This month, my husband and I are looking for new windows.
It's funny how difficult it can actually be to find beautiful windows. It's also interesting what the windows say about you, but I'm not entirely sure what our windows will say about us. We are looking at heritage windows at the moment, and the reason I am into heritage windows is because they look most like the windows that I remember loving on the Charles Rennie Mackintosh art school building. It's funny how your love of an architect or designer can influence you throughout your life. I don't think we can afford the look we like, but windows are important, and if we select the right windows, they will hopefully be there for a long time.
There's always the aesthetic discussion going on between my husband and me. We have been together for over 40 years, and it's been interesting how we have clicked on ideas about interiors. Despite the fact that he is more of a symmetrical person, and I'm more odd-symmetric (symmetrical with a bit of an odd throw-in; but wait! that's the definition of non-symmetrical).
We both grew up in a family that was always busy with DIY.
Some of my lasting childhood memories are playing hide and seek in carpet warehouses, trying out all the sofas in a showroom, and being so bored that I would actually fake interest in the carpets. You can imagine the carpets that I would choose. They were always pink and flowery, and of course, my parents would raise their eyebrows and head straight towards the brown carpet aisle. It was the 70s, after all.
I've never liked brown carpet, and I have an even bigger aversion to shag pile carpet as I'm horribly allergic to it. My parents thought there was something medically wrong with my nose, as I spent my childhood sneezing, having a runny nose, and my eyes itched virtually all year round. Apart from a few months when I was mainly outside, when everyone else had hay fever, I would have no symptoms. It was only when I left home to live in a cheap flat with no carpet that I stopped sneezing. It still took me a couple of years to put two and two together and realise that it was carpet that had been my nemesis all those years.
You had to love my mum, though she was the most houseproud person I've ever met. Whenever we moved house, and we often did, Mum would always take visitors on a tour, showing them the sunroom or the newly installed bidet. I love the fact that she was always so proud of their makeover achievements.
And here we are decades later, and I'm following in her footsteps, taking way too long to choose a style of window, but as I said, you have to live with them for a long time.
Botanically, I've been very busy this month working very hard to complete the paintings I have put forward for the SBA show; as I write this blog, I still haven't heard whether my paintings have been accepted. It's a nerve-wracking time. New members may think that for older members like me, our paintings are a natural shoo-in, but we are subject to the same scrutiny as everyone else. More so, in fact.
My dear friend Gael and I have made a pact that if we think each other's work is slipping, we will quietly nudge each other into retirement.
It's like one of those pacts you make with a friend: ' If we don't meet anyone by age 40, we will marry each other' 😄.
Recently I declared on Instagram that I was indulging in my love of roses, lilies, and irises this year. I've had an epiphany. For many years, I have been calling myself a Botanical illustrator (for ease of explanation), but in actual fact, I am a Botanical artist - I paint flowers in order to make, what I hope are, beautiful pictures. I'm not a scientist; I don't aid scientific discovery, and I don't work as an illustrator for a Garden. Those rare illustration jobs are few and far between, and there are many illustrators far more suited to that style of recording plants. That's not to say I can't paint botanically accurately; I can, but I always seem to choose design first.
When I first started painting, I was still learning about the techniques and perfecting my craft in my chosen arts, including becoming botanically correct. Opinions of my work may have been established back then, but my work has developed and matured over the years. I am a very different painter from when I set out.I am more accurate yet more driven on stretching my work compositionally.
One of the things I spoke about in a recent Botanical talk was how, historically, my designs were very much influenced by my fashion illustrations. It is the fluidity of the line that I like. When creating a fashion illustration, you're often putting down rapid lines. The line you use to describe a skirt, trousers, or sleeve is delivered to the paper in what we call a gesture. A gestural line can be used to describe the flick of a fabric or the fold of the fabric. It's this idea of movement and soft curl that one gets in grand plants with dramatic leaves, leaves that curl or petals that fall and curl; all of those elements are very evocative of fabric. That's why I'm drawn, forgive the pun, to larger blooms.
Returning to windows, I remember the windows of my college they looked out onto Charing Cross Road. The windows were beautifully designed for artists. They were large and wide, allowing in the most beautiful light and, of course, the opportunity to look out and daydream. I was intoxicated by London; I love the fact that my father had worked just around the corner when he was a young man. His office was in Jermyn Street. He often told tales of his adventures as a young man in London during the 1950s and '60s, i will note them down for you for future posts.
