Greener Pastures

Dear readers,
I have truly enjoyed getting into the swing of things on this address BUT I write now to let you know that I am moving. My new blog (which, you'll be pleased to know is the same but better) is at tumblr- due to it better suiting the needs of what I want this site to be.
So please follow me now at elizabethandays.tumblr.com
The best thing is that I will soon be featuring guest-bloggers which could, easily, be you. I very much encourage your input, telling your personal take on Elizabethan Days.
Also, If you are not a tumblr person then please do stay in touch with me and my work via facebook.
My new blog will update instantly to facebook so doing so is made easy for you. I like a good spoon-feeding.
Lots of love,
Elizabeth xx

Sinking into Summer (almost)

This past week has been a funny mixture of food poisoning, computer mishaps/disasters, and the contentment that comes with a slowly brightening season. While the wind still blows cool, I now officially can feel the beckoning of summer and it makes this place grow greener, lazier and better.
There is something about the shift of the season now that makes me want nothing more than to sit, like a little granny, in De Wynn's and eat Bread Pudding and watch the boats
s l o w l y f l o a t a l o n g . . .
In between a shift at work and going to college, I made it down the road to the beach and lay there and read for a couple hours. While I often walk or run along the coast, I haven't been to sprawl out on the sand for months and I was happy to find it felt again foreign and luxurious.

Lately I find that all of my usual attentiveness to making plans, goals, and happily checking things off on my to-do-lists goes out that wide-open window and I feel more and more like just lying around.Odd, because I would guess that is a more common symptom of winter.

With this said, I do keep calm and carry on and have made a couple illustrations to send off to a tshirt competition.

Volcanic Ash

It has been an amazing couple weeks in Falmouth- Spring has rolled in smoothly and, even with the biting wind, the outdoors have turned crisp, clear and persistently inviting. Falmouth feels isolated, safe, and sometimes odd. The Volcanic cloud supposedly swept over us a week ago half past midnight and some locals said their cars were dusty in the morning, I don't know if that's true. But when I am walking, or taking a run, along the coast I like to think about that big volcanic cloud, full of ash and fire, floating heavy and slowly over the earth.When you think about that act of nature and others that haven't happened to us yet, the conspirators and palm-readers worried about 2012, the seas slowly getting higher- the ocean becomes a whole different thing.

It looks to me sometimes almost like it did to the Classicists: horrible, chaotic and full of monsters and things we ought not know about.

But on a good day, when I am being brave, it is the best thing there is.

There are lovely things about the other places I have lived or visited. (Edinburgh is a place I find hard not to miss.) But being so near the sea- looking out at it and seeing that it doesn't end- is something that really makes me feel my luckiest. D and I got restless and went for a walk along the beach yesterday. It was windy and choppy and the sea looked deep blue and dangerous. We walked along the rocks from one sandy beach to the other and liked best balancing over the rock-pools and enjoying the parts you can only see in low-tide.

I can't wait for the summer, when the winds (hopefully) die down and we can lay on the beach in the sand and work up enough heat to jump into the cold, cold water.
More soon xx

Wine

At last I have a whole week (off work) to catch up on college and my health and habits, all of which I've missed almost bitterly. It's been a very, very busy past few weeks- too much- but not all of which has been trouble of course. Above are a few sketches from a recent commission for Spotlight magazine, focused around different positive student topics. They were a lot of fun to do and it was sweet to have a short side-project... and a job that doesn't require a name-tag.
Please do have a look at the final illustrations here.
It's a crazy time now, lots of change and much to do. My new husband and I are in the middle of a move into a lovely lodging house on a high-road in Falmouth. Our big window looks out onto the cascading red and green roof-tops of the town and even shows a peek of the dark blue water of the harbour and boats sitting still atop.
We keep the company of two lovely owners (the landlords), a couple other tenants, a collie-dog and a black and white house-cat. The first thing you see when you walk through the door, fully fashioned with a Tall Ship door knocker are two big, glowing fish tanks with all sorts of lovely fish that I wouldn't know how to name. It's maritime all the way and I feel slowly that Falmouth is starting to really sink into me. Or me into it. I look forward now to a full week of moving, running, swimming, and drawing like mad.
More very soon.
x

