You can't take it with you

Captain Pugwash and Roger the cabin boy made a valiant effort to cram the contents of a life into what seemed like a big van. I aided as best I could, but frankly they worked faster on their own. I just kept them fed with boxes of paints, books and soft furnishings to slot into any available spaces. Everything was carefully evaluated on space and what seemed like a military operation, we carefully filled the van up. Only to find that actually it woudn't all fit. Hmmm. Bike not in, not to mention small pieces of furniture that I really want to take. You know the sort of thing, a corner cupboard granny left me, big pieces of art equipment, that big case of clothes that gets worn very occasionally, but too good to chuck, book shelves, more art books etc etc. Nothing vital but the trappings of a 50 something life.

There was no option but to leave the residue in my studio until I could decide what to do with it. The people renting the house seemed ok with the fact that they would baby sit it all for a couple of weeks.

So off the Captain and first mate went. Leaving me waiting for the new people to turn up, agents to see and generally feel as if this was the end of an era. I have much to do in the next couple of weeks before the van returns to Blighty and I can then be on my way, I have business to tie up and generally a load of  loose ends to complete. It's been a stressful time and I am anxious to get on with my new life.

A cup of tea and a deep breath helped ! Until, that is, the phone call....... !

About an hour and a half later I got a phone call to say that the removal party had been pulled over by the police somewhere near Maidstone. The van was overloaded and therefore illegal. Gak, how come ? There didn't seem to much in the way of heavy stuff in there, but I guess it all adds up. So they were escorted to a weigh bridge and duly weighed. Oooops,  apparently a 3.5 ton truck weighs over 2.5 tons inc tail lift, leaving not much in the way of weight for the contents. What's the point of that ? The upshot was that they were then taken to a storage depot and made to take out the vast majority of the contents. Leaving 2 bags of clothes, a couple of pieces of furniture and some stuff I would have rather left behind in the first place. The storage costs for a month and a fine for overloading were cause for a sharp intake of breath. 3 hours later and half empty, they were allowed to go on their way. 

Some telephone regrouping took place and decisions made. It was decided that all was at the point of no return, with tickets paid for and vital energy at breaking point, they should continue and then rethink a strategy for getting the rest out to Gozo, or not. A positive came out of this, at least it happened on this side of the channel. It may well have been worse if it had happened in France.

Oh my goodness. Now what ? with my life scattered across the country I had to seriously think about what I really needed in my life. Storage is hideously expensive as a long term option and really outweighs the cost of transporting goods out to Malta. Professional removal companies charge the earth and doing the trip ourselves seemed the obvious choice, coming in at well under half the cost. Or so it seemed ! The choice now is to hire another but larger 7.5 ton truck and do the whole thing again with the rest of the stuff,  which will be much more expensive. Or down size drastically and use the same size truck again and that would mean really culling the belongings. Or do the same cull and store in a smaller unit. 

Or do 

THIS

This whole idea of us all having too much, that really we don't need any of it is suddenly very appealing. I have cluttered my life with things that I 'can't take with me' . Things I feel define me. Things I think I can't do without. Things we truly believe make us who we are. The idea of ditching the lot is beginning to feel very liberating. If shredding doesn't appeal and some how seems wasteful, another idea was to take all my stuff down to the Gallery in Brightlingsea, dump it in the middle of the room and let people come in and help themselves. Of course you would always get greedy people who would try and take everything, so I thought about limiting one piece to each person. That would concentrate the mind, don't you think ? But in doing so I would be trying to control the situation and the point would be to see how people reacted. Is that art ?

What do you think ? 

Into the light

I came across this lovely poem and it stirred a thought, how do I view happiness?

How I Would Paint Happiness 

by Lisel Mueller

Something sudden, a windfall,

a meteor shower. No -

a flowering tree releasing

all its blossoms at once,

and the one standing beneath it

unexpectedly robed in bloom,

transformed into a stranger

too beautiful to touch

I would probably paint it something like this:

'Into the light' was a painting I did a couple of years ago, inspired by a trip to North Africa. It epitomizes all that I hold dear. The exotic quiet stillness and a sense of place. An air of mystery, conjured up by the old wooden door covered in barely legible script, leading to where? A figure in robes, the shaft of sunlight hinting at a hot climate.

This painting was bought by a lovely couple living in Brightlingsea, I think they got the jist of what I was about, so I am very happy that it has gone to a good home. 

How would you paint happiness ?

