Independence day.
One of the best in recent memory. I wrote this about the experience:

I was given another gift, a journey out to the rural countryside. Taking the train from the city through the green swaying fields on one side and with a view of the sea on the other I noticed my breathing changed. We were off to visit a family home of a fellow artist, filled with a distinct style yet also buzzing with the chaos of children. It was a great escape. We gathered around a big wooden table as biscuits, toast, jam, butter, cheese and a big pot of tea all was laid out in front of us all. I love sitting around a table.

There was talk of art, life, love, loss, new adventures and broken washing machines. Children stuffing their faces with ice cream and jaffa cakes, telling me "I like your accent." My memory of the day is a swirl of the following: the perfect light, flowing fields, a new garden stocked with sprouting veggies, flowers, big skies, clean air, white laundry on the line blowing in the wind. All of this creating a beautiful picture of rustic bliss in the Scottish Countryside. Wild and free yet with it's own distinct brand of domesticity; I could have stayed there forever.

We explored ruined barns with perfect shafts of light coming in through the ceilings, we walked through the fields with the high grass threatening to swallow me up until we relented and lay down watching the clouds and talking. After a while it was back to the house for more tea and then later to the studio, a perfect room filled with projects and inspiration. A house that could be in the pages of a home fashion magazine but this one's beauty hard earned and more real, filled with a comfortable elegance. There was an exchange of art, more photographs taken and a mad dash to the train and then back through the fields and into the city.

Being an artist is a mixed bag, rich with experiences and sadly little money. When I am troubled by this, I like to focus on all the brilliant artists I know. I think of their work, their lives and how we all come together to be stronger than ourselves. I remind myself that I am rich in dreams and beauty. I am rich in my fellow artist's genius and in how we speak a language together that doesn't need explaining. This is the real currency of a life less ordinary and I am grateful.

Thank you Louise Blamire for a wonderful day out.