Tag Archives: AJ art journal

The Long Wait is over!

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I’ve been away for a while again because, out of the blue, I received a phone call from Southampton Hospital on Friday 5 December advising me that T’s operation was scheduled for 17 December. T had just gone out to see his therapist when I received the call so I had to wait until he got home to tell him. I was really pleased that it wouldn’t be necessary for us to travel to a foreign country to get it done now, but he immediately went into shock and subsequently through the whole spectrum of emotions before we got to the hospital. By the time he went to the Theatre for his op on 17/12 he had come to terms with everything and was mentally in the right space.

His operation went really well, he spent one night in Intensive Care, then a couple nights in the High Dependency Unit before returning to a normal ward. He had to be put on a 12 hour drip because he was so dehydrated and they also sorted out a couple of other problems. Although the op went well the surgeon accidentally broke one of T’s ribs (he apologised when he did he ward rounds and saw T after the op). The new valve has settled in nicely and his heart is functioning better than it has for years. Unfortunately the pain from the broken rib is delaying his recovery a bit, but it gets slightly better every day. He was discharged from the hospital on 24 December and we got home at about 4:30pm. The trip home (which involved a half hour taxi ride from the hospital to the ferry terminal; a short wait then a half hour fast cat ferry ride to the Island – the sea was rough that day which caused T more pain and caused me to feel sea sick!; then a slightly longer taxi ride home) he was exhausted by the time we got home and in need of more pain relief then went straight to bed for a rest.

The lovely cats were pleased to see us and we were pleased to see them.

Christmas Day was very quiet, T slept and rested most of the time. I took the opportunity to go and visit my Mum and when I got home I cooked a ‘sort of Xmas Dinner’ in the evening.

Each day things are getting better and we are optimistic that he will be healthier and able to do more in the future. However he is still in heart failure, that will be treated and hopefully improved by medication, the pace maker, exercise and diet.

While T was in hospital I was able to stay near to him in Heartbeat House again. I am so grateful that place exists, it’s clean, warm, safe and full of other people away from their homes and caring for relatives who are heart patients. Some of the people I made friends with at HBH had to stay there over Christmas but I know they will have supported each other and it’s important that our loved ones are looked after and helped to recover.

So because of all of the above I haven’t had much time for creativity again in the past month. Today I am sharing a small project I did earlier in the year – a birthday card for my friend Claudine. It’s called an Explosion Book (or Squash Book). The two images above show both sides of the book/card ‘exploded’ but it all squashes down to a small square. I forgot to take a picture of it squashed!

Here is a quick YouTube tutorial on how to make one There are longer and more detailed tutorials available if you search for them.

For anyone who is reading this I hope you had a lovely Christmas. People who know me well know that I’m really not a big fan of Christmas but nevertheless I hope you all enjoyed it. I do however wish you all the best for Good Health and Happiness in the New Year.

Big Love from me
AJ xxxxx

See you next year!

A Bit of this and that!

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Hello, I hope you are keeping well and enjoying life.

Things have been a bit hectic for me since we got back from our successful trip to London.

T has been sleeping a lot because he is tired all the time now. He wrote to the hospital in Southampton (who have told him he will get his ‘urgent’ heart surgery ‘some time’ in the next year) to ask if they will be monitoring his heart in the meantime. He got a rather abrupt and unfriendly answer to say that no they will not be monitoring him but if he becomes unwell he should report to our local hospital for emergency treatment.

He is losing all confidence in the team at Southampton now. Luckily he is seeing the local Heart Failure Nurse early next week and he finally got an appointment to see his GP the next day.

When he was first told that his only option for surgery was Transapical TAVI, (a very specialised and complex type of keyhole surgery) he was told that he was not ‘optimal’ for the surgery at that time because his Aortic valve was functioning ‘OK’ (apparently 25% performance is deemed OK!?) but if it was left too long there might be too much damage to his heart and then he would be unable to have the surgery. So the fact that they don’t want to monitor him is naturally a bit worrying.

