New paintings and regular art updates.
A small papier mache bowl I painted during the week. It’s meant to represent the sun seen through trees, which are the black lines, the green bands are leaves, the blue and white represent sky and the yellow is the sun. But what to call it? I would call it abstract and simple. It’s vaguely art deco? Let me know a title?
If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?
I do sometimes use the word awesome on social media. It sort of explains my thoughts about some of the images online. But to be honest it is too easy to use. You don’t have to think of more subtle descriptions.
An ‘awesome’ limerick:
There once was an awesome post
On a website I used to host….
I realised my words
Were really absurd
And I hated ‘awesome’ most.
I just think it exaggerates the importance of an object ot person. To look on something in awe, is to see something of great style, beauty or extraordinary complexity. You would not call a bag of crisps awesome. Nor would you describe a cup of cappuccino and a muffin at the local cafe awesome as you took ten photographs of them. My point is words like awesome should only be used in exceptional circumstances. I need to give it up.
The heat from our bonfire used to toast us when we had our Bonfire night celebrations on November the 5th. To remember the story about Guy Fawkes and his attempt to blow up Parliament hundreds of years ago. But we were more interested in seeing all the colourful fireworks, Catherine wheels, jumping Jack’s, volcanoes, rockets and squibs. Then we would all go inside to eat jacket potatoes from the hot oven with lashings of butter and salt. Happy memories.
Did I really write lashings?!
Guy Fawkes night is traditional in the UK. Children try and collect money to buy fireworks by making ‘Guys’ to be burnt as effigies on top of bonfires. Nowadays the back garden bonfires are discouraged and larger organised events are the norm.
Without flicking paint! Each dot so far and each smudge is from a brush touching the canvas. It’s a bit over exposed. It’s acrylic on a small 7×7 inch canvas. I might paint a tardis on it if it works. There are hundreds of dots and I’m really struggling to find a brush with a decent point. More to do!
Share a story about the furthest you’ve ever traveled from home.
The furthest I’ve traveled was to Germany on a coach. I went on a wine tasting trip with my mom. It was a four day trip and it was a bit disappointing because I had a cold.
We drove a long way from the Midlands through London to Dover. We waited for ages to get on the ferry, then across to Calais. I remember staying on deck on a cold wet afternoon because my mom had seasickness. Then on through France and Belgium to Germany. I noticed the countryside was similar to Britain but the electricity pylons looked completely different. Much sturdier and solid instead of our criscross filigree style. By then the cold was getting to me and I slept until we stopped at a petrol station and I tried to ask for aspirin, but used the wrong phrase ‘haben du’ informal, instead of ‘haben sie’, I didn’t know I was being over familiar.
One of our coach passengers thought we had gone into East Germany? Why, I don’t know, he was a bit odd.
After two days tasting (and snuffling) various wines and realising I liked ‘qualitatsvein mit pradikat’ the best. We had a trip on the Rhine, and to a cuckoo clock shop, and to a bridge over the Rhine to see statues of the Rhine maidens I think? Mom and I came home on the coach again. Just starting to feel better, the best bit was watching ‘the hunt for red october’ on TVs on the coach!
The obligatory post on Facebook was asking if you knew what these were to prove you were a child of the 90’s. Why? I knew what these were before the 90’s!
Most people answered these were from fountain pens, but I disagreed, these were from cartridge pens.
A real fountain pen was one with a bulb in it that you squeezed to suck the ink up, or a lever on the side that squashed the inner bulb flat and when it was released pulled the ink in. I always used quink ink.
The cartridges were from cartridge pens, you just unscrewed the back half of the pen and swapped them out when they were empty… The only risk was if the cartridge leaked, the top end of the pen had a bit of metal that pierced the cartridge to allow the ink into the pen and nib. Sometimes you would end up with a pocket or pencil case full of ink if they leaked.
What does your ideal home look like?
I don’t live in an expensive, ideal house. This is next door. Mine is in better repair, but it’s an old house built in the 1900s. It’s been changed so that it has a bathroom/kitchen extention. It took years to buy because we previously rented.
Someone suggested to me recently that I should downsize. To that ideal home the prompt asks about? But why should I? Unless my health deteriorates further. I know where I am. I have a large garden at the side of the house. It’s full of nature, an old pond, trees, squirrels, hedgehogs. Why do I want someone to buy the house and rip it apart. If I ever find the money I would repair and restore it. I guess that’s my ideal home. Maybe with a stair lift and storage for my art?
My wiring has gone wrong. The tangle of wires behind my arm chair has been mashed. The heavy armchairs, I got second hand, have castors, unfortunately. I’ve had to move them a couple of times and then with my weight, they are knackered. Plus the socket they plug into must have got clattered with the hoover? It was cracked. Anyway it was over 25 years old.
So I tried the computer because the landline still isn’t working. I got an error message, my ethernet cable isn’t plugged in. I checked both ends, they look OK. I will get replacements and see if I can fix it. I’m going to pin the wires up on the wall to stop them getting damaged again. X
What brings a tear of joy to your eye?
You know the type of story
You find a rose on your doorstep
Unrequited love?
Years later
After a long illness
And sad losses
The person who left it
Falls over in front of you
Conversation ensues
You find out
It was him!
He was nervous
He couldn’t tell you
We must get together
30 years of waiting
True love took its time
But eventually
Struck!
I am glued to my TV. The Paris paralympics started on Wednesday and since my Internet was down I got into it. Team GB is doing really well and I have limited my Internet use now it’s been restored to the gaps between TV programmes showing the athletes in action.
So far I’ve watched Boccia (like bowls but using cloth covered softer balls), archery, athletics (field and track, with various disabilities), rowing, badminton, table tennis, tennis, cycling, and blind football. There’s also been wheelchair rugby and basketball.
It’s all fascinating and the skills the athletes show is amazing. If you can watch have a look!
Mallaband-Brown