Reasons to be cheerful

I've had a real grumbly couple of days.....so today I thought I would blog about reasons I have to be cheerful

1. I've sold another picture (an original) to a lovely guy called Brad who lives in New York.
2. The commission piece that I am currently working on is going very well.

3. We are going to a birthday party on Saturday night.
4. Next month I am going on a trip to Mae Hong Son on the Thai/Burmese border to visit the Thailand Hilltribe Education Projects that the BWG sponsor. This will involve visiting remote hill tribe villages virtually untouched by tourism where people live more or less as they have lived for hundreds of years. It's not going to be luxurious....we will travel in pickups, sleep on school floors


and eat the local food. The aim of the trip is to assess the educational needs of hill tribe schools so that we can work out the best way of supporting them going forward. I've also been told that it is the "sunflower season" in Mae Hong Son so it should be stunning!!

For those interested - Mae Hong Son means The City of Three Mists as it is virtually covered with mist throughout the year (dewy mist in the winter, forest fire mist in the summer and rainy mist in the rainy season). It is nestled in a deep valley hemmed in by high mountain ranges and has long been isolated from the outside world. It is the most mountainous province in Thailand and is home to the Shans who live in the city and the Hilltribe people who live in remote villages on mountain tops. The Shan's ancestors came from the Shans region in Burma and the Hilltribe people consist of Karen, Lisu, Mhong, Lahu and Lua

and last but definately not least

5. Moon has invited us up to Issan to stay with her for a weekend in her home village which is near Maha Sarakham (The capital of Issan). Moon has told us that it's a huge honour for her that we are going to visit and stay in her home so there will probably be a party involving the entire village!! We will also visit her local temple and, if we're feeling very brave, help out on the farm!! I think it will be an amazing experience and I'm thrilled because it means that we will get to see Fa and Dawan before we go.

So, there you have it.....reasons to be cheerful!!

The picture you've all been waiting to see......

I've been having real problems adding the image (So much for the expensive scans eh!!). The best way to see it in all it's glory is to click on the picture (It will open much bigger in another window)

All the images in here represent the family that commissioned the piece. The two trees represent the two adults - Their names are written in Thai on the tree trunks and if you look closely you will see that one of them was born in the year of the Horse and the other in the year of the Ram. They met whilst working at an airport which is why the aeroplane is central to the drawing.

I wanted the top half of the picture to represent the adults (which is why there are only two butterflies at the top) and the lower half to represent the family (Hence the reason there are four butterflies). The family lived in Hong Kong for a number of years so wanted something Chinese in the picture to reflect that - the Chinese characters on the door mean family, the one under the sun means love and the two Chinese dragons represent the Husbands love of Dragon boat racing (The heads of the dragons also reflect the heart shape in the tree branches).

They have two girls - one was born in the UK which is represented by Big Ben (She was born at 10.25) and the other was born in Hong Kong which is represented by the Bank of China building (A very famous landmark in Hong Kong). One of the girls was born in the year of the snake, the other in the year of the Rooster (If you look closely you will see that both are in there) and they both love mermaids!! Their Mum's favourite memory of them was when they all went to the beach hence the sand and flip flops.

The family's two favourite holidays of all time were to India and New York which is why the Statue of Liberty and the Taj Mahal make an appearance. One of the adults is Welsh and wanted something to reflect that....the Welsh dragon was too obvious so I used the national anthem (written in Welsh of course!!) to represent part of the building and the opening bar is the music at the top of the house.

Their dog is called Archie :-)