Herding cats

The logistics of condensing my life into a van and then transporting it across Europe is proving a bit of a nightmare. Like herding cats. Hey, nothing I can't handle though. It seems the easiest way to get from Italy to Malta is by ferry from Salerno, which lies just below Naples. The drive down should be scenic, if there is time to avoid most of the motor ways. The original idea of going all the way down to the toe of Italy was thwarted by the fact you can't get a van across the Strait of Messina. Cars and arctics...but not vans ! Don't quite get the logic in that. Anyway, so the Salerno ferry it is. Only hiccup is the ferry only runs twice a week in the Winter. No worries I thought, can work around that. I spent some time estimating drive time, ferry / sail time, unload and turn around time, return time, drive back to England. Booked the van to fit in with ferries. Booked ferry tickets, all done, sorted phew, one job out of the way. Or so I thought. Phone call last week from ferry company saying they had changed the ferry days due to  cancellations.......NOOOOOOOOOOOOO    grrrrrrrrrrrrr 

Now having to pay an extra 2 days for the van (not cheap) and re arrange everything else that had butted in quite nicely around the original plan. Humph. Is it me, or am I going to have to get used to the Mediterranean blase way of doing things ?

On another note, as I have packed away my paints ready for the off, and am now twiddling my thumbs. I don't like not having a creative outlet. Even if I am not working towards an exhibition, I like to be able to experiment with my art. What this gap has done though, is to really get my brain thinking about the way forward in Gozo. What direction will I pursue? I have a lot of ideas in my head and need to write them down so I don't forget. I bought one of Stefanie's customized sketch books at the sale a few weeks ago and it is the perfect place to start a new Gozo ideas book. 

 Stefanie hand embroidered a sample for the cover. So pretty. I rather wish now I had bought all of her sketch books. Packing away my art books, I couldn't help flicking through them as I went. Song of the Earth is a wonderful book about land art. Very inspiring. Leafing through this has given me lots of ideas to work on. I have always loved words in my art and calligraphy has featured strongly. Richard Long uses words to describe his walking and these words become the art it's self. Pawing over a map of the Islands recently, the sing song sounding place names caught my eye. In particular the names of valleys. 'Wied' means valley in Maltese, I suppose, possibly derived from the Arabic word Wadi- meaning river ? It sounds exotic and mysterious. I wrote down all the valley names in Gozo. Maybe I will use this somehow.

Making pigment from the strong coloured sand and rock may also be something to consider. Anyway, lots to do and think about between the bouts of packing. Onward and upward.

Good bye to all that

My last event in Brightlingsea took place last weekend. With a sale of bits and pieces that had been lurking in the depths....long forgotten. A necessary clear out before I move. Everything I am taking needs to fit into a van and this clearly is a very limiting experience. So, GO, some things must.
The Studio sale, was a resounding success. I am very grateful to all those lovely people who came into the gallery and supported us. We had a lovely collection of work for sale from Stefanie Moss and myself, Donna Howard and a couple of others.  Stefanie and I manned the gallery and were inundated with with buyers on both days, despite the grim weather. We arrived with boxes laden with paintings and textiles of all shapes and sizes on the Friday to set up for the sale. As we were hanging our work, so people came in, hoping to get the best of the bargains before Saturday morning and they weren't disappointed ! Even as we arrived on Saturday to open up, there were a few people waiting to get in. How wonderful it felt to have such a response.

It was a real pleasure to see old faces, people who had bought work before and wanted to see what else they could buy. Old customers who I had never actually met and now wanted to wish me luck. New customers came who were not familiar with our work but had heard about the sale on the grapevine and wanted to check us out. Everyone one was interested in the stories behind the artworks and all were very generous in their purchasing. It was so lovely to spend the time chatting to people who were genuinely interested in what I will be doing in the future and my mammoth move out to Gozo.  In the mix were a couple of paintings that I had rather forgotten about, left over from an exhibition a few years back. They had been lurking behind canvases in the studio. My inspiration had come from an earlier trip to Malta when I had become a little obsessed with narrowness of Maltese streets and the closeness of the buildings, with only a slither of blue sky visible. This is a theme I may well revisit in the coming months.

This view above was the basis of a couple of paintings. One below, but the colour is not really representational of the original. They were muted but not that misty !

Valletta

Mdina.

By the end of the weekend we had almost completely sold out. How pleasing is that ?! What a relief that I now don't have to take anything with me and I can truly start afresh in Gozo. There, the light will be different and the colours more vibrant, the contrast between light and dark will be stronger and it will take me a while to get used to a different way of seeing. One customer who bought a couple of paintings. who incidentally was also an artist, was talking to me about how different it is, painting in the Med. He pointed out that the clarity of the sea allows one to see through quite deep water and all that lies below the surface. Rocks, fish, sand etc and this becomes an important and very different perspective. (That's what I love about being in the gallery, I always meet such interesting people).

