New paintings and regular art updates.
Just when I think the plants can’t get bigger we get torrential rain and they grow! And it’s hot, they are happy.
I think our back yard is full. The hanging baskets are pulling the old fence down. But I turn round and my hubby has snuck an Ash tree in! I love it. I hope some of it survives into the autumn. I will continue to post pictures as it grows.
We even had three ripe blueberries today.
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My morning glory plants are doing well. Not flowering yet though. They are in lots of places, but I particularly like the ones in this ceramic head I made years ago. It’s survived for about twenty or thirty years as has the female one further on up the yard… I’m not sure what colours will be on the plant. Looking forward to it.
Apologies, I stole this from Facebook. It amused me so much I had to share… My friend rescued a baby pigeon from the canal a few months ago. It had apparently fallen in. She took it home and dried it and gave it somewhere warm and dark to recover. Then she had to find out what to feed it on, (pigeons feed their squabs something called pigeon milk before they go onto solids). It grew and she called it Keith.
If flew round the kitchen to start with, then was let outside, it stayed close by and in a rabbit hutch for a few days until it had grown up. Finally it flew away.
Take care and keep safe Keith. Coo…
This popped up on my Facebook memories today, it’s a mural I painted on lining paper on the wall in the Arnold Bennett suite at the Leopard Hotel, in Burslem, Stoke on Trent. It’s about 13 or 14 years since I painted it. It’s based on the Burslem Riot which happened at the same time as other riots were happening in the country about how people were being treated. I think it was organised by the chartists in 1843 (when they were trying to get the vote if I remember right). The riot act was read to disperse the crowd. A man called Josiah Heapy was shot dead by the troops and is remembered as a victim of oppression by the local elite. The main characters in the ainting were all based on people I knew.
Colour is my friend,
It holds my hand
Shines from my eyes
Visits my dreams.
Colours tickle my taste buds,
Get up my nose,
Flirts with my senses.
Colours touch my heart,
Play with my mind,
Cures my blues.
Colours are in me
Around me
Through me.
Are me!
Our discussion today was about Levi-Strauss the anthropologist and his discussion about how food can be an analogy for life.
I found it hard to follow, Raw was the raw ingredients, before things are transformed by cooking. Then he discusses how cooking by boiling is somehow female, while roasting is male? Then raw can go to cooking, then rotten or directly to rotten. We discussed the paths we are taking as artists on this course. Have we gone from raw and unformed to cooked, and do failures in ideas indicate rotten. We also had to read from Richard Sennett’s book ‘The Craftsman’ which helped to explain the ideas.
Someone suggested pickling or fermentation as other outcomes. I have been an artist for so long I don’t know if I’ve changed that much? Possibly, as they say practice makes perfect.
Just a little picture of my world at the moment.
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WordPress is changing. They are going over to block editor. Those that, like me, like using the simple classic editor can choose ‘classic block’ whatever that means. Apparently you have to choose it as an option. Now I can share my favourite podcast (I don’t have one and I’ve never heard one). Not all of us are technically minded. WordPress should be easier to use. Not harder. It’s like you learn a language only to be told there will be no vowels (vwls) from nw n. Ts sy whn y knw hw…… I saw a post about it in WordPress reader and replied :
Why? How? I’m not technical. I pay for this service. I’ve tried block editor, its horrible. I don’t understand it. Lots of us on here feel the same way. I feel we are not even considered let alone listened to.
Will anyone bother to listen, or are we, like classic editor, obsolete?
Dare you? Sometimes when a cat rolls over and shows you it’s belly it’s being friendly, and sometimes not. Beware if you reach your hand over. You can be grabbed by the front paws and kicked by the cats back legs, and don’t forget the teeth! major damage can ensue. I’m not saying disaster will happen but its worth watching for twitching tail and grabbing paws with claws out. If you don’t you can end up at the sharp end of your cat!
Since urban sketchers challenge today was shadow, I could have drawn something like this. But we are not allowed to work from photos. Also the image needs to be in context, so not just the glass and table, but the surroundings. It makes for more difficult art, you have to think about what you are including. There are Facebook pages you can join and a monthly magazine that shows urban sketching from around the world.
This years annual urban sketchers meet up was cancelled because of the virus. It would have been in Leeds. Hopefully it will happen next year.
The pears are growing big on the tree and starting to weigh the crown down. Soon they will be ripe. I hope they are ready before their weight snaps the tree! At the moment it’s held up with a block of wood.
Gardening is learning. Finding out how to support plants when they need it. I’ve been told the tree has black spot, but it survives. And is covered in pears.
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