Joy .....

..... in her studio.

I've spent most of today working at home, but popped out at lunch time to pay my council tax and water rates as well as looking to see what ISA savings accounts are on offer at the moment, basically all the fun things to do around the begining of the new tax year (not).

To dull the boredom of dealing with money matters I had a big mixed grill for lunch. I may need to look at my diet as I weighed myself for the first time in months today and I'm a stone heavier than I was last time I weighed myself. I'd like to say it was all muscle that I've gained. True, I still look like a racing snake, just a racing snake that has swallowed an ostrich egg.

On my way home from town I popped in to the local sale room and then had a look around the artist studios behind them. My portrait today is of local artist, Joy Godfrey who has one of the studios where she produces her oil paintings and screenprints of local landscapes. The painting behind Joy is work in progress, a large oil on canvas of Malham cove.

Whilst I was visiting, Joy also had a visit from the local planning officer. The new owner of the building has submitted plans to turn the studios in to houses and understandably Joy and her fellow artists who rent the studio spaces are fighting the plans. The plans have already been turned down by the council for various practical reasons, but the owner of the building is appealing the decision. It would be such a shame to loose the only artist studios availiable in town for them just to be turned in to yet more accomodation when there are already loads of new housing developments going on in the town.

I quite like the way Joy seemed to coordinate with her painting, so today's blip is .....


..... Joy in her studio.