Inspired Naturally – Kate MacAndrew, artist and school workshop leader based in Derbyshire

Hello everybody, I hope you all had a good Easter and enjoyed another long weekend! Aside from pottering around in my garden, watching the Royal Wedding (which I loved) and enjoying a friend’s BBQ I have begun painting the straw on my chicken painting. I’m pleased with how the painting is developing and thought it would be interesting for you to see my progress from the beginning.

I am also finalising my catalogue which will be available to both the public and for buyers wanting to buy trade. The catalogue will have my complete collection of mounted prints, cards, badges, cushions etc – I am just waiting for the delivery of 2 new badge designs which I need to photograph before it can be sent to the printers. If you would like a catalogue please get in touch and I’ll send one out to you when they arrive.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

As promised, here are the photos I took when I visited the Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower

The archway over the entrance

The Rose window – absolutely stunning!

Candles were one euro to light and leave burning – it looked stunning under the window

Two more pretty windows

More windows (this is my favourite photo)

It was the first time I’d actually been inside the Notre Dame and I’m so pleased I did. It felt a little strange because there was a service taking place as tourists wandered around – you forget for some people it’s their local place to worship!

Whilst we were in Paris we walked everywhere! The main reason for this was so we didn’t miss any of the quirky side streets and shops you would miss if you hopped on the metro.

We decided to walk to the first level of the tower – I’m not a fan of heights so the first floor was more than enough for me!

The structure of the tower has always made for a good photo – each time I’ve visited it I’ve taken these two angles!

One our last evening we walked through the Louvre courtyard and using my iPhone (hence the grainy shots without a flash) I managed to take a photo of the tower, in the distance, as it sparkled on the hour at 20:00, it looked so pretty and was a perfect ending to a great trip.

This week’s been a busy one so, later than I had hoped, here’s Paris part 2 – The Louvre!

These beautiful carvings greet you as you walk through the gated entrance into the main Louvre area.

We managed to get a photo of me at the entrance without anybody else in the shot!

This was just before we went inside, the photo below was taken looking back towards where we had entered the courtyard

The following photos are of some of the paintings and sculptures I loved:

‘The Mona Lisa‘ – I had to battle my way through the huge crowd to get a glimpse!

A mirror’s reflection in one of the many ornate rooms

This lady was copying the famous ‘Self portrait of Elisabeth Louise Vigee LeBrun and her daughter Julie’ It was incredible.

‘Winged Victory of Samothrace’

The beautiful ‘Cupid and Psyche’

Me having fun with one of the statues!

Me with one of the Tony Cragg sculptures

Another Tony Cragg piece

Paris part 3 will be my photos taken around Notre Dame, lots of beautiful windows to share with you!

In other news, the inspiring Simon Wheatcroft asked me if I would like to design an illustration for him to sell to help sightsavers as he fundraises for his 100 mile run! I was delighted to help and my design is now available to buy via his website -  Please take a look!

The last few weeks since my last post have all been a bit of a blur. Lots of things have happened, not all of these good unfortunately. I have suffered a family loss which was, and still is, a huge shock for all my family to deal with. I have been trying to keep busy to keep my mind from sad thoughts.

Just before this happened, one of my chickens managed to escape and for 2 days I thought we’d lost her for good. It was only when I went to ask at the village shop that I found out she had gone and roosted overnight with their chickens! So after a 20 minute game of catch-me-if-you-can I finally got Bunty back in her run with my other girls where she belongs. We then had their wings clipped to avoid this from happening again but lo and behold, only a few days later, I came home to find 2 of my 4 girls roaming the garden! They had managed to jump onto a low branch on one of the budlia trees in their run and use that as a platform to jump over the fencing! So, last weekend, we spent time making the fencing taller, and, I’m pleased to report they have all since stayed in there! (photos of them to come – still waiting for decent weather for some good shots)

Over the last two weeks I have also completed another new art workshop, this time during two consecutive after school art clubs. The children had the choice of making either a bee or butterfly 3D picture – the image below is of one of the children’s work which I think looks great! It was my first time running a workshop after normal school hours but i really enjoyed it and am now adding these workshops to my ever-growing options of workshops available to schools.

In other exciting news my work has been accepted into an art gallery in Chesterfield, Derbyshire! As soon as I have supplied the gallery with my work and it is available to buy I will let you all know. Super excited about this!

I think I’ll leave you with a couple of images I’ve taken using Instagram – totally loving using this app, I highly recommend it! I’ll hopefully drop by tomorrow with the progress of my new painting i’m working on for myself.

Fresh flowers to brighten a dull day outside

Wednesday’s sunrise, absolutely stunning

Today is going to be a busy one for me, so whilst I continue with the prep work I need to do for a workshop I thought I’d share with you some pictures I have taken using the great iPhone app Hipstamatic. You can really get some interesting results by changing the lenses and playing around with the flash:

Happy New Year everybody! I feel just a tad behind everybody else, only wishing you a ‘Happy New Year’ on 13th January but one of my goals for this year is to procrastinate less and just get on with things! Before I show you some snaps of my new chickens (now lovingly known as ‘the girls’) I thought I’d show you some of the photos I took at the end of 2010; starting with the carol service I went to on Christmas Eve:

View from our seats at Derby Cathedral’s Christmas Carol Service

We went to this carol service last year and I remember thinking how much I enjoyed it so booked tickets very early on for it again this year. It really got me into the festive spirit and forced me to slow down a bit after all the rushing around and preparations for the following day.

