Rakes progress, after Hogarth

Posted on July 13, 2025 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on board, Art, hogarth, Painting, Parkinsons, scenery painting, Sketching, still me1 Comment

With poor brushes you can still paint. This is about A4 size. The trouble was when I painted this, I couldn’t get a point on the brushes they provided. That made it hard to get detail on the faces and hands. It ended up looking very sketchy but I did my best. This took about 2 hours to knit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Hogarth would be spinning or laughing in his grave! Acrylic on board.

By the time I finished I had to be helped up off my chair. My left hand has been cramping up ever since and my left leg is in spasm. I’m hunched over after leaning in to add details. It’s been a hard, hot day and my Parkinsons is making me shake like a jelly!

Haywain, after Constable

Posted on July 13, 2025 Posted in Fine Art, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on board, after constable, Fine Art, haywain, Painting, rural, scenery painting, Sketching8 Comments

Scenery painting for a cottage scene. They wanted some old style pictures you might find on a cottage wall. So I decided to try and do a quick (1 hour) painting of the haywain. It jiggered me up! And the image I copied from wouldn’t expand so it was the size of a postage stamp! Lots of sketchy work on this but it looks OK at a distance. Acrylic on board.

Writing workshop.

Posted on July 12, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged beat boxing, bizarre, Fun, Memories, Notes, Poetry, Tired, Words, Workshop, WritingLeave a comment

What a hot day to get up early and go to a poetry writing workshop. Hosted at BArts in Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent.

Our writer had come up from Birmingham for the day. She beat boxed the sound of a thudding heart as she talked about nerves and performance anxiety. Then we did a series of tasks. First of all we split into groups of two and interviewed each other about our personality and likes and dislikes. I came up with things about whistling my cats or that I would fight off zombies with an umbrella!

Then we made up a poem with the phrase he/she/they are then the words we had answered with… It was interesting.

She is sponge

She is fighting with a brolly

She is fish and chips…..

It was strange but funny a bit bizarre.

We did more but I’m too tired and hot to remember!

Paddy

Posted on July 11, 2025 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Black and white sketch, Dog, Drawing, Friendly, Life, old dog, paddy, Paws, SketchingLeave a comment

A lovely, friendly older dog I met today. The heat was bothering him and he went to sleep so I decided to quickly sketch him. I’m not sure if he is some sort of rough terrier. He is a real character X

Blue

Posted on July 11, 2025 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on board, Art, Face, Life, Memory, mysterious, Mystery Plays, Painting, PareidoliaLeave a comment

Feeling blue.

Can you see a face,…?

Head tilted to the left, a streak of light catching the nose?

My friend saw it first, where I had roughly painted the scenery for the show. Random brush strokes that created a male face…

My hubby’s face? Not scary, good to feel I had unconsciously incorporated him! He was an enthusiastic actor in the shows. Glad he was there apparently in spirit. X

Sent a poem..

Posted on July 10, 2025 Posted in Memories, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged local journal, Lunar eclipse, Moonlight, Poetry, Roses, Scent, Short story, Sound, Submitted, TryingLeave a comment

Our writing group is sending poems and stories to a new quarterly publication in the local area. I have sent in a poem about roses and a short story in. I’m not sure if either will be published so I’m not going to give much detail here.

The roses poem is about if you had synesthesia and could for example hear what a rose is like. The short story is about a lunar eclipse. Is that enough detail? Wish me luck!

A cherry on the top.

Posted on July 9, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Bread and butter, Cherry, Childhood, Evaporated milk, Food, fruit salad, Taste, TeatimeLeave a comment

An advert for evaporated (condensed milk). But I’m more interested in the fruit salad portrayed here. That bowl represents at least one whole can of the stuff, I know because me and my sisters used to squabble over it in the 60s and 70s. If there was only one cherry in the tin our mother used to cut it into four. It also has peaches, pears and I think pineapple.

We used to have sliced white bread and butter with it. Oh the simplicity of the past.

Square sheep

Posted on July 9, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, farming, Fine Art, History, Life, Molly Leigh opera, Painting, SheepLeave a comment

It looks like its been baked in a bread loaf tin. This is a copy of one of those paintings that they did in olden times to emphasise how much wool the sheep could grow I think. There are definite exaggerations in its size. And a small head and legs. It was fun to try and paint. As it is for a set in an opera it didn’t need to be totally accurate. Took about an hour to paint.

Mystery Play success

Posted on July 8, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged boulder, creepy cave, Life, Memories, microphone, penkhull mystery plays, staging, Windy1 Comment

I don’t have many photos of the play because my sister only took a few. There are lots of images online though.

It went well considering the wind was very breezy and because we don’t use microphones, you really have to project your voice. The children, who had been quiet during the rehearsals really upped their game and could be heard. In one small scene I had to push a “boulder” (hula hoop and black cloth) in front of a creepy cave to trap the children. I pushed the boulder, said my line, walked off and the dratted thing blew over, flat! Luckily the audience laughed in amusement.

I hope we do another one next year.

Lemon curd cheesecake

Posted on July 8, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Cheese cake food, Dessert, Garden Centre, lemon curd cheesecake, Life, Sweet, TiredLeave a comment

Afternoon tea. Why do we post photos of food. This was lovely, tart and served cold with cream. Best cheesecake I’ve had in years. Plus a nice cup of tea.

We’d gone looking for plants for dry conditions, which we got, but had to visit the cafe. I was tired after Saturday so I hardly had any energy but I’m glad I got out for an hour or so. It was nice to have a gentle rest and a chat with my sister.