The roof of the world

Woke up twice this morning; first the ritual Twig wake-up call at somewhere around six o'clock. Quite why we adopted her, tiny fuzz ball, having heard her mother's voice, I have no idea; she is quite able to wake the dead and communicate with distant solar systems, I imagine.

Second time I was in a heap on the bed covered in cats, a towel still wrapped around my still-shower-damp hair; just thought I'd have 'a little snooze' after showering and passed out for two hours. Bet the cats loved it - lucky they aren't teenagers or I would probably have no eyebrows by now... So that kind of threw my day out of kilter before I had even started, although I am secretly glad that I have made up some of the dreaded 'sleep deficit' that I am convinced that I am suffering from. Problem is that I am a neurotic stress-monger, so I had now put myself in the position of imagining all the tasks and paintings I could have completed in the crucial two hours.

Now, being a pro-active sort, I thought I would try and shrink the list of things I am waiting for by actively chasing answers to them; this at least managed to knock two off the list. 1)Man who had said he would call about buying a painting from gallery had not called. However, someone came in yesterday and bought one of my big elephant paintings, so a result was achieved alongside the ticking off of the item on my list. That sale essentially means that I am home free for the Angel show in November; I had been worrying (no..) about framing costs, but this should mean that I can get the lot done, especially if I follow my current thinking and paint the frames myself. The difference for unfinished wood is pretty hefty and the idea of doing distressed and/or printed frames is a good one anyway. It will look soooo cool.

2) Popped into the Publisher and ascertained that my cards are in the Book Festival and people are buying them! Hurray! This is genuinely exciting as every one has my name and website on, so every one is further spreading the name and images. The elephant, 'Beautiful Alluvium' is selling best, which is not surprising as I have never had an elephant painting hanging around the studio for long - the first one I sold was to a lady on a plane back from London. I was all excited having been to the show at the Mall Galleries where I had a painting hanging, and she was returning from a successful interview and had a husband with a thing for elephants (in a non-scary way); a sale was made and I delivered the painting to her house on Christmas day.

So the words on the lips of both Gallery Guy and Publisher are 'angels' and 'elephants'.

Suits me; most of my favourite paintings to date involve one or other, if not both.

The new one I started with glee today is putting together my thoughts about the angels and their wandering ways with my interest in the connections between Far Eastern and Scandinavian folk art and culture. Featuring two angels, one from the east, one the west, meeting over 'the roof of the world' as they travel the northern angel trade routes (there's another following working title 'trade paths'). Below is a bunch of spooked animals; elephants, moose, reindeer and horses, careering across the northern forests; the curvature of the earth visible below the red sky. Shame I have to go to work tomorrow.... can't see this sitting long on the easel; it is just dying to get painted.

Elephants and angels; I can do that.