So this is where the adventure begins. A new start. Hope to see you along.

Freedom to commit to plan B

Isn’t there a song in there?

Lists lists and more lists. I am constantly making lists and losing them. Scrappy bits of paper litter the house. Bank, Dr, storage, letting agent, new laptop and printer, PG tips big supply of, take stuff to the dump, check out route through Europe and cost. Book flights for family out in Dec. Don’t forget things still going on here, studio sale, paint workshop, son’s birthday, catch up with friends, drive to Wales to see reli’s, deal with legal stuff,……Whaaaaaaah

I constantly have a headache. I think it’s to remind me not to forget things ! A bit like tying a knot in your hanky. I seem to be always waiting for other people to do things. Waiting… see this post in a previouslife ! and now I am even in bardo between blogs lol

Plan B is actually plan 472 c . Do I go out with 1 small bag and hope I can get everything I need there, having put my clobber into a massively expensive storage unit ? then at a later date come back for the things I need. Or do bite the bullet and  shell out,  taking a van overland (oooh that sounds exciting) and a ferry, with the understanding I may have to bring it all back again?  Hmmmm. Do I commit to a new life or do I keep one foot in Blighty in case it all goes bottoms up ? Either way it costs money. What eves, I need to do this. I have, it seems, been waiting for this my whole life. Now everything is coming together. As my daughter says ‘ I love it when a plan comes together’ ! It’s still daunting though.

Commitment is a word I hate. People bandy it about as if everyone’s lives depended on it. It leaves no room for error or a change of mind or heart. It’s stagnant and  constricting. One can have a very best intention to do something or be something, but I really believe that if the very best intention doesn’t work out, then it’s ok to take another route. Freedom. No past, no future, just taking appropriate and caring action in the now.  

Captain Pugwash returns soon from adventures on the high seas, with, I hope, an altogether fresh eye on the situation and with a sensible solution. That is before he refills his biscuit barrel, scrapes the barnacles off his bottom and sails off again on his voyage of discovery. 

So every step is taken when absolutely needed. Everything to the wire.  It’s not a lazyness or complacency but a way of calming and not becoming overwhelmed. So that’s it. Happy Sunday. Chill.

Or 

MAP

?

On The Move

Why Gozo ?  My friends and family constantly ask. Why not ? I say.

Actually, there are lots of reasons why I chose Gozo. I could have stuck a pin in a world map and chosen anywhere I fancied. In the end it came down to family ties and not wanting to be too far from everyone. Or at least not too far for them to come out to me.

Being able to speak the language is a big plus, as is the fact everyone drives on the left...well most of the time anyway !

But the biggest reason for me is that Malta and Gozo bridge the gap between Europe and North Africa. I have long had a fascination for North Africa and my travels to Morocco and Libya have just strengthened that. Malta is only 100 miles from the Libyan coast but it seems closer in spirit. The Maltese language is an impossible mix of Arabic and ancient Sicilian and it's the only Semitic language written in Latin script. X's are pronounced 'sh' and other letters are are completely silent....it will take some learning.

The islands have a wonderful mix of Italian and Arab architecture, with peeling paint and decorative doors and balconies. Tiny streets wind their way through the towns and villages leading to bustling squares or abruptly ending at the sea. Sitting along side this sleepyness Malta has a very cosmopolitan vibe too, which gives the feeling of being in any major Italian city, but the whole is uniquely Maltese. 

 Crumbly, peely walls and paint will give me much to work with when I start to paint. I am so looking forward to exploring and finding inspiration in these streets.

Mgarr harbour on Gozo, with it's pretty boats and winding road up to the capital Victoria welcome visitors off the ferry. I have chosen Gozo to live because it is a little sleepier than her big sister Malta, the pace is not so frantic, there aren't so many people. It is greener and more sedate and I hope the quiet slow pace will be conducive to my painting. The 20 min or so ferry ride from Mgarr to Cirkewwa makes an easy hop across the water, the road journey on the other side though, does take nerves of steel or a long bus ride to Sliema for a little retail therapy. You should note that all buses with an X on them are to be avoided at all cost, as they all go via the airport. I discovered, after a 20 min journey took an hr and a half !

I guess you can lean out of your balcony and chat with the neighbours....nice.

The streets in The capital Valletta are a little wider but all the buildings still have these wonderful Juliet balconies. It does seem extraordinarily hilly for such a small place though.

......and the Yacht Club is an oasis in the melee that is Sliema. 

So there you have it, that's why in a couple of months I will be starting this very exciting adventure. In the meantime there is much to organise and loose ends to tie up. Paints to pack, rubbish to clear and to find a method of getting my clobber out there with out breaking the bank ! Maybe there is a road trip coming on.