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In the frame and under it!

In the frame and under it!

When it was my birthday in August my darling husband enquired a few weeks beforehand as to what I would like as a present from him.

I smiled and said “That’s easy!” and when he asked with some trepidation “How easy?????” I laughed and said that I had known as soon as we moved to this lovely house in Kent that as soon as my studio was in some semblance of order that I would want a new easel, a professional one, a studio one. I had always wanted one, and now I could have one!

Now there is nothing wrong with the metal easel I have been using for years, other than its a tripod one and that means its not as solidly stable as a four footed one, and also I wanted to see if they had one that did a particular thing that not all easels do.. and when I looked on “Great Art’s” website, they did have exactly what I was looking for,  one that would hold large pieces of artwork, and it was duly ordered and arrived a few exciting days later on my doorstep.

I knew that it would have to be put together, but how difficult was that going to be? I’m reasonably intelligent, and capable of putting some pieces of wood together…

And diligently took all the pieces out of the box, and read the instructions, and counted all the metal sprockety things that needed to be added to fix it, 

Armed with a mug of tea and the radio on, I started… 

First couple of pieces slide together so, and these bits are attached to those bits, and yes, it does look like the drawing in the instructions, and then this bit goes next, here, with that bit, there, and yep, doublechecking, that all looks fine, and then we get to that bit there, and this bit here, and yes, er, no, er, hangonabit, which bit is that, and why doesn’t it fit there, and how can it be upside down when I’ve checked it all over so carefully… oh, fuckit, its wrong isn’t it… get the expert second opinion… and I called my husband, who came and had a look and confirmed what I had suspected, I’d made a mistake with the first four pieces, but, I realised that it didn’t all have to be taken apart and started again, we could just undo four bits and tip them upside down and re attach and they would be fine.. which was indeed the case of what we did… and then it was easy enough to add the other bits and make sure they were in the right places, and hey presto, we have an easel! 

One that tilts….horizontally….. 

As few of them do that….

Most are vertical, or on a bit of a tilt..

But this one is a watercolour easel.. that lies flat… for the paint to flow, or settle, or sit there quietly doing nothing with gravity, whilst it dries… on a solid base…

And that is what I need this one to do, for some exciting new ideas for paintings coming soon…. 

So, I love my new easel, its Italian, and a wonderful looking thing. I love my husband too for coming to help me when I thought I knew what I was doing, and it seemed I didn’t… 

And as an extra bonus, this easel smells divine too… 

Of oiled wood… 

So it looks good, it smells good, and it does what it’s supposed to do..yay! Result!!

I've been an artist all of my life, and my paintings now hang on walls in Europe, USA and Canada. I'm working on getting them on the other continents! My wide range of artwork has been exhibited nearer to home in the East Midlands, with the Guild of Erotic Artists at Beaumont Hall Studios in Hertfordshire, and at "Erotica", Olympia, London. I have also been featured alongside my work in the Guild of Erotic Artists book (volume 2). I love to create dramatic interest in my pictures, whether it’s to paint an unusual landscape, or just to utilise dramatic lighting in my figure drawings or strong colour in my animal portraits. Delighting in the spontaneous tendencies of watercolour adds an interesting and distinctive look to my paintings, some of which are purposefully ambiguous, enabling the viewer to use their own interpretation of my artwork. I also love to hide images, and humour within my paintings, whether it’s a secret message, or an erotic couple hidden within a landscape, or even an erotic landscape where the couple are camouflaged as the features of the land itself. I am equally happy painting in oils, acrylics or watercolours and love to draw with pencil or ink. I have also developed the very effective method of drawing using white pencil on black card which creates dramatic pictures by just picking out where the light catches the body and leaving the rest of the image to the imagination, in darkness. I can also utilise many different styles, whether it is realistic, abstract, surrealistic, erotic, fantasy or camouflage art where something is hidden within the painting. I'm just passionate about my art, whatever I paint! But, it doesn't matter how many landscapes or pet portraits I paint, its always the erotic stuff that people are interested in! I started blogging to share some of the strange conversations I have with the people I meet. But its evolved into far more than that now.