The Times They are A-Changin'

Nothing stays the same for ever and in the words of Bob Dylan, we can learn to swim with it or we can sink. Me? I’m a swimmer!

 With another year of Open Studios finished I have been giving some thought and reflection on how things have changed over the years and how that might take me forward. My first year with Cambridge Open Studios was back in 2005 and in the intervening period I have only missed three years. The first was during the year when I was supposed to be bogged down making bridesmaids dresses for my friend’s son’s wedding. It seemed prudent not to be coping with studio visitors when I was drowning under layers of satin and tulle. As it happened the wedding was postponed by 12 months so the following year, not wanting to miss a second round of Open Studios I found myself wrestling with the combination of dresses and visitors anyway. The next time I missed it we were moving house in July, which is when Cambridge Open Studios always takes place so it wasn’t possible to commit to dates when I didn’t know where I would be living. And the final year I missed was the summer of 2020 when due to the pandemic Open Studios didn’t happen and we operated an Open Windows instead. It was different, it was a change and I loved the challenge of having to think outside the box. It attracted many friends and neighbours who incorporated my living room window as part of their daily walks, and was one of my most successful years.

In the natural ebb and flow of things, some years have been more successful than others with visitor numbers going up and down along with sales. And despite trying to reason why there is no obvious answer. Friends have suggested that maybe it’s quieter some years because it clashes with Wimbledon, but it always clashes with the tennis… and usually the British Grand Prix and other big sporting events too. They say maybe it is the heat, the rain, the wind, or whatever else the British weather throws at us but as a rule people come out (or don’t as the case maybe) whatever the weather. So mostly there is no rhyme or reason, and these things fluctuate. But there has been a noticeable downturn since 2021 with the number of people visiting falling consistently and sales dropping rapidly each year. My guess is that people are tightening their belts and art is certainly not a necessity when it’s a case of finding enough cash to buy food or pay for heating. And if you are not interested in buying then maybe there doesn’t seem like any reason to come out and look. I don’t know, I’m guessing.

But that said, this year wasn’t a complete wash out, despite us being blown and buffeted by the wind. My studio is in the garden and although there is plenty to see inside, I also display art under a gazebo outside as well as dotting it about on garden chairs. There were several precarious moments when I thought we might lose everything to the elements, including the gazebo when it lifted in the air like a huge Mary Poppins umbrella, but with some deft rearranging all was well. It was only me that sat shivering on the last Saturday afternoon as the wind whipped around with ferocious gusts. There were new visitors and regulars as well as old friends to catch up with but the highlight for me was when my friend Annie turned up and saw her portrait for the first time. Looking at her reaction I think she was pleased with my record of a happy day out together at the National Gallery. The painting behind her is a loose interpretation of one of Annie’s favourite paintings, Lake Keitele by the Finnish artist Askeli Gallen-Kallela that hangs in the National Gallery in London.

You can hear more about the painting in this short YouTube clip

I’m not ready to decide whether I will take part in Open Studios next year or not. I need more time to reflect on what the next year will bring but there are definitely changes ahead and I relish the prospect rather that lamenting the loss of the way things used to be.

The past three years have already seen many changes in my working life too. In my own personal art making there has been a shift from creating textile art back to my love of drawing and painting. The pandemic saw a transition to online teaching and of course there has been the success of my podcast with Isobel Moore which we started at the end of 2020. But as time moves on there are more changes ahead. I think that for me at least, online teaching has peaked as people look for more opportunities to meet in person and family circumstance are now also demanding changes in my priorities.

One of the other big changes over the past few years has been the way I write. I used to be a regular blogger in the early days of craft blogs, often writing two or three times a week. Some of you may even remember me as Fan My Flame from those days. I started it in the summer of 2007 and I remember it was summer because my first ever photograph was of a splendid courgette flower. Once again, we are in the throes of many courgette flowers and their accompanying fruits. You would think I would learn over the years that two plants are perfectly adequate for two people but no. I’m currently reaping the harvest of seven very productive plants over on my allotment, but I digress and will return to courgettes later.

It seems trivial to say my blog faded away during the pandemic, when Covid brought about the end of so much else from the tragic loss of so many lives, to the hundreds of businesses brought to their knees, but I think in many ways Covid was responsible for the end of my blog too. Despite having more time to write, the endless repetition of the days usually spent inside doing the same things left me with little I wanted to write about. And I wrote my last post in June 2021, only the second one that year. Although it felt right to stop, I missed the camaraderie and friendship of other bloggers, many of whom had also stopped writing. I found and followed some on Instagram, but it was never quite the same often being at the whim of the algorithm whether I saw their posts or not. I started a new blog over on my website keeping it largely about art and art related subjects and although I have enjoyed writing, if I’m honest not many people read it, there is virtually no feedback or conversation and I find it hard to keep up the momentum to write regularly, especially when I am also writing a subscriber newsletter every other week. At the time that I was blogging regularly my now fortnightly newsletter was a rare and occasional missive.

And so, in the spirit of change I have decided to combine my blog and newsletter and I have moved here to Substack where my intention is to write weekly not only about the things that I would usually put in my newsletter but more generally about art and my other creative interests too. Which neatly segues me back to the courgettes. One of my favourite creative things to do to unwind is cook so I have relished the challenge of what to do with several dozen courgettes… the result of one of my other passions, my allotment. Mind you I might not be quite so enthusiastic in a couple of weeks time! But for now, I shall finish with my favourite way to cook ratatouille.

You will need:

Several courgettes (4 or 5 small ones or as many as you can get away with using)

An aubergine

A red pepper and a yellow pepper

A couple of red onions (also home grown in my case)

A handful of cherry tomatoes

A couple of garlic cloves, crushed

Olive oil, salt and pepper

A tin of chopped tomatoes.

Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan, 425F, gas 7). Prepare and chop all the fresh veg into bite size pieces leaving the cherry tomatoes whole. In a large bowl mix them together with a good slug of olive oil, the garlic and plenty of seasoning. (I use my hands for this to get everything well coated) Transfer it all to a roasting tray and cook in the hot oven until well browned – about 30-40 minutes.

Once cooked and tinged with brown, transfer to a large saucepan and add the tin of tomatoes and heat through. If you have any fresh herbs growing, you can chop in some of these at this stage too. Basil works well. This is a wonderful accompaniment to all sorts of meat and fish dishes, but I like it served on a bowl of brown rice and topped with grated cheese which is what I pretty much lived on when I was a student! It has all the rich flavour of a roasted ratatouille but with the traditional stew like texture. And fortunately, it also freezes very well… which is good news for me as I’m off to pick another half dozen courgettes. I guess there are some things that never change!