New paintings and regular art updates.
I decided to make a drawing of a tree shape then played with it in various apps to change its colour and shape.
I love old fashioned Art Nouveau and Rennie Mackintosh designs from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Also the Arts and Crafts movement. We have become so interested in glossy and sleek, modern, monochrome that we don’t seem to recognise that patterns can be exciting and interesting. You can do anything you want really.
X
I was talking to a friend earlier about her valentine experiences and remembered an incident from about thirty years ago…
It was a cold, clear Valentines day morning. I’d got up to go to work, and as I stepped outside I found a red rose on my doorstep. It wasn’t wrapped in cellophane or paper. It was a long stemmed rose. Deep scarlet. Beautiful, slightly starting to wilt. I looked up and down the street, no one around. We were in a terraced house, so the door opened down a step straight onto the pavement. Anyone could have left it there.
I went inside and asked my then boyfriend, later to be hubby, if he had put it on the step. But he said no. I quizzed him, but no it was not him. To be honest it wasn’t his style, he rarely knows when it’s valentines day and usually only gets me a card if I get him one. He was as surprised as I was but said I should take it as a compliment!
So I had this beautiful rose. I cut the stem at an angle and it in a pint glass while I went out to do my shift at work.
But I couldn’t concentrate. All morning I thought about who could have left it? It might have been a neighbour. It might have been a friend, but I had no idea that anyone had romantic thoughts about me. My inner Miss Marple told me that it couldn’t have been there long and that it must have been bought from the nearby florists as no roses were in flower at that time of year. There are roses growing on the factory opposite our house, but they were bare stems.
Who? That was my thought. Whoever it was must have known I was in a long term relationship? Why? Did they think I was looking for someone new? The answer to that was no….
Eventually I decided that the rose must have been for someone else. Perhaps the anonymous person had mistaken my doorstep for someone else’s?
I will never know. It never happened again. The next year I felt disappointed. Since then I have rarely remembered it. Only today’s chat reawakened the memory for me.
X
Black cat,
Gleaming eyes,
Soft, sleek fur,
Happy purr.
Golden irises,
White whiskers,
Ears switched on,
To every sound?
Staring out,
To catch sight
Of birds flying,
Mice walking
Past the window,
Cat inside,
Bird and mice outside.
Happy me x
Panto rehearsal again tonight… Oops, the body DIDN’T line up on the back of the flattened policeman. But I can sort it out. The rock for the cave scene works fine… The washing mashing machine looks OK too I think…. Anyway its all kicking off next week… Four performances over three days.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday next week are going to be very busy.
I’ll try not to break a leg!
X
I’m really pleased that I’ve got some of my glass necklaces in the new art shop in Campbell Place, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent. It’s called Serendiparty and it’s run by a really kind person called Phil.
He has lots of artists work on display as well as his own as he is an artist himself. He does art that is created from plastic, and he is working against plastic pollution in the world.
Stoke has various creative people working in the town, including BArts, Acava Studios at Spode, Market@48 and Majestic studios. It’s good to welcome more creativity into the town. He’s going to be holding creative workshops at Serendiparty. With Staffordshire University having Fine Art and creative courses, I think this is a good add to the mix.
Looking forward to seeing what goes on there.
X
(ps on WordPress reader there is a picture of some food on this post, I hit the wrong button and somehow its showing the wrong image)
I did this mural of Mr Incredible about nine or ten years ago for someone’s son. The paint is acrylic because it’s easy to apply and dries within hours. I think it’s also quite stable. I used clear matt varnish over it and left about a centimeter margin of varnish all around the figure so the paint would not lift off. I’ve recently done a new mural for the family in their new house. I found out recently that my original murals (there were three others, Batman, Spiderman, and Superman) were painted over. Sad I know, but at least I gave some fun to the family while they were there.
X
Photo my friend took on February 2018, I think it was up until 2019. Its also been exhibited at the Waiting Room Gallery. I liked doing these pottery ‘portraits’, but they are imagined, using pottery patterns and marrying them up with teapots or plates or bowls etc. It’s also about creating imagined backgrounds.
Acrylic on canvas, created, 2018, for sale…
Oh wish tree, oh wish tree.
What can you do for me?
Can you turn the world around?
Can you make my life more sound?
Wish tree, wish tree
Make the world more clean and free,
Give the poorest food to eat,
Take away all cruelty.
Cool the worlds excessive heat.
Make compassion mandatory.
Ask the rich to balance out
The split between them and the poor
Make them pay a small amount,
Wish tree let them pay some more,
To make reducing poverty count.
That is all I really want.
Wish tree let my wishes free,
Give a chance for you and me.
Papier mache rock, for the pantomime. It is covered in newspaper and was painted with white emulsion. As I painted it the undercoat of white kept flaking off. I’ve painted it to look like the top is catching a ray of sunlight and the base is in shadow.
While I was doing this I also painted a flattened figure of one of the policemen in the panto. He has been through a mangle and has been squashed flat. I had to do both sides but I didn’t do each side the same so I might have to repaint the back. Finally I painted clothes on a pretend washing machine. The door opens and a policeman climbs in. Then a child comes out in similar clothes, as if he has shrunk!
Anyway four hours of tiring but fun painting. It’s coming together x
The abandoned cat that we have been looking after is still here. There was a couple who almost took him, but decided we were too attached to him for them to take him. He still lives in the shed because we have two indoor cats who won’t get in their cat basket to be inoculated! Hence cats staring at each other through the cat flap. The outdoor cat has a box surrounded by straw to help keep him snug. But we decided to put a small electric oil heater in the shed to help keep him warm on very cold nights. He can get in and out, and because there is nothing of value in the shed we are happy to leave the door slightly ajar. Hopefully by later this year he will be rehomed x
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