I have been to fairyland and back .......and I am going there again soon soon (I cannot wait)

please click to see the details :)

I am fortunate enough to have a good relationship with the great folk that run a local adult mental health unit .Over the last few years I have worked there occasionally as an artist with the fine people who attend these services for many varied reasons .

Feeling a little lost myself lately ,I felt drawn back to this place and decided to volunteer these last few weeks.

We have been making beautiful hats and fairy dolls for the upcoming craft fair.

Yesterday I created a set for our dolls to exist within until they are snaffled up to maybe grace someones tree or live in a new home .

I was channelling the amazing to me Victorian Fairy Painter

John Anster Fitzgerald and will be developing this work in a new project next year :)

All I know is that every single stitch is a major achievement and that I feel privledged to be able to work alongside so many lovely people.

newsflash ****

I will have three of my artists books on sale /exhibition at the dublin art book fair and magazine archive this weekend !!!!

:)

I am taking a small break from my blog .............just need to energize myself up again.

all will be well

thank you all

jane x

remember me.........she is back in residence

Victorian early souvenir- ware made in Germany .......

(behind is a drawing made my daughter last year of a japanese girl ice skating .....you know like a totally obvious thing to draw...love her so much)

the lovely Inge and Hasmita ,art interns at the life changing museum of everything exhibition held in the old Selfridges hotel London

new alchemy cardigans made in house (here in my house)


no words yet .........

film stills etc ......

there were some lovely arts and crafts era tiles at the carboot sale a few days ago.

I have been reviewing my work from a while ago .....I made so much when I was at college that I never explored or understood but knew there was something in some of the images so I kept them , I am starting to work out what or where to find that something.

I posted some more stills on my flickr

Its getting wintery.
Tommorow I fly over the sea to England to see my folks there. I am looking forward to the break , the first one on my own in many years.
I am going to two very exciting shows ,which I will let you know about soon soon .
Grayson Perry at the British Museum
Judith Scott at the amazing amazing .......museum of everything

today is the new moon ....and all is well

thank you hillery from specks and keepings (so beautiful)

drawing from ayco from osaka japan
my own work slowly slowly........
my new old book against the bleak skies we are getting now

laura deer

oil pastel on glass vintage paper and watercolour

when I was thinking about laura , I remembered this little drawing that I gave to her a long time ago now ....I hope she still loves it :)

....after only just receiving the drawing from laura ,today on the new moon all the way from Japan I got this lovely little watercolour from ayco.

I came across her work on flickr and it makes me feel so happy, she has such a light touch.

Her drawings of deer are exquisite.

That is my most favourite part of being an artist , when you find others of a similar feather :)

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special announcement to my lovely readers........

only the river stares back is a brand new short film definately worth looking at , it is by my friend and sometime collaborator Richael.

She is a young emerging artist who lives near by and whom I would be lost without !

Please feel free to give feedback on the film on her comment page, I know that she would love you too.

to jane love laura

thanks for making my day laura !

Laura Ferrara , an ace painter and a friend.

She also makes wonderful drawings and occasionally collage drawings and one that I liked came into my post box , poetically guarded within a super little french vintage book on malliol the sculptor.

Lauras work is a consistent poignant song to a haunting and surreal space which she alludes to in her gentle yet unsettling paintings full of symbols which I love love love.

I am happy to have met Laura through my blog and count her as an important part of my art/world .

take a look here and you can see more of Lauras work

new works in progress and things I love at the moment

re-constructed dress

modern pennys dress from 2 years ago and 1950's skirt
sorrow growing from the chance reading of a line in jane eyre

work in progress

oil pastel ink acrylic and pen
1950's light which I got for 1 euro at last months carboot sale
my parrot skirt really makes me feel jolly !
this fantastic painting made me smile when I spied it last week in a health care unit which I sometimes get the chance to work in.
franks new drawings

.....thank you *thank you* thank you *frank who also bought universe of fables .

last week was an unprecedented high.

☂☁....its got awful wintery here , to think last week I was cycling around in the sun !

anyway here are some things that make me feel good at the moment ....I need strong vibrant patterns, the more the merrier..........like this dress that I am reconstructing adding in two side pieces from a never worn 1950's skirt , so my new dress will have a fuller skirt.

