Tag: Art

Old painting

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This was a painting I must have done in the summer of 1983 or 1984, soon after I finished college I think.

My friend had lots of cats so I did a portrait of her with them.

I wanted to do the painting but didn’t have any stretched canvases to hand so I got some linen canvas and stretched it over a horseshoe shaped chair back with an extra peice of wood nailed in place at the bottom.

The painting was in oils  This was before I started using acrylics. After it was finished I gave it to my friend.

A year or two ago it turned up. It had moved house with my friend and she had got it propped up in the kitchen when I visited one day. It was starting to deteriorate because it wasn’t proper canvas and had a couple of holes in it. Bearing in mind it had been painted about 34 years before I guess it has done well. I took photos of it and left.

Sadly the painting got damaged beyond repair when they moved again. But at least I have this photo and I did a small copy which another friend purchased.

It feels like I am letting children go when they go to new homes .You never know if they will survive. At least I know this one’s history.

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Still life set up?

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Just found this photo…

Was it still life?  well it certainly is still!

I see art programmes where all sorts of things are put on display to be painted. I guess you have to use what comes to hand, but sometimes you can be limited by what’s available.

Positive things about this? I like the strong shadows being cast, there are interesting almost double shadows in front of the cups and saucers. I also like the blue cast shadow of the flowers and stems on the wall.

The cups and teapot are mismatched but at least they offer a challenge in getting their shapes down accurately. The vase is good, and the flowers would be nice to paint.  But why that old lamp? It’s not switched on, almost an afterthought? Maybe it was used at some stage.

Well I don’t know what else to say, we must all have random photos we don’t remember taking. Like old memories that suddenly spring to the surface. An old face remembered, or a phrase from a song, out of context now so that its meaning and history can only be grasped at.

 

Elephant in the room.

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I painted this a few years ago. It was an elephant my friend made for penkhull mystery plays. It was used in a procession onto the village green and was carried by shoulder straps. I think it had cloth legs hanging over the edge to make it look like someone was sitting on the elephant.

It was so amazing I decided to record it as a painting. The frame was made of willow withies then canvas was stretched over the frame and painted white. Finally a fringe was attached to it and other fabric decorations.

The painting went to my friends house but sadly the elephant is no more. I think it was burnt in a fire at the garage it was stored in a few years after the play.

Random photos

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Searching through my files found these old photos that were saved in a file that was on my old phone. Some of them I recognise, others must be more than 3 years old. I need to work out how to transfer them across to the other files…..

So there is Westport lake, a wooden screen at a cafe, a window in St Thomas Church, penkhull, a cumulo nimbus cloud, a drink flask, paper butterflies I cut out for a birthday and a painting I did of my friend decorating an elephant she made for the penkhull mystery plays.

I’m sure I will find more to share.

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Lazy days

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Sleep is fine for the cat,

Sixteen hours a day, rain or shine.

A wash behind the ears as he awakes,

A sniff of his paw, then cleans his face.

Time for breakfast/lunch/dinner

And cold, fresh, water.

Then off outside to peruse the birds.

See what’s on his territory.

Ginger from next door??

A swipe and it runs away…

Later as the sun sets,

Paw over nose

Cat again in a doze.

Fuzzy brain

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Finished or almost finished? Not sure. I’ve spent the last two days painting this while having my studio open to the public. In the end you lose track of what you are doing. What you are saying. I can waffle forever but it stops making sense after a while.

I like people to ask me questions about art. But then I get nervous. It’s like a fog descends over my head and I can’t articulate or describe what I mean. I hope my paintings are pretty self explanatory but I still try and explain what I am doing. Artists on TV seem to be able to tell people what they are doing, but I can’t do that. I’m a painter not a public speaker…..

So anyway, I finished this painting today. It’s called mermaid.

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My studio

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If you want to see somewhere full of paintings you could look round my studio. There are paintings of people, abstracts, animals, landscapes, buildings, cars, plants, or anything else you can think of.

I tend to use acrylic on canvas but also paint in watercolours and gouache. I have worked with pastel and with pencils and ink pens. I like anything that makes marks. Once at college I even drew with boot polish.

I paint on canvas and paper but I have painted on wooden doors when I was a student..

So yes I’m an artist, I can’t stop!

Work in progress, mermaid

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I decided to paint a mermaid but didn’t want it to be Disneyish. So I’ve used a photo of a victorian painting to work from. Obviously that face was not blue and I have changed the image in other ways to make it more interesting. I don’t have much more to do to it but I have left it for the moment. I will probably finish it off in the next couple of days..

Here

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Here I am again

Doodling little squares,

Trying to catch life in a box.

Here I sit with pen in hand,

Drawing the world

Squeezing reality into 2 dimensions.

Time pauses while I sketch,

Only to leap forward an hour

When… I. … look.. .. Up..

Here is life compressed,

Its size shrunk like a postage stamp

With the world drawn on it…..

Here is here at Etruria, here I sketch.

Adult colouring books

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I see perfectly coloured pictures on Instagram that adults have done to release stress, and it’s almost as if they are in competition with each other. No one colours outside the lines. The colors match perfectly and they are always filled in with solid colours.

This is my partners drawing, it’s a bit messy but expressive. He is not an artist but he still wants to enjoy the freedom to relax, he has some problems and doing this helps him relax. Time flows, the pattern of colour grows. When I asked him if he had finished he said he wanted to do some more to it.

It’s fascinating watching him. It’s great that anyone can just do this. Why didn’t someone think of this before?

Art of whatever sort needs to be encouraged. Art is life, the opposite of our stress led world.

Instead of being tied to a computer all day perhaps we should all carry a small sketchbook around with us. Of recycled paper of course

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