The lovely Ben Howard.

Just cannot get enough of this guy.  Lucky to see him in a little venue in Lincoln and he was just amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KrU1LY-pQU

Christmas is coming.......

Christmas is rapidly approaching and for the first time I am just not feeling the Christmas thing.  Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas.  I love the build up, I love decorating the tree, getting out the books and the Christmassy films.

But this year?  Meh.

I am wondering if it is because it is the lack of television in the house (got rid of the TV earlier this year).  So for the first time in my life we have not been bombarded by endless Christmas adverts that start at the beginning of October.  No more adverts showing the perfect family enjoying a version of Christmas that just doesn't exist.  No more of that feeling of never living up to the happy, smiley, beautiful, well behaved telly families.   No more big, shouty 'IT'S CHRISTMAS, BUY STUFF'!

So perhaps this year it will be a bit more of a gradual festive time in our house.  The slow realisation of a special time.  Perhaps it will make the big day more special, instead of the slight deflated feeling that seems to accompany Christmas day for me.  Only time will tell.

But in the meantime, I think it could be time to get out 'It's a Wonderful Life' and crack open a Chocolate Orange.

Where I have been spending my days........

For the last two weeks I have been spending my time invigilating my solo exhibition in Lincoln.  This is my third solo show and possibly the scariest.  The gallery is much bigger than the last ones and, to be honest, I was woefully unprepared.  I have known about this exhibition for 18 months, yet only did the work in the last 6 weeks.  So, basically 6 weeks of late nights, one poor stressed husband, canvases cluttering up every surface and the permanent smell of paint in the house.  I do have a studio (shed really) in the garden but space and the fact that it is bloody cold forced me to decamp inside.



But, it is done and hanging and my time here is almost at an end.  I am not sure how I feel about it all.  I am not sure of the point of exhibitions.  Is it just my own vanity to put my work out there?  Is it just that I want people to see it and validate me as an 'artist' (a term I use very loosely about myself)?  I am really questioning if I should continue with the art.  I am not sure if I actually enjoy it anymore,  heck, I don't know anything anymore.

So as this exhibition draws to a close, the question remains, what now?  Do I continue or do I return to my life of tea making and hang up the paint brushes?