5ft inf

Table Top Table for Sale...

2012-02-23T13:55:00.002Z

Table Prints now available at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/5ftinf

Monday...

2012-02-20T10:36:00.001Z

Back Home...

2012-02-19T15:19:00.001Z

Away...

2012-02-19T15:18:00.001Z

Red and Blue...

2012-02-10T11:02:00.001Z

Tea and Tomatoes...

2012-02-09T12:09:00.001Z

Getting Over a Cold...

2012-02-06T11:45:00.001Z

In Need of Vitamin C...

2012-02-03T12:23:00.001Z

Camper Van Present...

2012-02-02T11:23:00.001Z

London to Brighton to Home...

2012-01-31T18:57:00.001Z

Mapping out the Week...

2012-01-29T18:47:00.001Z

Tea and Tin and Tulips...

2012-01-28T10:58:00.001Z

Finding...

2012-01-27T17:54:00.001Z

Measuring Roots...

2012-01-26T23:10:00.002Z

My tribute to a wonderful film...

2012-01-07T18:33:00.001Z

'The Artist' ...go and see it, it's so wonderful.

I'm willing Spring here...

2012-01-07T18:31:00.000Z

Shells...

2011-12-17T06:30:00.001Z

More bits for Etsy!

2011-12-07T11:33:00.001Z

Vintage 1930's London Map Journal http://www.etsy.com/shop/5ftinf#

Etsy Experiment...

2011-11-30T13:56:00.003Z

I have just set up an Etsy shop for my Vintage Map Lamps...A bit of an experiment at the moment

http://www.etsy.com/shop/5ftinf# so we'll see what we shall see!

Beetroot Soup...

2011-11-21T12:50:00.001Z

Blueness...

2011-11-03T09:45:00.000Z

Susie Cooper and Tomatoes...

2011-11-02T12:58:00.000Z

Change of Direction...

2011-11-01T14:48:00.003Z

Having been rather absent from blogland for months really, I'm going to make a concerted effort to resurrect my discipline!

It wont be quite the same though...maybe one picture at a time, and it will be more themed along the lines of my Instagram account, as I seem to have found a more instant way of sharing how my mind works, and as I spend most of my time multi tasking, quickness is of the essence!

So, my 5ftinf Table will mostly take over from here on in, although I'm pretty sure I'll add other stuff too!

So...here is one of my Autumnal Tables!...

Vintage Map Lamps...

2011-09-05T17:49:00.002+01:00

I'm posting a little selection of my vintage map lamps as I've had some very encouraging and lovely comments via Instagram and as I've recently started selling them in Brighton, I thought I'd show some more detailed photos for anyone who needs a better look!

Please feel free to contact me at info@philippastanton.com for any orders or commissions...

Brighton 1940's street map lamp £45

Brighton coastal Map Lamp £35 (shade only)

Vintage Brighton Street Map Lamp £45

Vintage Brighton Coastal Map Lamp £45

Vintage Lake District Map Lamp £45

The Lake District itself...

...and Map Lamps ready to go to the IO Gallery!

We've Been Away....

2011-08-25T14:03:00.002+01:00

Well, have been away for a while with one thing and another, but am going to at least try to be a little more present, with more posts of away-ness and trawler-inspired paintings!

Picking My Own...

2011-06-20T20:29:00.002+01:00

Went to the pick your own fruit and veg farm today....and then ate it all!!!

Vintage Penguin Paperback Display....

2011-04-28T12:15:00.002+01:00

As part of my Open House exhibition this May, I have been lent a collection of vintage Penguin paperback books to 'install' into my shed...they are such beautiful things, it's been a joy to arrange!

The illustration on the last one, bears the name of my late grandfather...who wasn't a butcher!

The exhibition is open the first 4 weekends in May, and also features my Dungeness paintings.

So if you fancy visiting Brighton...pop in!

You can see more photos if you want to follow me on instagram at '5ftinf'.

Happy Easter....

2011-04-25T06:10:00.002+01:00

I have now officially become hooked on Instagram...an i-phone app, where you can share photos...

Having been ridiculously busy at the moment with acting and painting, this app is brilliant (do I sound like an advert???)

I've always actually rather liked taking photos on my phone, as I usually have far too much stuff I have to carry around and things just catch my eye as I'm walking about...

So, if anyone has an i-phone, you can follow me at '5ftinf' on Instagram...

Painting 'til I'm hungry and grumpy...

2011-03-29T18:13:00.001+01:00

Have been painting for May, and not knowing where the day goes and then get reminded that it's gone when I realise I'm STARVING!

Monday bits...

2011-03-21T19:22:00.007Z

Have been doing my show in Eastbourne, (a place I discovered I really liked!!!)...

Have been loving Cheeks...

...and painting Dungeness!

Half of Half Term at 'Prospect Cottage'...

2011-02-27T18:25:00.004Z

I've had an amazing Half Term, (even though I've worked out I spent over 24hrs driving!)...

