New paintings and regular art updates.
Digital playtime again. I used the curved lines drawing as a basis for this. I had fun with textures and patterns. Finger painting in the Artrage app. Then I ran it through the photodirector app on my phone. I’m not sure who the face is x
Spokes wrapped in coloured foil, to add sparkle when a performer spins and balances it. The spin causes centrifugal force which makes it more stable than a static wheel. That’s why when you cycle the bike tends to stay up. The photo was taken before Raj circus started their act at the White Bear in Middlewich in Cheshire.
Spin and twist
Curve and flip
Abstract line
Shift and dip.
Drawn with energy
Given lives
Negative space
Between the lines.
Twirl around
Like a web
Of neurones linked
Inside my head.
How do you want to retire?
The UK government changed the retirement age a few years ago. They bought in a sliding scale so that women cannot retire until they are 65 or above (it was 60), and men’s retirement age had gone up from 65 to I think 67?
What that does effects millions of women and men. I would have retired by now, I could have still worked, but it means I cannot get my state pension yet, even though I have been paying into all my working life. The result is that a lot of people will get less of an overall pension for what is left of their lives, and are more likely to die before they get it. That also means the government will get to keep more of it.
So? People were living longer until recently, but the age you die has actually reduced, especially with the drop in wages, and increases in poverty. Older people tend to struggle to pay bills or afford to heat their homes, and as they are more likely to have health issues their lives may be shortened.
One possibility though is that the governments decision might be overturned. The WASPI women (women born in the 1950’s who say they were not warned the retirement age was due to be raised), had a judicial review pending at the start of June. I haven’t heard the outcome, but maybe I can retire…. SOON.
Is it a scientific fact? Do all the atoms and molecules in your body get replaced every seven years? Not all at once of course, but over an average lifetime the atoms will be swapped out over about seven years. They must come from somewhere, food, drink, respiration, as we grow up and gain mass, then people tend to shrink a bit as they get older. So obviously people lose atoms and molecules via bodily waste, then blood transports food and oxygen around the body and helps to convey away waste from cells (this is where the lymphatic system is working too). The blood brain barrier prevents blood getting into the nervous system, but there must be a mechanism to get oxygen and other nutrients and waste in and out.
When I first heard the statement I wondered if it could be true? But I’ve heard it again and again. I could fact check it, but I’ll take it as truth. So if molecules can change can we really say we remain the same? Does that not mean that a Leopard CAN change its spots? We can change our minds, change our behaviour. You don’t have to be limited to one train of thought because you literally HAVE changed!
Floating was today’s #bandofsketchers prompt. I have taken this idea of Canada geese floating on the canal from an abstract painting I did in 2020. I moved the geese around in this and left out the greenery from the original. I used felt pens and a silver pen to give a liquid glint.
Just back from singing at Middlewich with the Loud Mouth Women choir. It was a bit of a competition with a band playing over the road! There were performers all afternoon at the White Bear in Middlewich. But there was a restaurant over the road which also had a band on and they were over amplified so that a lot of the time they were drowning out people at the White Bear.
I enjoyed our performance although it was hard to tell if people could hear us. We sang along with Kate Barfield and Esther Brennan from the Boat Band so it was a bit of a change for all of us as we had never done anything like that before. I couldn’t take photos while we were performing but I got photos of the Raj circus act that followed us…. They did various tumbling, acrobatic and juggling tricks and really got the crowd going with their drumming. I’m tired out now! Fell asleep when I got home x
What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?
We bought our bed when my grandma died using a small bequest from her. That was a year after we moved into this house, and that was BEFORE we got married, so it’s over 25 years old.
It’s saggy, I have a folded up sheet on the bit where a spring is sticking out, and the divan drawers collapsed years ago. It’s a big bed and I don’t think it will ever go back down the stairs as we have had to have an extra handrail put on them as we have got older.
Half the time the fitted sheets don’t fit (it’s hard to find king size sheets round here). Tracey Emin would love our bed. It’s surrounded by books and book cases. The bedroom is too small, but we sleep in it because it’s away from the main road at the front of the house which is too noisy in the morning (we live opposite a noisy factory).
Most nights are uncomfortable, the bed is supported by an old A2 drawing board under part of it and the base is collapsing from old age. We can’t afford a new one. I think we should save money specially to buy one, but then we need new carpets and my curtains are being eaten by moths. But that’s life, we have clothes and food. You just have to manage. I have a lot of older things, but not in regular use.
My hubby, by the way, regularly rides an eighty year old tourer road bike. X
Figures are hard to finger paint, the details are difficult to draw clearly. In this Artrage oils drawing I threw pretty much all the pen tools at it, including watercolour, spray paint, and an eraser pen. I’m not quite certain why it turned into an angel, I think I was just trying to fully fill the page. Again this experiment seems to say freedom is a good thing to try and work to…
An old digital drawing of Mona drawn on the old sketchfu site. I got the nose and the body way too long! I used the site tools which were circular pens of seven varying sizes, and an opacity/transparency setting to build up the colours. I think I did this about ten years ago on my old wacom tablet.
Mallaband-Brown