Interview on Radio Talk Europe

On a gloriously sunny day in Belicena, Spain I was hiding in my studio talking with the excellent and very talented Ian Rutter, who not only presents, but also writes and paints. 

Leaf  070420170959, Rosa sp.. Watercolour on paper. SOLD

Ian produces an fascinating programme called 'Life Stories' where he interviews non-Spanish guests who have chosen to live in Spain. He discusses their lives in Spain and what they did before they moved and what they intend to do in the future. 

During the programme guests are asked to choose 6 pieces of music that mean something to them. I naturally found this to be incredibly challenging as my tastes are broad and change frequently. In the end I chose pieces that I probably play the most and one that we all know about - the one that actually has the sounds of my own life, Leafscape.

Leaf  090520171506, Conker, Watercolour on paper.  SOLD

The programme is scheduled to be aired this Sunday 12th November at 1pm, and then again on Saturday 18th November at midday. You can tune in on an FM frequency or via the website, and all details can be found here: http://www.talkradioeurope.com/. Once the programme has been broadcast, there is a 7 Day on Demand function on the website, and you can download a copy of the programme via this feature.

LISTEN LIVE on 12th November at 1pm

or

ON DEMAND from 7 days post airing

Leaf  090520171507, Conker, Watercolour on paper, SOLD

Happy listening and a big thanks to Ian for being so encouraging and patient with my ramblings! 

El Día de Reyes Magos

As I kneel on the stripy rug in our sitting room individually wrapping our 1930s glass baubles, I am reminded of a former time when I used to wrap 18th century minerals in museum in a similar way. Funny how life can randomly take you to places without you having to move an inch. I look at the gridded cardboard box which is filled to the brim with a mixture of kitchen roll and tissue paper. Each poorly scrunched up ball of white revealing a glimmer of jewel like bauble.  "Beautiful" I say to myself, like I do every year and I remind myself that next year I will take a picture of them in their box. 2016's Christmas will no doubt come and I'll probably forget again. There is always this sense of urgency when it comes to the Christmas decorations for me. I am either desperate to get them on the tree or desperate to file them away and get on with life by the time twelfth night arrives. 

We drove to Fornes this afternoon in a car full of my mothers pots - its time for the first firing for her latest collection which will be on show in London this April. Strapped in the back I had some plates, my mum had the big beetle jar, Andrew was driving. We cruised through the mountains and farms under a bruised sky. It kept changing colour, from yellow to peach to blue to purple and the fields below seemed to reflect the marbling back. I felt like I was privy to a secret conversation between the land and the sky. The olive trees have changed shape - their branches now sag with their heavy loads of fruit and no longer search for the sky with so much passion. Their leaves shone silver against a blackened sky and at their roots the soil had turned into embers of burnt sienna. Yellow fields of feathery asparagus glowed in the random shards of sunlight that escaped the inky air like amber. It was certainly a feast for the eyes. 

Mum's Beetle Jar - a work in progress.
Work by Kitty Shepherd, Facebook page here.

The landscape here in Spain has changed over the past seven days, changing from anaemic yellow to lush green after three days of much needed rain. It really is a welcome break from the never ending sunshine for the farmers and at last the mountain is dusted in icing sugar like the pale pink flowers which are now erupting from the dark skeletons of Almond trees. Being in the campo today was dramatic, romantic and deeply nourishing.

So my back is still not great and I cannot for the life of me work out quite what I have done, but I think it is a combination of carrying too much luggage when in London last October (as its been bad since then), raking too vigorously in November and painting, (but the latter hasn't caused it, just prevented it from healing). So work has slowed down quite a bit... At first this drove me nuts, but I have now let go and am just rolling with it. 

La Fabula at la Finca 28 September 2014

On Wednesday it was time for me to wave a jolly good farewell to English shores. As I watched the docks at Portsmouth and HMS Victory disappear from view, I was filled with a good feeling. There was no sadness, just a strange type of openness which filled my heart. I have been living out of rucksacks for so long now, I have become accustomed to the life of a nomad and nothing appears to frighten me or make me feel unstable. I seemed to have learnt how to ground oneself without using the ground. 

