The Josie Baggley Company

Friday 6 November 2009

A little Story





Painting by Johanna Spinks









As some of you may already know I used to live in France. To cut a long story short I returned home to my city of Dublin about a year ago. I love being home. I have not once thought about moving again, not for an instant. I feel that I have gained this permanent root that was always there yes but only truly felt & appreciated and lived after I had left it to live in other parts of the world. I loved living in London also . My daughter was born there. But France namely Dinan was a wonderful place to live & to experience. Anyway, I lived in a little 'nest' over there. I called it a nset because it reminded me of a bird's cosy nest high & safe on top of a tree. A Pink House Top. It is medieval & adorable although tiny in size it's huge in character. Original shutters & beams etc. Dinan is an arty place packed full with artisans & appreciations. It is a small city built within medieval castle walls. My little pink house is also within the ramparts.

Through blogging I met a wonderful person. An artist. A classical portraiture artist. Highly regarded as a master of her art. She has been featured in The New York Times & one of her many affiliations is CA State Abassador to The Portrait Society of America . Johanna Spinks.


Johanna had commented on my post about Dinan. On my post I had loaded up a pic of the pink house. She told me that she was from California & that she was about to travel to France -to Dinan! She was invited there by Les Amis de la Grande Vigne to stay in an artists' dwelling to paint to her heart's content & then to have one of her paintings chosen to be added to the gallery wall. I'm not surprised as she has that old masters' style ,rich in depth . She really gets to know a face prior to & during painting and has the ability to paint a person's 'being'. She has told me that she is a 'slow' painter. And evidently that is the way it SHOULD be as in reality it IS slow to get to know a person & her paintings show this clearly. As I followed her blog it was as though I was there! It was a funny read , a charming read and at times a little sad especially when she kissed her Husband goodbye after the first week there (I'm not telling you any more -visit her blog!) I knew the streets & buildings that she painted & understood her frustrations and delights. We emailed during her time there & then on one blog she mentioned that the only thing she wished to paint (at that time during her four week stay) was my little pink house! Then she emailed me again & when I opened the attachment there it was- a perfect painting of My Little Pink House! . WOW !How cool is that? I was- I AM chuffed! I squealed with delight lifting up my laptop to show whoever was there! She KNEW I'd feel like that too! Imagine-she saw my house from America on my blog,flew to France and sat in front of it whilst she painted it & whilst I was in Ireland!! Anyway her blogging for that period has been compressed into one jam packed well written engaging post. You'll enjoy I'm sure. So here is the painting of my Little Pink House by Johanna Spinks.

Thankyou Johanna x



14 comments:

Kori said...

Love this post! Beautiful house and pics! Thanks for the comments on Victoria honey. It's always nice to get the other side! Have a fantastic weekend. Kori xoxo

Such a Wondrous Place this Faery Space said...

Good heavens darling! What a wondrous thing! I know this must have been such a delight!!! Great place,by the way!
Your muses are just watching you settle in. They will come whispering so soon, just invite them to come sit with you and all will be well. Thanks for the lovely visit! Blessings dear one and take care.

Maggi said...

Wow, what an honor! That is so exciting and that painting is beautiful!

mermaiden said...

you are a slice of Enchantedcake, aren't you? a friggin' petal pink house in a medieval village in France. yep, you're the real deal.

Deirdra Doan said...

What a lovely place and great painting! Did you say were in France your home is? We stayed at a little place we rented in Honfluer once. So much fun.

I am in the middle of booking a tour to Europe and UK for John..www.johndoan.com this May and June. Maybe you have some idea's for us to play? We would love to come to Ireland again and play. It is always expensive to have to rent your way through Europe. But if we get gigs it helps.

Once we stayed in a little cottage in the Aaran Islands at the end of the road. A nice man let us stay there. It was romantic but way too too primitive No shower, cold and leeks, thought I could paint but I spent all my time staying warm and cleaning!

Thank you so much for your visiting me!

I pray your muse comes and stays...
Love,
Deirdra

Unknown said...

wow RAiney This is a great story. And we thought all we would find on the internet were freaks and perverts years ago. All I have found are all of these wonderful woman from all over the world that I love!!! You have such a great talent and blog and store and.........x0x0Pink

Jo Archer said...

How wonderful, and what a beautiful painting. Do you know Rainey, you always remind me of Vianne Rocher from Joanne Harris' book, Chocolat!

Rainey J. Dillon said...

Thanks for all your lovely words ladies. You are all truly interseting funny kind arty wonders& I so enjoy reading your blogs!I feel a though I'm really gettting to know you all now!
Believe it or not Jo, when I had my shop the Chocolat Theme music would be playing constantly & the shop had that oldy worldy feeling to it as Jim made the counter & display units etc & I had old French wallpaper on the walls.Maybe I'll do a post about that time in my life .

Jo Archer said...

See, I knew it! I love her books, they are so evocative. Have you read the sequel to Chocolat, The Lollipop Shoes?

julietk said...

What a lovely thing to have happened, it is a sweet house and the painting is beautiful.

Abi said...

Wow! what a beautiful home you have - and now a fabulous painting to go with. Thanks for sharing :O)

Marian Fortunati said...

Hi Josie..
What a treat to "meet" someone online and connect in that way. I know Johanna as a teacher and now as a friend and love her dearly...
Maybe one of these days you two will meet in person here, there or somewhere else... but until then you're connected by shared locations, the internet and the lovely pink house!!

GREAT post!! Thanks!!

Johanna Spinks said...

Hi Josie. I just re-read this post and all the nice comments which I didn't see before. It brought a tear to my eye. Thank you, thank you for the lovely post, and the journey of a new friendship..wow..

Johanna Spinks said...

Hi Josie. I just re-read this post and all the nice comments which I didn't see before. It brought a tear to my eye. Thank you, thank you for the lovely post, and the journey of a new friendship..wow..