Its been a while …..

Hello and welcome back to mine (and Maggies) Blog !

We have had a busy time since the last Blog in March so have lots to catch you all up on.

Maggie at the Beach in Camber Sands

I decided to take a trip out with Maggie to Camber Sands in East Sussex for a swim in the sea and a picnic on the beach. This is the first time we have taken Maggie to the beach since she was rescued and also since the operation on her leg. Ella my granddaughter came too and was introduced to Scotch Eggs which went down a treat. 

The weather was absolutely stunning with brilliant sunshine and just enough of a breeze so that it didnt feel too hot.  Maggie had a great time and was impeccably behaved and even went for a paddle in the sea.  She was a little nervous of the waves to start with but soon went out chest deep with Ella’s encouragement.  We all had ice creams to finish off our day and were all exhausted by the time we came home. 

Its a hard life being a dog in the sun !

I have been busy at work and the usual stress of winter pressures has still not abated and with no patient flow in A&E this has meant that I have turned to my painting to relax when on down time. 

I originally started painting when I was working as a HEMS doctor as a means of destressing and decompressing from a busy day or night shift and it has continued since then. 

I have been so privileged to have had the opportunities I have been granted and the experiences I have gained through this.  Even today when I watched a helicopter fly over it still gives me an adrenaline rush and I recall the feelings and sensations of flying across the countryside and the apprehension felt when circling a callout site not knowing what will come but that I can make a difference to peoples worst day. 

There is a down side to this though because in order to do this I have had to travel far and wide across the country and have had to leave my family to do this, on the plus side I have met some truly fabulous people whom I can call my friends.  I have worked with the Great North Air Ambulance flying across the beautiful Cumbrian fells and also MAGPAS Air Ambulance in Cambridge.  The views from a helicopter are truly stunning during both day and night.  The members of the HEMS crews are truly professional heroes in my eyes and I have been honoured to work with each and every one of them. 

HEMS life is very varied but its not all go! There can be a lot of waiting around too.

Flying over the Cumbrian landscape was truly magical and something I shall never foget.

I have also been getting my artwork scanned with the assistance of Neal and Paula Scrace at Neal Scrace Fine Art Services. This is in preparation for the giclee Limited Edition Prints.  They have been absolutely lovely helping me with this and I now know why I got so frustrated trying to print out and get an exact copy of my art on my own photoquality printer.  The calibrated screen makes such a difference!  We just have to do the test prints and then we should be all ready for the Giclee Limited Edition Prints for the online shop.  So watch this space!

Pashley Manor Gardens Tulip Festival

I have also taken a trip out with my new camera to Pashley Manor Gardens in East Sussex when I went to visit their Tulip Festival.  This was truly stunning and was the most glorious day.  In fact I enjoyed it so much I took out a Season Ticket with them.  I had not realised there were so many varieties of tulips and they could be so beautiful.  They also had some glorious rhodedendrons and the laburnum was majestic.  For camera geeks I have a Sony Alpha 7CII mirrorless camera and I was really pleased with how it performed.  Its the first time I have used it for a painting topic so expect to see some beautiful tulip watercolours. I have put a post on Instagram of the photos so please feel free to go and have a look and like and share to your friends.  I had a cup of tea and a slice of cake whilst there and sat under the laburnum blossoms to enjoy the sunshine on the terrace. 

Tulip Festival

I have also been working hard on improving my Instagram followers and am now up to 600+. So if you’ve enjoyed my Blog and you like my paintings come and give me a like and a follow on Instagram to help me on my way.

My online shop will hopefully be up and running soon once I have the printed proofs from Neal.

I am also hoping to get the Newsletter facility going on the website too so in the meantime if you have any questions or wish to communicate with me then please feel free to send me a Contact form and I will endeavor to reply promptly.

Lots of love

Anna and Maggie x

Blog Number 1

Welcome to my Blog!

Firstly I would like to introduce myself, I am Anna and with me comes my rescued Boerboel dog Maggie. I am also a Granny, and known to all my grandaughters friends as ‘Granny Anna’!!

Maggie in Hospital - thanks to Anderson Abercrombie Veterinary Hospital

We have had a busy couple of months here in East Sussex. Maggie injured her ACL (a ligament in her knee) at Christmas following chasing a squirrel down the garden and had to have an operation which has meant that she has not been able to go for long walks and is only just starting to get back into exercise now. This has been hard for both of us as we really enjoy walking over the local footpaths and getting into nature and it gives us both a huge wellbeing hit. I also had a considerable amount of holiday to use up at work before the next years allocation so we embarked on a long holiday together. As I am not one to sit around doing nothing I decided it was overdue time in me getting my website up and running and sorting out the piles of artwork I have now accumulated. To this end I have invested in a new camera which has allowed me to photograph all the paintings and drawings and following this I have now accomplished the task of getting them all scanned thanks to Neal Scrace. The reasons behind getting them scanned has been:

• When trying to photograph the images I found that the background colour of the normal paper would still show as an off white when trying to reproduce the images and the actual colour of the painted image when printed with a normal photo quality printer was not of a true likeness even with the new camera. I then spent many hours trying to manipulate the images in Lightroom and Photoshop but many piles of attempts later I remained very frustrated and no further forwards. I even spent hours taking out the backgrounds of many of my pictures in Lightroom in an effort to produce a good enough quality background but it just was not right and didnt look professional. Plus when doing this with white or off white flowers I could not cut out the actual petal parts.

• I needed to store the images in a protected format if I wished to print them as Giclees or turn them into cards

• I wished to use the images to produce cards, giclees and other items like notepads, bags, cushions, mugs etc and for this I required high quality images that would withstand being made into larger sizes.

My Picture Framers, Adrian at Wealden Framing Services Ltd, who I have known since school then put me in touch with Neal Scrace of Fine Art Services, who has been fabulous and explained that the calibration of my screen and the use of a 4 colour printer is where things went wrong. Suffice to say Neal has now talked himself into scanning all my paintings !!

So I am currently waiting on the Giclee proofs and then it shall be all systems go !!

In the meantime I have uploaded the images of all my paintings onto the website and put descriptions of them in preparation for when the Giclee prints are produced. All that is left to do is to upload the sizes available of the Giclees and also once the card proofs have been approved I can go ahead with the cards/postcards/notebooks etc. - keep watching this space !!

Meanwhile Maggie is now up to 10-20 minute walks and we are both feeling much better about life.

I hope you are all having a lovely time watching spring wake up all the plants

Love Anna and Maggie x