On the day my father died
I was two thousand miles away.
The weather was wet and grey.
The waves rolled roughly.
There was no blue
In sky
Or sea.
And what was tears or rain or spray,
I couldn’t say.

But that night, when I went to bed,
I opened my book:
Andersen’s Fairy Tales.
I turned the page
And there it was,
The title of the next story:
“What Papa Does Is Always Right”.

And now I must admit
That’s not as I saw it,
And quite often we clashed.
Like the farmer in the story
He had a loving wife,
And as much business sense
As a cucumber.
But he had a good heart,
And really in the end,
Nothing else matters.

Clothylde. January 2020.

(Because a picture can paint a thousand words, but sometimes one has to tell it as it is. and this is it. Sorry for the interruption. Back to painting).

Happy New Year!
May your heart be in a good place and full of love,
May your creativity flow and grow,
And may you always find joy and beauty in small things.

Thank you to those who helped me by buying a card, a calendar, a print or a painting. I couldn’t do it without you. Happy Christmas!

It’s the beginning of December, and I usually run out of calendars by mid December. If you’d like a calendar, please let me know.

PS. Edit 15 December: Thank you to all who ordered or reserved a calendar. There are a few calendars left in the Brigantia exhibition at Danby Moors Centre, and a few in Wold Pottery in Loftus.

The 2020 A4 calendar features my recent paintings of river and sea, from Whitby to Skinningrove. Printed in Yorkshire on 250gsm paper, it has 12 pages (plus front and back covers) and it measures 21 x29.7cm. I hope that it will remind you of our wonderful North Yorkshire all year long.
Please message me if you’d like one. You can leave a message by clicking “Leave a Reply” below, email clo@clothylde.com, or phone 01287 643030. £12.50 including 1st class postage within the UK. Thank you!

Whitby Winterfest. Saturday 30 November & Sunday 1 December 2019. Whitby Spa Pavilion, 10am to 5pm. Winterfest is here again! I’ll be in the foyer as part of Whitby Art & Craft Collective. There will be lots of stalls and local crafts on this community-minded weekend.

Brigantia exhibition at “Inspired by…”gallery, Danby Moors Centre

Brigantia is an association of Yorkshire Art & Craft people (and I’m now a member!). The exhibition in Danby runs from the 16 November 2019 to 2 February 2020. The gallery is open everyday 10.30am to 4pm in November and December (closed on 25 & 26 December), and open weekends only in January. Do go and see! And next to the main carpark is Crow Wood, where you can see beautiful chainsaw carvings by Ste Iredale.

Can you tell what I’ve been doing?

It starts like this:

And then this:

A few ink lines, then watercolour, watercolour varnish, two coats of UV varnish, top with a glass cabochon, and insert in setting…

Et voila.

An original painting, in a pendant. Some of these will be at Danby Moors Centre “Inspired by…” gallery, as part of the Brigantia exhibition from 16 November 2019 to the end of January 2020, and at Whitby Winterfest (Whitby Spa Pavilion) on 30 November & 1 December 2019.

My new paintings in Coast Gallery, Cloughton, November 2019. Please note that the gallery is closed this week. It reopens on Friday 8 November. Opening times in November: 11am to 4pm, Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays & Sundays.

Mermaid

I remember part of a song from my childhood, about a boy who longed to find a mermaid. Roughly translated:
“I think fishermen go to sea
to listen and hear the song
of the silky long-haired mermaid
and I think that she did sing for them…”
Those words came in my head at Port Mulgrave, standing on the shore on a late afternoon, and it inspired this little painting. It was started years ago with colour pencils, it was very soft and gentle. This is a recent reworking with transparent acrylic inks, a much bolder impact. But really it’s all about that song, and the feeling of being a child on a windy beach, evening, waves… There is magic in the sea, and there may be mermaids.
Mermaid. Acrylic inks over coloured pencils. 19x28cm.