 Luskentyre beach on Harris I hope this finds you well and enjoying some summery weather. It was unusually hot here for a few weeks recently, but now the normal school holiday weather has resumed, with wind and rain. The garden is flourishing now that it's been watered and everywhere is looking very green. I enjoyed ten days' holiday (actually, our honeymoon) on Lewis and Harris in May; it was great to explore different landscapes and beaches. Plenty photographs were taken and a few sketches made.
New market I'm delighted to say that I'm now taking part in Ullapool Local Artisan Market. This event takes place fortnightly (approximately) on Mondays in Ullapool Village Hall, from 10am - 4pm. There's a great selection of local arts and crafts to browse and buy. I'll be there on Mondays 7th & 21st August and 4th & 18th September. You can also still find me at Poolewe Tuesday market every week, Torridon Thursday Craft Market on alternate Thursdays and Gairloch Thursday Market when I'm not in Torridon! All dates are available on my website or on each market's Facebook page.
I'm still enjoying linoprinting and have had many lovely comments about the results at the local markets - thank you! I mainly print onto sketchbooks and notebooks, but I've also started mounting prints on paper. The puffin is a recent, popular addition and the three fishes design has become a favourite. New Designs I've been taking more photographs recently, rather than painting. The result is some new mug, coaster and card designs, entitled 'Lewis Blues'. Two of the new mugs are shown below.
Members' Exhibition at An Talla Solais in Ullapool
I've submitted some work - photography this time, for a change, for the annual Members' Show at An Talla Solais in Ullapool. Here's hoping it's accepted!
Thank you so much for your continued support, it is greatly appreciated. all the best Jennifer
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 I hope this finds you well and enjoying some more spring-like weather. It was warm here for a while and all the leaves started appearing on the trees, at last. That lovely fresh, light green that only lasts a short while. It has turned chilly again, so work in the garden is on hold. PoetryI signed up to NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) this year – actually to something called Escapril, organised by a lovely poet in Aberdeen. The aim was to write a poem, based on a provided prompt, every day all through April. Only two days to go and I’m happy to say I’ve produced something every day so far! I’m one of those people who works better when given ‘homework’, so I’ve enjoyed the challenge. It also reminds me just how much I Iove playing with words. Here’s my effort from Day 4. The prompt was ‘attention’. PAYING ATTENTION there are days when every blade of grass every stalk and stem every lichen smothered rock demands, commands your attention when every raindrop that hasn’t reached the ground is found in the leafy crevice of a lupin there are days when from nowhere sudden primroses appear daffodils dance in drifts of yellowness when buds burst into leaf a sheaf of green where all was grey when you step aside, avoid the furry caterpillar on the path Local markets
The local markets are now in full swing and I’m enjoying being back at them. It’s good to see familiar faces and to catch up. And having conversations about creativity is always a joy! I’m now stocking some larger sizes of sketchbooks (I’ve got my eye on them for my upcoming holiday on Lewis and Harris) and I enjoy hearing what people plan to do with them. A couple of new linoprint designs have appeared recently – a small puffin and a larger heron.  ExhibitionsI’m happy to have a couple of small pieces of work in the newly opened spring exhibition at Loch Torridon Community Centre gallery. ‘Seaweed 1’ and ‘Seaweed 2’ are gelli prints. It’s a medium I’ve not used very much, but which is great fun! A recent conversation with someone at Poolewe market reminded me of it. That’s how it goes. The Carron Pottery gallery now has a few of my artworks on display. They’re also now fully restocked with my linoprinted sketchbooks and a selection of my small originals. Later in the year, on Saturday 1st July, I’ll be at the Gairloch Gathering, in the field beside Sands campsite. Fingers crossed for a fine day! It was a grand day out last year.
New stockistThanks to a chance conversation at Gairloch Thursday market, a selection of my products is now available to purchase from a new stockist. Gairloch Marine Wildlife Centre and Cruises, based on Pier Road at the harbour in Gairloch has my marine themed mugs, coasters, keyrings and cards. As always, many thanks for your continued interest in my work - it is greatly appreciated.
all the best Jennifer  'Distant Isles I'. Delighted to see this original painting off to a new home last week. Hello, I hope this finds you safe and well. At long last it feels as if some sort of normailty is resuming. I'm so enjoying being at Poolewe Tuesday Market every week. And a trip to Torridon every two weeks to take part in the market there is a joy as well. Having conversations with people, untrammeled by masks, is great! Linoprinting news
Last month I completed a commission - printing a set of notebooks destined to be gifts. The cover design was of Schiehallion, a famous Munro in Perthshire. It was a new direction for me, and fun to do. It has prompted me to look more closely at the mountains nearby - watch this space for further developments! Another new linoprint design is the croft house (image above, printed on a sketchbook). Market days I continue to have a stall at Poolewe Tuesday market and will be there every week until the end of October, except Tuesday 16th August. You can also find me at Torridon Thursday market, twice a month at Loch Torridon Community Centre Hall, in Torridon. The next one is on Thursday 14th July, 10am-3pm. In the meantime, if you're not in Wester Ross, a selection of items is always available in my website shop. Also on the Photo4me and Redbubble websites.