T has been researching other options. He first looked into being transferred to another UK hospital but they all have long waiting lists for NHS patients. Although going private could probably expedite the surgery to a few weeks, the cost in the UK is prohibitive. He’s now considering going abroad for private surgery, which, including return flights for two and accommodation, is about half the price of having the operation done in the UK (still a lot of money though). I have told him he needs to investigate what the insurance cost will be as I’m sure it will be very high with all of his other health problems which all have to be declared. I want to be sure that if he needs a medivac flight to get home one will be available.

Naturally I am very anxious about all of this (the delay, the lack of ‘customer service’ from the team at Southampton, the difficulty of getting care from the NHS – due to years of underfunding from successive governments, etc. etc.) and I am pleased he will be seeing the two local professional people who know him and appear to care about him.

When I’ve managed to find a bit of ‘me time’ I’ve been trying to finish a Junk Journal I started in 2014 as well as making a box to contain it. It’s completely made from junk and rubbish and I’ve filled it with quotes that are meaningful to me (the delightful content). I’ve just got one more page to finish and a few tags to decorate and then I can mark that one as ‘complete’ too. Hopefully I will get it done before the end of the year as I’ve already noted on the box that it was started in 2014 and completed in 2025 🙂 Here is a little glimpse of the inside and the box:

Yesterday we had our very last session of the Arts and Craft group run by CarersIW. It’s a bit sad it has come to an end because it was a lovely group of carers and we all supported each other through difficult times. Often the room was filled with laughter. Yesterday we decorated cardboard gingerbread men for a community Christmas tree.

Back Row L-R Cheryl, Debbie, Denise and Julie
Front Row L-R Lucy (who led the group until recently) Marcus who took over from Lucy, Sarah and me!

The group used to be a lot bigger but in recent months the numbers have dwindled and the decision was taken to bring it to an end. Very sad but I think it was the right decision. I have been invited to join another group on a different day. The Self Care Cafe is centred more on the individual and includes things like mindfulness, breathing, meditation, calming music and sometimes there is also a craft element. This week we made ‘natural weaves’. My effort is at the top of this post. The frame is made from driftwood tied together, the warp is made from paper string and the weft includes all sorts of bits and pieces collected from the beach and gardens and some extra bits tied on. It was a really lovely exercise to do and I was quite pleased with the result of mine. Everyone did something different and they were all lovely.

The weather in the UK got colder recently and I remembered some time ago (probably a couple of years) I purchased everything I needed (fabric and mechanisms) to make two Roman Blinds for T’s room. He has 2 large windows in his room one south facing and the other east facing. They already have curtains but the blinds will improve the insulation. I thought making the blinds would be a quick and easy task afterall it just involves sewing straight lines, but it’s turned into a bit of marathon.

Part of the problem is getting into his room, because he sleeps a lot I don’t like to disturb him but I also need daylight for measuring and fitting, there’s a bit of drilling and hammering involved, climbing up and down step ladders and quite a lot of groaning and swearing! Currently it gets dark at about 4pm so my window of opportunity to get the job done is limited! Sometimes he stays in bed until early afternoon! Today I should get the first blind competed and then I am hoping that the second one will be quicker as I now know what I need to do and hopefully won’t make as many mistakes. The blinds have blackout and thermal linings to keep the heat in during the winter and out during the summer. If I ever need more blinds I’ll pay someone else to make them. I’ve realised that now I am a ‘senior’ things that used to be quick and simple take much longer and seem more complicated!

My other exciting news that I will tell you about nearer the time or maybe after the event is that I have signed up for a 5 day Art Retreat in the south of France with my favourite artist next summer. It sold out almost immediately and I was lucky to get a place. I am so excited about this 🙂 ❤


That’s all for now, keep creative friends 🙂
Big love from me
AJ xxxxx ❤❤❤

We had a Little Adventure :-)

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There is an exhibition of art by the Street Artist Banksy in London at the moment and we went to check it out.

