It’s the first weekend in May and I’m typing this in a kitchen I had no idea existed the last time I wrote to you. I’m still a bit disorientated and feel like it’s been an age since I’ve enjoyed any decent sort of workflow. But life has definitely changed for the better and I’m looking forward to appreciating that more fully when I feel less out of sorts.
When the previous Creative Quarter newsletter was published it was early February - very much midwinter in Scotland. I was living in a tiny cottage with only an open fire for warmth (not as romantic as it sounds) and regularly putting on a coat to spend time in the kitchen. I was also awaiting the publication of Beatrix Potter, my latest picture book, and probably the one I’m most proud of (so far). It was a proper dream job with the Little People Big Dreams crew that saw me learning more about Beatrix Potter than I ever expected. She was such a cool lady. Aside from conjuring naughty rabbits and angry gardeners, she had a brilliant mind and entrepreneurial spirit in a time when women weren’t encouraged to have ambitions beyond the home. She had so much to offer the world and fought hard to make it happen. I’ve acquired a new (somewhat lofty) aim of becoming known as Beatrix Potter of the Borders. Still, it’s good to have goals.
As part of the ten year anniversary of the Little People Big Dreams series, I was asked by my publisher to spend a week in London doing some promotional work. A few days before leaving, my partner and I spontaneously went to look at a cottage that had just come up for rent. We’d been sporadically discussing moving in together for the past year or so, but the time hadn’t been right and I had some reluctance to give up solo living, if I’m honest. In a part of the world where small rental properties are few and far between - and the competition fierce - we thought we’d just go along to view this one to help us understand the market. We didn’t expect it go any further but we kind of loved it, oops, and made an application. Despite the agent imploring us to keep viewing, viewing, viewing! and something about eggs in baskets, we somehow won the approval of the landlords and managed to convince them it was a good idea to let their house to two freelancers. A week or so later we were still awaiting the credit checks, referencing, paperwork etc when we left for London.
Whilst there I visited the Quarto offices for the first time, painted the window of Nomad books in Fulham, took part in two events alongside the LPBD author Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and a live band (not sure I’ll ever be serenaded whilst drawing with a group of 40 odd kids again) and managed to squeeze in a catch up with my agent. On the social side, I was able to spend my birthday weekend with my family-down-south, have dinner with an old pal from my Brighton days, my partner got to stay up late with a friend from uni, and we even stopped off in Yorkshire for a roadside curry with my dear friend there! Phew. And all the time we were away, we were quietly waiting for news on the house. At the end of the week we heard it was going ahead, and life was about to change.
I set a moving date of 30th of March, but before that I had an art fair to prepare for. In typical fashion I was horribly behind schedule but the deadline pressure enabled me to craft a set of paper cut dioramas to display on a stand shared with some other artists from the Hugo Burge Foundation, where I have my studio.
After the long weekend was done, it was full steam ahead on project ‘get my rental deposit back’ which involved hyper focussing to the point of delirium on cleaning every inch of my little cottage. I’ll fast forward now because it’s not that interested, and it all a blur anyway. The short story is, I moved out, got my FULL despot back (thank you, thank you) and moved into the place I am now.
It’s an improvement in almost every way, except perhaps for the fact my studio commute quadrupled just as petrol prices shot up. We’ve been living here for a month now, and I’ve felt so fortunate to have arrived in my new locality in time to see Spring sweep over the countryside. I’m only about half an hour away from my old place, but there’s a distinctly different character to the landscape here with new walks to explore from my doorstep and a places that required a bit of a jaunt in the car are now just down the road.
I’m very happy to have moved, and quickly felt quite at home, and yet I’m also still unsettled with the whirlwind of change and haven’t yet been able to properly get back to my usual rate of work. I’ve been feeling guilty and annoyed about that, but maybe it’s to be expected. I don’t know if it’s an adhd thing (I’m not diagnosed because it’s not offered on the NHS in Scotland but I am 100% on the spectrum) but I’ve always had trouble getting back to work after a break. Instead of returning from a holiday raring to go, I always seem to have a period of anxiety before I can get back into it. It even happens after the weekend sometimes, following just a day or two off, so perhaps I should see this time as a supersized version of that and trust I just need a bit of decompression.
I think I’ll leave it there for now, but try to not leave it so long before I return. I always feel like the new year starts properly in Spring (none of that January nonsense) and with a new house also, I’m feeling like the next quarter is full of potential. I’m looking forward to sharing a bit more on substack and instagram when my creative energy picks up pace again. I still love the concept of the Country Diary of a Millennial Artist, and am tinkering with the idea of sharing more of life outside of my studio.Through persistence, sacrifice and a dash of luck I am managing to make a pretty great life up here, and it deserves to be celebrated more. To end this letter, I’ll go back to Beatrix. One of the biographies I read when researching her life refers to Beatrix Potter as an Artist, Storyteller and Countrywoman. I can’t think of a much lovelier thing to be known as. It’s good to have goals.
