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all go this week so far, Stornoway twice on Monday and that’s a 45min bus ride each way so equates to 3 hours on a bus, I really must sort out some knitting to do, I wish I could read on a bus without feeling sick,

Tuesday the local art group meeting then as the weather was nice out in the garden weeding all afternoon, I wish the nice plants grew as fast as weeds and the weeds grew as slow as the nice plants, why is the world back to front, I didn’t really do anything at the art meeting I didn’t like what I started so spent the second hour seeing what others had done which was totally enjoyable,

Wednesday, back at the Blue Pig studio for an all day session with Jane Harlington, these are not like the open sessions I went to before Christmas, Jane is teaching part of the morning this time not painting but about Art and looking at the work of Artists and then discussing, then we each moved on to our own projects, my project is the cave symbols and the landscape around where they are, so Jane got me painting papers with ‘marks’ I always feel a bit lost when tutors tell me to ‘make marks’ …. What marks? How marks? Jane suggested I look at the work of Michael Morgan and has loaned me a book of his work and I have been reading it and begin to see what she meant by ‘mark making’ I haven’t taken photos yet of the papers I have done so far I will and upload them and I have got to make lots more, only Jane knows what I am going to do with them as I don’t! I do prefer papers as they are more like working with fabric, I don’t like blank white omg what do I do with it…..

had to go to Stornoway again this morning, I only had a couple of things to do so lots of time left while waiting for the next bus home, I spent some of it in the library where I found a book by , daughter of the painter who metored (found a link but the photos are very small and do not do justice to his work) whom I mentioned below, back to the book lots of ideas for 'mark making' so I'll try some and see if it works when I do it!

when I came out of the library I wandered around camera in hand trying to find an interesting photo for my and thought I'd share with you a couple of the others, as you can see there was a blanket of cloud

and just a few small boats



I also took photos of a couple of the papers I did yesterday I don't like most of them but this one I do like,

and this is passable,

it's going to be interesting next week seeing what Jane thinks I should be doing with them, I'm not comfortable with this working in the dark......

went to the ness art group this morning, only half the group was there as people were away due to holidays, appointments and illness, I hope the holiday makers are having a good time and the sick are soon well, I am having another go at the Benbecula landscape, this time I am doing it on a canvas board that I had, I had started a painting which I did not like so I put some gesso on the board, I want to try using the paint more thickly and using textured mediums, I also glued some tissue on some areas for texture, so that’s a start,


I have done some more papers and go to Jane’s tomorrow as I write, which will be today when it is published,

so this time tomorrow I might not still be working in the dark…….
well all Jane said this morning (wednesday) was to chose bits and work into them some more, no plan, no idea,

spent most of last week in the garden and got lots done but still lots to do, still trying to get rid of grass, there are 2 types I really dislike one forms a nice little clump and looks completely harmless then when you are not looking it throws out a gzillion spiders legs and each leg has a gzillion baby clumps of grass on them so the next time you look it has covered more than half the garden, the other one is worse as you just see little bits of it on the surface but underground the roots have knitted an inch thick blanket that no plant can grow through, uhggg....
I have planted the Olearia which is just as well as the roots were starting to chase each other around the pot,


went to the ness art group last tuesday, still working on the textured landscape thing,


and went to a figure drawing class in Stornoway wednesday evening, really enjoyed it, worth it just to have a real person to draw and he was a very good model kept very still, I always admire the models as I know I couldn't keep still for long,


so a good and busy week just a few hundred e mails to catch up with and loads of blogs to read...... I hope everyone else had a good week and all islanders are enjoying the sun even if the wind has been chill,

a little virtual stroll around my little front garden and a question about my primmies,

just by the back door which is at the side of the house facing front but it does lead to the back of the house ~ weird a,

in front of the privet hedge,

under the privet hedge,

down the path to the front door (from near the gate), there used to be a row of primroses in front of the daffs but something is killing them,

opposite the daffs,

behind the daffs,

in front of the daffs half way down the path,

opposite the purple primmies,

near the front door,

by the privet hedge on the far side,

hope you enjoyed it,

now the question, something is killing my primroses, I first noticed it late last autumn and dug up all the infected ones I found, I thought I had got rid of it but it is showing again and several more have been dug up, it is like a scale on them I have been trying to get a good photo, I will keep trying but if anyone has ANY idea:
what it might be?
what is causing it?
what will stop it?
I would be very, very grateful,

I found a book in Stornoway library on plant diseases but they were listed by disease not plants so you had to know the disease!
thanks for any help,

I went to the ness art group on tues the subject this week was to bring a piece of driftwood, this was easy for me as I have a large piece I found over a decade ago,

it lives in my bathroom, I have drawn it before and once tried to do it in pastels but I had never painted it before, here’s how it looked when we finished Tuesday,

I went to Jane’s Blue Pig studio on weds and took it with me to continue/finish, Jane suggested I use some blue in the shadow, complementary opposite just like The Impressionists did, she also said to emphasise the shadow of the sticking out bit to show that it was not touching the surface,

I have a smudge on it which is irritating, I know I can paint it white but that won’t look the same,

Went to figure drawing last night (weds), enjoyed it again, the tutor said she liked the way I had done the elbow,


Big thanks to eeF Cee’s fpu for info on my poor primmies, Brown Core sounds very descriptive of the problem so will look it up and hope there is a remedy,

Friday morning update, I did a search on brown core and it is not that as it says brown core rots the roots and the strange (and sad) thing is the roots are very healthy, it is like a scale that goes up the stem and eventually closes over so the primmy can no longer grow, I think this is one for gardeners question time,

really, really surprised to see this post already published at 8.12 a.m. has something changed in island blogging that posts are now published over night or v. v.early in the morning, wow,