Wedgewood artisan market

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It was a fairly bright morning once you dodged the rain showers so we decided to visit wedgewood artisan market (2nd Sunday of each month). It’s at the Wedgewood factory, near Barlaston,, Staffordshire. We had a fine potters full breakfast in the dining room there (with beans and oatcake). Our friend from Yorkshire was visiting so it was good to show him one of the local attractions. Once we had eaten we went round the outdoor and indoor stalls. Charis Jones with her Sculpted Steel was there, together with Pat Myatt and her potteries art work. Other stalls included whisky fudge, crafted wool blankets, various cheeses and cakes, you could even buy your own fairy kit to make a fairy like the ones at Trentham Gardens. My partner bought me a kit and I bought him a wood turned pen. We also went inside the wedgewood visitor centre and I spent a happy hour trying to create a cat design plate. The pens and pencils they had were not very good but hopefully the image on the plate (a lithograph) will be OK.

I took a couple of progress photos but not one if the finished design. It might take 6 weeks for it to be delivered though…

Fear of falling

That’s something I don’t like about getting older, a fear of falling.

I sat on a chair a couple of years ago and because it had a knot in the wood it broke… and I landed on the floor with a broken rib.

Other times I have really fallen, tripped up over the edge of a step, hitting my head..  Luckily that time I didn’t do any serious damage…

I’ve been scared at the top of a steep hill and had to crawl along the top, as everyone just walked past me! So embarrassing .. And yet as a child I would climb up and hang down from the top of the swings in the playground by my knees….

Life is strange, you do go from fitness to infirmity without realising sometimes. I just keep trying to get fitter now…. Trying not to fall….

5 years ago

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Five years ago I had been part of an online art group called Sketchfu. It was a large site and I was one of the moderators. It had a simple drawing programme with five sizes of pens, a colour picker, 50 or 60 colours and opacity controls. And yet people were creating art, drawings, enjoying the thrill of sharing their art work. It was like a small WordPress for artists.

Then it all went wrong. The owners became less available. More text was being published as younger contributors got interested in writing blogs instead of drawing. The moderators were not told about what was going on and the owners started promoting a new site. Eventually it was announced the old sketchfu site would close.

On that day I lost a lot of friends  I managed to keep a few. They are still around even 5 years later but I do miss all those others I met online.

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Drawing outside

Here are coloured pencil drawings I did a few years ago. They are views of church rock at Tenby, Tenby beaches, Tenby Harbour, Laugharne Castle and the boathouse at Laugharne where Dylan Thomas lived.

Tenby and Laugharne are both in the county of Pembrokeshire in South Western Wales. It is a beautiful place. Its known as little England in Wales. It is also the location of Pendine sands. A long flat beach in the Laugharne estuary where several land speed records have been achieved..

Phone doodles

Do you doodle when you are on the phone? I do if I’m on my phone. Its funny what comes into my mind. Mainly faces, patterns, thoughts.

These were drawn in biro on an old envelope. Sometimes I use italic pens or metallic ones. I tend to fill up all the space. I don’t remember when I did these. A few years ago?

And why not draw doodles? The more you practice art the better you can get. It also helps understanding what you are doing. I talk to myself sometimes as I draw to work out where I want to place features on a face for example.

My old self

This is from about 20years ago. It’s me and my old cat. It’s an acrylic on canvas. One friend criticised me for being too splodgy. It’s called Familiar friends.

When you look back at any picture of yourself it can be shocking how much you have changed. The lines on your face increase. I’ve got many more blemishes now. If I take a selfie it tries to blur out the imperfections and I look like I’m standing in fog!

I love this painting. I had dark hair and I was slimmer!

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Illustrations

Two pictures of a canal illustration I did last year and the photo I used. Each illustration was done in acrylic paint on water colour paper. I posted a couple of other images here last week.

They were painted in rough ovals to assist fitting them on the leaflet they were for. They were then cropped at the printers.

Im not sure if there will be a reprint of the leaflet. I know they have all disappeared from the leaflet stand at the canal museum where they were on display.