Dear Lizzie, (15 May ‘26)

Dear Lizzie

I’m sitting in a Pret a Manger in Bloomsbury, I have a large strong coffee and a free croissant they gave me because the end had fallen off. I’ve never sat in a café with a computer before, my notebook with scratchy notes to you next to my coffee, so easily distracted by people watching, I feel very grown up.

I boarded a flight to Berlin three days ago and I loved that the last message I saw before take-off was from you, a photo of B wearing one of your hand-knits, I loved that moment when my girls wanted to wear my clothes, it didn’t last long, but the other day H asked me if I’d make her a shawl and I can’t wait to start.

Berlin felt like arriving somewhere after an incredibly long journey. I don’t just mean from home, but more from the hours in my shed, the hot summer days inside drawing in my sketchbook under the aircon, prepping boards, those first thoughts, marks, uncertainty, fear, all the imposter syndrome moments, hours lying awake at night worrying about finishing. I seriously never think it will all come together when I start a body of work, but somehow it does and when I stood outside the gallery the other evening, on my own ( because I just needed that moment), I did think about all of those things and then I was there and I couldn’t believe the work had been in my little shed in Kensington and now here it was, and I thought it looked really beautiful, and that’s a hard thing for an artist to admit but I did. The show officially opens in a few days, I’m not sure how it will go, I’m trying really really hard to focus on the fact that I’m here rather than sales.

Stacey McCall “Things I Love to Paint” 14 May to 6 June 2026

On the plane yesterday as I drifted off to sleep, I had a sensation of being in my kitchen, it felt cosy, one of my girls was talking to me, oh I love those reminders of home, then I realised I was smiling.

I have been collecting sketchbooks along the way and now think I may have to ship a box home. I bought a sketchbook from a beautiful art shop near where I’m staying, L.Corneissen and Son, the Hahnemuhle watercolour book with the rounded corners. I’m sure you can get them at home but I didn’t have one and had booked into a workshop at the Royal Watercolour Society. It’s beautiful paper, not too toothy, I’ll send a photo. The workshop was wonderful, The Landscape after Hockney. Lots of reminders of things you taught in your class, I’m always so hesitant to use too much water but funnily enough, with watercolours, it’s quite essential!

Ok, this letter is getting long but I have to mention Matisse in Paris. We had two nights in Paris on our way to visit my eldest daughter who is living down on the coast. I had arrived very late the night before and because I only had one day, I got up very early and went out walking and drawing and walking. And walking. By the time I got to the Grande Palais my feet were aching, I had to have a sit down in a park and take two Panadol but then I was good and in I went. It was breathtaking (and extremely crowded), but oh goodness, there were still lives I’d never seen that were just so beautiful, so inspiring, so compositional perfect, shapes so deliberate but imperfect and perfect all at once. The translucency of brush marks, the drawn lines, everything, it was truly magnificent, of course, how else can I describe Matisse.

I was feeling a bit frustrated by my lack of painting, I don’t have the space or objects to paint in the apartment, I’ve mostly been sitting in parks drawing foliage. So glad you are reading Sally Mann and sending me that passage about the importance to take time away from your practice and just see things. I put so much pressure on myself to be constantly recording and thinking about future work. Thank you for the reminder to just look and enjoy. I saw a Mary Fedden painting the other day, I cried, I love her work and there it was as I turned a corner in a gallery in Chichester. When I got home, I started painting objects in the kitchen “after” Mary Fedden but my little pages looked too busy and too colourful and not me at all and it occurred to me that I need to stay in my own lane, paint how I want to paint, get better at that but don’t feel like I have to “note take’ every time I see painting I love.

The coffee has kicked in, I’m heading to the Tate Modern today, there is a Tracey Emin exhibition. I saw the most beautiful little bird sculpture of hers the other day, way up high on a very tall pole, it was so beautiful. I know there won’t be too many little sweet birds though will there.

I am loving Deborah levy’s new book, My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein. Her interview on the Great Women Artist podcast is wonderful, I love her voice, her words, her face.

The sun is out, I’m heading off, I’m missing your kitchen table.

X

Stacey