Postponed craft fairs

Sadly the two craft fairs I signed up for have been postponed because they fall too close to Christmas, there are other similar fairs on at the same time and the cost of living makes them less likely to be profitable because no one will have any money.

I would like to participate in ones next year but how can I be certain that things will be any better then? People are going to suffer financially and luxuries like arts and crafts may not be saleable. The whole idea of being an artist and trying to sell work seems less and less feasible.

Meanwhile, I’m seriously thinking about leaving my studio at Spode. I didn’t use it very often since Covid happened because I’m still avoiding people. I don’t know if I can afford it any more. Life isn’t terrible but sometimes you need to be sensible.

Fuel price cap

Later today the United Kingdom is going to be told the new price cap for Gas and Electricity which will affect the cost of bills. The price is set to skyrocket to about £2300 a year in October but then £4200? Per year in January! Bills are going to be unaffordable for the poorest in society and the question of whether to heat or eat becomes very bad if all you can afford to buy is cheap tinned food but you can’t heat it up.

The UK is supposed to be the sixth richest nation in the world but we seem more interested in giving the fuel companies shareholders masses of money instead of supporting our citizens. Our government is currently deciding who will replace Boris Johnson by letting 160,000 members of the British Conservative party choose the next prime minister instead of doing something about the cost of living crisis. Note to Liz Truss who is likely to win. If you cut taxes that’s fine for the rich, but a lot of people don’t pay them because their incomes are already too low. A 1% cut of nothing is nothing.

Before covid?

You could go to a beach and find someone just painting stones as a job (Lulworth Cove in Dorset). A respectable way of earning some money as an artist. Sitting in the sunshine, working on imaginative designs. We bought one with a blue octopus painted on it. The stones were probably collected off the shingle beach (yes I’m writing about different shingles). I would love to go back there but I doubt this artist would still be plying his trade. Yes the world has changed.

Green, red, white and black cat.

Happy cat. I decided to play with using a black and white filter then adding texture and then a flood fill of red and green. I think it is similar in an Andy Warhol image (though I make no claim of having the same sort of skills as him) I just think it shows how digital filters now can quickly change an image that would have required skills such as black and white photography and screen printing in the past.

Shingles

No,  not the sort that you find on a beach.  The one caused by having chickenpox. It can come back as shingles in later life…..

Hubby is due his vaccination against it which is great,  but I’ve had an aching lower back for a week. It hurt even more last night,  each time I tried to get comfortable  I got shooting pains in my back and leg. My hubby had noticed a rash of blistery spots in a line on my lower back, just on one side.  Suddenly it occurred to me this might be shingles. I looked it up and found an image that seemed similar to what I have. Luckily I got a doctors appointment and they decided it was a mild case so I’ve got some tablets that should calm it down. They used to say if your shingles met in the middle you would be very ill (not sure how bad or how they could), I’m thankful it’s not too bad.

Small photo, incase you are eating your tea. Not my shingles. An Internet view.

Details

Detail from a life study I did several years ago. I’ve chosen the figure in the background who is drawing because I think it’s important in a painting or drawing to show what is going on around the subject. This figure mirrors the seated life model to dome extent. On the other side of the picture is a large cloth hanging down over a screen and table. The artist on the right helps balance the image up. I used a large round brush with a good point to paint in the textures and thin lines. I did this directly onto the paper. I rarely do any pencil drawing on things like this, I draw with my brush.

Abstract for Ukraine

It’s six months since Russia invaded Ukraine and I wanted to make an abstract image in blue and yellow to support the country. The Yellow marks are meant to represent sunflower petals catching the sun against a brilliant blue sky. The petals are interconnected to symbolise that determination of Ukraines people to support each other. Don’t forget the Russian troops massed on the borders of the country before invading. They had no right to do so despite trying to say the invasion was a ‘special operation’. Russia, please leave, we won’t forget what your troops have done.

Penkhull midnight

An old biro/ digital drawing I did a few years ago of our local church. I think I intended to use it as a christmas card (its several years ago but i think I did print a few off). I can see from it that I drew it out in biro first, but then must have scanned it into photoshop because I can see areas where it seems to have had some flood fill colour. I don’t know if I intended it to have white areas as snow or reflected starlight. I was watching a programme about astronomy last night. It said that a star will become a supernova once a century on average in our galaxy, but there have been none in the Milky Way since the Seventeenth century. Our closest candidate is Betelguese in the constellation Orion. It is a red giant star and sits on the top left hand side of the constellation. It has been dimming recently, which may mean it is shrinking. It might as they said, not explode for a million years, or it might become a Supernova tomorrow. No one can tell. But when it does it will be a very bright object in the sky. It might even look like this.