As I mentioned in my las post, I went away between Christmas and New Year. Whist we were in Windermere we visited the Beatrix Potter Attraction. It was a great trip and I took some photos as we walked through some of the scenes:

The entrance to the attraction

Peter Rabbit

Mr Tod & Jemima Puddleduck

Old Brown Owl

At the end of our short break we stopped in a small North Yorkshire village called Gillamoor. It was very cold and after the photo below was taken it snowed again, forcing us to leave a day early so we didn’t get stuck there (if work wasn’t the following week I’d have gladly got stuck there )

View across the moors from the village of Gillamoor, North Yorkshire

Ginger (on the left) is a cream-legged Longhorn and she lays mint green coloured eggs!

Until next time have a great rest of the week

Before I go away tomorrow for  a few days I wanted to stop by and share with you my round-up of this year.

In April I began a Life List which I have been thinking about since blogging about it here… ( so far I have crossed off these: Learn how to grow my own fruit and veg, learn how to use a sewing machine, continue completing the Great North Run and other events to raise money for a charity and one of my Christmas presents was a trip to Paris booked in March 2011 so I will be able to cross off: Go to Paris again very soon!)

… my brand new website was was also launched

… in April I was also invited to become a part of fabulousplaces.co.uk a fantastic website of places and producers in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire

…in May I returned to the beautiful Ardnamurchan Peninsula for a week and then in August, visited the Black Isle and saw the dolphins

… in May I also took part in a 5k Race for Life and the London Moonwalk, which tested me to the limit but was an amazing experience

… in July I moved house, a very tiring but exciting time

… I took part in my first e-courses this year: Marisa Haedike’s In the Fish Bowl and Kelly Rae Robert’s Flying Lessons, which opened my eyes to so many creative ideas and possibilities

… in September I took part in my third Great North Run, beating my previous times and raising money for a charity close to my heart

… in November I ran my first specific Christmas workshops in local primary schools

… and in November and December I worked hard preparing and exhibiting in numerous Christmas fairs

It’s been a pretty busy year and I’m excited about the year ahead, I hope you all have a very enjoyable New year and I’ll see you in 2011!

The snow has returned, the icicles are back and everywhere has a cold glow. It can only be Christmas! I cannot believe it’s Christmas Eve already. I also find it hard to believe how quickly this month has gone. So much has happened since my last post: working towards 5 separate Christmas Fairs, all the work and preparations that go into prepare for such events, Christmas shopping, present wrapping, work and going to see a pantomime on Wednesday. Phew, what a busy couple of weeks its been!

I didn’t want to not drop by here before the big day. I would like to thank all my customers and followers for their continued encouragement and support and whatever you are doing over this festive season, I wish you a

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

&

A HAPPY NEW YEAR

I shall look forward to the New Year and *fingers crossed* I will be going away between Christmas and New Year for a little break, assuming the weather doesn’t affect the roads too much in the Lake District and Yorkshire Moors!

See you all next year! x

Since my last post the cold weather has continued, temperatures each morning being as low as minus sixteen!!! Very cold indeed! I have never, ever known a winter as cold as this in all my 23 years (that I can remember). Above is a small snapshot , taken on Friday, of part of my garden, completely covered in a foot of snow. The weather has caused havoc on the roads and also resulted in the Belper Christmas Fair I was due to exhibit at being cancelled. I was most disappointed because I know a huge amount of work had gone into organising the event and I had been looking forward to it. As far as I know the Christmas Bazaar at Derby’s Quad building is still going ahead so I’ll be exhibiting there this Friday and Saturday so if you’re around that area please come and drop by

This weekend didn’t go at all well really, as well as the Belper Fair not happening, I spent 5 hours digging my other half’s cars out our driveway and when we took my car out to go and food shop my back window exploded! Thankfully my insurance covers things like this and I was able to get it replaced yesterday. It was an awful experience, it sounded like there had been an explosion – the repairman said it was most likely down to the window being weakened by something hitting it, coupled with the extreme cold and then the heating in the car once I was driving. All in all not the best of weekends. To cheer myself up though, I did manage to get a few decorations up, I’ve also nearly finished decorating the tree (faulty lights meant I couldn’t start decorating it until yesterday evening).

I have been taking loads of photos of the weather, despite wishing it would just go away now! I thought I’d leave you with a picture of some of the many icicles I have hanging off my roof around the house – these icicles have doubled in length and width since I took this photo – I’m being extra careful when I go outside to make sure one doesn’t decide to land on me

This weekend was an incredibly wet one (not unusual for October)  but it didn’t come without its surprises! The image above was taken at about 07:30 after I’d opened my bedroom curtains. I was amazed to see the morning mist raising over the garden fence! It looked quite eerie and surreal, I just had to quickly grab my camera and try and capture the scene.

Despite the constant rain I did manage to get outside and take a few photos. I wanted to capture the raindrops on the flowers – I always think they look like little glass beads.

I also keep being visited by this little fella as I sit at my desk, I think he’s trying to get his beak on the little insects in the brickwork!

And finally, here’s the rainbow that appeared to mark the end of a very watery few days – absolutely stunning