I was going to go on my own just for a quick day trip, but then I asked T if he would like to come too. He said he’d like to come but wouldn’t be able to manage it in one day so it turned into a mini trip. Because T can only walk short distances we had to take his wheelchair which in some respects made things easier, but in others much harger. We spent far more money than we normally would have done, but as this was the first time we had done anything like this for years, we felt that we deserved a bit of spoiling.

We left home late morning on day 1, got to London by mid afternoon, checked into a hotel in South Kensington that was near to where the exhibition was and went out for an evening meal at lovely Indian restaurant.

On day two we had a very expensive breakfast in a lovely ‘cafe’ (it was much more ‘upmarket’ than the cafe’s we have where we live)! The bill for the breakfast came as a bit of a shock to us, but the service was very attentive and the whole experience was very nice. Then at 12 noon we were booked in to see the exhibition. The people running the exhibition were all very lovely to us and made sure we got to see everything and T was well looked after.

Smiley Reaper, spray paint on cardboard
Get our why you Can!
One for the flag waving ‘Patriots’!
An iconic image
Tony Walton, Geriatric, Disabled, Non-digital, Anarchist – Free Palestine!


The Banksy exhibition was OK, you never know really what to expect of a Banksy exhibition because he never authorises, approves or curates exhibitions like this so it’s all done without his input. A few years ago we went to a similar Banksy exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam which I have to say was probably better than the one currently in London, but if you like Banksy it’s still worth going to the one in London.

At the same venue there was also a photographic exhibition by the Danish photographer Søren Solkær, he is more commonly known for his photography of musicians and as a fashion photographer. But for 10 years he worked on a project to photograph iconic street art and to try and track down the artists and take photos of them with their works. Of course many street artists do not wish to be identified because often they create art outside of the law, but Søren’s exhibition is truly stunning and it well worth a visit. Below are a few shots from his show.

French artist Invader in front of some of his pixelated mosaic work
Borondo in front of his work Narcissus
Blek le Rat
Brazilian-born street artist known as Pixote in front of some of his work

That evening we went for an even more expensive and delicious Italian meal at Rocco’s. Well worth the cost.

The next morning we were up early and making our way home. Unfortunately it took a lot longer than it should have done because our train was delayed by ‘a couple of horses on the tracks’ at some point that meant we missed connections. We got home exhausted at about tea time on day 3 but having had a very enjoyable time.

That’s all for now.
Hope all’s good with you
Big love AJ xxxx

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Hello… Am I back? Who knows? Anyway, if you do happen to be here, then welcome (or possibly welcome back) to my blog.

Here are some Twirly Ball things I made recently from recycled book pages and broken jewellery (English spelling 🙂 )

This blog has been dormant for a long time and I am going to TRY and reactivate it. The truth is I haven’t been very creative since my last post (in August 2019) and I’ve missed it a lot.

My (spare room) “studio” turned into a dumping ground for all the stuff I didn’t know what to do with, there were precarious piles of stuff on every surface and all over the floor leaving just a small pathway from the door to my computer, there was still a high risk of an avalanche, so the pathway had to be nagivated with great care. Earlier this year I decided I had to do something about it and it has taken months to sort it all out. I’ve got rid of loads of stuff (don’t worry I still have more art supplies than I need), reorganised everything, sorted my art supplies into smaller and lighter boxes, and labelled everything. It seemed to take for ever but I finally got it done and my studio now feels spacious and airy (for now). Unfortunately I don’t have a good track record for keeping my space tidy, but I’m going to try!

A lot has happened in the past 6 years or so and TBH it’s been, and continues to be, really tough.

