New paintings and regular art updates.
Narrow boat painted on the car park of Westend village in Stoke. It’s on the route of the Newcastle branch of the Trent and Mersey canal that used to run alongside London Road. This photo was taken from the hump in the road in Corporation Street that used to be a canal bridge. I hope they repaint it! It’s much more faded than this but I’ve upped the contrast and saturation because it’s really dull and the paint has peeled off.
How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?
When someone close dies you realise how fragile life is. They can be there one day and gone the next. You then realise the same can be the situation for yourself.
I’m changing my perspective on life, I am not so blasé about it. It’s become precious to me and I want to hold on to it with both hands. I’m not exactly scared of dying, but life is far too interesting to give up on it yet. I’m a very stubborn person and I love a lot of people. They have helped me immensely in the last few months and I owe a lot to them.
I also want to try and enjoy art again. There must be something more I can do. There are lots of ideas in my mind that I would like to get out. I can’t control everything, and sometimes I am very anxious about things, I feel like I am a bit of a recluse now. Easier to hide. But I need to challenge myself and live.
This is a potbank shaped planter I bought from a company called project 2000 and that I hand painted a couple of years ago. I varnished it with yatch varnish and it has stayed in good condition. It has a small space at the top and I will try and grow either geraniums or pelargoniums in the top. Or maybe nasturtiums later in the year. I want to start preparing the yard and garden. I can’t just ignore it but we might get a bit of snow later this week The design is based on a local pottery symbol nearby. I think it was called the falcon works.
Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.
I promise myself
To get rid of clutter
But it piles up
More comes through the door
And more and more
Not neat and tidy
Not filed in folders
But piled in boxes
On cupboards
On a chair
On the sofa
In bags.
Oh heavens
Will I ever declutter?
What’s your favorite thing to cook?
I like cooking curries from scratch. I’m no expert though so I just make it up as I go along. I like vegetable curry so I’ll use butternut squash as a basic ingredient.
You have to take off the skin and deseed the squash. Then chop it into cubes. Meanwhile I put some oil in a pan and gently fry my spices. Mild curry powder, some crushed garlic, a bit of chilli (dried or powdered) and a bit of cinnamon or garam masala to give the curry a richer flavour. Sometimes I add this later so the taste is more noticeable.
Then I sautée (add a small amount of water to the oil) some chopped onion in the curry mix together with the squash. This takes a while to soften so I cook it on a low heat with a lid on.
As it softens I add other vegetables, like pak choi, mushrooms, beans, a bit of broccoli or some cabbage. I might add some potato chopped up. I keep an eye on the water content so it doesn’t dry out. I will also add tinned tomatos or tomato paste. As I say I just add in what is available at the time.
Before it’s fully cooked I usually do a small amount of boiled rice (brown or white) and serve the curry and rice with plain yoghurt.
I hope this makes sense, it’s not a recipe as such.
I always season with salt at the end, I don’t cook with it, as it gets absorbed into the food, and you can’t taste it as much but it can raise your blood pressure.
Write about your first computer.
My experience of computers was non existent when I was at college in the ’80’s. I went to an exhibition in a gallery and I remember being faced with a screen that said type ‘hello world!’ Or something similar and you would get a nice surprise.. So I typed:
Hello world
Nothing happened
I typed:
Hello world
Hello world
Hello world…
Over and over, the instructions soon disappeared off the top of the screen. I was frustrated, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to get back to the start. I didn’t know how to scroll back up the screen.
I gave up. Nowhere in the instructions did it say ‘press the enter key’!
It took me a few years before I bothered with a computer again.
My landline stopped working a few months ago, no matter what I did I couldn’t delete the saved messages and calls. It just said another handset was in use (I don’t have one?).
I had been to the local store to see if they had a similar device, but there was too much choice and I didn’t know what would work as none seemed to have the features I wanted.
Then this morning an alarm went off across the road. This usually signifies a power failure. But my landline phone beeped… I investigated. It said it was synchronising, when it stopped I checked and I could delete everything, calls and answerphone logs. It no longer says Full. I tried ringing it. For the first time in months it rang. Now all I need to do is make sure the memory doesn’t get full. And now I just need to reset the clocks on my stove and alarm clock!
Started this acrylic on canvas today. It’s from a photo of Westport Lake I took at the weekend, it’s about 9 inches by 6. Or maybe a bit bigger? I want to do more to the trees and undergrowth. I’ve got some metallic bronze to give a watery reflective effect. I like the empty bench, it feels lonely and reflective.
Five or six years ago our choir learnt ” I walk to Jo-berg” to sing at a choir festival. It’s a good song, full of different sounds, English and Afrikaans words. Someone in the choir requested that we learn it again.
Not all the old choir members are still with us, but within minutes we knew what bits to sing. WE WERE SINGING JAZZ TUNES we hadn’t sung in years. It was fascinating how we could recollect it. You scratch your head and think I’ll never remember that, and then it’s coming out of your mouth without you having to struggle! We were singing in four part harmony and building up sections. We had a great time and we really enjoyed it.
Recent studies have shown that learning a new musical instrument or learning to sing can improve mental acuity and memory. And it’s fun!
I’ve lost my favourite purse. Small and soft material, I’ve had it for years, it was getting scruffy but I loved it. I think I must have pulled it out of my pocket yesterday when I was out for a walk. I know I took money out to pay for something, but stuffed it back in because my friend paid. Then it’s a blur, perhaps as I took a tissue out it fell out. I’ve rung the place we visited but no one has handed it in. Someone has probably had the cash. I almost drove back today but thought better of it. Too late. I seem to be losing a lot of things at the moment. So upsetting.
Mallaband-Brown