Rough,
Tired,
Aches and and pains,
Sleepy,
grabbed by gravity,
sunk,
coughing,
sneezing,
snotty,
did I say tired?
Just a cold,
nothing to see here.
Going to sleep.
Counting sheep.
How I feel
Callous Culture Cuts for Stoke Museums Undermines Future Chances of Tourism In The City
Permanent Five Month Closure for Gladstone and 13 Jobs Lost In Museum Shakeup
Callous Culture Cuts for Stoke Museums Undermines Future Chances of Tourism In The City
I saw this on WordPress Reader and had to share. The council claim its only a minimal cut (of around £600,00!). Its important that our industrial heritage is saved, otherwise Stoke on Trent would lose its raison d’etre.
Etruria Flint Mill
I added my easle yesterday. Today I’m showing you my easle two years ago, I did a painting of Etruria Flint Mill. It’s also called Jessie Shirley’s Bone and Flint mill I think? It’s the only working Steam driven Flint mill in the country and the flints and bone were crushed and ground using the power of the steam driven beam engine there.
The buildings are part of Etruria Industrial Museum, a complex of cafe, the museum displays, and the Flint mill on the Trent and Mersey and Cauldon Canals at Etruria, Stoke on Trent. I’m not sure of its opening times. But once a month it used to be fired up and you could watch the fly wheel rotating round and the pans where the flints were ground rumbling as the engine turns them. Its amazing to see the industrial archeology of the potteries in action.
Bug
My hubby has caught my cold bug (not Covid) now he feels like I have been feeling all week. He’s been sneezing a lot and apart from coming downstairs for food etc he’s spent the day in bed reading books. I hope he throws it off quickly. He doesn’t usually get ill but because we have been dodging viruses for the last two years I guess our immunity to the common cold has diminished.
Meanwhile I’ve had messages on other social media blaming masks for Covid! I replied that I guessed I’d never agree with the person and pointed out that before the pandemic surgeons, doctors, nurses and dentists wore normal surgical masks. If they don’t stop viruses or bacteria why wear them. Plus the person said CO2 would build up and Oxygen can’t get through a mask! I think O2 is a smaller molecule than CO2 so it’s More likely to get through (and FAR SMALLER than a virus particle). But logic and science does not seem to satisfy these people.
Under the weather
Dry throat
Dry cough
Feeling under the weather
Like a desert
Full of spiky cactus
Stuck in my throat
Cold and tired
Frosty and foggy brained.
Bring back cool showers
And gentle breezes.
Taking time
To recover.
Faces
I watched a programme about Andy Warhol last night. Even though its a while since he died it stated his Warholian influence is still widespread. It made me think about when I first found out about him. It was when I was at school. The paintings and screen prints of Campbells soup cans and portraits of Marilyn Monroe were the images I first saw. I was learning about Pop Art at the time. When you have just been learning about renaissance artists such as Michelagelo or Botticelli it’s a bit of a shock to see something different. Like the Roy Lichtenstein paintings such as ‘Whaam!’ using bright colours and screen print effects. I think Warhol and these other artists were what got me interested in being playful with art.
Painting or photo?
By mirroring, changing texture, changing the colour and adding lens flare you can get a whole different, if artificial, landscape. I’m not sure I have made it look natural, I wanted to make it look like I had used a paintbrush and oil paints, but the lens flare is perhaps too sharp. Maybe I should put it through another filter or have I gone far enough.
Back to college
I need to start working on my college project. I’ve given myself time to recover from a bad cold, but I can’t ignore it. I need to produce a portfolio of images and a report to go alongside it. I’ve decided to write about the history of dragons in illustrations. Their images in world history, moving forward in time to medieval art and then the present day including their appearances in literature and film. My portfolio will be illustrations and text for a children’s book exploring colour and pattern alongside an adventure. I hoe it works out.
What’s on the easle?
They ask
‘what’s on the easle?’.
I say
‘a lot of stuff’
Tissues and a coffee cup
And other sorts of muck
A drawing of a dragon
A pallette and a brush
A green painted canvas
If you really want to look….
I ought to be painting
But there’s been a delay
My minds gone off the boil now
It’s not coming out to play…
One day I’ll get my mojo back
I’ll start to paint again
But till that day my easle
Is a place to rest my brain!
Another cat in a box
Grainy, blurry photo of my female cat. I had a printmaking kit delivered and I’ve just taken it out of the box so I left it there for the cats. It’s dark in here as I’m saving electricity and just have a couple of lamps on. I don’t need much light.
She’s a beautiful, delightful cat, mother of at least four kittens that we rehomed. She was pregnant when we took her in as a rescue cat but we got her spayed and she has lots of fun now. Her latest trick now is chasing my dressing gown belt. I’ll be walking through the kitchen and have to stop because she’s caught it with her claws!
