New paintings and regular art updates.
I just found some old slides from when I was at college. I have not got a light box so I have had to try and hold them up to the light while photographing them with my tablet.
My question to any photographers out there is can you get slides turned into old style photographs or get them digitally stored? I included the surrounding borders of the slides because they add to my memories of the time.
There are some more but I will try and post them later perhaps.
I’m just starting a painting about 2ft by 2ft 6 inches.
It’s a view of the Spode site looking from the building that houses Hulton Pottery which is a small studio pottery on the Spode site, looking down the run of buildings then on to the iconic Spode Chimney that stands high above the site.
Spode is changing, parts have been demolished, other parts will be gone soon. However new people at moving into the studio’s on the site. Together with the visitor centre and the hotel it is becoming more vibrant and interesting.
Hopefully the weather won’t get too cold this winter, that’s what really puts me off going. I have a studio but my mind isn’t on things really. I have found it really hard to get motivated but perhaps I have turned a corner…..
So I will leave you with the beginnings of a painting..with luck I can get it finished soon.
X
I don’t remember painting this but I have found a post on Facebook where a friend thanks me for it.
I’m glad I did it and I think I must have needed to paint it at the time although I’m not a religious person, but the idea of having a guardian angel does appeal. I’m not sure why I did a rainbow halo on it? I had an angel mirror on the wall in the bedroom for years so this seems really familiar in a dream like way.
I think I’m influenced by a James Stewart film with a character called Clarence, he is an Angel in the film. I can’t remember the name of the movie but James Stewart plays a banker who had been framed by a rich land owner for taking money when it was actually a total mistake. Stewart decides to kill himself and Clarence saves him only to be told by Stewart that he wished he had never been born. There follows a scene where Clarence shows him what the world would be like without him…..I won’t spoil this with the ending in case you have never seen it.
Anyway sometimes we all need an angel even if it is only imagined.
X
P.S. just remembered the film was called “its a wonderful life”.
Summer and its flavours,
Crisp and crunchy flowers,
Take us through the hours,
of summer bright and light.
Hot and tasty bowers,
Nasturtium flowers are sour,
But sweet plums ripen here
In the shining Sun.
Before the ripe tomatoes,
Before the mellow mists,
Before the damp of Autumn,
Summer gives its gifts.
Sunshine and wild showers
Heat for many hours
Summer cooks its fruit,
Raspberries and pears.
Oranges and almonds
Appear on our tables
Strawberries of fable
Melt with mint and cream.
Plums and pomegranates
Begonias and daisies,
Lobelia and lemons,
Summer coloured sweet.
Now come the dark days,
Shorter every hour
Equinox is coming
Day will turn to night.
Never lose the summer
Keep it in your mind.
Smell and taste its wonders
Soon to burst again.
I love the summer,
I love the light,
I hate the winter,
Brings on dark and night.
We started going to archery a few months ago, but had to stop because I got busy doing art, or visiting relatives, and Richards back has been playing up.
So we decided to go back today. It was overcast and a bit blustery but we were only shooting arrows over about 20 yards, which isn’t far, even with the junior 16 pound bows we were using. I managed to get a gold and so did my partner, but we were watching the other archers, who are more experienced, shoot 50 and 80 yards.
I decided to have a try at 50 yards, you have to elivate the bow more, I ended up aiming at the roof of a house. I actually managed to hit the target after trying several shots that either went short or left of the target. As the morning passed we were both getting closer to the gold (center of the target ).
It’s surprising how tiring it us pulling even a low poundage bow, some if the people there were pulling 40 pound bows. But looking back in history archers could pull far heavier bows than that. They started around age 4 and were given 4 arrows. They then has to practice every day. Archers ended up with massive muscles and deformed backs because of the strain they were putting on them.
At the end of the session we were shooting at the 80 yard target, I was getting tired and my bow arm kept dropping, but despite not hitting the target I was making he distance. My arrows wavered and wiggled as they flew through the air, but they got there. I was shooting with sites but they didn’t help much. I just had to vaguely aim at a clump of trees.
I think we will go back next week….
