This post is for James Hardiman, who was there, and who has just reconnected with me via this blog. Wondrous!
Location: a 17th century Presbytère alongside its ancient church in the Normandy countryside at Hiesville. The owner, a dear friend, had offered me the opportunity to spend some weeks there concentrating on my studio work, in return for painting the external shutters on the house.
Said shutters turned out to be legion. They had to be taken down, hardware removed, stripped, sanded, undercoated, painted (two coats), hardware replaced, and re-hung. They were solid wood and weighed a ton. I worked on them in the ancient barn amongst centuries-old sawdust and litter. Did I have any energy remaining for ‘studio work’? Joke.
I took myself and my frustration off to the nearby beaches for long solitary walks.
It was there – as well as in the old barn – that I discovered the bits and pieces that eventually came together as four works which would eventually join the Nomad Collection.
Any carefully conceived and planned pieces were, as usual, utterly sabotaged by the wonder of what lay around me and the ever-unpredictable creative process.
the artist’s path
[I came to paint the shutters]
Normandie, France
835 x 400
painting on textured board
collage, assemblage
objets trouvés: wooden slab, sawdust
iron staple, wooden slat blind
text fragments, cement, pva glue
acrylic paints
miriam louisa simons 
:o))))
Delight!
I had forgotten this post and re-discovered it on a day when the sun didn’t shine and when I needed no memento mori. Oh that we could meet now, wandering on the sandy fringes of the Cotentin.
Voila ! Shutters: http://storage.canalblog.com/21/21/187657/75885826.jpg
James! How splendid to hear from you again. The pic of the SHUTTERS triggered some wonderful inner images, and feelings too. Thank you dear one. So what are you doing “wandering on the sandy fringes of the Cotentin” pray tell? I’d adore to be there too, with you. But here I am in OZ, with winter muscling its biceps … and guess what? It’s perfect.
I hope you are thriving!