Here is a summary of some of the challenges I’ve faced:

We all had to deal with the Covid pandemic and lockdowns in 2020.
Around about that time T’s health was in serious decline with multiple issues – he’s had 5 surgeries (2 of them redos of previous operations that went wrong)! and many hospital admissions.
He developed cognitive problems that took well over a year to be sorted out with a change of medication.
He’s still physically unwell but at least now we can have sensible conversations again.
He currently has memory and mobility problems and is now in advanced heart failure. He’s been waiting for heart surgery and hopefully it will be done sometime in the next year, we are hoping it will be sooner rather than later because we were told it was urgent a year ago.
My Dad’s health also declined and he had to go into care during the Covid lockdown he never returned home and passed away in Feb 2022. Mum and I were with him when he died.
Mum has been lost without him and I really miss him too. They were married for 72 years. Because she knew I was dealing with a lot of issues too, she decided to move into a retirement home where she knew she would be looked after. That happened sometime in 2023 she is in a home that is close to where I live so I visit her whenever I can.
I spent a lot of time last year sorting out and emptying her home so that it could be sold. She tried to help me at first but it was too upsetting for her going back to her old home. In the end I did most of it on my own. I spent hours in that house on my own crying, packing things to be taken to chatiry, sorting and cleaning, it was heartbreaking and exhausting!
The house finally sold a year ago.
I retired from work in August 2020 after working for the same company for almost 30 years. In all those years I had attended, and even organised some, retirement parties, they tended to be lovely events. However Covid regs meant my retirement party was restricted to just 6 of us meeting outside and having a picnic. Fortunately it was a lovely sunny day, the location was lovely (on top of a reservoir site) and the people I shared it with were some of the favourite people I worked with, but it still felt a little bit flat and disappointing.
We both caught Covid in November 2023, ironically when we went to Southampton hospital for T to have a brain scan. I wasn’t too bad but was positive for 2 weeks, T was very poorly and had to go to hospital. He was discharged on Christmas Eve but he was still unwell and had to be readmitted on Boxing Day. It wasn’t a good Christmas!
Then last year T spent about 5 weeks in hospital over Christmas waiting for Heart Surgery that (for various reasons) never happened.
In May this year I had my 70th Birthday!!! I’m definitely beginning to feel a bit ‘creaky’ now but on the whole I think I’m in good health which is fortunate because I am now T’s main carer. I do get help – he employs a lovely lady C (who previously cared for my Dad and then my Mum) she comes for 10 hours a week. She is a fantastic carer, for both of us, and now she has become a close friend.

So with all that above (and more) going on in my life I haven’t really had the time or the inclination to be very creative. Recently I’ve begun to realise how much I miss it and have decided to try and re-establish some sort of creative routine.
The ‘Studio’ is finally sorted out, organised and doesn’t feel so claustraphobic so I’m hoping to get back to being a ‘creative person’ again.

While I was tidying and reorganising the ‘studio’ I found loads of projects that I had started with enthusiasm but never finished. So I’m going to try and complete at least some of those before starting anything else? I don’t think I’ll ever have to buy any more art supplies for as long as I live (but in all honesty I probably will – it’s an addiction)!
One thing I did finish recently was the Tikis and Totems Journal I started in 2015 as part of the Artstronaut’s Club run by Teesha and Tracy Moore. Here are the images from the completed journal: If you have followed my blog before you will have seen some of these images and if you follow me on Facebook you will probably have seen all of them recently. You can click on the arrows to see all 12 pages.

  • Front Cover
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • Page 10
  • Back Cover

I’ve upgraded my blog and now have my own domain name
ajs-art-journal.com I’m not sure what difference that makes but you can find this blog by using that link or the old one (I think) AJsartjournal.wordpress.com. Actually I am struggling a bit at the moment, I’ve been away from this site for so long I’ve forgotten how to do lots of stuff. So if it all looks a crazy jumble I apologise, I think I will have to watch all the training tutorials again! But please let me know if when you view it things are not right and I’ll try to sort it out.

That’s all for now folks I hope to be back soon definitely sooner than 6 years next time.

