New paintings and regular art updates.
Yesterday was warm
Tomorrow will be wet
Spiky shardes of night-time
Agog in the sunlight.
Slow storm Betty
Trundling
over the ocean…
West of Ireland
On its way
Seeded heads will be beaten
Without delay
Tree tops will twist
Leaves will fly
So soon this summer goes
Autumn visits us
And I cry
The wound in my leg is infected. I’ve got to keep it clean and raised. Not easy. It started as a cut but I thought it would be OK after dressing it. Now it’s sore and red and weeping. Don’t assume that if it looks clean it’s OK. Who knows what the car door shoved through my trouser leg into the wound. I can’t physically see it as its on the side, round the back. But hubby insisted I got medical treatment.
Things like this test relationships. The roles you slot into can be reversed. I’m used to caring for him, now he’s got to sort me out. I realise why patients need patience. Can’t make him do things unless it’s in his own good time. But we will get there as they say, in sickness and in health. x
How do you plan your goals?
I’ve got to the age where I take each day as it comes. I don’t plan so much because something will always come up and bite you just when you think things are going to be OK so you moderate your expectations.
A few years ago I had plans to finish work and become a successful artist. I am an artist, just not very successful! But I don’t intend to be a business entrepreneur. I paint and draw for pleasure not fame.
I wish I had the skills to plan goals, but when I used to be questioned at job interviews… Where do you see yourself in 5 years I was daft enough to say “still here”. I guess I like a modicum of security.
If you are going to make goals for yourself enjoy them, they may be simple or complex, just look after yourself. X
Create an emergency preparedness plan.
Our smoke alarm went off twice today. No smoke, no fire, no heat. I will buy a new battery. But it might be a spider has moved in and it’s feet have tickled the sensor? I think I read it can happen.
We have two more in the house and they are both working. So I feel safe and everything is ready for action.
The plan is
Wake up if the alarm goes off.
Wake hubby
Go downstairs if safe,
If not try and get out of the bedroom window.
The only problem
I’m too old to climb!
I don’t have a ladder.
So turn everything off at bedtime!
Have keys in the lock so I don’t have to find them!
Another #bandofsketchers prompt was plenty. Cornucopia or horn of plenty was a display of fruit and beautiful food presented in a large shell or spiralling horn if I remember correctly. I did a digital sketch and tried to create an abstract image of it.
She left us almost a year ago
Gone somewhere else, I don’t know.
A face I’ll never see again
Unless on a screen that isn’t used
And only occasionally appears
As a memory of a reflected moment…..
She thought that?
She agreed with that?
A smile twitches my lips
She agreed with me?
Then the memory fades
The face crumples
I cry again.
I’m catching up with #bandofsketchers prompts again. This one was balloon. I looked up balloon sculptures and found an image of a stainless steel balloon dog titled “ArtZ® Stainless Steel Balloon Dog Sculpture”, so I decided to try and draw it digitally using the Artrage app on my phone. I think the metallic pens give it an interesting sheen. X
Falling asleep with my finger on the screen of the Sketchbook app on my phone. I’d chose a smudge and soft pastel app. I started with an image in mind, but I woke up from my doze a few times and saw the straggly pattern developing! I could have worked on it but just let the ‘process’ carry on.
It is entirely random and I can alter angles and colours and opacity if I want to. But I like the idea of having no volition over it, making it really random.
What is a word you feel that too many people use?
I don’t see what or which word I can object to? There are many words in this world that people use, sometimes a lot of people use the same word, but how can I object? Isn’t that censorship? I hate prejudice, and would not use such words, but sometimes they have to be spoken to explain their use, their critical importance in a conversation.
It’s hard to explain what I mean. But if someone were to use a derogatory comment then they might need to be prosecuted for it’s use. How can you take action if the word is not repeated? It’s a conundrum. The word might be ambiguous on the one hand or too direct on the other, in which case it might not be allowed.
Some words thankfully go out of fashion. I’m glad they have, but it doesn’t mean that there’s others that are also lost shouldn’t be saved.
I guess I’m on the fence for this prompt. Enough said?
I Clavdivs (or I Claudius) by Robert Graves is going to be shown on BBC Four from tomorrow night. I loved that TV series which was originally on in 1976. The novel it was based on was written in 1934.
The title sequence of a snake writhing across a mosaic floor with the words I Clavdivs written on it always makes me chuckle, the u’s were written as v’s hence the odd way it looks and sounds.
The machinations of the Roman Emperors from the death of Julius Ceasar to the reign and eventual demise of Claudius is shown in the TV series. It’s like a series of plays, not lavish, but grimy and ordinary. Brian Blessed played Augustus Ceasar, Patrick Stewart stars in it, as does Sian Phillips and other stars from that era. John Hurt plays Caligula. There are executions, poisonings, ghosts and hysterical scenes. It’s amazing and overblown and interesting. Claudius is played by the excellent Derek Jacobi who later played Brother Cadviael in the murder mystery series. Jacobi is able to play the part with skill, as an idiot who limps and stutters but who is intensely inlligent despite appearances. So if you get the chance, try and watch it.
Mallaband-Brown