Today’s painting

Bottle oven and swirls

I like painting bottle ovens on long thin canvases and I tend to use the shape of the side to make almost a yin yang curve. I might add some stars to the swirling sky. I’ve used mainly reds browns and oranges for the brickwork on the kiln. I need to go over the dark mortar and add some shading to the kiln to give it more shape. Acrylic on canvas.

Archaeological dog walking?

Not with those soles!

This was a patch of concrete or cement on the pavement next to a telecommunications box. Maybe someone in forensics could date these soles, their size, the weight of the person? The dog print looks like it’s a large dog, big claws on it. And the crack, did that happen because there are tree roots below it? Why stand on this? I wonder if it was deliberate.

Broken cat flap!

Crash! Smash! Clatter!

The big outside cat who now comes in has finally broken the cat flap! It was cracked in two yesterday, but with both parts still in place, but today? When we came home from my studio the cat flap was broken with two side pieces twisted away from each other and a pizza wedge shaped piece on the ground outside. The outdoor cat was inside and my female inside cat was staring through the cat flap from the outside! I opened the door and let her in. But how to try and fix this? Glue and wide clear tape. I tried gluing the edges, but I was just making a sticky mess. Next I dabbed glue on the flat surfaces and stuck the clear tape to them like a bandage. Next I slid the wedge shape up between the sides and wrapped another lot of tape and glue around the bottom of the flap. Finally I supported the flap on our toilet roll holder so it’s inside the door and horizontal. Why? Because it’s raining heavily and it would soon be soaking wet if I shut it. The door is also open to keep it out of the rain. I’m relying on the door between the kitchen and the backdoor staying shut to keep the cats in (and out).

Fingers crossed x

Setting Moon

Seen a couple of nights ago, a blurry setting Moon, chasing the Sun round the sky.

You can tell what angle the Moon is to the Sun because of the angle of the curve on the sunlit side. As the Moon waxes and wanes the position of the Sun can be worked out, full Moon=the Sun is on the other side of the Earth, a sliver of Moon, the Moon is in between the Earth and the Sun. Eclipse? If the Moon Eclipses the Sun it is directly between the other two bodies. If the Moon turns bright red its the Earth getting between the Moon and Sun, its only really then that you can see the curvature of the Moons surface, whichis usually so reflective that it looks bright and flat.

I guess this is the most number of times I’ve written ‘”Moon” in a blog!

My mind

Convoluted

I decided to use bits of post-it notes and monoprint and combine them in a tangle of colours. Do they link up with each other? It is a representation of my MA land. When you work on a college course there is so much to absorb and take in. Lots of information that needs to cross the book/ brain barrier via your eyes. The ever expanding reading list tries to force you to take in knowledge, but it’s not always easy to sift the relevant from the irrelevant. The clarity of words is not always there. I try to write clearly when I’m blogging, but if you have to take a dictionary with you when you try and read a piece of information, then you have to ask whether the author is being elitist.

Other problems with online courses are the lack of face to face contact. You can try and have zoom meetings or their equivalent. But it does feel sometimes like you are working in a vacuum. My desk is tiny, my pc and keyboard and screen take up about 75% of the space. It’s hard to find enough space to work in. My sketchbooks are getting smaller in proportion to the increasing number of them. So much drawing over the last year!

The other side of the studio.

Looking in through the door to the left side of the studio. I’ve got a lot of work that has been exhibited, I just need to sell some of it! I woukd like to find a good art site to sell my work for a reasonable amount (not an on line auction, or on the other hand, an expensive and exclusive site). I just want these to go to good homes.

Have been offered a space in an exhibition for local artists in June. That will be fun! It’s been a whole year since I’ve dealt with the public face to face. I feel quite nervous about it.