Someone (a friend) saw my rather serious selfies and asked me to take some photos of me laughing. I’ve never done that before and so I was a bit surprised but I said yes….
These are the results including me with a straight face.
I’m imagining having to do a passport photo and choosing to do it with me laughing, how much fun would that be? And instead of “filter faces” where everyone has to have perfect skin and features and hair why not have do this instead? fun…. life is too serious sometimes.
I’ve got one photo of me somewhere that had me wearing a stick on moustache, and others in hats, also in face paints. Life is too short, life is often hard and boring, sometimes we need to break away from its difficulties….
When I was a child I won a funny face competition at school. I used to pull faces all the time, when we grow up we forget all those things!
So go ahead, even if you don’t post it, pull a face now, or roar with laughter, or just giggle. ….relax and be free of social pressures for a second! Laughter is good medicine .
I might just do a painting of these. There are some sculptures I saw on tv of a man pulling faces……not sure who did them or why, but he showed his humanity.
X
Taking a selfie is bad enough, but trying to draw yourself from it while trying to hold a sketchpad and a tablet computer in one hand and an old felt pen in the other is quite difficult. I did try and use pointillism to do the shading but I think it didn’t really work well. Somehow the eyes in the drawing are looking at me, when in the photo they look up and to the right. The other thing with selfies is you see yourself the right way round, where when you look in a mirror everything is back to front, in mirror image.
I had been trying to take a photo of my reflection in a mirror but the tablet keep getting in the way. The only decent way to take it was by holding the computer tablet to one side but I ended up with the toilet in the background because my decent sized mirror is in the bathroom!
Anyway I don’t generally do selfies and its been a few years since I did a self portrait, but this was a bit of an experiment. I like painting people and drawing them. Soon the life drawing class I go to will be starting up again. Then I can get in some proper practice.
Till then I’m going to try and do a few more quick portraits, this took about 15 minutes.
S p i r a g l n l i
o u t o f c . . o . . n . t l r o
I love spirals,
Twirling round and far,
Spiral buns and spiral suns
And spiral galaxies.
I love
Spirals…..
Twisting round
My tongue… making
Tornadoes . .
And hurricanes . .
Fly around .
The land.
With cuts in education it appears that arts subjects are getting lower take up’s these days.
Students have to do more “useful” subjects, like Maths, English and Sciences, plus probably a language. Then if they go on to college or university the temptation is to go for more academic courses, especially when a 3 year course is going to cost upward of 30 or 40 thousand pounds.
I went to a Polytechnic, many years ago now. I got a maintenance grant and didn’t have to get a loan (they didn’t exist then). The costs were paid for by taxation, which was higher in the past. This made sense because that money raised by the exchequer sustained the education system as well as other services such as the NHS.
Things gradually changed, governments changed, their ideas changed and the rules changed. Where once there were grants now there are loans, where once there were bursaries, now there are loans. You may not have to pay them back until you are over an earnings threshold. But student loans are at 6% interest per annum, when inflation is between 2% or 3%. In other words the loans are a form of future taxation. Only low level, but over the years it takes to get a good job that persons debt is due to spiral. Is it any wonder that Art subjects are being dropped….
But Art is important, if you look at the patterns on these dresses, the design of the dresses, even the frill on the lamp shade? Someone designed that….
Artists may not get paid much but they make the world more beautiful and interesting. Artists can be innovators…look at the art of Leonardo da Vinci, he not only drew and painted, but came up with designs for tanks and helicopters and planes. They were not built because the technology did not exist to make them, but the ideas were there.
Art and design can be done on computers nowadays, press a button? No you still have to have someone to draw out the designs. Without art the world would be a boring, grey, sad place.
So if you feel like doing art….do it!
Oh I do love swirling things about, colour, playing with shapes, to me this is fun. Like creating a painting, but digitally.
Subtle changes of colour and shading add depth, adding the alterations together give an idea of metamorphosis. All these can be created from a few apps.
I don’t know what digital art is out there, except for pictures created by David Hockney of digital portraits and the woods close to his home when he was living in Yorkshire a few years ago. I went to see them exhibited at Salts Mill in Saltaire, Yorkshire.
I think that digital art will progress and change. I look forward to seeing it.
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