tidal wanderings

and assorted gatherings

I returned last night from a brief excursion to Europe¹, planned well before all the boiling over of the West Asian region that hit the fan in February, heaving a small sigh of relief given rapidly decreasing aviation fuel supplies. While I am a dual citizen and share my heart between north and south, the prospect of camping under bridges in the country of my ancestors is something I had rather avoid, especially as I would very much miss my mokos if that situation were to become long term. I received a splendid welcome from my three little witches last night, as they bravely dived in for hugs through a surging pack of six happy dogs. It was a noisy and joyful welcome.

During my time away I spent nine days in Scotland, most of them on the water, filling my writing book with notes, and a sketchbook with drawings. Most are of the edges where land meets water, quick visual notes made from a train, then a bus and then while sailing. The exception was visual note about a waterbear made “on the hoof” :: possibly not my finest hour, drawingwise, just a dark blobby reminder of an adorable encounter and certainly an “impression”. Here’s what she really looked like.

Initial drawings were mostly made with a ‘palomino’ pencil, something I used to pick up supplies of when travelling through San Francisco, when I’d wander down to Fort Mason and catch up with a friend for lunch (at Green’s) before supplementing my art supplies at Flax. The pencils are made of a lovely scented cedar wood, the shavings of which release a lovely aroma if deposited on a hot surface. A couple of the drawings were done with a soluble graphite stick purchased on my way through London. I had assumed it would be the usual grey but when wet it’s a deep steel blue…drying to a muted version.

In the afternoons and early evenings while gently rocking at anchor I embellished the scribbled marks with my tidewanderings watercolour set (find the 20% off code for their birthday sale at the foot of the page). Curiously I seem to be grinding through the colour Captain’s grey more than all the rest, which is intriguing.²

I’ve posted a video of the sketchbook pages at the foot of this article.

Another reason I was quite keen to be home this weekend is that I need to deliver my entry for the Fleurieu Biennale on Sunday. I’m delighted to have been selected so it would have been a bummer to have missed out.

And then there’s the ‘Talisman Book” workshop being held at the Hahndorf Academy on June 13 and 14. When this offering was scheduled in the Netherlands for September this year it sold out in three days, but there are a couple of places still available if you get a wriggle on. They’ve made a sweet video sweep of my current exhibition, too. (I didn’t write the accompanying text but am grateful for the kind words.)

I travelled with limited clothing…a Māra dress, a westward shimmy, a Naia dress (which doubled as a nightie) and a long-sleeved t-shirt dress made from a silk jersey tube; supplemented by a pair of jeans, a pullover and the coat that is like a wearable teddy bear (and takes up half the suitcase) plus of course the usual supply of socks and unmentionables.

I also took one of my favourite bits of kit, shown below photographed on the back of a door in Denmark. It’s a shorter version of the smock that featured in the first Journeywoman collection, that we called the whispering leaf smock. I love it because it’s light and easy to dye, can be squashed into a coat pocket (or your bag) in case an extra layer is required, and can even be rolled and then twisted into a pseudo scarf if needed.

Dye notes : bundled with eucalyptus and subsequently smooshed with Maiwa “indigo for hair”

And now for that sketchbook video…