I love the clash of the patterns together :)

I made a red coat on friday which really makes me smile too and will photograph it later.

a spectacular week in more ways than one !

thanks katy the lovely artist and curator of blog pigeon curd

this print from the surrealist artist leonora fini hangs in the same beautiful restaraunt the pantry and corkscrew in westport co.mayo (run by the sweetest janice and dermott)..........that is home to a selection of my drawings and self published artists books !

loving these patterns at the moment.......
hoping these manifest a bit more this week !

a lovely woman from america called by my stall yesterday delighted to find some artisanal(as she put it) products to take home with her, first she bought one of my limited edition book a light meditation on cameos ....then a cute folk art kind of totem pole tea pot - cup- jug kind of object :)....and then she spied the spectacular coat and said it had to go back home with her . She was keen to support irish artists and really went out of her way to find hand made work ,I was pleased that she found me and loved what she found !

thanks cathy x

I make exactly what I feel like and would like to see , that which I miss from around me , same as in my drawings .....and somehow /somewhere others are seeing something they yearn for too.

I have to say I have never felt so connected to my work , my life, my friends and family ....at last I feel fully alive and true.

I simply cannot say all the amazing things that has happened this week , but I can feel them , thank you Patrick, Frank,Janice,Cathy, Michaela, Richael,Pat, my girls and Aidan in particular and also thank you to all my other dear friends who always stay close and true.

What a week !

pigeon curd

more on leonora fini

a big day/week in many ways ....

submission

ink/acrylic on card mat
1 ** treasures rising (ballet book 1948)
2*treasures rising(vintage broaches)
3**treasures rising (red metal kitten bin/vase)

I am wildly distacted from my work as my eldest daughter became 18 today and youngest 11 last week and as you know life can be kind of busy with all these occasions !

I am really enjoying the feedback on my work at my market stall and of course glad of the sales too . My alchemy cardigans are really loved and every time I make one they sell ...like magic/alchemy.

On the down side , my sewing machine is breaking my heart ,refusing to work when and if it pleases,so its hand sewing all the way from now on.........

I am pleased with how my beermats turned out and I look forward to seeing the installation curated by sweetheart ian wieczorek next week at the westport arts festival.

Do you remember my part in the group show INVITED there last year in the abandoned 1930's garage.

I was at the carboot sale on sunday and treasures rose to meet me at every turn (delighted)

I wish all my readers/friends a great week :)

pop up shop for tommorows culture night and spectaculars hanging on the church wall etc

." I have no relative but the universal mother, Nature : I will seek her breast and ask for repose"

jane eyre
charlotte brönte
1847

above are some new clothes I made ****

thanks to alan in tinderbox I am sending a pop-up shop of my artists books and zines up to co.westmeath for tommorows culture night which is a countrywide cultural intiative .

studio 93 in moate is where the exhibition will be :)

where I like to be ♥

new work is a ...coming
Odilon Redon is helping me

silence

oil and gesso on paper

1911

where I like to be ♥

the bog this morning

my new coat (on the bog ..where I like to be)


just back from one of my favourite activities ...walking with my two dogs around the bog near where I live.It takes about an hour , depending on how long I stay down there....it gives me so much.

**I am going to see the new film of jane eyre tonight ...yipee!

**I was so happy to see that the maverick soul mark petty has been busy making some new clothes for himself ,what a star,another highlight from my best ever favourite blog spitalfields life.

finding my way in the between light

I am looking and finding my way ,yesterday I drew a woman dressed as a horse with another woman turning into a swan with a hare jumping over the moon in the background .....AND I wanted to show you but .....its not quite there yet.....

maybe tommorow , I feel so full of ideas and am so happy to get some of them down on paper , even humble scetches.

I am also making some lovely upcycled clothes which I will post images of tommorow .

green nail varnish,a horse ring a swan ring , ruminating and whatnot .....

....whenever I have stuff to do ...I simply cannot do it !

so instead I have spent the morning walking around in the rain and sun on the lovely bog with my dogs enjoying the time on my own now my dears are all back at school 1 2 & 3 deers.

Then as you do ,I painted my nails green and photographed my two new rings for my blog as I am so shallow !

I am actually thrilled with my new rings and green nail polish.

I have also been very busy catching the last rays of sunlight before it goes on its holidays and makes me sad :(

Yesterday I spied sun on my outside yellow table between rain and grey and I actually photographed it , like a stalker !

I am not sure what the next chapter will bring but I feel it maybe very good.

love the colours of the tobias brothers work here

also love what these artists greedy hen are up to