Big love from me
AJ xxxxxxx

Another Lost Weekend

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Hello friends

I hope you are all well and happy?

So here is another page from my Landscapes Journal, might be a landscape of the microscopic, who knows? Certainly not me.

Not that happy with the end result of this page, but I enjoyed the process of making marks on the page and that’s what counts.

This is the original page before I did anything with it:

So this is another lost weekend in our house, it just seems relentless at the moment, the waves of the Bipolar sea just keep crashing in with little time for recovery before the next one comes. There is nothing I can do but try and be supportive and try not to take things personally (which is harder than you would imagine) and keep busy until he’s ready to come back from that deep, dark place.

Yesterday I found out where the leak is in my van so hopefully I can get it sorted out now. After that T (who seemed to be OK at the time) asked me if I could prune a shrub in the garden and bag up the waste. We didn’t have any empty bags so I took a car load of full bags to the tip and when I got home about an hour later I pruned the shrub while T went for a nap. He did get up briefly after that but I could tell the black cloud had descended upon him and he soon went back to bed where he has mostly remained. He gets up occassionally but he’s not looking good and doesn’t really want to converse so I guess it’s good that he is spending as much time as possible asleep.

Today I have done housework and washing, the sun is really bright today but it’s very windy and a bit cold, fortunately so far the garden fence panels are still in place but I hope the wind dies down soon. I really don’t want to have to replace them again!

In a while I will go and see Mum and Dad to see if they are OK, They are both still struggling since they returned from their respite care in the nursing home after their accidents. Mum no longer has to wear the neck brace, but her lower back gives her constant pain. She is managing to get out of the house a bit. Dad seems to have a constant chest infection and he is hardly leaving the house at all, he seems a bit depressed to me which isn’t really surprising as his world has shrunk considerably over the past year. Hopefully he will cheer up when I visit.

That’s all for now folks, take good care of yourselves and I’ll see you soon.

Big Love

AJ xxx ❤

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2011-2019 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.


Cosmic Chaos

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Hello friends!

Long time no see, so I hope you are keeping well and happy.

There has been a lot going on in my life over the past year that has distracted me from my art practice. Close members of my family have been poorly and needed more of my attention and although I am fit and healthy there has been a lot of stress and my art has been well and truly neglected.

One thing I have realised in the past is that the more I practice art the easier it becomes and when I take breaks it gets harder and harder to get back in to flow. But I have also realised that practising art is good for my mental well-being so in an attempt to restart my creativity I decided to continue in my big (12″ x 16″) Landscapes Journal by just making marks. It all got a bit chaotic and I can’t say I am really pleased with this spread but it’s a start, right?

There is nothing left of the original images on the page, but they informed the end result:

I really did not like the orange bit at the bottom! So I painted over it 🙂

So there we have it the finished spread is a visual depiction of how disorganised and jumbled my life gets at times. Still right now things are not too bad and I am enjoying having a breather and the ability to spend a little time on myself.

Take good care of yourselves and I’ll see you again sometime.

Big love AJ xxx

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2011-2019 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Geography of the Soul

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Castle 02 a

Hello friends

Things are still pretty hectic in my life, but they are getting better, I’ve just got to make sure I keep things moving forward and keep breathing.  I hope things are good with you and less chaotic than they are for me right now.

Here is another page in my Internal Landscapes Journal, I finished this at the beginning of the month. I am fairly pleased with this one because I liked the way it progressed.

I started off with this page and this is how it progressed:

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

I overpainted the original page trying to extract and simplify the main components, but I still was not happy with the end result.  So on the facing page (which originally had mainly text) I gessoed the whole page and I decided to extract even more from the original image and the end result is the image at the top of the page.

I was trying to produce something that might look OK painted big on a wall, I still don’t think I’ve achieved that, but I do feel I’m getting closer.

