Painting With Beatrix Potter And Forever Christmas With Tasha Tudor

Good morning friends,

I've been spending every moment working on illustrations for our bunny book, so I thought I'd show you one of the sketches. The enjoyable aspect is that I feel ridiculously thrilled about painting as Beatrix Potter did when she was alive. She painted her environment and often improvised, such as in The Tailor of Gloucester. Beatrix went to the V&A Museum to sit and paint the pretty fabrics. I recall once when I was researching and found that Beatrix wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit; she hadn't yet bought her home at Hilltop. She often would improvise this many more times, such as in The Tale of Two Bad Mice. Norman, her beau, had a niece, and Beatrix borrowed her dollhouse for the scenes with the dolls and mice. The green and white Tower Bank Arms village pub in Sawrey is in perfect detail in The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck. She did it again in The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. The scenes from Squirrel Nutkin show the squirrels rafting across a lake to an island in the centre around Derwent Water.

She was infamous for improvising in her paintings when be needed. I carry this same element: to use my imagination, habitat, and memories.

This miniature painting (the cover above) for The Tale of Melinda Mouse exists in my little one-horse towne; if you've lived here, you know exactly where this is located.

For example, suppose you look at the sketch. In that case, whereas it is me in Scarlette Rose Cottage, it's not wholly complete as of today (the flagstone stove back and window haven't been added yet), but it jolly will be. Look at the photo of the cottage at present, and then look at the sketch. I'm using my imagination to create my dream. Think about all of those times you've seen where something was only a dream (in your life or others) and what seemed to be only someone's bright ideas or notions of wishing. But for those folks that actually keep at their dreams, nothing wavering; they eventually dreamt their visions into life. Think of how children possess the gift of imagination. Although we are all adults, we should remain youthful in our abilities to dream. It is what we must do to create a new world; we must not ever give up. When we use our imagination, there's nothing we can not accomplish. One must never stop dreaming. Truth be told, The Tale of the Christmas Bunnies is about magic. Although the world can seem drab and hope gets lost for many (especially in this pandemic), they will come true if we never give up on our wishes. There's nothing that can stop it from becoming.

Please know how much I love having you visit me each day; it means the world to me.

Most affably yours til my next swim, Rockxxx