Ten Paintings and a Novel

Hello.

HELLO? Are you there?

It's been a while, right? I know, sorry, I didn't mean to leave you for 6 months, truly, I didn't. Are you in a forgiving mood? I'd like to explain why it's been so quiet on my blog.

If you haven't completely forgotten me, you may recall two key things: I like to paint and I've been working on my first novel.

The problem with those two things is they are time consuming. They're incredibly fulfilling ways to spend my time but man do they eat it up.

I can disappear into my studio (that's fancy pants for "upstairs") with a hot cup of tea and before I know it, not only is the tea cold, it's formed that murky milk mark on top and stained the cup. The family are downstairs watching movies (note plural) and I'm still fluffing around "beginning" a painting.

And I love it. To prove I'm not just making up excuses for my recent invisibility, here's a snapshot of what I've created since my last post.





To be totally honest, until I created this image, this collection of paintings, I didn't realise just how busy I'd been. I think I need a holiday, or at least a wine.

Along with the paintings, I also recently had the huge pleasure of typing the words "The End" on my first novel. It's a rather bittersweet experience though as the real work, the editing, has only just begun.

If this confuses you, imagine tearing half the chapters out of your favourite book and putting them back in the wrong place. Then imagine tearing out several of the best scenes and throwing them away. Now take a few scenes from your least favourite novel and slot them into this one.

That's what I'm working with. I believe there's a readable novel in there, I just have to find it myself before I can share it with anyone else. And that, my friends, is the Electrolux of time sucks.

So there you have it. The reason I haven't been here, on the blog, is because I made a conscious decision to focus on creating elsewhere. I'd love to do it all, all of the time, but my Lotto numbers still haven't come up. I'm sure you understand.

All of my excuses aside, I do want to see you around here more often, so I'll be trying a lot harder to show up myself. Promise. And thank you for sticking by.

I do have a question:

What would you like to read about?