New paintings and regular art updates.
I’d got half my washing on the line, it’s a warm and breezy day so I thought I’d get it done. The flowers on the garden would add a beautiful floral scent.
Then, slump.. The line snapped. My airer is already full. What to do? I’ve hung tee shirts on the door handles. Towels on my step ladder, and on the towel rail in the bathroom, and since I won’t be going back outside in the heat, I even co-opted my grab handles by the back door. What was going to be a relaxing day turned into a taxing day!
We had to reinforce the scenery for the play because it’s only made of hardboard and it is stored in a shed leaning up against other props and developed an shape. The wood needs overpainting but I think I can sort it out. X
Oh well
Not selected
Does not mean bad
Or unsuitable?
People have to fit in
With the style
The colours
The motifs
Of an exhibition.
Anyway
I liked it X
What paint to use on scenery? It would be cheaper to use emulsion paint, but the tins are too big for the Mystery Play job as we only have a few pieces of scenery to paint, so I got out my trusty acrylic tubes. The palettes are a bit of a mess, but I have to admit I like peeling the paint off to see what the back of the paint looks like (shiny and smooth, multicoloured).
More to do, tired…
Turned a block built stone wall on the back of the cottage scenery into a creepy cave today…. With the help of three other people. It was so good to get help. I’m physically shattered and would have struggled for days to get this done. But with a little help and much appreciation it’s done. It needs a bit of wood to support it. By the way it reminds me of Cezanne in a way. X
Esther Chiltons weekly prompt of a limerick comes with a word to include. This week’s was to use the word “hack” somewhere in the poem.
This might make sense to American readers :
Don’t hack your Rose garden
Please give it a pardon
Let it thrive
And-Beehive
So plants grow, in your yard Don
How do you waste the most time every day?
Too much stuff to see
Glance, read, what was that?
View, like, heart,
Glance, worry, comment.
Distracting dopamine
Images, words, notes,
Got to stop, put it down
Doomscrolling
Not a good way of looking
At the world…
In the past I used to do 8 ft square boards of scenery for the Mystery plays, and I could paint rapidly. Now it’s taken me all my time just to do this and a few bits and bobs. I don’t have the strength in my arms so this was mainly painted with a small brush and instead of using a full sized board I have one that has an extra couple of bits stuck on. It has a hole because the back of it was already painted as a cave. It’s due to be a witches cottage I still try to be me.
Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?
My favourite biscuits when I was a child were custard creams, a layered sandwich of two biscuits with a creamy vanilla layer in the centre. You would twist them apart and lick off the filling, then dunk the biscuits in a cup of tea, carefully soaking them and eating them before they got too soggy and fell apart.
Sometimes mom would buy a crispy slightly oatier version with a lemony centre to it which would be eaten in the same way.
Just reading the prompt took me back to our living room, sitting at the dining table with a China cup and saucer and matching plate. Milk jug and teapot. The biscuits were eaten after heinz sandwich spread sandwiches on white bread.
I also remember the rusty orange settee and the wallpaper with tiny rosebuds and ribbons printed on it.
Dad bought home a wallpaper book once, full of swatches of paper patterns in various colours. So exciting to look at.
Someone reminded me what day it is today. Midsummers day. In the Northern Hemisphere it’s the longest day. I’m not sure but I think it’s the Shortest day in the Southern Hemisphere.
We have been singing “Summer is Icumen in” in choir. I usually sing the “foot” which is sung under the lyrics which are an example of middle english polyphony.
This is a set of lyrics from Wikipedia :
Middle English
Sumer is icumen in
Lhude sing cuccu
Groweþ sed
and bloweþ med
and springþ þe wde nu
Sing cuccu
Awe bleteþ after lomb
lhouþ after calue cu
Bulluc sterteþ
bucke uerteþ
murie sing cuccu
Cuccu cuccu
Wel singes þu cuccu
ne swik þu nauer nu
Sing cuccu nu • Sing cuccu.
Sing cuccu • Sing cuccu nu[9]
Modern English
Summer[a] has arrived,
Loudly sing, cuckoo!
The seed is growing
And the meadow is blooming,
And the wood is coming into leaf now,
Sing, cuckoo!
The ewe is bleating after her lamb,
The cow is lowing after her calf;
The bullock is prancing,
The billy-goat farting, [or “The stag cavorting”[11]]
Sing merrily, cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo,
You sing well, cuckoo,
Never stop now.
Sing, cuckoo, now; sing, cuckoo;
Sing, cuckoo; sing, cuckoo, now![12]
Mallaband-Brown