I'd had an invitation to go and stay at the late Derek Jarman's 'Prospect Cottage' in Dungeness, to paint, and I spent 3 solitary days there, looking into a bleak landscape and allowing myself to be inspired... It is an incredible place and I count myself enormously lucky to have been able to stay in the home of such an inspirational artist...

Hobby...

2011-02-10T19:37:00.002Z

Sometimes I get a wave of affection for my latent obsession, and last week I joined a very famous Social Network (see the first photo for clue), which I've resisted for years...in fact despised...and it's only through some notion of 'business' that I succumbed...it re-kindled my passion!

South Bank light...

2011-02-06T20:19:00.003Z

The boy and I went to see 'Twelfth Night' at the National Theatre on Saturday, and then walked along the South Bank for a bit. I've recently been upgraded to an i-phone which has changed my life...BUT, the camera is rubbish... but it was all I had, so I tried to utilise it as best I could...

Really cold... from Brighton to Cornwall

2011-02-01T19:45:00.002Z

It is so cold in Brighton working at the kitchen table, and it was so cold in Cornwall at the weekend too...

I take Cheeks with me travelling around...seems funny to see him right next to the sea.

I loved the way he watched it like it was alive!

The ceiling from the stage...

2011-01-29T11:45:00.003Z

Clive's Squares

2011-01-26T21:12:00.002Z

Some more bits and pieces from the chest...I would say my Dad must have had nearly 100 of this tins; some are really rusty now, but I remember them full of shiny little things for circuit boards which I thought were pretty and which my father had very useful uses for!

Clive's Chest...

2011-01-24T22:23:00.003Z

Clive was fascinated and obsessed with all things telecommunicational it would seem from the contents of his childhood chest...I barely know what things are in there, but it involves a lot of wires... I'm spending some time organising myself for a big e-bay operation, coupled with a fond farewell to some of my late father's long lost telephone toys!

Keeping Moving...

2011-01-19T21:43:00.004Z

I ran 8K (not to be mistaken for a K8) along the seafront today...I took the roof down for the first time, I adored my cat, phoned my Mum and had a treat!

Light and colour at home...

2011-01-18T16:11:00.004Z

The sun shone today!!! For maybe an hour..maybe less, but I realised that it was the first time it had properly come out since I got back after New Year. Everything seemed a lot more hopeful...maybe I can achieve something?...maybe I can at least embark on e-bay again... forge ahead selling all my possessions (see photo 2) so I can facilitate my creative lifestyle...and, of course another trip to Lidyl... Fingers crossed...

Mild Hope of Colour...

2011-01-11T10:14:00.000Z

...and another one from the boy!

Proud Mum!

2011-01-07T16:50:00.003Z

My 10 year old son took this brilliant photo...I am so proud that he has to have this post to himself!

Happy New Year Freaks and Fiends!

2011-01-02T12:36:00.003Z

The Electricity is Flowing...

2010-12-10T17:51:00.001Z

The Solitary K8...

2010-12-09T18:25:00.003Z

Quiet excitement...

2010-12-05T08:20:00.006Z

The snow is brilliant at being quiet, and calming things down; finding a solitary K8 was very exciting! The cold crispness of Winter light and air has been wonderful on sea walks...

Perception gets a little altered temporarily in my shed, and I start to get excited and terrified, as the solitary, homely Diva, inside this brilliant set box, by theatre designer Peter Farley, for this show.

Saturday with Sore Feet...

2010-11-21T14:09:00.003Z

Getting Ready...

2010-11-20T09:13:00.001Z

Maps and Shadows...

2010-11-17T21:36:00.000Z

Turquoise Cold...

2010-11-08T19:13:00.003Z

A Year On...

2010-11-04T22:24:00.002Z

...and now look; The Screaming Baby has become The Evil Teenager!

Night, Night...

2010-10-29T23:40:00.002+01:00

Brighton and Hove...

2010-10-29T15:52:00.001+01:00

Looking Through...

2010-10-28T18:32:00.001+01:00

Fading...

2010-10-26T17:56:00.003+01:00

Look Back, and Reflect...

2010-10-25T10:51:00.003+01:00

Bright Night...

2010-10-21T23:46:00.001+01:00

Metal...

2010-10-21T23:43:00.002+01:00

Placing...

2010-10-18T18:39:00.004+01:00

These are a few collages I've been glueing at into the early hours,

in preparation for my Christmas Open House...

London to Brighton...

2010-10-13T22:12:00.010+01:00

...my head's going for shapes again.

They seem so simple in daylight...and just get all complicated at night...

but, so as not to complicate my shapes...I'll just mention now, that the Horizon documentary I mentioned I would be in, where I'm talking about synaesthesia and my painting, is to be aired on Monday (18th) October at 9pm...and apologies if my Midlands twang irks anyone as much as it irks me...

...and, yes, I waited ages for this one...

...and here's a clue to what weird civic duty I've been providing this week!

Brighton Swimming...

2010-10-09T11:04:00.003+01:00

Had a tiny insight to the Brighton Swimming Club... and indeed swam in the sea too!

