An update!

Ohhh it's too long since my last post!  Now that I've fully settled in it seems like I'm just busy all the time, what with working in the studio, working outside the studio, landscape drawing classes, looking for french lessons and yoga classes, socialising and speaking french, going out visiting bits of Marseille, using the library, buying fabric, making plans for doing all of the above in the weeks to come...  I have no time to sleep!

But that's cool, I'm tired but I'm really enjoying myself.  I'm all installed in the Pictura Est studio, where there are really good tutors and the other students are dead nice, I've got a really good space with tons of natural light and I'm HAPPY to be there.  I'm getting on with my work really well - the shrine to Iggy Pop is coming along very nicely and I'm getting a lot of good feedback for it, plus suggestions of loads of new things to check out...  It really does make a difference to your work, being in a different country, you know, there are all sorts of different influences floating about - it's great!  I will do a post tomorrow or friday with pictures of my work, and I'll talk about it in proper detail.

So recently, what's been happening?  Well, I went to a welcome day at Marseille town hall for all the new international students in the city the other day, and it was great - there were about 300 students from 50 different countries and I met loads of nice people.  They gave us sweets and a big coach tour of Marseille, and it turns out that I'm staying in a city with lots of cool things to do!  They've got beaches and cathedrals and loooads of museums and funny little shops and bars and cinemas and all that jazz... it's really cool!  The other Erasmus students at the art school are really nice too, I must hang out with them more and go and see what they're doing in their studios.  There really aren't enough hours in the day!

And this weekend just gone my family came to visit me (minus Gill), which was great as we got to have a little holiday for the weekend and I wasn't filling my time with cutting up fabric and booking plane tickets.  We did loads of stuff and I had an ace time!  And they brought me marmite, which I've been missing a bit, so that's good!  I was quite upset when they left though - but that's all down to the whole being-in-a-new-place thing, I don't think I'd realised quite how different things are over here (different, yet EXACTLY the same!)

Today I went out into les Calanques (cliffs/coves/little beaches/woodland) next to the college with my drawing class, and sat on a mountain and drew the sea in the lovely warm sunshine... then got a bit lost on the way back - whoops!  I'm here now though, don't worry.  This afternoon I worked in the studio, although didn't achieve much as the weather was very nice and it was just one of those days...  Tonight I'm booking a trip to Paris in November with my wee sister, which will be great - I can't wait to hear how weird the Parisian accent sounds after getting accustomed to the Marseille accent!  Oh and then me and Nina are going to get pizza and watch telly and be huge slobs. 

Tomorrow I'm going into town to draw pictures of big grand French buildings and the interior of Notre Dame, then I'm going to draw Iggy Pop's face for the centrepiece of the shrine, and in the evening I'm apparently going to a free concert with half the art student population of Marseille.  Nice!

So, will check back soon with a post about what's happening to my work!