I love April. 

Not just April 25th when all you need is a light jacket, but the whole month. Our cherry tree blooms in April - my favourite annual occurance. The sun comes out and overnight the tree just bursts out in pink and red.

A coffee cup, photographed from above, sitting on grass and surrounded by pink cherry blossom petals.

Chonk also loves April, I think in her case it's mostly because I play with her throwing the petals in the wind and watching her chase them. Seeing her happy has been great - she was ill recently with a gum infection (Now is perhaps a good time to mention I have a Ko-Fi?) so seeing her energetic and excited, jumping around trying to catch the frail little flowers is a relief.

A tabby cat photographed from above and turned to look behind her sits on grass littered with loose cherry blossom petals.

But nevermind my cat (That's a lie, always mind my cat), I said I had news! For anyone who follows me on Bluesky this definitely doesn't qualify as news because you've been kept very up to date, but --- 

There's a new series of figure skating oil paintings on the way!

An oil painting of a figure skating spin obscured by a small wooden art mannequin held up by a hand. The mannequin is mimicking the pose of the figure in the painting.

Four pieces inspired by Alysa Liu's short program "Promise" which I think captured all of our hearts this season. The smallest is 10x12" and the biggest is 18x24". I've been working on them for months now, since November I think, basically since the first time I saw her skate it. Wild to think that in that time she went from sixth place at Skate Canada to well deserved World Champion. Between the early season Amber supremacy and the rise of Alysa I won't forget the 2024/25 figure skating season in a hurry!

(Until of course it's entirely overshadowed by the Olympic season to come...)

A close up of a work in progress oil painting showing a thigh where the light hits it, glowing pink and orange, and the movement of the skirt above.

I'm in love with this series. Not fleeting, excited-but-ready-to-drop-it-as-soon-as-the-next-idea-jumps-into-my-brain love, but real, deep I-will-work-on-this-until-it-is-done love. Only one of them is finished (provisionally, maybe, kinda-sorta finished) so far, but all of them already have parts that I adore. A brushstroke, a colour, a shape.

I'm playing with new ways of showing movement, simplifying in some ways, while creating much more detail in others. Working in so many layers is time consuming and sometimes frustrating, but so so worth it. I can't wait to see the final pieces, and share them. I can't wait to tag Alysa. I hope it makes her smile that her art has inspired more art, and maybe these paintings in turn will inspire other artists, and so the chain of creativity will go on and on. I wonder who inspired Laufey, and if they have any idea the kind of paths their influence has wandered down. 

A work in progress oil painting of a figure skating spin. The skater is seen from behind, the light hitting her from above and her white dress catches it.

I wish I could say when they'll be done. I can't. I'm hoping to have the final touches finished by the end of June but the big one is so big. And then of course there's all the parts you don't see progress updates of - the print photography and editing, and writing the listings and trying to make them SEO friendly without sounding like garbled keyword salad nonsense - all that fun stuff. It will take as long as it takes and no matter how long that is it will be too long for me. I'm ready for them to be done now - so I can do the next thing! 

A collection of oil painters brushes, sitting upright beside a white canvas on a messy artists desk.

In the meantime you can keep up to date with the series by following me on Bluesky where I post progress pictures as regularly as I take them, and I'm going to try to update my KoFi more regularly (read: literally ever) if you want to drop a follow over there. I've been brainstorming membership perks, and I'm considering digital prints as an option so let me know if that's something you'd be interested in!