spreading the word for our woods

readers of this little blog will know i live in the centre of an ancient forest...the forest of dean...a magical mysterious place between two rivers and two nations

more and more people are starting to hear about the forest of dean as the uk wakes up to the coalition government’s proposals to sell off the forests of england

on a cold and snowy day i and over 3000 others attended a rally to voice their protests...this is a video of the event made by talent film maker woody morris...it captures the spirit of the event and the love we all have for the forest

Hands Off our Forest from woodrow morris on Vimeo.

i was too shy to be interviewed but the people who were made an excellent job of expressing the feelings of all...this forest is not for sale...it already belongs to all of us

please please sign the petition here
because where ever in the world you live one day you may want to visit our beautiful forest
and we would be happy to see you enjoy it without restrictions

more info about the local hoof campaign here

pay it forward

anyone else playing this on facebook?


"Pay it forward for creative people: I promise to send something I'll make myself to the first five people who leave a comment on this update. They must in turn promise to repost this as their status. The rules are that the items must be made by you personally, and they must be received by your five folks in 2011! Be creative and get cracking!"

pop over to my face book page...

http://www.facebook.com/SallyStaffordPaintings

i definitely want to make something textily...
x

little flowers newly blooming

all the snow has gone...and the family too
so yesterday was a day to paint again....
i thought i would paint the vintage silk flowers i often wear in my hair...paint them against the melting snow....



and that is what i started to do ....but it turned out like this a winter solstice sunset

winter solstice 100cms x 100cms

probably inspired by this...a recent walk and the video from the last post




as well as painting i have been working on some little flowers newly blooming


a new website just for my painting workshops

the summerland studio



happy new year to all and may all your flowers bloom

flourishing imperfectly

solstice was beautiful here in the forest and now its nearly christmas

i wish you all the joy of the season

like many i have been thinking of the past year and the future one

one of the new skills i want to learn is video making ...here’s my first effort...
very far from perfect

like many i don’t do the new year resolution thing...

but do choose a word for the year for 2011 its

flourish






so here’s to flourishing imperfectly!


music by dragonsfly - a musical landscape across world traditions, with distinctive celtic and eastern flavours groove-driven, passionate, entrancing...

yes indeed!

lunar eclipse and winter solstice

all this and snowed in too!


happy solstice everyone!


i for one will be getting up early



lunar eclipse and winter solstice


photo by ian

tree of life

we have a very welcome visitor from australia
he has brought the sun and also a gift i was given in papua new guinea earlier this year
australian customs took the carving away to be sprayed for insect life

but now its here with me in the forest and i love it!



i was told the myth that the carving portrayed...
something about the smallest getting to the top of the tree on the backs of the other animals

but to me it is so much a tree of life

success on the internet

december's issue of artists and illustrators magazine has an article about artist's websites and blogs

quite out of the blue i was asked to if i would mind being interviewed as part of the feature...of course not!

so here i am...




thank you so much to writer sam phillips and to artists and illustrators magazine!


and of course thanks to ian for the portrait