Too cold to go in the sea for me, but Gormley's statues are made of stronger stuff...

I was visiting a few New House customers in Merseyside yesterday, and Manhattan Blinds was my big surprise. I also found time to visit Antony Gormley's Other Place.

 

His amazing figures line the beach on plinths, and appear or disappear according to the tide :

 

A few heads were just popping up as the tide went down, but it was a chilly old day and the statues didn't appear to be wearing all that much. You'd have thought they'd be queuing-up at the local cafe for some hot soup? Yet there they were, doing their bit for British Art and braving the weather, hat's off to them.

My photos were not my best, so I've found a few better ones :

Painting by example

As a decorator I'm in the 'slow-movement' camp. I like to think about things long-and-hard before dipping brushes in the paint, but have been sitting on a left-over can of 'New House Grey' from one of our Top Drawer shows for over a year. Over Easter I finally got round to applying it to my kitchen wall.

I don't know how we arrived at this colour, but liked it as straight grey was too cold and blue too aquatic, while this clean cool blue-grey felt just right. We've been using it for years in our stationary and logos, so in 2011 we started painting our exhibition stands in it too.

After every exhibition there's a few inches left in the bottom of a can. There was still snow on the ground, no gardening to do, and I'd thought about it long enough....

The old colour was a battleship grey and looks ok in this pic, but was tired, gloomy and in need of refreshment.

The new colour :

 

I just need our handwriting expert Charlotte Farmer, to write some thought-provoking things on my wall now....