Woolly nearly ready to join the flock

The last two weeks have been hectic. As well as painting Woolly the sheep I've also been coordinating marketing activity for an organisation called Mid Pennine Arts who are based in Pennine Lancashire. They're in the middle of the build up to a potentially huge visual arts project called Contemporary Heritage which will launch at Towneley Hall and Park in Burnley on Saturday 11 September. The artist commissioned to launch the project is non other than Geraldine Pilgrim who has also done commissions for English Heritage and National Trust - what an accolade for Burnley and MPA!

This week I've been getting stuck into Woolly the Sheep for Flock to Skipton and I'm really pleased with him. From a blank white canvas (well blank fibreglass shape) he's become a multi coloured, Skipton inspired sheep God who I like to think rivals the likes of Shaun the Sheep! He's inspired by Skipton's famous sheep street and the surrounding Yorkshire landscape, which got me thinking about where I live and how lucky I am to have so much greenery around me. If only the clouds would lift once in a while so I could enjoy the views! I guess that's the price you pay for living on the beautiful Pennines.

Today's Woolly task is to finish his back righthand foot and then give him a coat of varnish. Choosing the varnish itself was a task! If I went for gloss would the sunlight dazzle visitors, if I went matt would it dampen the colours.....argh. I finally sat on the fence and went for a satin finish, will be interesting to see how it works. When this has been done all that's left is to use copious amounts of outliner pan and then deliver the sheep back to Skipton to join his sheep brothers and sisters. I'm sure that will be an adventure in itself!

On top of all this my little boy had his first taster of preschool this week, which he loved (mainly because they had a train track so they're OK in his book). Not quite sure how I feel about it all yet (not the nursery, that's great but the grown up boy bit) so I got the baking kit out and we bonded over vanilla cupcakes and all spice nutella cake - well they do say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach!