Although we spent most of the evening moving junk out of the warehouse at Etruria I did get a short time to do some sketching. It’s a bit stern looking but it’s relatively accurate. I give you…..My hubby. A quick pencil sketch.
Category: Uncategorized
Canal bike (discarded)
We walked past this tonight at the canal workshops on the Trent and Mersey canal. Mostly rust, I was amazed that there was any paint left on it! The spokes have been cut off although the front wheel is still in place in its forks. One side of the handlebars has broken off completely. I wonder how it got in the canal? Was it stolen, was it thrown in because it could not be repaired? And was it dredged out of the canal or did a fisherman catch it by accident?
We will never know. Its not restorable so no doubt it will end up down the tip. Perhaps it will be melted down and turned into another bike frame.
Warehouse work?
Etruria Artists hold art sessions at the Warehouse at Etruria on a Thursday evening.
Now big changes are happening. The building is having a disabled toilet and a new kitchenette. This should make it much more usable although we will lose storage space for our art equipment.
So this evening we were surrounded by an old canoe, a canal diorama, bits of wood, some blocks that built into a bridge, planks that pigeons had roosted on and other junk. Most of it had been stored on a platform above the current kitchen and store cupboard. We helped carry some of it out to a skip. My friend Robert rescued some of it, to be recycled later. My hubby wanted to bring back a six foot long, three foot high and wide, table base but I vetoed that as we already had wooden blocks in the car.
I’m not sure when the work will be done but I think it will make it far more comfortable to use.
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Painting is like knitting.
The complexity of trying to paint the surface of Mars is like trying to knit a complicated pattern of cable stitch, pearl and plain knitting. I don’t know exactly how to do that, and with this painting I’m trying to get craters and ridges at least vaguely in the right place, which is like knitting the whole thing.
If I had large images of the planets I would use tracing paper to copy the main features, then transfer the tracing onto a canvas by drawing on the other side to have at least an outline to follow. But no, I do it the hard way. Holding my phone up with the image then trying to paint the right colours and features and attempting to get them in the right place. You also have to keep tapping the phone to stop the picture going off.
Well so far I’ve splodged in whites, violets, blues, rust colours and dark areas. It’s starting to work but it’s got more complicated as I’ve gone on. I have overpainted several areas. I can see that it will take a while yet.
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Fridge Magnets
And one jelly mould.
Why write about that?
Because the world is mad
I thought I’d be mad too
I don’t want to be depressed
I would like some cheer
I’d like some fun.
So why not fridge magnets?
To reflect my magnetic personality?
Probably not!
Orme Art group and Spode studios Open Days.
This is what I’m working towards at the moment. I’m really looking forward to it. We will have some space on a wall in the Brampton museum and art gallery. I’ve got a tryptich of Jupiter ready and I’m doing a painting of Mars. Then on the 7th and 8th of September I’ve got a painting at Spode during our Open Studios weekend.
I will also be exhibiting art at The Orme Group Christmas Exhibition, dates and details to follow. Today I’ve also had confirmation that I can put more paintings in an exhibition at the Brampton in November to December for Christmas. I’m just waiting for a poster for that. All I need now is to see if people like them and get some commissions.
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Tea time. Hungry
I usually cook food for both of us. I buy in ingredients and then cook in the late evening. But tonight he doesn’t want food. He’s happy with a sandwich. I can’t think of what to have for my meal. The stuff I’ve got in the fridge are things like tandoori paste and nan bread and basmati rice, but if I eat that there won’t be enough for both of us tomorrow. Then there are wheat biscuits, a cereal, but that’s breakfast food. There is one banana, I might have that and some custard. I might even add a bit of cocoa to cheer it up…. Yes I fancy that. I will use sweetener to keep the sugar levels down..
Weird talking about eating food rather than making up recipes. Anyway I guess I’m hungry.
Persius and Medusa
On a lighter note this statue of Persius and Medusa is at Trentham Gardens, Trentham, Staffordshire. The statue is inside the gardens next to the lake which means you have to pay to go in. I’m sure there is information about it but this is a photo from last year. I haven’t been in the gardens for months and probably with the heavy rain we’ve been having the plants there might be a bit battered but they are usually very beautiful.
I’m going to try and finish my painting of mars that I shared a couple of days ago to get in our Orme art exhibition at the Brampton in Newcastle-under-Lyme and try and go back to Trentham again on Friday.
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Autumn is coming
The season of Autumn is upon us, despite having temperatures of 33.7°C in some parts of the country this week.
Today was cooler, we had rain, the sky had been cloudy all day.
Autumn, changing days
Sun sets early, rises late.
Leaves turn from green to flame.
Ending a summers growth.
Fruit and fungi burgeoning
Apples become sweet, pears ripe.
Leaves lie deep, scrunch and crunch.
Life settles down until winters slumber.
Proroguing Parliament
Britain is in a fog, continent isolated. Which was something like a headline in the 1950’s?
Britain is due to leave the EU (European Union) on 31st October because some of the British people decided in 2016 that they wanted to leave.
But now our new prime minister has decided to prorogue parliament, that means stopping parliament meeting for five weeks to stop them fighting against brexit. It appears that he wants to leave Europe without a deal. That means we might end up paying tariffs to import or export goods, there is also a chance that our health service will be privatised further and difficulty importing medicines and food.
It seems ridiculous that this has happened. He’s even got the queen involved, asking for her approval. It’s madness.
So why prorogue? Our prime minister says he needs the time to announce new policies, funny, previous prime ministers don’t usually do that.
In the meantime there is a petition which has been going just today and has already over 596000 signatures. The madness in this country seems to be the populism that is washing over the world. Not just here but in America and places like Brazil.
In the time it took to write it the petition has topped 600000!
