Flames and Feasts

I promised to introduce you to Will in this post, but it's been too dark and murky and filled with magic over the last few days, and these pictures wanted to come first!

First is this wonderful poem by my friend William Todd-Jones, read by Cerys Matthews on BBC 6 music. The music is by Hilary Tann, and the images by Carol Amos. It perfectly captures the mood of the last few days......

We went to a spooky, candlelit apple party .

Where magical creatures lurked in dusty corners

And small ghosts played with flames

And we all threw a lot of apples. Extra cider for the people who managed to get an apple through the smallest hole in the board(I did!)

And yet more cider.......

And a fabulous toadstool cake!

And finally, after a couple of days recovering from the cider, I finished the last Welsh painting.

Jack' o lanterns and crows by moonlight

"The Mouse Lantern"
ACEO 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches.
For sale HERE

A couple of ACEO's to get me back into the swing of painting. I am just thrilled with the vibrancy of colour my new paints give.
I can't believe how this term has flown by, and I have struggled to get any of my own work in. That is the trouble with working from home - it is too easy to put work off till another day, especially at this time of year, when preparations for winter are so time consuming, both inside and out. Still, the rain has come now, the harvest is in, my hay is all packed in the barn, the horses rugs are sorted out and mended ready for use, the cupboard is packed with preserves, the wood pile is still very low, but my husband is on the case. I think I am nearly there!

"Pride"
ACEO 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches
for sale HERE

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I hope everyone had a wonderful spooky night! We retired quite early, as the kids were pretty exhausted. They spent the day making decorated lanterns ( glass jars with tissue paper glued to the outside) to take trick or treating with them. I have mixed feelings about trick or treating, it's not something I ever did as a child, but the kids really wanted to. So they went ,with friends, accompanied by us, on a pre-arranged route, where householders were expecting them.

Wow! Don't I sound like an old fuddy duddy here! It's just that trick or treating never seemed to be much of 'thing' round here until very recently. We always used to carve a pumpkin for the window, and have a few friends round for apple bobbing and cake, and that was about the extent of it.

Anyway, I have also been busy naking prints of some of my older ACEOs, which are long sold out in their original limited editions. Now I am offering them in Open Editions at a larger size. They come out beautifully printed at about 6 x 4 inches on larger 8 x 6 paper. I will be listing them on Etsy.

'In the Rose Garden'

'The Perfect Squash'