Not in…

It wasn’t to be. Yesterday I thought I’d been lucky, a friend had been called her entry for the open exhibition was not successful. I waited all day, no call, no email. Could it be?

Discussed with another artist, you’re a cert she said. No problem.

About 10 am, the call came, I waited a second to decide whether I was assuming yes or no? Joy or gloom?

Sorry, you were not successful this time. A pleasant woman’s voice.. Gloom, then a realisation. I had managed to do something that I hadn’t done for a while. I’d painted a piece of art.. I don’t care about the judges. I LIKE it!

More work

I decided to try and improve this painting because it was too reflective and the metallic copper sheet it was painted on was showing through too much. I seem to have worked reasonably well but it took effort to get the acrylic paint to stick onto the surface, but that was the problem on the original picture. Acrylic on a metallic surface.

Buddha

I went to art group for the first time in weeks and picked up a small, 6×4 in canvas.

I haven’t done a painting for ages, my Parkinsons is bad and looking close up is difficult because although I’m cataract free,  they also cured my short sightedness and I find it hard to focus on close objects, basically closer than about a foot things get blurred. I need to get some ordinary reading glasses because the ones I’ve got are too strong.

Then I saw a tiny, gold painted, plastic Buddha. Of all the things that I could choose to paint, this seemed like the right karma. The brushes were a bit rough and not easily pointed. It was hard to see the details, but in about an hour I managed to paint him. The best thing? Someone in the group said they really liked it. So I gave it them.

In other news, I know I haven’t been here much lately. I miss my cat so much. It’s another loss I’m struggling to come to terms with. Love to you all.

Old self portrait

Painted in 1991? that was when I flirted with getting my first studio, but one of the three people sharing it enjoyed playing loud music too much. Eventually it drove me out. I just wanted to paint in quiet and peace.

The cat was one of the first cats I had when I came to live in Stoke on Trent. She was extremely intelligent and followed me everywhere or rode on my shoulder. I was in my early thirties when I painted this. It was acrylic on canvas. Called familiar friends.