However...I cheated as I wore a wet suit, and although I really enjoyed it, I had the most horrific nightmare that night about being swept off by a big wave....waving, drowning...the works...

In and Out...

2010-10-01T06:53:00.006+01:00

Have been enjoying the Underground again...and in fact London again!

I think I've always liked Autumn in town...not that any of my photos here really illustrate that, but the cold and the rain, and the woolly tights and new boots make me feel very me...

New Horizons Popping Up...

2010-09-01T21:53:00.004+01:00

All sorts going on, as usual, but can't remember when I was more pleased to be entering the 'Autumn Term'...

Last weekend I was being filmed for an Horizon Special about the senses, and synaesthesia, so as it was raining, the BBC provided the most colourful umbrella possible....

...and I was given the luxury of just listening to the sea, and painting it's sound.

And so the mad theatre job has also recently come to an end...

....but don't think time backstage is ever idled though;

I became sort of obsessed with pop-up books and attempted some of my own paper engineering combining it with my other obsession/passion....Yes, a pop-up telephone box...

...which I then embellished with...well, more 'London' pop-ups

...and yes, I even made a globe which springs out of a book, when opened, thanks to some elastic from the wardrobe department and kind assistance from 'wigs'...

I also seemed to be in some sort of effigy fest; starting at Chichester...

leading to my kitchen...

this is an 'Italian Pizza Man with a Knife and Fork' (Nb. the fork was apparently very difficult to make!)

and then it was all completely inescapable at a 'Scarecrow Festival'...

All very bizarre...particularly Gordon Brown in a K6!

So, getting back to Brighton...

and the start of the new school term has been much anticipated...

Happy Autumn!

Geevor Tin Mine

2010-08-10T09:01:00.003+01:00

All a Bit Busy and Silly...

2010-07-27T09:20:00.003+01:00

So what have I been doing instead of blogging?...

I've been dressing up and putting on wigs, silly hats and lots of make-up (which I'd be lying if I said that I didn't quite enjoy it!)

I've been rehearsing, and then inevitably opening in a show at Chichester Festival Theatre, and so here you have some rather hurried photos of Georgian women with mobile phones!

Here, I am playing 'The Banks of The Thames'!!!

(Hat now has leaves on the trees...)

I have also been away coming to terms with a wet suit, which has changed my life...as has body boarding...

But obviously first, a bit of rust...

...and two Mermaids!

...Next up 'Geevor Tin Mine'...

sky shapes....

2010-06-17T22:50:00.002+01:00

May Took Over My Life...

2010-06-02T21:12:00.013+01:00

So, May arrived...as did my Open House Exhibition, the one-woman play I did in the Brighton Festival and the start of rehearsals for Sheridan's play 'The Critic' for Chichester theatre this Summer... Consequently there was very little time for anything, apart from sleeping, worrying, eating...and of course taking a few pictures...

BUT look, I've tried to attempt a 'new-look' blog Thank you Elaine!): rather ambitious after a couple of bottles of Stella, but I'm putting off the ironing...

This is a painting of a woman's voice I was recently commissioned to do...

...here, I just liked the squares

...here, I liked the man-made sun-burst in the rain...

...other man-made stuff

...night wires and wet trees...

...the Open House cat! (and Holly Bell's fantastic ceramics)

...ah, yes...don't really do this, but was rather proud of a Brighton Festival Award our show received and for being nominated for Best Female Performer in the Festival (blimey, wasn't expecting that!), so yes, this is me and playwright Charlotte Jones celebrating 'The Diva in Me'!

...despite some rehearsal rooms being fusty and full of flea-ridden old sofas, I was lucky enough to spend some rehearsal time here at the Nightingale Theatre...

...and only moments away from the chip shop!!!

So after a May of madness, things are settling down a bit...I'm back in the theatre making use of my small-ness next to someone else's tall-ness for great comic effect...and happy!!!

Brighton to Birmingham, via Cornwall and 'Doctors'...

2010-04-20T23:20:00.015+01:00

I often like to pretend I'm in Barcelona when I'm at the Bullring!

Yes, Birmingham's Bullring has eventually enticed me back to my blog...

Or is it being alone in a strange city (that really does mean strange, as rather bleakly, Birmingham has never actually been a stranger in my life...)

Life has been going on, and the blog has suffered...

Laptops have become a Mac in my world (yep, I've joined the family...but I still feel that the Mac 'in-laws' haven't quite welcomed me yet...)

I did a little piece on Synaesthesia for The One Show recently, talked about my paintings and showed them my shed/studio, and you're welcome to have a look if you like...(the cat features heavily...he went to RADA!)

and I'm slightly panicky at the moment, as I'm in a one-woman show in the Brighton Festival and have an Open House...in my house...and I'm scared about learning my lines, and painting, and er...loads of other ridiculous things too, too numerous and domestic to draw attention to..

Anyway, I'm here now...and I reckon this is Cornwall's answer to Barcelona...

oh, yes, sorry...we were in Birmingham weren't we...

