Hello September

Hello everyone and happy September!

I hope you all had a lovely summer holiday and are now ready to soak up the Autumn vibes (or Spring vibes if you are in the southern hemisphere).

The Scottish summer wasn’t the best weather-wise, we had such a gloomy and rainy July! But so far September has been gorgeous and I’m enjoying the few days of sunshine we’ve had in a row! Hopefully it stays like this for a while, nothing is more beautiful than a warm autumn sun shining through the trees when the leaves start turning orange!

As mentioned in my previous blog post this has been a particular summer for me, with a few deadlines coming (including a baby in Autumn!), I was only able to take two weeks off. But I made the best out of it! I particularly enjoyed the few days we spent in a wonderful cabin in the woods, what a magical place! I had taken some books and embroidery with me to keep busy for a few days but I ended up sitting on the outdoor couch and not doing anything most of the time. I wanted to truly savor each second there and there was so much to look at in these busy woods! Many birds (with big feeder hanging on a branch nearby), a family of red squirrels and we even saw a Pine Marten one evening (definitely the highlight of the stay)!

There were quite a lot of siskins, I had never seen so many in one place! What a gorgeous little bird, it truly was wonderful to be able to watch them from so close! The contrast between their yellow feathers and the darkness of the woods reminded me of some Renaissance paintings and the famous Chiaroscuro (Italian for “light-dark”).

Above: watercolour Siskins.

Below: a drawing live session in a wonderful little cafe with a view on a bird feeder. Lots of chaffinches! It felt nice to be drawing and painting so loosely!

Embroideries

Last year I decided to finally get my head around embroidery. I had been wanting to learn for a long time but didn’t really find the time or the courage to do so. After many trials and errors I can say that I’m quite happy with my skills now.

It wasn’t so much about learning the technical skills, but finding a way/style to embroider animals. I wanted to be able to make something pleasing to the eye, a bit stylish and not too realistic. I tried needle painting with one strand but it wasn’t for me (I enjoy the result but it takes so much time!). Besides, it’s not really the aesthetic I was looking for.

I now embroider with three strands and it works well for me. I don’t get lost into details and I like the result (it’s not as polished as with one strand).

After painting many chaffinches I was really looking forward to embroider one!

Below are a few sketches and ideas for my bird embroideries. I really enjoy finding some simple compositions with flowers and plants.

These are, I hope, the first series of many others. Embroidering is a wonderful craft… I savor the slow pace of it, the simplicity of the task and how magical the process is. It somehow makes me feel connected to the past, to the many generations of women who were embroidering near a fireplace in the evening or by a window during the day. There’s something very therapeutic about it, an opportunity to slow down and accept that certain things take time, it makes me feel grounded.

For me it’s mostly a holiday activity, as I find there’s always something more urgent to do when I’m working (and when the day is over I need to be up, go outside and move my body). I end up not embroidering for a few months and then going back to it when I’m off work. Besides, the good thing about this craft is that it’s light and easy to carry everywhere! One of the moments I cherish the most is going to a cafe with my partner, stay there for a couple of hours and embroider (or draw) while he’s reading. These are priceless and sacred moments of a simple life!

That being said I’m aware that things are going to change soon with the arrival of the little person. If I struggled to find the time to embroider before, what is it going to be with a baby! This is probably going to be one of these things that will be on pause for a few years I guess (along with wildlife photography).

But I know I’ll be back to it one day, and I’ll appreciate these moments even more!

The mission for this summer was to learn how to finish the back of my embroideries. Mission completed.

I’m happy to say that my first series of birds is now finished and will be listed in my shop later on this month!

Wood slices

And finally here is a little peek ate the wooden slices, Autumn edition!

I enjoy the tradition of designing these very much, I really wanted to carve out some time to paint and have them ready for Autumn.

Below are some research sketches, the plan was to be painting more ( I’m currently doing five), we’ll see if I have enough time to be painting a bit more, maybe next month.