Fodder and faff

The story of my life!

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I find myself back in my studio, confronting a pile of loose papers that should really go in the recycling…but I have a little unfinished business with them, to complete some collage pages I started on holiday.

Here’s how it works:

• I collect ‘fodder’.

• I make a mess of paper everywhere and stick some of it down onto other paper.

• I stuff scraps of paper into a folder and wait for glue to dry.

• I paint over the paper.

• I wait for the paint to dry.

• I run out of time on holiday to do anything else, so I come home - and bring the stuffed folder of paper with me.

• I empty it all onto my desk and look at it before shoving it back in the folder or a drawer.

And so it goes, again. Because it’s not the same, at home. My oomph has gone. Which is something else I’ve learned: re-entry is another transition, and transitions are hard. Just because I got home on a Sunday, doesn’t mean I’ll be at 100% on Monday morning. Consequently, I’ve spent most of the week just shuffling my papers.

I managed to muster enough energy to film myself shuffling them around, because I thought it might be interesting to see what on earth I’m trying to do with it all. Another learning moment: I quite like making videos, especially the editing of.

Anyhoo, here’s the video:

Every day’s a learning day

The whole trip away was one big learning moment.

As you may recall from a previous post we have a new car and this was our first long trip, over 360 miles across the top of France - a trip we’ve done countless times before, but not in an electric car. To drive, it’s an absolute dream (only occasionally a bit Mike’s New Car if we accidentally knock the windscreen wiper stalk - and if you haven’t ever seen it, please click and watch that immediately after reading this, you won’t regret it).

Things got off to a very concerning start. After a horrendous early start from Dieppe, driving too cautiously in the vain hope of eeking out a full charge as long as possible, by 6am we found ourselves standing in the cold dawn at a particular motorway services I’d expressly planned to avoid - from long experience on that route I know just how grotty they are but the alternative was going through Rouen which neither of us felt up to - next to a non-functioning charger that had just taken €40 for nothing. So after some more very careful and conservative miles, we tried a Tesla charger - the ones that only work via the app, there’s no screen or buttons - and lost mobile connection just at the point of pressing ‘start charge’. We were starting to get more than a little worried.

But lo, salvation and volts were found in a deserted MacDonalds carpark in Honfleur, which we celebrated with salutes to the rising sun and some brisk jogging on the spot to warm up while the car charged. Consequently, our first photos from the trip are of the car parked next to various fast chargers. We know how to have a good time.

After about 200 miles, although still being too cautious and charging when we really didn’t need to, we started to trust the process - by which time finding somewhere with a loo became a more pressing issue. It was a French public holiday, and they take them very seriously, consequently everything was shut. Apart from motorway services. And there’s no motorway across the top of Brittany.

So nerve-jangling and pelvic-floor-toning though our initial long trip was, I do believe EVs are the future: they’re everywhere over there. Pushing our prejudice against fast food (‘malbouffe’ a lovely word) aside, MacDonalds in France has a deal with Izivia, an offshoot of EDF, to install fast EV chargers at every new ‘restaurant’ carpark. They’re building one at the nearest town to where we stay, so that’ll be really convenient. Turns out Aldi is also a very good bet for cheap, fast charging - and Lidl. I think it’s actually going to be harder to find charging places with reasonable rates at home, whereas France does seem to have its act together. Funnily enough, on our return trip to Dieppe for the midnight ferry, Maccy-D saved us yet again with a huge mug of lemon/ginger tea to warm us up - because driving on Eco mode switches off all the ‘unnecessary’ things like heating 😄

There are two local petitions against the new MacDonalds: one vehemently against it, on gastronomic and health grounds (obvs, it’s France); one for it, as it provides employment opportunities for young folk where there’s not much else in a rural area out of season.

in a Lidl carpark

And it’s changed the way we use the car. At home, we can walk to the supermarket, but we can’t do that where we stay in France, it’s too far. But if a drive to the local supermarket takes 6% for a round trip, if I wanted to get back with no net loss I’d have to pay money (albeit a tiny amount) to charge the car back up - and probably stop somewhere for a coffee while I wait. So I may as well cycle there. If it’s not raining, that is.

lol - the awning was filling with rain so they pushed it with a broom handle just at the moment I decided to film

Anyways

Back I am, and still resolutely stuck in ‘faffing’ mode and not ‘doing’. It’s not like I don’t have things to do. I really, really do!

I’m taking part in THIS drawing challenge in June (more details below), should really be cracking on with filming other things I’ve promised, and making samples for a workshop I’m teaching in July. I also find myself IN to a local open studios event in September. It was all a bit hokey-cokey as first I was in, then out because they didn’t have space, and now I’m back in! So I need to get my act together and make more work (what work, panic…) and cards.

Any answers for how to display things in a gazebo gratefully received!!

I have truly no idea what I’m going to do…I have a folding table, a card stand, and those plate-holder things for prints/unframed pieces - that’s all. Tell me your secrets!

Until next time,

As mentioned above, I’m taking part in the Art Bundles Drawing Challenge for June - and here’s how you can join me! My little workshop is a very mindful thing, based on handwriting. A bit like the sorts of things I do in my sketchbooks.

here’s some coded writing about the weather…it was very cold for Brittany! I’ll add colour later.

Sign up now (early bird pricing until 27 May) and for 28 days in June you’ll receive an email with a new drawing exercise from a different artist every day.

Here’s the list:

All the lessons are simple, nothing more complicated than a pencil and paper required - but an excellent way to kickstart a summer sketchbook habit, and try some new ways to get unstuck. Sounds like exactly the sort of thing I need, too!