Taking part in Saxmundham Arts Week, our local group, SAG, exhibited works of its members at the Bell Hotel.
The exhibition was well attended, receiving people from local villages and visitors from London.
I sold “My Loyal Friend Wears a Bowler”, which depicts a Suffolk Punch and his master in watercolours and which can be seen below.

Other paintings sold were: “Saxmundham High Street” by Christine Buttery, “Labrador” by Winifred Bell, “Suffolk Sunset” by Wendy Merfield, “Dunwich Cliff” and “Eastbridge” by Michael Philpot, “Waterfall” by Sandy Spirling and “Sunflower Opening” by Judith Wilson.

This is a watercolour portrait I did in October 2006 for Marco’s 16th birthday. As it was a surprise, I painted it from a photograph I found at my mother’s house in Argentina.

Watercolour on paper.

A short 5 minutes pencil sketch of our model, Doreen. When doing short poses, I found that general lines are much more important than details to suggest form, expression, and even weight. To be able to draw quickly, I need to look more at the model and look less at what I am drawing.

Below:

After several “warming up” short sketches, a longer one (40 minutes) allows more time to observe detail and textures.

I have spent the past two months in Argentina, were my husband and his parents joined me later in November. As we expected, the two families got on very well and we had a lovely time all together.It was the first time that my inlaws visited the country and they were delighted with it. The quality (and quantity) of the food, the level of service, the weather, etc. were what surprised them the most.

One Sunday, we got all together at an estancia (= in Argentina, this is the equivalent of an American ‘ranch’) where Robin and me made our vows to each other (again!), and my Mummy, Robin, and Robin’s father made their speeches in a very small chapel and behind two bales of hay. The family and some other people witnessed the event, and then we all had an asado criollo with wine, folk music and dances.

The vows

The Chapel

The following day, my Mummy, Mary, Freddie, Robin and me started a trip to Bariloche. For those who have never been there, it is a kind of Lake District but in ‘Argentine’ scale, and it would be impossible to describe its beauty in words. Photos do not make justice.

Sometimes, looking for specific information has that needle in a haystack feeling. Not only can you get 6,000+ results from a simple query, the most relevant data for you can be buried way down the list.

 There is a new kind of search engine that offers refined  results once users start engaging with the results. Every click refines the search strings, creating a responsive, dynamic result that is both customized and highly relevant. 

Buzzclouds are a list of search tags that are popular or recently typed into the swicki. It is a bit like overhearing your community’s conversation at a water cooler - the buzzcloud shows what is going on in their searches. This is useful as it drives more traffic by surfacing what is already at the top of your users’ minds, and suggesting interesting things to look at.

Well, if you look at the right hand column of Indigo’s Home page, you will see a search box and buzzcloud with white text on blue background that you can add to your webpage or blog.

Just click on this link , copy the code and paste it onto your site.

This is a very interesting addition, because this search engine ‘learns’ with every new query, and you - as a community member - can also suggest new terms to be added and collaborate to focus the results. 

As requested by Clari, here are some of the pictures that were published in the book “La Alondra Infinita”. Some of the originals, like “The White Tablecloth“, can be seen in my Gallery.

SONETO PARA UN ATARDECER

Navega mi recuerdo en aquel río
que se pierde en el tiempo y la distancia
en el vuelo inocente de mi infancia
cuando moría la tarde en el estío.

Dramático paisaje inolvidable
que se grabó en mis ojos y aún perdura
con su mágico encanto y su hermosura
en un hechizo eterno e imborrable.

Enrojecidas sendas en el agua
horizonte hecho sangre, fuego y fragua
de llamas que anudaban un abrazo.

Recuerdo de aquel sol que se moría
derramando en el río su agonía
como esfumado adiós… en el ocaso.

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This is the cover of a new book by Olimpia Bordes which is illustrated with some of my paintings.

The book is in Spanish, published by Creadores Argentinos.
And here is a gift for my Spanish speaking readers: a beautiful poem by Olimpia Bordes.

MUCHACHA EN EL TIEMPO

Aquella lejana muchacha
soñadora
que ensayaba sonrisas
en el frecuente espejo.
Aquella lejana muchacha
sensitiva
que lloraba leyendo
una historia de amor.
Aquella lejana muchacha
enamorada
que guardaba en silencio
su primera pasión.
Aquella lejana muchacha
tan distante…
he olvidado su nombre
hoy… su nombre soy yo.

Sorry I have not been posting for a while, but after our wedding I was commisioned to illustrate a book with some of my paintings, sketches and drawings.

Olimpia Bordes is an Argentine writer, member of the SADE (Sociedad Argentina de Escritores - the Argentine Society of Authors) who has published several poetry books and won a number of prizes for her literary work.

For this book, she chose some of my finished works, but I had to complete some others ‘on demand’.

It has not been an easy task for I had to interprete, visually, a poet’s vision expressed through written words.
The book has been published, and as soon as I receive a copy I will write more about it.

I have uploaded some photos from our wedding album to the gallery. To view them, click on the thumbnail.

The descriptions (available if you click on “display mode: detail”) are in Spanish, because I thought that my family and friends in Buenos Aires would appreciate a little explanation of what goes on in an English wedding.