Many thanks for your continued interest in my work.
all the best Jennifer  I hope this finds you safe and well. Happy New Year! I know it's a little late in the day to be sending such greetings, but I feel as if I am stepping rather tentatively into 2022. This time last year we were in lockdown once more and it's quite hard to believe we are now free to be out and about and that everything is opening up again. I find myself blinking in the rare glimpses of winter sunshine, as if coming out hibernation, starting to believe that it really is possible to move forward again.  Delighted to say that I donated £55 to the World Wide Fund for Nature, from all the Christmas card sales at the end of last year! Many thanks to everyone who bought cards - much appreciated. I received a lot of positive feedback about the designs, which is encouraging me to explore other avenues along similar lines. Watch this space...
I've been updating my website shop - a continuous task, like painting the Forth Rail Bridge, which never ends, but is nonetheless very satisfying. I've added a range of items back in, including some original linoprints.  Back in the studio The winter skies here can be very dramatic and are an endless source of inspiration. The trick is to have everything ready to go - paper stretched onto boards, paints, water and brushes organised. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Of course, in real life that's not how it goes - I've finally got back into the studio to do some painting - above is a work in progress. Or maybe it's finished? I've been adding islands into my seascapes recently - decision, decisions!
Coming up
The lovely Gairloch Museum is reopening for the season next week, on Thursday 10th February. I'll be along to check on my cards and sketchbook stock in the gift shop. I'm looking forward to taking part in Poolewe Tuesday Market again this year - from the end of March until the end of October, all being well. I'm hoping to be there most weeks - I'll let you know dates as soon as I know. It's also looking likely that I'll be exhibiting some artwork at Inverewe this year (I was to have had an exhibition in the cafe there in 2020, which of course did not happen). It will be great to see art exhibitions happening there again. You can find out more on the Galleries @ Inverewe website. Many thanks for your continued interest in my work. Wishing you peace, health and joy in 2022. Jennifer  I hope this finds you safe and well and bearing up under whatever restrictions are in place in your part of the world. The season is over for Poolewe Tuesday Market – it was wonderful to be part of it for the first time this year. We went out with a bang, with all the stallholders dressed up for Halloween for the last event. We are looking forward to having not one, but two Christmas markets – on Friday 27th November (4-8pm) and Saturday 28th November (10am -2pm) in Poolewe Village Hall. I will be there on the Friday evening. 2021 calendar This year’s (or should I say next year’s) calendar features photographs taken over the past twelve months, on the west coast of Scotland. As before, it is a slimline calendar, with each image printed on the back for use as a postcard. Below are some of the images in the calendar. It's now available to purchase in my online shop.
 Exhibition I am very happy to have a couple of paintings (including the one shown above, "Fair, Moderate or Good") in the newly opened online - for the first time ever - Members’ Show at An Talla Solais. This is a lovely exhibition of the work of 66 member artists. The upside of it being online this year is that you can all enjoy browsing it too! Enjoy. Cabinet, the lovely gift shop adjacent to An Talla Solais gallery in Ullapool, has now reopened. It is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm. They are currently stocking a selected range of my greetings cards, mugs, coasters and keyrings.