The reason I'm in Birmingham at the moment is because I'm filming a couple of episodes of BBC's 'Doctors', where I'm playing some weird mousy, slightly OCD woman in beige outfits, who finds an illegal immigrant in her garden and later becomes all silly when she accidentally inhales cannabis fumes....there, I couldn't make that up, could I?..

Anyway, leaving Birmingham city centre for a moment (or maybe for good...)

I have been to Cornwall recently...

with its skies full of electrical linguine...

...and South American walls...

...to deliver a painting I'd done for a wonderful Penguin paperbacks person

...obviously a trip to Cornwall on the train involves various morbid thoughts when peering out of the window...

...but things brighten up once you're there...

...to the point I can actually begin to believe I'm in some Mexican Spaghetti Western sort of place...

...which I'm evidently not, sitting here in a Birmingham business hotel, infinitely closer to Spaghetti Junction (but I refuse to finish the post with any images of corporate hotel-ness...it would just spoil any romance I may have flimsily created!)

Yes, well...'Hello' again all...I'm attempting a 'come back'...

Light from above...

2010-02-09T23:45:00.007Z

I've still got this fascination at the moment with telegraph poles and wires, which in turn has led to a fascination with the sky...and the amazing things it does to the wires!

The sky late this afternoon was extraordinary...

...in complete contrast, the light at Birling Gap the weekend before last was completely defining, and just so clear...

I find hospitals probably some of the least aesthetically pleasing places on the planet...but I was determined to at least try and appreciate something...even if it was simply arrangement of inanimate shapes...

...outside was better...

...and in amongst all these wires; these communicative threads, I got out my watercolours and painted a birthday present for a friend...

...and then, clearly, just went back to basking in industrial sun...

Wires, Branches and Barbara Hepworth...

2010-01-19T19:47:00.002Z

Last May I found this origional Barbara Hepworth signed print in a broken frame, hiding amongst tatt and shattered mirrors, in a charity shop...I bought it for £2, and recently I think I've probably been subconsciously inspired, as just before Christmas I had it properly framed and put in a proud position at home...my morning run has been catching snatches of Hepworth all over the place...as well as wires, balloons and buses...

Light from this weekend...

2010-01-17T19:01:00.005Z

A lot of lovely light around this weekend; even after the snow melted...

Creeping Back...

2010-01-13T21:04:00.004Z

Well, for various reasons, I've been taking a blogging break, but I'm just dipping my toe back into the waters, or rather virtual waters, of 5ftInf again.

Have been doing all sorts of things over the last few weeks, including snow and ice, breaking down (in the automobile sense that is, not the mental one; you can't get towed home and stop off for a coffee when it's the latter... ), looking at the sea, looking at the sky, drinking a bit of Guiness, looking at post boxes, and of course looking at the odd telephone box...

and so, here are a few extracts from my eyes...

so, yes...I'm creeping out of the hole and happily holding on!

The Ever Helpful Vicar...

2009-11-29T21:13:00.000Z

...another bit of '50's frivolity

Tea Drinking and Constant Collage...

2009-11-26T22:27:00.005Z

Not really back to myself yet...

Can't get motivated to blog properly, I'm afraid...

But I'm absorbing myself in addictive collaging and tea drinking...

(Thanks for all the lovely messages, by the way, on the last post)

A Big Gap...

2009-11-07T13:23:00.007Z

I've been away from blogging as my Dad died last week.

It was all a bit sudden and I'm still a bit bewildered by it all...

I love this photo which was taken when he was about 5.
So, nothing much to say, I'm afraid, but here is what my eyes have been looking at...

...and my Dad's pride and joy; The Screaming Baby making friends with the fish!

Where the rust and water went...

2009-10-22T16:06:00.005+01:00

Well, I've put my fear and fascination of rust and metal in water into my recent paintings.

I'm a bit of a fiddler, so these may not be quite finished...or they might be...I have to live with them for a bit, but I've really enjoyed the process of creating them, which has taken some time: because there are so many layers, I've had to be really patient letting each one dry, whilst trying to keep them looking wet...

...and this is one below I've been playing with for a while, (some of you might remember it in a slightly different way, from an earlier post 'Up Close and Underneath');
It's become a lot murkier over the last few weeks!

Fear, Rust and Loathing in Lost London...

2009-10-15T16:46:00.011+01:00

I am so drawn to the Thames, to the sea, to all things tidal, and yet I have a fear; a phobia connected to it.

One of the comments I had about a painting I'd done of the underneath of a boat, has prompted this post, which isn't really an explanation, but maybe an illustration of why I try and paint what frightens me.

For a start I've found that when I paint something with the fear and strong feelings I have about man-made objects in water, particularly metal things, somehow it seems that I leave some of that emotion lingering, and people appear to appreciate it, even if they don't feel the same...maybe that emotion enables them to be led to visit other deep places ?...who knows...but my phobia fascinates me, and just as I think it's all ok, and I'm fine with rusty boats... I suddenly get the fear.

I took a walk along the Thames yesterday and saw some fantastic and odd things. The Thames is so difinitively London and so not London at the same time.

