Coming into the bathroom
You always want to know
What I’m doing.
Paws dip into the water
From the tap
A delicate splish splash…
Lick paw and return
To the gentle trickle
Silver sparkle
Nose wet
You saunter off..
Cat on the bath
Art
What activities do you lose yourself in?
Painting makes my mind flow…
Koi carp painted a few years ago. I love all sorts of art. It engages my mind as I create. The world and time just seems to disappear.
I might start painting or drawing in the afternoon, then suddenly realise I’m hungry or thirsty and find it’s 3am and I’ve lost half a day….
It’s just hand eye coordination, and often putting liquids onto a surface, or shading with pencils or pastels, but something grips me and I am embedded into art.
I love visual art, taking photos, and sometimes I even attempt 3d art in ceramics. I have only ever tried to carve stone a couple of times but didn’t have the strength.
Art encourages creative thoughts. I’d recommend it to anyone. Try it, you might enjoy it. X
Star Trek the original series
What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?
I couldn’t find a photo of Mr Spock from the original Star Trek series. He was my favourite character when I first saw the series as a child. I liked his logical brain and was always shocked if he smiled or laughed.
There were not many series of the show but I watch them as often as I can. I love the tribble episode and the way they reacted when faced with a klingon spy. There were surreal moments with the crew transported to the OK Corral. Or to a modern day version of Rome, or Greek mythology.
I just keep going back to its strong feelings about equality of women and different races and the feeling of humanity and empathy that was embedded deep within the stories. I went on to watch the movies, then the Next Generation series, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Star Trek Enterprise. To be honest I’ve watched all of them repeatedly. They cheer me up! And I’ve watched the newer films too. I can’t see some of the newer series because I don’t have pay per view, but if they come into freeview I will definitely watch them!
Another Spode window?
The bottom of the stairs at the studios at Spode. The windows have been revealed after boards have been taken off them. Unfortunately my hands shake and I should have tried leaning on something to support the camera. But you get the idea of how the history of the place is there, sadly likely to disappear in the chaotic entropy of decaying historical buildings. I might well paint this. I love the peeling paint!
Ginger cat
An imagined cat on a white wall. The plants make it feel like a courtyard. I had fun with the paint mixing different tones and colours . The cat is a ginger tabby staring out of the painting. Acrylic on canvas.
Green woman self portrait
This is the partner painting to the green man portrait of my hubby. They mean a lot to me. I intend to put them up together in my house once my exhibition is over. It’s about A4 size, probably a little bigger. I used some silver metallic paint on it to give it a slight shimmer. Acrylic on canvas. Painted a few years ago.
Peeling paint
The window panes are solid, but the wood is old and the paint peeling. One of my paintings of Spode, I just had to paint it with the blue and white reflected sky. I put a photo of it onto the peeling paint group online, but they were a bit sniffy because it wasn’t actual peeling paint, but a painting of peeling paint. I was let off with a gentle warning to photograph the real thing, which is strange, because a photo is just another representation, and as we have seen on the news recently photos can be manipulated with filters (I’ll say no more!).
If you look closely you might see my fingers clutching my phone as I took the picture (bottom right hand window pane).
Feeling a bit down in the dumps so decided to post this, it’s a favourite X
Trying to answer!
Are you superstitious?
I’m superstitious about some things, not walking under ladders for instance, or saluting when I see a single Magpie (only after my friend told me about doing it). In the UK black cats are lucky so I don’t worry if I see one.
I wanted to answer this prompt, but for some reason the prompt says I’ve already answered it. I’ve had to go through a couple of extra pages to get here. Should I be superstitious? I think the human brain looks for patterns. If something goes wrong after you walk under that ladder perhaps you have tempted fate? Maybe something bad will happen if you do it again? But the person up the ladder that dropped paint on you might have laughed or been really sorry. Consequently he’s not going to be superstitious about it. The lesson is learned by the victim…
Those paintings
Here they are, quickly painted. I think the date on the bottom one is 1988? I am sure they are watercolour and pencil drawings now I look closely. I’m not sure if they were a birthday or Christmas gift? It’s lovely to see work I did over 35 years ago! To think they still exist x
Old paintings
Two small, quick paintings of cats that I painted years ago. My friend sent it to me recently. Both of them have also got poppy details. I will see if I can zoom in on them to see if I can get clearer views of them. I know they are mine, but I genuinely can’t remember painting them. That makes me feel guilty, I think I should recognise all of my work. Memory frays as you get older x
Mallaband-Brown 