Who knows?

Posted on November 7, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Change, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2112, entropy, Knowledge, Life, Plans, Prompt, Thinking, Time4 Comments

What will your life be like in three years?

Life might change, it might be the same. So much has happened over the last few years that I honestly don’t know. I might move on somewhere else, or stay here. We might have new neighbours. I might win the lottery, but probably not.

We make plans, but life has a way of confusing things. Even if you are strong and rational it doesn’t mean things will always go OK. I don’t mean to be negative though. It’s just that the chaos humans can create around themselves impacts on others too. Disorder happens. Entropy can mean moving from order to disorder. I’m thinking of lots of words that just mean I don’t think I can predict what will happen. I can try and hope though that things will be better.

As you get older life can get sorted out or complicated. It really means you have to have enough money to live on. Sometimes that’s not possible. Better to be organised sooner rather than later.

Tranklements

Posted on November 6, 2023November 6, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged BCB, British ceramic biennial, Ceramics, cornucopia, Horse, Photo, Statue, tranklementsLeave a comment

There is a word I remember from my childhood. TRANKLEMENTS. It means, thingies, bits and bobs, a collection of stuff, not necessarily useful. Just things that you have got together over the years. I haven’t looked it up in the dictionary, so it might mean something entirely different to that, but this is my understanding of the word.

The photo of horse cornucopia sort of feels like that. A thing that isn’t really useful but is interesting. And how would you display it? They clearly have a stand to sit on…. But it’s like a unicorn with the horn at the wrong end, or a seahorse with a shell for a tail? How do people come up with such strange and wonderful ideas?

Just looked it up. I was right, it’s a black country word (west Midlands in the UK) meaning bits and bobs. I remember my gran using it!

Cloudscape

Posted on November 6, 2023November 6, 2023 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Blue, Clouds, Grey clouds, Life, Memory, Photo, Rain, scudding, shower clouds, Showers, Sky, white clouds2 Comments

I love piled up clouds, dark and threatening, but with bright white patches, and blue sky (enough to make a sailors britches). You know a heavy shower is on the way, but it won’t last long, and the sun will be shining again.

When I used to walk to school I would chase the shadows of clouds. They would drift along the pavement like lapping waves. I don’t seem to see them any more? Maybe their edges are too fluffy. Or they don’t scud past anymore? Has the, weather changed in the last fifty years…?

Dead frog?

Posted on November 6, 2023November 6, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Amphibians, Art, BCB, Environment, Fine Art, Frog, frog sculpture, Nature, Poem, Poetry, Pond4 Comments

Photo from the BCB

A giant lies upon it’s back

It’s hop has gone, it’s knocked flat!

A human male looks on

At where nature has gone?

Ceramic frogs don’t jump

They don’t have a heart to pump.

But life has a way of staying

If we from nature aren’t straying.

So give frogs a chance

Put in water plants

Dig a new pond

If of frogs you are fond?

Protect anphibians

Their survival’s in your hands!

Bang!

Posted on November 6, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, Digital drawing, Drawing, Fireworks, Prompt, sketchbook app, Sketching, symmetrical2 Comments

Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was bang/jump. I really wanted to try and draw an exploding firework so I used an app called sketchbook and drew something using a symmetry tool.

A bank holiday in October

Posted on November 6, 2023November 6, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Autumn bank holiday, bank holidays, British summer time, Celebrate, Colour, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2111, life leaves, Spring, Summer, WinterLeave a comment

Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate.

The UK has bank holidays in winter, spring and summer, but nothing in Autumn. We have Rememberence day and Guy Fawkes night in November. But some people don’t get many days off in the year, so why not?

The government would no doubt object to this day off, because it would reduce productivity. But if they had their way we would be on fifty or sixty hour weeks. Elon Musk said this week that all jobs would be taken over by AI or robots, so why not start working towards it now? We could have Autumn cards, buy jigsaw puzzles of gorgeous trees, or squirrels and their nut collections. Hazelnut or Cob nut cakes? Conker fights, displays of autumn flowering crocuses. I would also keep British Summer time so that the evenings stayed lighter and it would cost less in power usage!

More BCB ceramics

Posted on November 5, 2023November 5, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, British ceramic biennial, Ceramic, Clay, Fun, Hay, Minton tiles, Tiles, Wild flowersLeave a comment

One of the things to do at the British Ceramic biennial was to have fun making clay tiles that will grow in a wildflower meadow next spring. We made unfired tiles made to look a bit like Minton floor tiles. The clays were chosen to be different acidities so that they suited wild flower seeds. The clay was mixed with hay and pushed into moulds, then we had to make holes and push the seeds into them. Finally we pressed a shape into the top of the tile and fill the resultant spaces with different coloured slips.

Artrage

Posted on November 5, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, ArtRage app, Artrage oils, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2110, Drawing, Photodirector, Sketchbook, Sketching, Websites4 Comments

What are your favorite websites?

My favourite websites are art ones. A lot of them don’t have much in the way of tools. Often the drawing is already there and you just use a fill tool. They are boring. But I found a free app called Artrage oils which I used for several years till I got a new phone. Then I upgraded to Artrage which has a lot more tools, sketchbook app which has different tools and a few other ones that are good for editing, like photodirector. I now use them all in combination. It’s fun!

Leaf collage

Posted on November 5, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged animal? Pareidolia, Autumn, Collage, Leaves, Pavement, Photos, Symmetry6 Comments

When you make a collage of a photo you never know what you are going to get. This one seems to have animal faces at the centre, but it’s only fallen leaves on pavement. The effect of seeing things that are made up like this, or animals in clouds, faces in buildings, is called Pareidolia.

British Ceramic Biennial

Posted on November 5, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, BCB, British ceramic biennial, Ceramics, final day, Fine Art, Life, Pottery, remarkableLeave a comment

Today was the last day of the biennial exhibition. We only managed to get to the one venue at All Saints church on Leek Road Stoke-on-Trent. The pottery and ceramics on display were remarkable. From abstract to classical, but all with a modern twist. I wish I’d managed to get round the other venues, but I didn’t feel up to it. Anyway I bumped into a couple of friends. I will probably post a few more photos later.