However, The Thames terrifies me; it's lonely, grey, old, full of rusty working vessels, and it seems to hide so many things under it's deep grey shroud; an historical London which we see broken fragments of on the shoreline, and the fact that it's calmly yet constantly hiding death...or maybe that's just my phobia!

Anyway...the walk started out in a civilised way, and when you work out what this says,...you'll laugh I'm sure!

A wonderful piece of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott design: see the telephone kiosk resemblence?

...and there was a pedestrian diversion near Blackfriars, and can you believe NO ONE stopped to look at this apart from me. It is hidden in an awful industrial corner, surrounded by vandalised 'hazardous chemical' warnings...

I think it's utterly amazing and so beautiful

...and this kind of made me think of Elaine

And the rest...well, the rest is just rust and fear...the industrial, lonely, chained, boat persisted in worrying me, but it was the piping further down that was the final straw; I was nearly crying and feeling really rather sick, so I called it a day after that, and made a hasty retreat!

Catching Up...Part 2

2009-10-12T10:32:00.009+01:00

Oh my goodness...I am so rubbish at 'catching up'...I've been meant to be finishing this post for 3 days now, and I've chosen to start writing something 5 minutes before I go out...anyway, lets see how far I get...

So, I've been painting, in preparation for The Early Open House , but I keep doing that thing where I like my painting for 5 minutes after I've done it...go to bed, and then wake up thinking it's crap...anyway a couple are here for you to peruse...

The one below, is the bit of the boat which is usually below water level

line shapes have been fascinating me too...but to no real purpose

nice patterns...even in an horrible office!

and also at home...

you've got to guess what this is...

...and big, fat list makers!

Now this is where the second wedding I went to was: Wilton's Music Hall.

It was utterly gorgeous and fantastic!

...and another little one!

If you havn't already, please have a look on the new Early Open House blog...you'll be familiar with a couple of us, and if you'd like to come please just let us know...or just turn up, of course!

Catching Up...Part 1

2009-10-06T21:50:00.007+01:00

I havn't done any blogging for ages...but I have to say... I've quite enjoyed not!!!

I've been driving all over the place, having had 2 weddings and unfortunately a funeral to go to over the last few weeks.

The first wedding was really lovely, and at an amazing place called Hampton Court, in Herefordshire.

I don't really do party photos, as I enjoy taking part rather than documenting it...but I thought some of the little places around and about were really atmospheric.

There seemed to be an odd combination of Medievil and Victorian...

We danced under the alternative 'glitterball'...a giant mace!

...and I think I was the only guest to root out the Guiness...(I don't behave well on wine)...and I was the envy of many!

Then, of course, guess what I did on the way home?...

A family group...

'Sorry...'

Proud.

A very satisfying public partnership (she's proud of her age!)

Mr Richards has gone...

...leaving Mr Richards' lonely son!

Round the Bend...at dusk.

And then what was waiting when I got back home...

I love this photo...

Routine, Lists and Nothingness ...

2009-09-15T22:10:00.010+01:00

Well, I've cheered up since my last post!

My life is just in a state of flux at the moment, for one reason and another, but I have to say that the return of the school drop-off and school pick-up has felt incredibly beneficial to an up-tight Summer sufferer.

I've started running again, I'm doing a bit of boring work again...I have routine again!

Routine, for me, is the essence of accomplishment, and as long as I have a ridiculous, fat marker- pen list, blue tacked to a wall in front of me, I can accomplish!

Now, this list sometimes even features:

05.30. Wake Up

People are often shocked at this (possibly by the time) but usually by the fact that 'Wake up' is part of my list...

Well, if I am only able to cross one thing off a day, it makes me feel better than if I'd crossed off nothing at all...lists should be achievable, in my book (and my fat marker pen).

Actually, I have other sorts of list too, which are much more serious and ambitious, and slightly unachievable, but they are my 'long term' lists and, crikey, when I cross something off there, it feels SO good!

Over the last week or so, I've also been tidying and sorting (and yes, I managed to cross off 'sort piles of papers at the end of the bed' well and truly off!)...so my mind has become a little freer, which I'm sure has helped spark an idea for painting, which I wont write much about just yet, as it's still in a sort of infancy...

Last week I had to speak about synaesthesia at the British Science Festival in Guildford:

I played Judy Garland singing 'Over The Rainbow' (a '50's recording), and Elvis singing 'In The Ghetto' whilst the audience looked at my two paintings of the sound of the two singers' voices. I also handed 'round oranges, Maltesers and English Mustard for people to taste whilst they were looking at my paintings of those tastes...

(If you're a bit bewildered, you can visit my website)

Anyway, I'd done some of the paintings a while ago, and this talk I had to do, forced me to think again about sound, and how I paint it.

After doing a lot of voice portraits, I felt that I'd lost any 'feeling' for it; I felt my paintings had slipped simply into artistic notation.

So that's why I've been concentrating on painting things which I feel something strongly about inside: (the fear of the underneath of boats, shipwrecks, and of course telephone boxes)...and then last week, my feeling for sound and paint came back!