The quote is by Josephine Hart and I think it’s from a book called Damage.  I haven’t read the book but I believe this is the opening line and it’s such a perfect piece of writing.  Here is the quote in full:

“There is an internal landscape, a geography of the soul; we search for its outlines all our lives. Those who are lucky enough to find it ease like water over a stone, onto its fluid contours, and are home. Some find it in the place of their birth; others may leave a seaside town, parched, and find themselves refreshed in the desert. There are those born in rolling countryside who are really only at ease in the intense and busy loneliness of the city. For some, the search is for the imprint of another; a child or a mother, a grandfather or a brother, a lover, a husband, a wife, or a foe. We may go through our lives happy or unhappy, successful or unfulfilled, loved or unloved, without ever standing cold with the shock of recognition, without ever feeling the agony as the twisted iron in our soul unlocks itself and we slip at last into place.”
― Josephine Hart

And here is a proper wall artist in action and delivering lusciousness 🙂 :

 

That’s all for now folks see you soon.

Big love

AJ xxxxxxx

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2011-2018 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Ancient Places

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KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Hello friends

I hope all is good with you, there is such a lot going on in my life at the moment I’m struggling to keep all the balls in the air, just got to remember to keep breathing in and out, and repeat.  Unfortunately I have no time for making art right now as other things are taking priority.

So while I’m waiting for life to return to some sort of normality, or at least calm down a bit I thought I would post something I finished earlier this month.

It’s a spread from my Internal Landscapes Journal, it started off like this:

003 Ancient Places spread s

Then progressed to this:

003a Ancient Places spread s

and ended up as the image at the top of the page.

I messed up the bottom right hand corner ‘big time’ and in an attempt to salvage the spread I collaged on the head and hat.  It wasn’t very successful, but the rest is OK apart from the fact I don’t really like the colours.

But there you go, it’s just an experimental book, so even if I don’t like the end piece I can always learn from the process.

Look after yourselves and have fun.

I’ll see you soon

Big love AJ xxxxx

 

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2011-2018 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

 

 

 

Internal landscapes

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002 finished for blog.jpg

Hello friends

I hope all is good with you, here everything is ticking along as usual.  I spent much of March trying to get back into the routine of being creative every day.  Decorating the bedroom was also a creative act but completely different from putting paint or collage on paper and I had missed doing that.

I still have the big piece of wood (30″ by 44″) to paint to go on the wall above the bed but I need to get some ideas before I attempt that.  So I purchased this book in a local charity shop:

001 Landscapes Cover small

It’s a big paperback book measureing 12″ wide by 16″ high of photographs of landscapes taken from the air.  I’m using it as a kind of sketchbook to develop some ideas.  I am using what is on the original page to inform and inspire what I put over the original images.

Unfortunately I didn’t take a ‘before’ photo of the page above, but it was the index page.  It had images on the left hand side and text on the right.  I gesso’d over most of the page leaving just three small elements of the original images on the left hand side which are now contained within circles.  I added the circle to the right hand side of the page to give some balance.

In case you are wondering I ALWAYS leave the covers of my sketchbooks/journals until last.

This is also part of my long term project Inside/Outside in which I am looking at all aspects of inside and outside.  A book showing images of the surface of the planet are ideal for my investigation.  I have a feeling that when the book is finished it will be all about Interior landscapes.

I’m not too sure how I feel about  the finished page above but it was good to be working with paints again and I do like the colour combination.  I generally find green the hardest colour to work with!

Inside the book I stuck some of the pages together to give a firmer surface to paint on.  I’ve had varying degrees of success with this as some of the pages didn’t stick very well and there are some air bubbles trapped!  But it’s just an experimental sketchbook so I’m not too bothered with the end results at the moment (and I’ve never been bothered about perfection anyway)!  For now it’s just more important to be going through the process of getting paint onto paper and having some fun.