Hearts

Above is a design I did recently on behalf of my grandmother, Christine Kaufmann. It is to be sold for a children's charity on the German home shopping network this June, or thereabouts.
Fun, huh?
x

Detour

I have been naughty again with sparce posting and too much work elsewhere. A lot of the reason for this is that I am working on a big project (as part of my MA) that is in a way, a secret. A mystery actually. I don't want to give it away.
I did do some wee drawings last night, while watching an old film in the dark, and have posted them below.
The seagulls are calling outside my window, and other chirping has been ringing loudly all morning too. We get different birds here than in Edinburgh I think. They sound different. Helicopters have been going all morning too, they must be doing coast-guard training in the Bay. It seems a lot of acitivity for such a grey and wet day.
Xx more soon.

Stor(m)y brew

Character sketch. Rich, the Insomniac.






















Type-tests.






















Very rough draft of a page from my upcoming comic book- where most of my work is going these days.

More soon. I am back to Falmouth after the best Florida holiday/wedding/christmas ever. Funny how then it all goes back to normal.
Xo

Settling in

I've been in Falmouth just over two months now and feel pleased I've set myself up a cosy corner in our MA studio (pictured below). We have our own secret entrance through a wild bit of garden and the same kind of quiet that most of Falmouth can boast of.
Since being here people keep telling me how it's one of those places one keeps going back to, or not being able to leave... And in a way, I can see that already. For me, it's just being so near the sea all the time- even my job at the hotel takes on this romantic quality, dressed up in black looking out on the bay no matter what the day is like.
Funnily enough, I'm heading to Florida in a mere eleven days for a months holiday (and mine and D's wedding!). While the warmer temperatures (albeit wet!) and palm trees and immense greens make for a sweet change, it's nothing to Florida in December and I can't wait.
More soon x








Our secret path








My studio desk








Draceana palm








A part of a narrative workshop relating to my current project.

sea-side

Grey skies and balmy air today but yesterday was stunning. D and I went to the beach and found it crowded and lively. Many were in the water, bobbing about and I wished for my swimming suit so I could've gone in too. Next time.

x

Falmouth Town

And then suddenly, here we are in Falmouth! Just like that!
X

Edinburgh, I'm taking you with me.

I'll make this short. I am writing from the middle of my final hours as nanny to an enormously lovely family and these days are truly bitter sweet. Tomorrow, D and I take off on a two day road trip to Falmouth, filled to the brim with excitement and in a lot of ways mystery. But then, those are nearly the same thing.
Edinburgh is sunny with a perfect scottish breeze today, like a parting kiss, and my eyes are sore from squinting as I walk- as if looking harder than usual will keep the memories of this town fresher in mind!
Boy oh boy, what a change is in store!
Next time I write I'll either be somewhere on the way down the length of the country or settling in Falmouth.
Here's to you Edinburgh, you've been perfect.
X

Caution, Partygirl!

Hello,
Here is my Illustration Friday post this week, the word is Caution. The piece is titled Caution, Partygirl! and is a collaborative effort between myself and Imogen, one of the wee girls I take care of during the week.That's actually a birthday cake in the center, exploding. We painted it inbetween games of Memory, played with handmade cards by the two of us. We have made a winter stack and summer stack and I'll try and post pictures of those too before I leave Edinburgh.
I am only one month away now, a little less. Haven't started packing but will soon and am excited and in a daze at the same time. "Busy Lizzy" never ryhmed so well!
More soon, I promise and intend to keep it.
xx

