52 in 52 BOOK 5 - The Beach Cafe - Lucy Diamond

A whirlwind trip across the country for a wedding is always a good opportunity to get into some new books! 8 took the book I was reading with me, but found another 2 at the airport and read both of them whilst away - now I'm back I can get back into The Best Yes ( as well as an audiobook I'm listening to, and an ebook that's on the go....) 

So, The Beach Cafe was a nice easy read, a little under 500 pages, a story of trials and success. Evie has always been the black sheep of her family, and following the tragic and untimely death of her Aunt, she inherits a cafe on the beach in the village that she spent countless childhood holidays. Her family has only doubts in her ability to manage a cafe, and are convinced failure is the only outcome unless she sells the cafe. 

Walking out of a workplace filled with sexual harassment and abuse causes tension between Evie and her long term boyfriend, who is a serious, sensible man, not at all fond of spontaneity or things he deems "irresponsible". Evie heads out of town to her new cafe to try and sort out the staff and how the cafe is actually - a far more daunting task then expected when she comes against upset and angry locals who miss her Aunt, also believing the gossip that Evie will take the easy way out and sell the cafe to some hot shot developer; staff who leave much to be desired; and a cafe surrounded by rubbish, tables filled with dirty dishes, no stock in the kitchen, and customers being served off ham in their sandwiches... Not a great start! 

When her temp agency calls to let her know another position has come up, she feels she has no choice but to go back to the city, her boyfriend, and the harsh judgement of her family. But this position is horrible too, and the judgement of her family is getting her down... 

A candid conversation with her best friend gets her mind ticking... A phone call from her only friend in the village with bad reports about the cafe staff makes up her mind...

Deciding to leave her new job and to go back to her cafe. 

A decision that pushes the tension in her relationship to breaking point... 

So Evie and her best friend pack up all of Evie's belongings and jump in the car without looking back. 

The hurdles just keep coming, it seems nothing can go right for Evie, but she is determined to finally succeed. Her cafe grows in strength and popularity, regaining the joy that it had under the hands of her Aunt. Finally Evie belongs, this is her village, and they embrace her and her cafe. 

Light reading, enjoyable read, good fun.

Procrastination sketching

March, A4 size 

June, A3 water colour paper. I still love this scene, I feel I need to do some studies of it with different mediums, colours and textures. 

I have been working on the idea of painting in series, a number of paintings with a common theme. This one feels like a promising start point. 

Have a creative and blessed day! 

Creativity flows like oil.

Oil paints that is... Not at all, then all at once! 

Been having a good day today, I've done some housework and listened to an awesome podcast, then decided I really needed some painting time. 

I prepared the canvases the other day, put a gesso prime over old paintings that I didn't like and couldn't fix, and sketched my basic plan onto the canvas in willow charcoal. I want to learn new painting styles, so I've been playing around with techniques to see how different things look. 

This canvas started off pale blue, dark blue with a white prime. I could have put more layers of white on, but it is interesting to start with a blue canvas and watch how things progress. I have used oil bars for this, like giant oil-paint-crayons. I have pushed the paint around a little bit with a brush, but not a whole lot. I'm going to put in a moody grey sky which should make the mountains stand out and the autumn leaves stand out ever brighter.