...and I'll hopefully keep you posted about that in the near future...

But just for now, I'm enjoying a bit of nothingness: Nothing amazing, nothing absolutely gorgeous, nothing particularly anything really...I'm just waiting...

amongst some of my sweet nothingnesses...

...all rooted by me!

It's a wonderful feeling to paint or create something you have a real passion and feeling for, even if it involves an element of nothing!

Up Close and Underneath...

2009-09-06T19:02:00.006+01:00

Moving on

Then moving back

Stumbling forward

with things I lack...

Nothing ventured

sitting still

but nothing gained

with bitter pill...

A weekend through

I feel the same

inside out

with outside game

Am I tired?

Am I tough?

hardened through

the want of love

...

(an odd weekend...but with a new painting)

Sussex Salt and Trailer Trash...

2009-09-02T21:02:00.007+01:00

I've been enjoying living by the sea over the last week and, in my opinion, there's nothing better than an Autumnal seaside...

I love how the elements manage to distort whatever they come into contact with, even though it also terrifies me, and I also love the feeling of warmth within cold.

Birling Gap is probably one of my favourite places in England...a simple, rock-pooling beach
which always pours sea-life sucess into any bucket, with an equally simple and satisfying cafe up at the top...

I also like the quiet beaches along the Sussex coast...the ones with the not-so-trendy beach huts...just because it's quiet, really, but also the textures of the more unkempt civic areas fascinate... and worry me at the same time...

'The Door To The Sea...is Jammed'!

The walls seemed scorched...by sea salt

However...all good, artistic things; things that are wonderfully creative for the body and soul, must come to an end...

As they did today:

Anyone who thinks filming or being an actress is in any way a glamourous occupation, prepare to be disillusioned!

Today, I did my day's filming on the new, comedy film 'Swinging with the Finkels' (and, yes, it really is about 'swinging', and yes I did have to say kinky stuff...anyway....)
It was all being done in a kind of hand-held, improvisational way...to the point where I'd never met my 'boyfriend' until I had to take my top off in the 'wardrobe trailer', where they were trying to work out how to make us look like a couple!

Luckily, my 'boyfriend' was a lovely man, and we had a real laugh, until we were led to the set where we had to 'improvise' on a constantly malting fur throw, and then be regularly de-furred (for continuity)...to the complete silence of an on-looking crew...

The job is an embarassing one at times, and at times I wonder what on earth...well, just what on earth!

Anyway, the make-up girls did a good job...

Also, a large part of filming is always spent in your 'trailer', with your name emblazoned across the door on a manky piece of A4 (or if you're really unlucky 'Lesbian 1', as was one I saw today!)

But the trailers are the most un-aesthetically pleasing waiting rooms you could imagine, with their dull lighting, even duller furniture and nervous dull actor inside.

So during the age I had to wait alone in the dim light, eagerly anticipating how 'funny' they were going to ask me to be, I embarked on trying to get some arty shots, imagining how I could convince bloggers that I was actually somewhere quite swish, or at least that William Eggleston had just popped in....

So:

But he hadn't and the reality was...

A corrugated metal-shutter-view from the window...

An all American home from home...

and, er...not much else!

Consequently, I'm finishing this post on a wonderfully rare K3...

designed, like the K2 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, but made in concrete, as opposed to cast iron, introduced in 1929.

It was an unsucessful kiosk, due to its fabric, as the elements were not kind to it, and demanded too much up-keep...but how beautiful.

K3's, though incredibly rare, have to be a personal favourite...

There... I feel much better now!

Just Thought I'd Share...

2009-08-23T19:29:00.004+01:00

Sometimes I get real waves of affection for my studio, and as I've been pottering about in it this weekend, I just thought I'd share some of it's ordered corners...
favorite places...

scrap-book walls...
(often shipwreck newspaper cuttings...my phobia persistantly fascinates me)

car-boot cases...

mess amongst the Susie Cooper...

...and a bit more mess...

and old and new canvases waiting for new life...

...and I started putting some pylon moments into paint in a sketchbook, and when I put it up on the top Agatha Christie shelf, I discovered an old poster...
Why I havn't looked after it properly is a mystery, as it was from one of my happiest acting jobs about 9 years ago.

I was in 'Comedy of Errors' at Shakespeare's Globe, and here are a couple of the charaters I played featured on the poster...

Brace yourself....

I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled I was at the prospect of wearing a fat suit throughout the summer months with not a hint of vanity...mmm!

However, the designer must have taken pity on me and gave me lipstick, curly slippers (which I still have) a pretty top and mini cymbols for the Courtesan...

The fat suit was worth it...and maybe I'll share 'Fishboy' with you on another occasion!

Anyway, it made me laugh out loud this weekend...

And THIS made me absolutely scream with delight, as it was the first time I'd cooked roast pork at home (I never thought I'd ever be able to do crackling ever) and courtesy of my mother's guidance,

look how crispy I got it!

My mother is a wonder!

Anticipating Autumn...

