New paintings and regular art updates.
Just painted a volcano, possibly Fuji, I did this today, at a painting on copper workshop. The copper sheet is glued to a foam board backing. I used metallic acrylics. But the paint broke up into cells on the surface This allowed the copper to show through. It was hard to get it to spread but it made for an interesting textured effect. I used paintbrushes, rollers and palette knives. When you try and take a photo you can see lots of reflections. I’m quite pleased with the outcome.
Imagine meeting this on a dark night. It was bought up to our writing group for last year’s Halloween. Did we write creepy stories? Not really, more ghostly ones.
It’s interesting as a group to have prompts, you don’t know the random ideas that get thrown around. We all have very different styles and so we come up with stories that have contrasting ideas. Life has given us all different experiences, and it’s great to grab from those playbooks.
By the way, the spider got put away for next year,
I asked this on Threads and mentioned my favourites. The Chrysalids, the Day of the Triffids the Midwich Cuckoos, Chocky, The Trouble with Lichen and the Kraken Wakes were the ones I read.
I know he wrote other short stories, and some of the main novels were turned into films, but they never quite came up to the standards of the original books. Some of them were turned into TV series too.
Reading Wyndham got me into science fiction and I found I loved others too, like Issac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Anne McCaffrey, and Ursula K LeGuin.
Wyndhams style could be chilling, he sets up situations that can trap people and his descriptions are sometimes very macabre. I had the pleasure of reading them in the 1970s, once I’d read one I had to read more.
Lose one cat and another one gets more friendly, wants more attention. The trouble is this one comes and sleeps on my thighs or on my bladder in the morning! It’s very difficult as I wake up…. It makes for uncomfortable feelings. Cramp and aches and well… Desperation!
But I’m so glad to have her here, she and her brother are still here to have them. My memories of all of them are a great comfort.
My Christmas cactuses have finally bloomed in February. The could almost be described as Easter Cactii. The whole windowsill is covered with the. Probably not the best idea if I over water them. I also have orchids. On another sill, but they afe going brown and crispy. I nerd to remember to water them.
When I got up this morning there was a letter on the mat. I opened it and it was a sympathy card from the vets who had treated my poorly cat a couple of weeks ago, and eventually had to put him to sleep.
It was so kind, they said they could see we had a close bond and that I cared very much for my cat. I am so sad but proud that they felt this and had taken the time to write to me. I will treasure his pawprint forever.
Yes, many years ago, in the 80s, I won an award for something I designed. It was a recruitment poster. I don’t think anything was done about actually using it. It’s probably stuck on top of an old cupboard somewhere? But for a short while I had the frisson of winning something.
I don’t think my name was even engraved on the shield, I think the place I was studying didn’t think a poster was serious enough. Not proper research, which is why I’m not going into detail. But for a while it was firmly on my CV.
Look into the crystal ball
See what you can see?
Is it a reflection
or is it really me?
Trapped in time and hidden
Never to grow old
A portrait is an instant
In time, no longer told.
Memory of power
Ability to do
But time just gets slower
A reminder of you.
Winter is fading but my aches and pains aren’t. Constant use of my left shoulder seems to have aggravated it. I’m used to getting in and out of cars on the right hand side, but since I had to scrap my car I’ve had to use the passenger side more.
Today was bad, just lifting my left arm is difficult. I think I need to get some physiotherapy. I will book an appointment with the doctor next week. I might sleep in my chair tonight because I’m finding it incredibly hard to get comfortable when I lie down.
Life, you don’t realise how painful it can be…..
I went to art group for the first time in weeks and picked up a small, 6×4 in canvas.
I haven’t done a painting for ages, my Parkinsons is bad and looking close up is difficult because although I’m cataract free, they also cured my short sightedness and I find it hard to focus on close objects, basically closer than about a foot things get blurred. I need to get some ordinary reading glasses because the ones I’ve got are too strong.
Then I saw a tiny, gold painted, plastic Buddha. Of all the things that I could choose to paint, this seemed like the right karma. The brushes were a bit rough and not easily pointed. It was hard to see the details, but in about an hour I managed to paint him. The best thing? Someone in the group said they really liked it. So I gave it them.
In other news, I know I haven’t been here much lately. I miss my cat so much. It’s another loss I’m struggling to come to terms with. Love to you all.
Mallaband-Brown