I’ve added myself in the bottom right hand side of the painting. I’m there as a ghostly shadow in the photo, so why not? Trying to get an idea of cracked paint on the frame. 
Can you see my phone?
No need to water.
Despite the sunshine in these photos the rain keeps coming down. We have had a lot of blustery showers over the last few days and I’ve only had to water my hanging baskets a couple of times. I can’t get up the bit next to the house because it’s getting really overgrown. I think I’m going to have to take a few leaves off the tomato plants soon so what tomatoes we have get some sun to ripen them!
This is the view outside the window.
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Spider 🕸
Warning, this post contains an image of a spider. Don’t look if you don’t like them. It’s a garden spider so it’s quite big……
Left a gap so people don’t have to look. It’s a garden spider, building its web outside the kitchen window. It had been battered by a rain shower that had happened a few minutes ago.
Why have I got so much cutlery?
And one chopstick?
I had a nice set of six of each stainless steel cutlery, that was fine. But they started disappearing, what was going on? I guessed my hubby had taken them. He’s into fixing bicycles…. Hmm.
So I went and bought some nice ones with blue handles. But over the years the metal on them started to wear away. They were going rusty!
I don’t buy new things very often but after a few years I decided to buy a new set, lovely, sleek, stainless steel. Nice.
So that’s why I’ve got so much. Mostly we use the new ones, and the first stainless steel set, and then the blue handled ones…. Er yes, I know, I should keep washing the same ones. Maybe it saves hot water?
The one chopstick? Found the other one in the bathroom, propping up a maiden hair fern.
And the old cutlery that’s missing? Well I was looking in the shed for something and found some rusty knives and a fork in his tool box. He’s been using them as tyre levers, to fix punctures.
Sparks
Sparks flew up into the night, blooming like a flower as he threw her old books onto the bonfire. He thought back over the last few hours. Finding her asleep on the bed, the sun slanting through the curtains. He’d left her to rest.
She’d come into the kitchen for coffee but barely noticed him. Just muttering fine when he asked he if she was OK.
She put the radio on, one of those inane poppy channels he hated. Started a little jigging dance. She seemed happier now, so he asked again how she was? OK she responded. Then she looked at him, a long stare. Who was that woman you were with last night? she said.
He knew he would have to answer. But not now, not yet. He hadn’t decided what to do.
Cat got your tongue she said?
Now it was night, the books were making sparks. He threw her record collection onto the bonfire.
She always asked too many questions he thought as he walked back into the house.
Shouting in the dark
I’m too small
The world’s too big
Shouting in the dark,
The world’s too small
Solar system so big,
Shouting in the dark,
Sun’s system is small
The galaxy is big
Shouting in the dark –
The galaxy is small
The universe is big
I’m shouting in the dark.
Shouting into infinity.
Is anyone out there –
To hear?
Red and Green.
As a change from blue, white and black, I’m having a red drink (cranberry juice, slimline tonic and frozen berries instead of ice) in a green glass which is the bottom of a recycled wine bottle.
Tasty, low calorie and has a bit of fibre in it. I think I’m going to have a rest from painting for the rest of the evening.
Painting upside down.
Sometimes it’s hard to see whether something looks right in a painting. Then I try turning it upside down. It really does give you a different perspective. In the case of the painting I’m doing it also allows me to get closer to the top of the picture as I’ve got it propped up on a chair.
Eyesight is another problem. If I’m staring at my phone looking at the image it’s hard for my eyes to accommodate (called presbyopia) where the lenses in your eyes get stiffer as you get older, so they don’t focus as well.
I’m now starting to paint the cracks in the window frame paint. I may come back to the clouds (thanks Martha, a bit of finger painting helped).
I’ve rotated the photo back to the vertical on my camera so I can look at it without moving the canvas. Eventually I will turn it back the right way so I can paint the bottom half. It’s going to take a while…..
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Spode patterns
I’m working towards the exhibition at Spode and I’ve been experimenting with the photos I took a few days ago. Using the Layout app on my phone.
The thing is, I know I can’t reproduce these as paintings, so it’s good to use photographs to experiment with the images I took. There was a film by Andrei Tarkovsky I saw years ago. I think it was called Stalker, the industrial archeology of Spode reminds me of that. Almost post apocalyptic….
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Sunrise, Sunset.
I’ve looked at maps all my life, but never noticed that it gets dark earlier in the South East in summer than in the North West. Of course I know the Earth is tipped at an angle, something like 22° and I know that at the equator day and night are about the same length and that sunrise and sunset are about 6pm. But I hadn’t noticed the angle that the terminator of day and night is at.
As we are on the Greenwich longitude line I assumed the shadow would run straight up and down the globe. But of course it can’t be if the Earth is tipped. That also explains why we have seasons in the North and South hemispheres.