2009-08-21T07:44:00.004+01:00

I'm not really a Summer sort of girl; I never have been.

I enjoy the light and a warmth outside, but I always prefer being on the cool inside looking out.

Summer has felt like I've been whizzing around, way too busy (even to name the types of my beloved telephone kiosks in my last post!)

But I'm starting to feel my favorite season approaching, and my perfect weather.

So I've been trying to reconnect with home after being far too transient for weeks...

I've been 'placing' things: one of my favorite occupations, and one of my treasures from a Summer visit to a friend, was first to be 'placed': A load of vintage 1940's Housewife magazines, and then I became distracted with flower arranging...

One of my paintings seemed to have a very current connection with me, as I've been indulging my obsession with countryside kiosks during my Northern excursions...

I also visited my parents again, and really felt that 'the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' was virtually upon us...

The 'apple tub' was changing colour too...

But even surrounded by all this natural beauty, I couldn't resist another pylon moment...

they're becoming a new thing for me!

And to round off August...as if to have a prize for survivng it...I've got an acting job at last!

A very small part in a new comedy film with Martin Freeman...

I'm chuffed, and will film in early September, and just hope I won't be cut out of the end product!

Adios...

A 'Cast Iron' Collage of My Month on the Move...

2009-08-13T21:43:00.019+01:00

Then all the way home again...

William Eggleston Inspiration...

2009-07-15T23:17:00.019+01:00

I saw such an inspiring documentry about photographer William Eggleston, last night, that I made myself stop the car and take 3 photos today of 'banal' architecture from the Midlands, but which has always been part of my life... he also takes photos of public signs, which are completely wonderful

...and more public collage
No:1

No: 2

No: 3

some white things I liked the look of...

these doors reminded me of that old sitcom with Peter Bowles, James Bolam and the other poor bloke who's never been in anything since, where they were all miserabe in hospital beds for what seemed like a half hour eternity...(how hilarious!!!). It was called H.A.P.P.Y, I think..which it certainly wasn't...hence my view on these doors!

Maybe the patient/actor who we've never seen since, is still in bed behind them...waiting to be discharged...

aaah! How wise...

and...Red,

White,

and Blue...

banal rules!

A week's collage of Happy Doings...

2009-07-12T16:14:00.010+01:00

I havn't been able to read a novel in 3 1/2 years, and this book of Graham Rawle's has very happily broken the spell, courtesy of Sew Recycled...I absolutely LOVE it: a completely collaged novel, using origional text cuttings from 1962 women's magazines...recommended to readers and artists alike!!!

One of my English Wet Weather collage paintings...

and one of my cards...

and here are a few things which have jollied me along this week...

Advice for a hurricane:

Am not a campervan convert...but am beginning to see an appeal...

...am off to Warwickshire now...

More Words Outdoors...

2009-07-07T17:04:00.005+01:00

I'm watching British, solid rain

and feeling like a child...again.

Havn't cleaned my brushes,

Havn't cleaned my shoes

Have felt rather sorry at the Micheal Jackson news...

The rain is going crazy now,

(the cat is hiding by the door...)

the condensation's cosy though

It's good to watch it pour

Ghostly K8 with a new job...

Weird Westminster

Amazing to see this at a tube station...it's like disused underground prison cells: really odd

Here's some more collage advice...

And another...

I'd quite like to be a bar maid there...or maybe meet the supervisor!

Collaging with Public Property...

2009-07-02T20:27:00.006+01:00

close-up of one of my Union Jack collage paintings

As some of you may know by now...I love collage and I also love public, civic and industrial stuff...so I've decided to try combining them...

a sound warning...

not really a problem after Guinness...

This is my Mum!!!

There was Doubting Thomas...and now there's Dauntless Thomas!

The Pope's Pavement?

Surely along the Southbank it must belong to Dick...

Fantastic design...

...with a bit of pretty...

Crikey! It looks like Broadway has hit London Bridge...

I've never tried 'outlet'...

...or we'll cut them off, like we did to this naughty person!

At The Tip...

My son said I should paint this!

Stig of the Dump!!!

Pavement Plodding...

2009-06-24T19:45:00.015+01:00

This month I've certaintly been far from 'rapide'...

but I've been plodding on... hence the amount of time I've spent looking at the ground during daily plodding.

So I'm indulging myself in daily design and accidental angles...no doubt it's leading me to my next artistic binge, whenever that will be...I have to wait (sometimes months) before it all comes clear, but for now I'm just filling my head with images that are amusing and genuinely interesting me...

The builders have been practising their tactics for the local gymkhana...

I've never really liked relay services either...

A gorgeous Victorian, Irish post box care of Dee from Lucy's Lounge

Longing bollards

Bossy railings...

a nice bit of council colouring-in

A damaged cast iron ear...

Where?

inspired grafitti!!!

Pam's little hair comb...

Peter's pavement?

Not able to say much...

2009-06-11T22:47:00.006+01:00

I have been absent from the blog for a while...