Notebooks As promised, and by popular request, I now have a selection of lined notebooks available. There are two sizes – A5 and A6, and all have original linoprints on the front cover. They come in a range of colours – all available from my website shop. There is also still a range of A5 sketchbooks available there and small square ones too.  Local News
Last but by no means least, there has been much excitement locally, as the news emerged that the fabulous Gairloch Museum, which moved into its new premises and reopened last summer, was one of the winners of the UK-wide Museum of the Year award. One of the other winners was Aberdeen Art Gallery. I'm delighted to be connected to both these wonderful places - the art gallery shop in Aberdeen stocks some of my Shipping Forecast mugs and coasters, and I have cards and sketchbooks in the Gairloch Museum shop. In celebration, I gave the museum here a little linoprint of the Rubh Re Foghorn, which now has pride of place at the front of the building (the actual foghorn, not my print!). Happy to say they liked it so much they are now stocking greetings cards bearing this design in their lovely gift shop. They also have lighthouse design ones there too. Thank you so much for your interest in my work, it is greatly appreciated. I have really enjoyed meeting people face to face (socially distanced and wearing masks, of course) at the Poolewe Tuesday markets this year and receiving very positive feedback about my work. Stay safe and well all the best Jennifer Find Out More  I hope this finds you safe and well. There has been some more summery weather on the west coast these past few days and I am enjoying starting to see the fruits of my recent labours in the slowly developing "garden". It's like painting a picture, I've come to realise - putting colours and textures together, to create something pleasing to the eye. Of course the garden "picture" does not stay the same, as the seasons come and go, so the gardener must be continually trimming and tweaking, looking, adjusting and adjusting again. It is a continuous work in progress.
Artist Support PledgeSince the Covid-19 lockdown, many artists and makers have been looking for different ways to keep going; exhibitions have been cancelled, gift shops and other outlets such as cafes, restaurants and galleries are closed. A UK based artist, Matthew Burrows, had the idea of setting up the Artist Support Pledge, on Instagram, for artists to support other artists during this difficult time. The concept is simple - an artist posts images of their work, costing no more than £200 each, on Instagram, using the hashtag #artistsupportpledge. Buyers contact the artist directly. When an artist reaches £1000 of sales, they pledge to buy £200-worth of other artists' work. I have recently joined this pledge, and am posting artwork daily on Instagram. Only the items listed there are included in the pledge - I'll be adding more items as time goes on. It seems like a good way of us all supporting each other - of course, you don't have to be an artist to buy works included in the pledge! Some of the artworks I've listed so far are shown above.
PhotographyMany of you already know that as well as painting, I love taking photographs. I know lots of folk have been missing visiting their favourite places in Scotland in recent times, so I've been busy updating my website to include a photography page, showing a selection from my portfolio. This links to another website (Photo4me) where you can buy canvases, prints etc. of my work. There's 10% off just now, on all items - just use the code kindness2020 at checkout.
Card Collections
If you're finding it tricky to get hold of greetings cards just now, I've expanded my card collections - there are now 15 different collections, each with 5 different cards. Hopefully there's something for everyone - shown above are -and below -
As always, thank you so much for your interest in my work, it is greatly appreciated. I am hopeful that there may be some opportunities to share my work in real life before the summer is over. In the meantime, stay safe and well. all the best Jennifer  Latest NewsI don't need to to tell you we are facing difficult times just now. I hope this finds you and your loved ones well and adapting to whatever circumstances you find yourself in. In my last newsletter, I was sharing news of being part of Poolewe Tuesday Market, stocking some of my products in Cabinet at the lovely An Talla Solais Gallery in Ullapool and an exhibition of my paintings at Inverewe Garden. You can see the paintings I planned to exhibit (and more), in the gallery pages of my website. More recently, I had provided cards and sketchbooks to the shop at Gairloch Museum. None of these things is happening now, for obvious reasons. Sketchbooks and linoprintingOne of the upsides of being creative is that I never seem to find it hard to find something to do. Recently, I've been doing more linoprinting. I like the fact that I can get quite quick results. I keep things simple, which helps. Most of the printing has been of marine themed designs onto sketchbooks - gorgeous colours from Pink Pig - resulting in customised items, all with a unique, hand printed design on them. There are two sizes - little 4x4 inch ones, with good quality cartridge paper, and A5 size ones, with heavy duty watercolour paper. Yes, they're available to purchase on my website.  Short StoriesI'm planning to share some more of my short stories here on my blog in the coming weeks; there's no point them sitting in a drawer for ever! I'll be posting the ones from my two self-published short story collections; some of them have been broadcast on the fabulous Two Lochs Radio station already, and some more will hopefully be shared on air there in the future. In the meantime, as always, my artwork, photography and a wide range of products are available via :  Making thingsI highly recommend doing something creative during these trying times - draw, paint, write, play music. Plant seeds, and look forward to watching them grow. That's what I was doing yesterday. Or learn a language - I discovered the wonderful App, Duolingo and have been learning a bit of Gaelic, as well as brushing up on my French and German and getting going with Spanish. It's a great way to learn, very encouraging and good fun. Or make soup. Making soup is one of my go-to things when it all gets a bit too much. It feels like a time for recalibration, in so many ways.
Wishing you all the very best - thank you for your interest in my work, it is greatly appreciated. Jennifer x See my Pebbles on the Beach Facebook page for regular posts and updates. |
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