Tiny Fishes Red and Gold

I'm trying something slightly different, when rooting through another stack of interesting looking old books in a 2nd hand shop in Southport, I saw these childrens books. Which are definately from the 50's if not before and in amazing condition. They have lovely little signatures in the front 'from Pa' etc. You can definately tell that they were treasured possessions because of their pristine condition.

The illustrations in them are fantastic. I had been concentrating so hard on the way men had been represented in these old books, but these are obviously much more geared towards girls and the pictures are stunning. Even though they are soso cute and no doubt my tutor will criticise me for painting something which is so twee and cutesy, I've gone and done it anyway because it was too hard to resist!

Even though the pictures are ridiculously cute, and the pictures are just so pleasant to look at, I do actually find them interesting in other ways. I like how the children are so innocently represented in the drawings, and how completly different this is so different to today. I like how the little girls are so stereotypically dressed up to be 'little girls' aswell with their little smock dresses and bows in their hair. I also like how the way I've drawn the illustrations contrasts with my dead animal drawings so well. I do think that a mix of all this imagery on different scales and in different styles etc, will look pretty cool for the degree show if I can just pull it all together.

The last 5 images are my paintings, they're on A1 as usual and made with drawing inks.

Berlin

Two years ago in 2008 when Richard went away for the first time, after not seeing him for what felt like eternittyyy I went off to Berlin to see him. I'd never been futher than oo, Manchester on my own. So I was pretty nervous. Since then I've been all over the world on my own, but I still get a little worried.

I just got back from Berlin earlier this week. It feels pretty weird because we've gone full circle, Berlin was the first ever place I visited him, and I really hope for the time being it's the last for a while. I remember we only had two nights together, and the second one we stopped in this really weird hotel, the room was like an old school dormitry, the ceiling was so high, and it had about 5 single beds in. We pushed two up together and fell asleep holding hands, and I just kept thinking stay awake, stay awake, try and stay awake, because I desperatly didn't want to say goodbye again.

Two years have passed and I'm still packing my little suitcase and taking myself off to see him. I always get soso excited when I get there and I'm sat in a hotel waiting for him, but I always get soso sad when I have to leave him. It's been amazing seeing all these places over the past two years, and I'm very grateful that I've had the chance to travel all over Europe but I miss him terribly and I just want him to come home now.

On a happier note Berlin is pretty cool. I would definately reccomend it. We didn't have enough time to explore though. I want to go back with Richard in Summer some time, it's a really interesting city.

I like all the art but Richard likes all the stuffy old history. I managed to get to a gallery the 'Hamburger Bahnhoff', which is an old converted train station and came on recomendation from my tutor at Uni, and I must say I don't really like visiting galleries but this had some amazing art, I saw some Daniel Richter paintings in the flesh which was exciting, and there was a brilliant exhibition on my an artist called Walter Ford, who I've never heard of before but whose work was strikingly relevent to my own. Only grumble was that an exhibition including Anselm Keiffer and Andy Warhol amongst others was closed due to maintenence. Just my luck!

Apart from that Monday it was really sunny and warm so me and Rich just had a wander round the city looking at various touristy things, and he got me a panda and a snowglobe because he is a beaut boyfriend! We went to look at the East side gallery, which is a stretch of the Berlin wall that people have painted murals on, but if I'm honest it was pretty shit! We had an icecream and walked for what felt like millesss in the sun. I complained a LOT about my new shoes. Then we went for a sweet Mexican, and I ate more than I thought was physically possible. Berlin has some amazing shops aswell which is pretty crap when you have no money! I really want to go back one year with Cookie when it's summer and he doesn't have to work.

I absolutly hated leaving Rich again, got another month ahead withought seeing him.

These are some photos I took of the city.

Snowdrop Sunday

Where I live (which is fair country) there's a big old house called 'Bank Hall'. It's all crumbling away now, but in the past it was a really big grand house, where I pressume some very important family from the Village lived.
Every Sunday in February they put on a day called 'Snowdrop Sunday'. Where you can walk around the grounds, eat homemade cake, have a mug of tea and admire the beautiful blanket of snow drops that grow there every Spring.
Me and my mum went last year, and after it finally stopped snowing and I was actually in the country (after Zurich and Vienna) we managed to get again this year! The sun even came out for us. These are some photo's I took of the snowdrops, this year and last year. It's so lovely to walk around the gardens, the snowdrops are unebelievable they seem to grow everywhere. I must admit though the Hall does freak me out a bit, even during the day.