Whenever I travelled to central London on the bus, I would stare out the window at all the pretty windows at the top of the old buildings. back in the '80's I lived in a grotty flat on Peckham high street, so I imagined what would it be like to have a little room at the top of one of those grand central buildings? It looked like they were never used. I could imagine myself sitting behind these round windows or little vignette windows with balconies, and staring into London streets, watching the world go by. Just imagine all those fascinating little rooms behind those wonderful little windows.
My Nan used to work in central London too as a 'Nippy' waitress in the old Lyons Corner tea house on the Strand. Here she is on the right and here's a photo of the tea house, both long gone but I think of here every time I travel The Strand.
To Nan
I've travelled the same roads that you travelled along,
I pictured your shoes and what you would wear.
I thought I could see your face at a window
Of course I imagined you there.
We've seen the same sites and shared similar dreams
We've mirrored one another's life path
I thought I heard you giggling with friends
But of course, I imagined your laugh
The building you worked in, has now long gone
And you too have left me behind
and though you are now just a story in time
I can still feel your soft hand in mine.
It's not a coincidence that I'm thinking about windows now.
For some reason, and who knows why, windows or openings are featured in my designs. The latest work I have just completed was inspired by the word 'seeking'. Seeking colour, seeking light, searching for the rainbow. I have been busy combining colour and tone, lighting flowers from different positions and having fun with composition and light.
Here is a snippet of a painting that started out with the light as the main subject I wanted the flower to look like it was bursting through a wall and the remains of the wall would be covered with old wallpaper. I spent a few days painting the wallpaper and then abandoned the idea as it just wasn't working. So I painted the background out with black gouache. Suddenly the light through the flower worked beautifully. I don't regret the time I spent painting the wallpaper. I just regret that that particular idea didn't work.
I'm super happy with the painting now, that's the wonderful thing about playing around with paints and ideas. Sometimes the simplest ones are the best. This painting was all about light. The other paintings I've completed were all about looking through a pothole towards light, colour, movement, all of those things.
I suppose I really only notice a theme is developing once I have completed three paintings, then looking back on them back on them I can start to see a pattern recurring. I highly recommend that you work up some designs in your sketchbooks with some form of shape that unites them, you could start by choosing a shape and then working your flowers into it. This is a fun way of thinking outside of the box or indeed through a window.
I added some ivy vine which I twisted in and out of the design, as the vine enters the circle it is green and when it leaves the circle it is just in tone. I'm excited now that it's spring just around the corner. As a gardener, there is always something to do and always something to look forward to. I planted some tulips in November in a new circular bed in the walled garden. You see, even the garden is getting a circular makeover. I have in the back of my mind the expression 'through the Looking Glass'.
Some of you might be wondering when I'm gonna come back to you about some new dates for classes at my studio, unfortunately last year I agreed to many away dates and I also had to block out time for filming for my school tutorials. So working out my calendar this year has been very difficult, as I conclude writing here, I will endeavour to get the dates ready for release this week. So if you haven't heard from me by this weekend then drop me a line.
As I write my un-busy Whippet sleeps, well, he's had a long night asleep and needs his rest, ready for a nap this afternoon. Here is a poem the he inspired me to pen last autumn.
Sleepy whippet
By Billy Showell
Quiet by the fireside, whippet lays his head,
I’ll have a little nap he said, before I go to bed.
What a lovely day I’ve had, scamping through the leaves,
I do love all colours in pretty autumn trees.
I’m feeling kind of sleepy now, as I think back on my day,
so cosy by the fireside, is where I should probably lay.
I had a little lie-in, so I confess I missed the dawn,
'The Lie-in made me sleepy', said whippet with a yawn.
I’ll have a little supper, perhaps some cheese and pear
Before I cuddle up on my favourite comfy chair.
The cushions are so squishy, thinks whippet as in he sinks,
I’ll need more rest before my bed, so I’ll just have 40 winks.
And when his doze was over, and he’d had a lovely rest.
He scuttled to the sofa where he dug to make a nest.
His digging made no difference to the dip he’d made before,
And before you could say ‘Jack Russel ’
whippet began to snore.
'Muse Baby' and one other drawing of my whippet, will be on show and for sale at the SGFA
The Society of Graphic Fine Art's annual show at the Mall Galleries London on the 10th March (12pm - 5pm) Tuesday 11th - Saturday 15th March (10am - 5pm) 2025
peace, sunshine and gentle rain
Billy xx
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