On Your Desk

We have one last Desktop for today. This one belongs to my friend and neighbor Rima Staines, an artist and writer and accordion player and animator and book-binder and half a dozen other things besides. She lives in a tiny medieval house on the other side of the village square with paints and books and a poet and a hound, and makes marvels in that gorgeous little space. In this series of photos, we wind ever closer to the works in progress on Rima's crowded desk.

She says: "This is my painting desk, a narrow dressing table actually, with six drawers full of papers and sketchbooks and pencils and tools, that has moved with me from house to house, even when the house had wheels. I work in our little living room, with one end of the room taken over by work space. Right next to the desk is another table for working on larger paintings, and the whole area is rather cluttered with stuff - rolls of paper, baskets of oil paints, jars of brushes and tools. I look out onto the old thatched Bishop's house opposite (and today over people dragging sledges past in the snow!), and surround myself with interesting objects and inspiring images to feed the work....

"For me creating a space is a kind of magic, and there's something particular about working in your home, which I've always done due to having a small amount of space. Though I enjoy a certain amount of Aladdin clutter, when it reaches 'mess' levels I must tidy, or at least rearrange and make a little space before I can paint again. On my desk right now is a new watercolour painting of my favourite Russian folk tale character, Baba Yaga, due to be included in a book about her being published in the US next year."