Weight in Water

So these photos are not the sharpest but I will post better ones soon. I have been invited into to show a few pieces at The Big West Fest art festival at the Whale Art Agency in Wester Hales along with some very good ECA alumni. I have two new paintings going in (shown above) and will show also one from my Degree Show last year. The opening is on Thursday from 18.30-20.00 and I do recommend every one comes and has a look. It's bound to be lovely and looks like an interesting venue too. Here's how to get there.
Back from holiday in Majorca, I got right back in nannying and had a perfect week back. I took the two youngest to the zoo and ran along a bridge together with zebras going under us. We took pictures of every animal and even got a great shot of a hippopotamus yawning (will try and post these soon too).
Along with painting I have kept incredibly busy lately as I am planning a move to Falmouth in just over a month and as I'm starting a Masters there, there is much to do before hand. Looking forward to it immensely and really absorbing my last precious weeks in this city I've grown to see as home. It will be quite something to leave. I've stayed pretty steady put for five years now, and now I have a big haul looking me in the face. I'm looking it right back though and feel good about it.
More soon. x

Nana

I am in this hot and lush place with family, talk of family, long lunches and slow-ticking time on my hands. Even if I come away only with sketches I am content (almost) to have these firey images bubbling away and preparing themselves. There are times when the internal things seem to all be lined up like ducks in a row, and time when they seem to be so scattered it's hard to see. This is a time, though, just in between. Holding promise but no mania.
Reading The Moor's Last Sigh (S.Rushdie) in this place is like the sky behind the funny rainbow that is my trip. It took a long time to get inside the book but now I am hooked. (Thanks to my dear friend who picked it out for me, you know what I like)
My grandmother (pictured above) is dancing behind me now to her favourite African music, its a breathy sound that brings heavy, vivid memories of my childhood with her. So many sounds and smells make up the ideas of what happened before, or in this case, what is still happening. The fascination we had of what she was doing and the way she moved!, every morning just as we woke groggy like lion cubs.
I don't think there's anything that makes me so interested and keen to understand as growth and family.

sisterseasun

I am not on holiday on my own here, not as a travelling brit or german drawn to the sun, sand and friendly custom- I am here with family. And I find, mostly when I am away from everyday life, not working, sleeping early and waking without an alarm (but early), that this puts my mind into a totally different place- wherever we may be gathering. I am almost a child here, thinking simply, eating happily when I am told, my chores are made incredibly pleasant and soothing... It seems 'being away' causes a shift or break really from being an adult. Is it that way for everyone?
It's lovely here of course. The Mediterranean certainly has those famous and seductive healing properties. My legs turn to fishtail under water as they did as a girl and I am almost frantic with the chance to swim in the sea daily. Today, I went out with a mask and saw many white and black fish, nibbling on the rocks and laying eggs in the sand of the ocean-floor, they swayed in the current and so did I. I lay on my back floating and could see only blue. What that does to your head and heart!
I miss my twinsister as one gets used to being apart when life has its tolls, we work and make up goals and see to them, worry and dream and what-not but when I get here with sweet-nothing to do- I really feel the gap between us. My sister- my natural half. So this picture is for her. As are all of mine.
(*Technical resources run short here so I apologize for the unavoidable blur of some of the images in these island-posts.)

Hot and Hollow

This first one is my long-postponed Illustration Friday submission, to the word Hollow. I am enjoying a very proper holiday in Palma in a part of the island called St. Augustine. All the houses keep three guard dogs and most of them are hairy German Shepherd or yellow Labradors, which seems funny when it's so incredibly hot. I have been swimming every day in the sea and spending all my time with my auntie, wee cousin and grandmother (who all live here these days.) Luckily.
I sleep with the windows open to catch any breeze and then must admit spend a good three hours laying in the house reading during Siesta time... though one day I do plan to brave the sun's harsh rays for the warm sand and lovely cool ocean. The beach's charms, though perhaps embarrassingly celebrated, are undeniable. There is nothing like a swim over clear waters and black as night sea-urchins.
As I said, the first drawing is my IF post for the week, following the word Hollow and I suppose you could say the rest of the word Hot. They are all of Majorca and in good collaboration with my cousin Raphael. For record's sake, he is six years old and very good at both swimming and drawing.
xx More soon.