New paintings and regular art updates.
Five years ago I sketched out a design for a cat sculpture and my friend Charis Jones who is a brilliant blacksmith made this wonderful creation for me, by interpreting my doodle. She called it Eshers cat and it has been sitting in our garden looking smart for the last five years. It’s lovely and makes me smile every time I look at it. Now it’s a little rusty from the weather. I’m thinking of using rust resisting paint (if that’s a thing) to give it a new coat… Literally! I just love it x
Four years ago the microwave was on the other side of the kitchen and our boy cat used to lie in the sun here. Now he’s hot a spot on the other side of the kitchen where he watches the goings on in the garden, still a happy relaxed cat. The windowsill is full of overgrown Christmas cactuses and two large metal cat doorstops. I’m happier he’s away from the washing up! Thanks for the memories Facebook!
A few miles from Stoke on Trent in the Staffordshire countryside is the Dorothy Clive garden. We went there today because I knew the rhododendrons would be in flower and also I wanted to see if I could drive that far (my arm is still shaking and very sore and it’s hard to drive). Luckily I was OK and it was a gorgeous day and a lovely place to visit. You walk up from the car park at the bottom, past the pool, up a steepish slope covered in trees and flowerbeds. There is a cafe at the top and a dry garden and quarry garden at the top (where the majority of the rhododendrons are). There is also a stag sculpture and a waterfall. From the top of the garden you can see three counties, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire. Worth a day out….
How do you balance work and home life?
Balance, what’s that?
Retired: bored or busy?
Sometimes life sucks
Other times it’s lovely.
Time passes quickly
Flowers grow, and fade
Trees shed leaves
And bud.
Stay up late
Lose the daylight
A twylight time?
Prevaricate and regret…
Loss of what’s left…
I should work more
But my mind is tied
In gossamer threads
Of nothing…
Frustrated by
My lack of
Vision and
Determination
To do more…
About 11 years ago I drew this self portrait. I was with a group of other people who went to a pencil drawing workshop. What strikes me the most about this is how chubby I was, it reminds me how I’ve changed.
The sketch was done using a small makeup mirror and it was impossible to see my whole face at once, but I did my best. In one section of the drawing I almost rubbed through the paper trying to remove some of the graphite. That’s why there is a dark smudge on one of the cheeks.
We were told the drawings would be used for the London Road festival in Stoke. Imagine my surprise when I was driving home one day and this was attached as a 6ft square banner on the front of an empty shop. I now have it at my studio at spode.
How would these stay up?
I’ve made an ‘armless’ sketch of big glasses. I was just trying out some textures in my sketchbook app.
Do you know you can tell if someone is short or long sighted depending on whether their eyes look bigger (long sighted) or smaller (short sighted). That is dependent on the convex or concave nature of the lenses in their glasses.
If you are very short sighted your eyes will look smaller than if you are only mildly affected. It also depends on whether your spectacle lenses are made of glass or plastic.
If you ever watch a TV programme or film with an actor wearing glasses then look at the lenses. If the light catches them you can see if the glass is flat, then you know they don’t really need glasses!
What sacrifices have you made in life?
There are small and large sacrifices you make when you live with or marry someone. The marriage ceremony says a lot, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer…
After 40 or more years together you forget a lot of the sacrifices, you just have to try and get along, you do so much together. Things do spring to mind, but now they feel trivial. He had an offer to do a masters degree, I had an offer to move away and get a job in a distant city. What stopped us? Money mainly. We couldn’t afford to give up our jobs. We had to stick with what we were doing.
Life has its way of getting in the way of things. It’s not planned, it’s not a story with a happy ending (unless you are very lucky). It’s a series of compromises and accidents. Time can sometimes smooth things out, but not always.
Then as you get older you make more sacrifices. You can be selfish and decide you want everything your way, or just go along with the flow, become indifferent to your partner. Hopefully you find a way through and stick together. I don’t pretend to have answers, but you cope. I’d maybe have done more with my life, but I’m OK with what I am now and what I’ve got. Life is a path through the trees, you can’t see your destination. You just have to stay hopeful.
An old painting, Autumn and Spring…. Acrylic on canvas. A mixture of styles ideas. I’m not sure whether I will ever do another one like this. I am happy I did it, but it feels like a one off.
I just realised my parking pass is due to expire and I’ve only just realised it. In the past out council used to send out a reminder. No more. They have closed the building where you could apply for them in person. Now the choice is either via email, or by post.
The postal service only has a 74% next day delivery rate, and there is no assurance that it will arrive in time.
My email is not working yet. I’m booked to get it done on Monday (long boring story, the repair man has been ill). But not everyone has email addresses. Not everyone with a car is online.
So I rang up for the address to send my information to. It’s a PO box, meaning there is no physical place for me to hand deliver my documents to. If it goes to a PO box, then the council courier service needs to sort the mail and deliver it, meaning there is another time delay added into the mix!
Better get my email sorted out!
Collage of three versions of my drawing of midday. By flipping the central image it created interesting effects where the edges join. One side seems to travel along a dark tunnel, the other into some sort of tree temple? I used photodirector for the textures and incollage for joining the images together.
Mallaband-Brown