I wanted to show you something.

It’s a King Penguin Classic, and it seems that this edition is from 1956.

It was purchased by my sister when she was living in France, and given to me in memory of a time when we used to read this story together every Christmas under twinkling lights and with steaming cider.

But never mind, the point is, I’ve just finished reading it for the first time in years, and it suddenly occurred to me that it was Charles Dickens (particularly this book) that kindled a love for storytelling at a very young age. It started with A Christmas Carol, and moved on to David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickelby, A Tale of Two Cities and on and on. They sit on my shelves looking very worn and loved.

And sitting with them, is this edition with original illustrations by John Leech.

**Charles Dickens bi-centenary is coming up February 7th, 2012**

]]> http://strawberrysnail.com/2011/12/a-love-for-books-pictures-started-here/feed/ 2 http://strawberrysnail.com/2011/10/where-are-you-reading/ http://strawberrysnail.com/2011/10/where-are-you-reading/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:46:18 +0000 admin http://therese.neelands.net/?p=1821

©Therese Neelands 2011 watercolour, ink on paper

So excited to be packing up some Strawberry Snail cards

to send to Backbeat Books, Music & Gifts in Perth!

Check them out here and follow them on Twitter because they always have cool things going on, like their recent reading with Zoe Whittall, Carolyn Smart, and Tanis Rideout.

And speaking of Twitter, yipes, I recently joined up!

You can also find Strawberry Snail cards in Toronto, at Re: Reading on the Danforth, at Greenley’s Bookstore in Belleville, and on Etsy.

]]> http://strawberrysnail.com/2011/10/backbeat-books/feed/ 1 http://strawberrysnail.com/2011/10/genius-right-here/ http://strawberrysnail.com/2011/10/genius-right-here/#comments Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:59:06 +0000 admin http://therese.neelands.net/?p=1799

Before I pick up a paintbrush, this is what I look at. Always.

Have you seen these books? His handling of light and shadow,

his brilliant use of empty space,

brilliant ability to edit,

to tell a story in the simplest of ways,

and tug, tug, tug at your heart.

Oliver Jeffers.

watercolour, ink on paper 2011 © Therese Neelands

Hello. It’s been awhile.

And it’s been a struggle to keep up with everyday,

wanting to do this and that,

and never having enough time.

There’s that struggle and desire

for perfection every day,

and then you see something that surpasses

what you thought was “perfect”…

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

Mamma mia.

I stood in front of Martha and Mary Magdelene for several half hour intervals.

Until the guards started to smile at me. (A feat)

I actually had wells of water in my eyes.

I have always loved Caravaggio. In fact, on my last trip to Malta (where two are housed in Valletta), my dad bought me an amazing present. The most gigantic and sexiest book on the complete works of Caravaggio. I carried it to Sicily and trekked it all around there and back to Canada. I actually keep it under my bed, to keep it pristine, because everything around here gets covered in paint. Every now and again, I peek under my bed and drag my precious out from under it and caress its pages.

It is very expensive.

And so my father bought me this book, and my father-in-law put me on a train recently to Ottawa to see the exhibition Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome. It closes on September 11th. And so my post is late. (blah-blah-struggle-wanting to do this and that-not enough time)

Have a lovely weekend.

We had pancakes for breakfast,

oat ones, that taste wonderfully nutty. With fresh raspberries sopping and piled in between and lots of maple syrup. And coffee.

We sat outside on the deck and I asked A what he thought was more powerful––a book or a painting.

I have been thinking of this lately, sometimes painting seems futile and passive

and how much some novels have had an effect on me.

And feeling sort of sad if paintings have not been as profound for me as books.

I still don’t know the answer. Who cares?

Dear Alice Munro,

I thought I hated your books

although I only ever read one––

Dance of The Happy Shades. I was probably about 15,

and I read it only because my sister had two copies

and I thought I had to like you because you are Alice Munro,

and I thought I had to like Alice Munro or I couldn’t consider myself a literary person.

I didn’t understand Dance of The Happy Shades, but I did understand

Margaret Atwood, whose books I read voraciously,

whose books I held privately, like they were written only for me.

It astounds me that all these years I’ve avoided you on purpose,

and picked you up accidentily, because you were there in a pinch

when I needed something at the cottage,

your 25 cent 1975 edition paperback,

with the Cosmopolitan blurb on the front, that for some reason or another, I find offensive.

Your authenticity is astounding, how you are able to pin down something so abstract and intangible as experience,

to write Truth, to leave ego aside,

to only write for the story, nothing else, not for yourself,

or for CanLit, or anybody you know,

not for the voices in your head but for the story that is somewhere deeper than any of those things,

to be able to reach down into where ever the depths it comes from, to uncover it, choose words for it,

stay true to it, it is a very rare and marvellous thing.

One Bird's Choice, Iain Reid

Last night I went to Sneaky Dee’s for Anansi’s Winter Warm-Up to listen to 4 really great authors read. Really, to listen to Iain Reid read. Except that I totally missed him having arrived late. He had just gotten off stage. Can you believe it? I’d only been working myself up to this all week, totally embarrassingly nerdy excited.

As soon as I walked in, I saw this knitted sweater and I knew it was him.

I bought Zoe Whittall’s book “Holding Still For As Long As possible” because I really enjoyed some very poignant pieces in her reading. And I totally love the book design.

The peeps at Anansi are totally awesome and warm and comfortable and great, and I hope they make Sneaky Dee’s their regular Sneaky Anansi Warm-Up Reading night.

So everything’s cool, why did I wait until 3 beers later and everyone Anansi Winter Warm-Up related had left and a metal band had started playing really loudly until I finally got up the courage to introduce myself? Because I am a total high school kind of girl nerd.

Even if he knows my sister, and is super kind and nice and comfortable and normal and would totally not bite my head off.

Anyway, after a lot of screaming and shouting “What?”s over metal music, he signed my book. Which was already signed. Which was a surprise to me. I forgot I bought it at Chapters and by fluke, they had a signed copy. So there you see it, double signed, by Iain Reid, whom yes, I have a slight crush.

One Bird's Choice, doubly signed, by Iain Reid

I make oil paintings because I have a passion for the paint – I love the mess and slurry of oils, at times the smell can bring me to tears for the love of it. I love looking at oil paintings and am prone to standing in front of a good painting with my feet like roots and nothing/nobody can drag me away. I want to see how other artists do it, what makes them excited, floats their boat and if it’s a good painting I like to see that excitement and love and intention right there in the brushwork and that to me is a good painting.