter’s Cottage I make my own stains from the plants and flowers from around the cottage, as well. My favourite is from seaweed that I have shipped in from a small family in Europe. I admittedly have a fixed gigglemug as I've upgraded to a much sturdier arches 300-pound cold-pressed block paper, in which I measure and tear myself. As you may well know about me, I have a deep love and tethering to the old ways of packaging, and so I send my little paintings out with a fragrant smell, ribbons, old weathered paper with burnt edges just as if you'd find an old message in a bottle from the seafaring oceans. I use wax seals in the same colour as the Victorians would have used which is almost always red, and tie up a small shell that I beachcombed.

As bold as it sounds, all be it, I’ve taken to doing quite a bit of layering with my paint. Solely focusing on my sketching firstly with much more shading such as Beatrix Potter; my ol’ spirited friendly ghost. I truly appreciate how she would focus on the heart of the subject, and the rest was left without as many details. Having studied her art through the years, it’s quite apparent she’d do much experimenting with colour density, and inking.

She tends to lean towards light colour and washes with exceptional blending. Understanding Beatrix’s art is in itself a lifetime of learning technique.

I finished up my little cottage sign {see below} and placed it on the post next to the red rose bush that my beloved gardener planted for me and in honour of my son Sawyer.

I will post a photo of it in all its glory of colour once I have the exterior of the cottage complete. I'll feel much better showing the before and after. As you know if you've ever restored a structure to its former glory, there are numerous details and many projects. I wouldn't change a thing, though. I can hardly wait each morning to throw off my quilt and get to work creating beauty. I’m so invigorated with finding joy in each day.

Restoring and beautifying the chicken house is going to be my next project once I've completed Scarlette Rose Cottage. My daddy and I decided on a name for the chicken coop. The name is, Henny-Penny’s Hen House, after my storybook called The Tale of Henny-Penny Goody Two Shoes. If you recall that was the tale I was writing before my darling Sawyer passed, so I put that story aside and began The Tale of Sawyer Lamb. I plan to make it look like a Victorian hen house. I actually found a book ”Poultry Housing in the Victorian Era”, and it's the book that queen Victoria is referred to throughout with regards to her very own poultry house at Windsor Castle; the private farm of her Majesty. So, if it's good enough for the queen of England, it's most assuredly good enough for me. I shall take great enjoyment in learning about all things poultry!

This week I am continuing to stay isolated, which suits me quite well. I love my life of solidarity and the country. A countrywoman, I am indeed! I truly live the life of my dreams!

Most affably yours til my next swim, Raquelxxx