I have little to say, as I can't find anything wordily worthwhile to express the deep sadness I recently experienced and am still feeling, along with many other people, at the sudden death of a friend, who was a wonderful, funny, fit woman and mother in her 30's.

She simply passed away in her sleep.

So tragic, so sad and so unfair...she was brilliant...

So...this post is simply showing things I've been looking at...which need no words

Chelsea, Shakespeare, Sculpture and Culture...

2009-05-25T19:33:00.011+01:00

As it was the final week of The Brighton Festival, I was packing loads in...including an actor friend in my front room, as I was being his 'theatrical landlady' whilst he performed in Shakespeare's Globe's, wonderful touring production of 'Comedy of Errors'. I have experienced many very peculiar and uncomfortable theatrical 'digs' and landladies in my time, so enjoyed looking after a worn out actor in his production week, where working hours are often 10am till 10pm!

Other incidents this week included:

An audition for an Ikea commercial, for a store opening in Dublin...

and then my child was sick, and for the first time ever, I had to cancel the meeting, as I couldn't get cover 'till midday.

That afternoon I had a ticket for Chelsea, which my mother had arranged months ago...and then she was sick!!!

So...I met a friend there, we had an extended free lunch at the Loch Fynne restraunt, looking out onto numerous horticulteral delights...and then realised, amidst our gastronomic delights that we'd got hardly any time left to look around the show! So, we saw James May's plastecine garden, which we thought was awful... but then we indulged ourselves in the Pavillion, surrounded by masses of flowers, and agreed that this was indeed what we had both expected of Chelsea!

I loved the amazing dahlias...

and we both discovered auriculas, and fell in love with their weirdness...

And I also loved this sculpture by Hamish Mackie ; two otters swimming after a salmon...it was really, really beautiful, especially to an otter-lover, like me...

Another venture was going up to the Anish Kapoor C-Curve sculpture on top of the Downs, early one evening, and it was absolutely fantastic; a fabulous blending of modern art and beautiful, traditional countryside...one magically enhancing the other...

reading mirror writing...

It made me feel so happy inside, and I love it when art manages to change my emotions.

When I saw the Rachel Whitread exhibition at the Tate Modern a few years ago, it also made me feel incredibly light and blissful, and I remember feeling like I was on an MGM set, where they'd been filming a heaven scene...

At the end of the week, I'd also managed to squeeze in a Private View, a BrightonFrocks fashion show (with a great goodie-bag under my chair), an after-show party at the Dome (courtesy of my lodger!), seeing a performance of 'Comedy of Errors' (also courtesy of my lodger), a Sunday breakfast, a Sunday Roast, and a raucous end of Festival party at a very accomodating Open House...

I had a brilliant week ...courtesy of fantastic friends, family and weather.

And so finally...a brief dose of industrial oddness:

A beautiful pylon...

and a mysterious tumble-dryer/burning happening in a neighbouring street...no-one was about, all doors were closed, and so this lonely appliance quietly burnt to death...

Looking at the floor...

2009-05-16T08:38:00.012+01:00

I've had a pretty odd week...one of those ones where I only want to look at the floor, and not too wide, as everything just seems a bit too much. Didn't want to move really...but luckily I have some brilliant friends who are like a shot of prozac when they turn up with cakes, or bring a box of Viennese biscuits 'round.
One of my friends confided in me about something from her childhood, which we were both shocked to find out (as it is quite peculiar) that I had too: A fairy which came to the car window to wish us well on our holiday journeys!!!
She liked to dress hers in appropriate clothes for the weather on their way to Wales, whereas mine came from the cooling towers on the M6, just past Birmingham and just chatted to me on my open window (I always opened it just a chink, even if it was raining...) on our way to The Lake District!
But, apart from this, nothing extroidinary this week, and as I didn't feel up to doing very much, I indulged myself in the detail of everyday textures...

A Fairy Tower...(R.I.P)

When things feel black; sometimes they are...

I wanted to treat myself to crispy bacon rinds...and left them in too long.

There was this black mess left...inside and out. A mid-week highlight: Brighton has aquired some wall art...of a K6 telephone kiosk exploding in black and white!
So lonely and out of place...

Who were you?
This is me...with a heart and a hole!

It always amuses me to see my name and initials on man-hole covers throughout the country:

It used to make me feel secretly important as a child, especially when 'warrior' was written too...actually it still does!

The possibility behind doors is sometimes too exciting and too frightening at the same time...

...so I sometimes let myself loose on the rocks

Yesterday, I had a look on jaboopee's blog, where she has some witty photos featuring some toy figures. I love seeing figures out of context, and at Christmas I painted the Dalek below, as I was wondering how they'd get on severe weather conditions: I didn't think they'd cope too well, and so then when it snowed in January...we tried them out!

They don't like to give up easily!

Dalek in Icy Conditions.

Finally, a completely wonderful thing I experienced last Sunday at The Parlure Spiegltent in Brighton, as part of the Festival, was the Orkestra del Sol

They were so brilliant, witty and happy, that I couldn't stop dancing and wanted them to keep playing for hours...