View from our cabin on Brittany Ferries. Farewell Pompey!

So much of Wednesday was rather unproductive and I decided to catch up on much needed sleep whilst indulging in Leonard Cohen songs and some delicious vintage wine. I got the top bunk in what was a rather roomy cabin.

 

The sea was a millpond and we all slept rather well that night. There certainly is nothing better than being gently rocked to sleep in an air of delicious scent (I went a bit mad at the perfume counter before bed). Breakfast was fantastic (thank you Brittany Ferries) and fuelled with a full English breakfast, half a dozen chocolate croissants and a pot of tea we drove down from Bilbao to Granada in a day (well actually Andrew did. Mum was in charge of regular CD changes and I did sweet FA). We disembarked the ferry at Bilbao with a flock of Hells Angels at around 1pm and arrived in Granada at 11pm. Granada greeted us with an electrical storm of epic proportions. It was very dramatic and terribly exciting. In fact, one could almost describe the experience as Biblical, as by this time we were all indulging in a bit of Leonard Cohen and he was belting out the many verses of Hallelujah during this part of the journey in the middle of the night. God it gets dark here.

After dropping off all of our things in the new office on Friday, my mum and Andrew had to deliver the van back to its depo in Malaga, while I hitched a ride to our house in the mountains with all of the things we needed for our exhibition on Sunday. I'd just like to say a quick thing on van hire here, as its the only appropriate place. If you are planning a move similar to this one, I can say that we all think that using Way to Go van hire is a very good way of doing the move. It is much cheaper (£550.00 for 5 days) and the company was very helpful throughout. 

The entrance leading to the new 'Browse' office and the studios of both Kitty Shepherd and Inky Leaves. Santa Fe, Granada

My new place of work has the most amazing garden complete with an Indian Bean Tree (one if my favourite trees), a Magnolia grandiflora, a Horse Chestnut laden with conkers, two intact Canary Palms, Dahlias, Roses, Jasmine, Wisteria, Cycad and LAWN (as rare as hen's teeth down here) etc. The list of plants is endless...

Saturday was a bit of a nightmare... Prepping for an exhibition always is rather mad isn't it? And let me tell you, it's even worse when moving house... Word of practical advice, don't exhibit if moving house. So, with our labels printed and mounted onto foam board, our plinths primed and statements written we hiked over to the Finca del Castillo Arabe in the Valle de Lecrín on Sunday and set up. Yes, we are totally bonkers. Mum and I were going to hang our work on Saturday afternoon in preparation, but we had another storm and there was too much fog over the National Park for us to actually get through. We also experienced 6 power cuts. I think this is how we have to roll here in Spain...

Tables set up for lunch, art work on the walls. La Fabula at la Finca, La Finca del Castillo Arabe, September 2014

It was a fabulous day in the valley and an experience I will never forget. We had an eight course lunch by a top Granadian chef, Ismael Delagado Lopez, from La Fabula, which was utterly delicious and satisfied (what has recently become) my overwhelming need for posh nosh (London appears to have turned me into a food snob).  You can see some superb photographs of the dishes taken by Barbara Taylor-Harris here. 

Posh nosh, and VERY tasty too!

Throughout the day, Ophelia got to show off in her new frame which was very carefully constructed by the brilliant firm Bond-a-Frame in Chichester. I'm very grateful to them for not only mounting her in record time, but for exploring such bizarre framing options on my behalf. I am very much aware of what an unreasonable, picky customer I can be in framing shops and they were so tolerant of my demands! Thank you Bond-a-Frame, you did a superb job. I opted for the magic glass with Ophelia too, which is non reflective, UV filtered and is very special in that it doesn't alter the light and colours of the piece in the way normal glass does. Something to do with the composition or ratio of the silicon in it I think... Anyway, Ophelia is delighted with her special, slip mounted, box frame. 

Guests enjoying their Spanish nosh

Mum had a good show and managed to raise €210 for the local charity Acompalia through the sale of her mugs. I was sad to say farewell to this little tree, which also found a new home on that day. It's called The Magic Tree and it's magic.

Mum's magic tree