Soft Belly, Strong Back

Am I now a horse girl?!

Hi lovely people,

Just me, checking in with some pretty standard ramblings, and a lil’ summary of the summer as we enter autumn (boo). I am a lover of autumn as a thing, the cosiness, the colours, the halloweeny aspect BUT the fact it means winter is next, no, just NO. It does seem to have appeared very suddenly. So what have I been up to?

As summer began to rush past I snuck in a trip to Pool Bridge Farm (aka the best wild swimming spot in Yorkshire) with some lovely pals, and made pals with this picnic duck.

Managed a trip finally to Chester Zoo where I spotted a gay elephant (or at least an ally, look at those flags) and beautiful snoozing Tamandua, who is my new favourite animal…

Apparently I like animals with long faces?! Speaking of which, there’s some new horse residents in the field behind my house - I've set up my camera to capture them (and have been feeding them wonky carrots whenever I’ve had a stressful day) The foal is beautiful, and I’ve named the grey horse Grandad, cus, grey.

She appears to be due to give birth anytime I think, you can even see the baby kicking (oof, hooves!) She is starting to look like one of those medieval drawings of a horse from the front..

I’m not exactly turning into a ‘horse girl’ but it’s definitely in-line with my passion for all things cowboy related, feels like my very own ranch? My actual previously bonafide ‘horse girl’ friend informs me Grandad is possibly an Appaloosa horse, with those spots…which led me down a rabbit-hole of looking at spotty horses on insta, like this one snapped by handatextiles over on slow_roads.

Anyway, also a big fan of this fella in the field with a lovely two-tone moustache! I’ll keep you updated on Grandad’s progress…

I rounded off my summer with some cracking live music - two nights seeing the wonderful The Magnetic Fields play their full 69 Love Songs album, in Manchester’s beautiful Albert Hall. Got some good wanderings in, went vintage shopping at the emporium of my former-mosher dreams - Afflecks Palace, and did some street art/ paste-ups spotting. I’m keeping my beady eye on street art at the moment and doing as much as research as possible, because I’ve got some exciting news in that area, will announce soon!

The next evening I saw New Zealand folk singer Nadia Reid play a tiny 30 or so capacity gig in Bishops House- a unique 15 Century tudor house in a park in Sheffield. It’s both a museum and a events space, and soooo atmospheric, highly recommend!

So, what other art have I been inspired by lately? A lot of pigeon based art apparently, because, well, they're great aren't they! Absolutely love this Japanese mother-of-pearl piece from 1880, wow.

Also really enjoyed this charming watercolour pidge by Yumi Kimura aka Yumk86 . Pigeons just have such universal appeal, well, to me they do, but I know lots of people (strangely) hate or fear them.

I heard there's a giant 16 foot pigeon sculpture coming to New York City, which frankly I would travel for - it’s going to be sat perched above the streets on the famous Highline, and Artist Iván Argote hopes the artwork, titled “Dinosaur,” will inspire “attraction, seduction and fear”.

Finally, still kinda on the pigeon theme, I love this tattooist I've discovered, Koblindeadman - thier gnomes are sublime. Would get a tattoo by them any day of the week, if they weren't so far away (Seoul).

In equally cute but slightly weird vibes, I really enjoyed this vintage ‘Saucy Shrimp’ poster from 1904, over on Prawn_cocktail. Impeccable. Those shoes.

Then the next day I then saw this post about this similarly wiggly guy, how adorable is the velvet worm? Please someone ask me to tattoo one. Please.

Anyway, finally, I was floored by this illustration by Winsorkinkade_ and the message in it. It feels very much how I want to be. Might tattoo these words on me…

Speaking of tattoos, I myself have done a few hand tattoos lately, and really enjoyed them! Especially this freehand marine piece for regular Jamie (which maybe I’ve shared before?!)

It’s given me more ideas for more hand based tattoos, and now I’m confident doing them, I’m suddenly seeing them everywhere. Look at this beauty by Bemuti_tattoos.

This also reminded me of these ceramic pieces by a_zama_ceramics. Pottery is defo back on my list for an autumn/winter pursuit.

So as the new ‘school term’ vibes kick in, I'm quite busy with lots of things - like I said, some mural news to come, making large-scale wooden bits for friends weddings, and finishing off the summers round of pet portraits (I’ll be doing another round of these for winter, news soon) But despite all this, and more, I’ve of course, like every freelancer, got the fear of a quiet winter period. I started re-reading The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry, to calm my mind:

Then, with the title of this book and it’s title poem in my mind, it was kinda funny the next day when I saw this misspelt sign for a pea frittata, and I chose to see it as a sign.

As a summer lover, rather than seeing the colder/darker period as a sadder time, I’m going to try and see it as a more peaceful time? I’ll try anyway. That, and consuming lots of soup. After all this potentially mystical, probably slightly too sincere attempt at sharing inspirational quotes, I’d like to offer one final one, which my friend alerted me to being printed on a charity shop hoodie. I bought it, of course. What does it mean? Noone knows. But it feels both LGBT+, and very me :)

I'll be back with news soon, in the meantime I’m taking tattoo bookings for October/ November, and always excited to hear your ideas: tattoos@nathues.com

‘Til then,be well, and remember soft belly, strong back, and, save the lady ocean!

Nat x