Developing tulips

The top left tulip and bottom right are both the same type, but the top left one has developed and the colour is coming out. The other still has a green tinge. The top left is a different, more rounded type, but there is a yellow throat to it. Finally the bottom left was a larger pale pink flower. I’m loving the way they are developing.

Got new Glitter pens

Experimenting with new felt pens

Doodling on cartridge paper which was a nice surface to draw on. I’m using a different sketchbook and got some new glittery felt pens. Unfortunately the sparkle is not very strong. I then added black liner pen and some gold pen. I almost added a face to this, but left it as finished. However if I can add it digitally as a background I might have a go at drawing over it in a digital app……

Before an Exhibition

When do you feel most productive?

Something stirs inside me about a fortnight before I have an exhibition of my art (it doesn’t happen very often). I’ve probably had seven or eight solo exhibitions in my life and some group ones.

Suddenly I get the urge to create and I can produce several paintings in a very short time. It doesn’t matter what the subject is, I become very concentrated on what I want to produce. It’s like time changes and I can be working till 3 or 4 in the morning without realising how time is flying (is this flow?). At other times I feel less able to create, the switch hasn’t tripped inside my mind I guess.

Productivity has to have a reason. I need to be motivated to get work done. Every day I do a little bit of art, so over the years I must have been very productive, but now with my health I am slowing down. Something I could do quickly takes more time. I feel that, it makes me sad and annoyed with myself. I really want to turn the clock back a few years, but I guess that’s not going to happen, so I’ll keep trying to carry on. I use different media and have recently tried charcoal and pastels as well as my usual acrylic paint on canvas.

Beauty filter?

I found a beauty filter on my phone camera. I tried using it… No matter how I turned it up I couldn’t fade out my lines at the side of my nose and mouth…. So I gave up and decided to embrace my features! Black and white high contrast image and I increased the granularity of the image. I look tired (I am) and my hair was a mess, but who care? You just keep going….

Many things…

Art etc…

What topics do you like to discuss?

If you know my blog, it’s full of different things, ideas, thoughts. I try and explain things sometimes, although I might not have accurate information. But I try and get the gist of things. I like working things out. I also talk a lot about my art (which is what the page was originally set up for). Then I sometimes write poetry, although again, I wouldn’t say I was brilliant at it. And sometimes I write short stories. So all in all I try to vary things and hopefully not be too boring?

I suppose this all reflects a varied, comprehensive education. I’m definitely not a narrow minded specialist. I try and listen to both sides of an argument, but I’m not wholly impartial. If a subject seems important for the world or the environment, I will generally support it. I try not to be fooled. There are a lot of strange ideas out there, and the Internet can be an effective (and bad) way of spreading misinformation.

I enjoy science, particularly astronomy. You can find posts I’ve written where I ramble on about things like galaxies or eclipses, or disagreeing with strange ideas about the shape of the Earth.. It’s an oblate spheroid. I have collections of books, glass, paintings and other objects, so I try and keep myself enthusiastic about many and various things. And then there are Cats. That’s a whole separate post…

Recently I’ve talked about my health, but is this the right forum? Will I miraculously come across a solution to my problems? no, I think I just have to get on with things. But I certainly feel supported and I’m grateful for that.

Tulip close up

Close up of a tulip

Exciting. Yes to me, this wrinkled flower is changing by the day. If the weather warms up it might open in the next couple of days. Green and pink? Will it change colour too? Concentrating on one flower, but it looks interesting to me. It reminds me of a stormy sea. Waves crashing against each other….. Ooo I’m so excited!