Hello!
First of all, we want to wish you a Very Happy Christmas, Solstice and a New Year filled with all kinds of wonderful experiences! May this year be a fresh start for many, and a year filled with lots of love and deep happiness 🙂 We’re definitely looking forward to the New Year and leaving this year behind us!
A year ago (which seems like yesterday), who could have imagined our year would pan out in the way it did! It has definitely been one of our toughest, and yet I am feeling very positive about the year to come (I know, I know, I felt the same last year!😂).
But however hard this last year was, it actually brought a lot of positives too. Markus’ surgery definitely forced us to change track. He is steadily getting so much better (in fact, he got over the initial horribleness amazingly quickly), and is now slowly, slowly putting his weight back on. He hasn’t the stamina or strength from before, meaning he is still unable to work, though.This has strengthened our resolve to put all our energies into our art. Let’s see how that goes!
A week after Markus’ surgery, the manager of our charity shop in Alton handed in her notice, so I’ve been having to deal with that and settling the new manager in on top of everything else, which has been quite a challenge.
Markus has been working on his ‘Pub Crawl’ series. Here’s one of them (he’s already made 8!):
‘The Clown’ Card Cut – in its hay-day it was apparently the backstage pub for the actors, as they couldn’t go into the main theatre pub in costume. 30cm x 40cm – £350, mounted and framed.
Meanwhile, I have been making a new website for us, which combines the three we had into one!! I Know!!!🤯 The website is called www.artstudiosthonett.com, which is then divided into three sections – Markus’, mine and our collab work – the icons. I’m sure there will be quite a few hiccoughs, so please do point them out to me if you come across any, ok?
I’m feeling quite chuffed that I managed it all with WordPress, which I’ve never used before, and it’s looking like I wanted it to – clean and unfussy 🙂 Big call out to Ellie@digitaloptics.co.uk who got me started, and helped me when I got stuck.
This is a wintery ‘Grace N’ Grit’ lady that I recently finished: 16″ x 12″, £350, framed. I also finished my first ever double Grace N’ Grit portrait! It will be showing in the upcoming exhibition (Jan/Feb) in Barnaby’s called ‘New Beginnings’. The opening will be on Sat afternoon on the10th Jan. I am taking over from Louise Whitham, by curating this Jan/Feb show, and then alternating with her for the rest of the year every two months, which will be fun! 🙂
I said earlier that I feel hopeful for the year to come. Call me mad, but I suppose I believe this as I have always seemed to miraculously land on my feet after horrible experiences. Both Markus and I always try to see what we can learn from what we go through. We believe the surgery was especially to get Markus away from doing his gardening and home maintenance work, which was wearing him out (we’re no longer spring chickens!)
So this year ahead is going to be art, art and more art – just as we have always dreamed of. We have already branched out into doing different things from usual, and you’ll hear more about that in the new year. 😁
This card-cut of the Stag by Markus, also from the ‘Pub Crawl’ series, shows a bit of the background story as shared by the owner. 12″ x 16″, £350, mounted and framed.
We’re going to be setting a challenge for all of you – artists and non artists – in the New Year, which is really exciting!!! I’ll tell you all about it in the next email 🙂 But for now, this is to wish you a Very Happy Christmas and that the New Year is one that is full of love, laughter and your dreams coming true! 🥰 Much Love Markus and Tessa xx
ArtstudiosThonett www.artstudiosthonett.com www.markusthonett.com www.tessathonett.com