Just before I go, here is a treat for you 🙂  I discovered this amazing artist today and she is only 9 years old.  Incredible Talent!  Here is Pakritee from India, if you like this video perhaps you will leave a comment and encouragement for her on the YouTube page https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo_Ha-JkGQQ.  There are other videos of her painting too.

That’s all for now folks

Take good care of yourselves

See you soon

Big love

AJ xxx

 

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2011-2018 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

 

It’s finished! (Well almost)

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Bedroom 1

Hello friends

I hope all is good with you and you are well and happy.  It’s taken 10 weeks but the bedroom decorating project is finally finished, well almost!  The new furniture arrived a couple of days ago and we’ve been moving piles of clothes and stuff back into the room this weekend as well as breaking up old furniture and taking it to the local landfill site.

There are still a few things to do, I need to put shelves up in the left hand alcove and that big space above the bed needs some artwork.  Fortunately I have a big piece of wood that will fit the space and providing I can paint a good enough painting it will go there. We also need to get some better bedside lighting.

The white patch in the centre of the bed and on the headboard are just sunlight shining through the window.

Here are a few more photos:

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

We had to move everything out of the bedroom, apart from the bed, while the work was being done, so we’ve been living in chaos for 10 weeks!

Here is a photo of the work in progress:

Before 1

This was taken early on in the project because we soon realised that moving all the furniture out would make life a bit easier.  Unfortunately T got the flu early  in January and was really poorly for a few weeks, then even when he recovered from the flu he had terrible back pains so wasn’t able to help much.  Fortunately before he became ill we had stripped the walls back to plaster and filled in all the holes, and sanded down and painted the woodwork.  After that I was pretty much on my own doing the decorating whenever I got a few minutes to spare.  I washed and then painted the ceiling, it took three coats of paint before it looked good, and doing stuff above my head really hurts my neck, but I was determined and so relieved when it was finally OK.  I also put lining paper on the walls first and then wall paper – red on two walls and cappucino coloured on the others.

The house was built around 1860 and the floorboards were uneven and had big gaps between then so I purchased hardboard and covered the whole floor with it to make it more even before the new carpet was laid.  That was a whole weekend wetting the hardboard and then attaching it to the floor by hammering nails at 4″ intervals across the whole floor.

The thing I am probably most proud of is the window sill I made.   I always thought it was strange there was no window sill in the bedroom.  I looked at putting a wooden sill in, but it would have cost of lot of money and I’m not sure I’d have done it properly.  Then one day I was down in the cellar and I found a sheet of PVC that was left over from when we had the soffits and fascia boards replaced at the back of the house a few years ago.  So I decided to use that as it was free.  I cut it to the right size and cut it into the wall, stuck and sealed it all in place.  It matches the new PVC window we had put in last year, and the window looks so much better with a proper sill.

Here’s the before and after pictures:

There has been so much stuff  crammed into my art room for the past 10 weeks I haven’t been able to do any art, even if I’d managed to find the time (which was impossible).  I’ve missed that kind of creative activity and I’m looking forward to getting my paints out again soon, although at the moment it is still far too chaotic to be condusive to creativity.

I am really pleased with the bedroom, it has a lovely calm feel about it even with the shocking red walls and red carpet.

The two cats have been quite disturbed about the whole decorating project, but I think they approve now it’s finished.  Bill Kat was so impressed he spent a little while investigating the new furniture, then he went out and a short time later came back wtih a lovely present – a live rat! which he delivered to me and let go under the new bed!  Fortunately T was able to capture said rat and liberate it outside.  I think Bill got it again though because yesterday I found a dead rat of a similar size on the path at the back of the house.  I know that the little ‘presents’ he brings in are to show how much he appreciates us, but honestly I wish he wouldn’t do it, it creeps me out!  Especially if I have to deal with live rodents on my own.

So I hope all is good in your part of the world and I’m hoping to get back to normal, whatever that is, soon.  At the very least to get back into some sort of regular art practice.

Look after yourselves and I’ll see you soon.

Big love

AJ xxx

 

 

 

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