The Holy Grail...

This week Sinus Man and I went on a bit of a date... well by date I mean he came along while I went to the yarn store to buy yarn I didn't need, and a hook that I did ... and the deal of him coming along was that I would get him a good coffee. Actually I am now thinking if I had to bribe him it wasn't much of a date really. So after a mildly heated disagreement over where The Hawthorne Garage actually was... I was right by the way as I have an uncanny sense of direction, whereas Sinus can get lost driving home from work which is five minutes walk away! Yet another reason why we are a good team, or rather we would be if he ever believed my directions! ... we arrived and found the holy grail of gluten free... bagels!!!

Phantom Steve is a coeliac and I have an intolerance so we are a gluten free household, and have been for many, many years. We are talking back in the dark ages where the gluten free aisle at the grocer consisted on three mildly manky products. But now gluten free products are more prevalent, tastier and so much easier to find and life is certainly a bit easier. Having said that Phants and I often engage in a good old game of what do you miss most. Number one on my list has always been bagels so to find these was fairly monumental... and they actually taste like bagels... awesome. Plus I found these delicious bars from The Health Food Guys which I have been having as a breakfast on the go in the studio because I have been slammed with some illustration projects so time to work on other painting has been a bit short this week. 

Being so busy is making it hard to find the time to create a lot of artwork for me, so I am finding that doing my Week On A Page sketches in a sketchbook is a bit of a creative lifesaver. I add little drawings as I think of them, or as I find a bit of time, and by the end of the week I usually have a page of outlines at the very least, though sometimes I actually get in and paint them along the way as well. What is really great is I have to really think about how they are going to work together and it has to grow and change as the week goes on so I have to  think about composition as well... so it feels as though they are doing all sorts of work... they are helping me to be mindful, they are fun, they are getting me doing at least some drawing and painting each day that isn't work related, they make me think about composition, colour and negative space and all that good stuff. Plus by posting them every Tuesday I have been making myself accountable and have managed to keep it up for six weeks. Of course the biggest plus ifs that it is fun... fun to create, fun to think about, and fun to plan in my head while I am doing other things.

 All round a pretty awesome week when I think of it

happy painting all...xx