Face mask

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I think I painted this self portrait in the early 1980’s. It’s disconcerting seeing my younger self. I used to like to hide my face away sometimes and the green face mask was fun to paint, although I remember it cracking as I painted! I did two versions as a friend bought one of them from a little exhibition I held. The other one has red and white earrings if I remember.

I know this was painted in oils on a homemade canvas. I think it was probably about 1ft square. The background was the pink wall in our room. The picture behind me was of a train by Cuneo. (not sure of the spelling). It was a print my mother got my hubby as he loves trains. I think I wore the red beret and yellow jumper to create some contrast to the green mask.

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The moon tonight

Two images taken with the phone on my camera tonight. I took both on the manual setting on the camera as the auto choice was over exposing it. I altered the exposure so that the sky appears darker and the moon is more defined. I didn’t know how to do it. I just clicked on the tools and messed about with it. (This was the last time I took a photo of the moon and I haven’t altered the settings since).

I also had to zoom in x 5 to get a big enough image to see the moon. Then I cropped it to enlarge it. In all of that I was expecting some camera shake but its not too bad. I leant my elbow on a large glass jar on the kitchen cupboard to try and make my image steadier and I also held my breath.

 

They want me to use wordpress editor?

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I’m an old fuddy duddy, I do things how I like to.

I try and make original paintings and write as spontaneously as I can here.

I’m getting pretty nervous of the new editor. Yes I could try it but what happens if I like this one? Will they switch it off. I’ve invested a lot of time in WordPress and I hope my blog isn’t too boring. It would be a real pain to learn it all again. I’ve got enough on my plate without having to be doing with it .

I’m getting old and cermudgenley. I’m also trying to confuse spell checker with old words!

Goodnight one and all . X

Pop art.

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I’m playing with images again. These are vaguely based on Andy Warhol pictures in a cartoon form.

I’m reading about pop art, artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney and particularly Andy Warhol. But there were others. Females. That have been lost in the 1960’s without the recognition they deserve. One such artist was an American nun.

From Wikipedia: “Corita Kent, born Frances Elizabeth Kent and also known as Sister Mary Corita Kent, was an American Roman Catholic religious sister, artist, designer and educator. Key themes in her work included Christianity, and social justice. She was also a teacher at the Immaculate Heart College.
Sister Corita Kent’s primary medium was silk screen, also known as Serigraphy. [4]She became self-taught after she sent away for a DIY silk screening kit.[5] Her innovative methods pushed back the limitations of two-dimensional mediums of the times. Kent’s emphasis on printing was partially due to her wish for democratic outreach, as she wished for affordable art for the masses.[6] Her artwork, with its messages of love and peace, was particularly popular during the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s.[7] After a cancer diagnosis in the early 1970s, she entered an extremely prolific period in her career, including the Rainbow Swash design on the LNG storage tank in Boston, and the 1985 version of the United States Postal Service‘s special Love stamp.[8] ”

If you look at her images they are very colourful sometimes using letters in various fonts. They are beautiful and interesting. Her artistic ability was wonderful and she should be recognised.

Busy typing gibberish

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I’m trying to type up my weekly journal for a college course I’ve started. I need critical thinking, but I don’t think I have the gene for it! My head hurts and I can’t get my head round the concept of signs and signifiers? So many different ideas, thoughts and things to consider.

So I’m taking it slowly, trying to dip my toe in after thirty or forty years doing other things. So if I’m missing from here please understand its because I have my head stuck in the vice of education and I’m hoping to love it!

I saw a face

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I saw a face,

I blocked out some of the photo, and added some lines to the result in a sympathetic green colour. The blue mecanopsis flowers form stunning eyes, the concave petals give it depth. The dark purple makes the mouth and upper lips. It’s a almost insect like, perhaps like the head of a dragonfly? I can see antennae on it. It’s something I enjoy doing, playing with images.

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Tribute to Monet

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I’m one of twelve artists from the Orme Art group who did this picture of Monets Poppies at Argenteuil. Mines the middle one on the left. I used permanent markers and coloured pencil. Others used paints including acrylic and watercolours. It’s good to collaborate.

What I like about this is the different styles and colours. It sort of brings a modern feel to a classic painting.

We have a large field nearby that has a similar aspect, on a slope and edged with trees and hedges. The area is under threat of development although it is quite an ancient piece of farmland. I hope it can be saved. Its called the Croft and its beautiful.
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Poor minnows…

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Oh dear! My hubbies minnows have been disappearing from the pond. He only put them on a couple of weeks ago. And there only seem to be three left.. There were six. The other thing he saw tonight was a large frog..

So I decided to Google ‘Do frogs eat minnows?’, the answer came back..

. Frogs living in captive setting will eat guppies, minnows and goldfish, provided the prey can be caught and is smaller than the predator. Frogs prefer live fish. Many frogs catch the fish they eat by quickly rolling their sticky tongues to capture the prey and then swallow the fish whole.

Er, we didn’t know that. I’m worried now that the rest will go. Hubbies going to try and rescue them, but I dug the pond four feet deep! How we deal with it I don’t know… We want a wildlife garden…

My odd collections

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Recently I’ve acquired a lot of hats, which is odd really because I’m not a ‘hat’ person. I get them if it’s a sunny day and I need shade. Then I forget about them. I now have one on the back seat of my car.

There are so many hats for so many uses. We have a climbing or caving hat. My hubby has two flat cats, a trilby and I bought him a deerstalker for winter (keeps his ears warm). I have a couple of trilby’s someone was getting rid of. I decided to take them. Then two straw hats, and a blue crotched one with a wire to stiffen the brim. The trouble with the ones with wire in is that it can get bent. In one case the wire snapped and the brim of it became very floppy. I ended up throwing it away. I’ve never had a baseball cap and never want to.

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