Healing Art

Much of the last 20 years has been about meeting people at The Oracle Gallery. There has been many interesting unfoldings and I've been privileged to meet  many incredible people. There has been a lot of conversation face to face but I've never really shared it with the wider world. One of my favourite days out is going to visit my friend Jenny in Freshwater. It's a fabulous drive along the coastal road from Chale to Freshwater Bay.... and then usually half an hours drive round Freshwater trying to find Jenny's house, which hasn't moved, but I  can never seem to remember where it is. The nub of our conversation as it turns out, was some throw away sentences at the end of a four hour talking rally. Roll back a few days previously. Days in the gallery take on all dynamics. It is like an energy vortex and I always forget that it seems to draw people in at lightening speed. There'll be many quiet days which involve me pootling about or being high as a kite w...

I have finally finished renovating Christmas Cottage, Church, Godshill, the Isle of Wight. The cottage is 400 years old and has been a family home for me since 1996. Typically it has never been this comfortable, tidy, warm or beautifully decorated the whole time I have lived there! When I first moved in everyone thought  I was mad, as the place was very run down. We spent the first Christmas with no heating, had to cook our turkey up the road, use a drain as a toilet and manage a cat that was insecure and  peeing on everything. At one point during the renovations you could look up from the cellar and see the roof. At another time the entire chimney from an upstairs fireplace fell through the floor below. It was chaos and was never really finished until recently when a second wave of energy, time and money meant that I was finally prepared to take on saga no 2. The last year has given me permanently gritty hair, broken nails and a whole wardrobe of paint splattered cl...