Fish?

Several years ago I worked in housing. In that job I was responsible for looking after abandoned properties among other things.

One day I had to go out and inspect a house. It was full of belongings which was very difficult to get through because furniture was strewn everywhere. So I did an inventory and arranged for it to be cleared. I took photos, and when I reviewed them I saw a very green fishtank. The property had apparently been empty for two months before we were notified it was empty, but something prompted me to contact the team who were due to clear the house and asked them to look for it.

It turned out there was a goldfish in the tank! Not visible because of the algae in there. Luckily it had been eating the algae. It was rehomed to a garden fishpond.

Clownfish

Last night I also tried drawing a clown fish and thus is what I came up with. I used a fountain pen to draw over the acrylic paint. I hope this isn’t too silly. It looks like a happy fish. Maybe I should have tried lighter blue and red so that you can see the pen drawn on top of it.

Not sure if this is a sketch, cartoon or a doodle. And in a way I wished I had done a bit better details on it, maybe including scales? I might do more to it, I might play with it more….

Scales/tessellations

Try and draw a pattern that fits together, so regular shapes interlock. It’s easy with squares or diamonds, triangles or even hexagons, but when you get onto irregular shapes it’s more difficult. Interlocking shapes made up of the same shape over and over are called tessellations I think. Although I’m not sure because tessera are the little squares or oblongs they use in mosaics I think? I really need to look these things up before I write them down!

Anyway I’m working towards drawing dragons, and they are usually covered in scales, like snakes. That led me to realise that ideally I would like an interlocking pattern. I could look at a snake, or a fish, or a lizard, but I just made my own up. I added some crosshatching for shade and patterns for interest. I hope people aren’t getting bored with my experiments!

Framed pastel seascape

I must go down to the sea again

Says the old poem.

And I know why

Beauty and violence

Gentle lapping wavelets

And white horses.

Frantic families

Lost sailors

Storms and waves

So high they reach up, up

To the sky.

Birds skim the surface

Grab fish in their beaks

Puffins and Skewers

Cormorants and Choughs

Ever changing

Sometimes boring

I must go there again.

Pool at Dorothy Clive Garden.

The one thing that did disappoint me today was the pool, usually there are mounds and shapes of lots of different plants, but with the cold wet May we had things haven’t grown yet. Hopefully on our next visit it will be burgeoning with flowers and foliage.

Still we think we saw a couple of newts in the pond, together with goldfish and dark carp. The waterlilies are growing up and starting to spread. All in all it was a lovely early Summer day out.

Blue sky

warm water

goldfish swim lazily

mayfly dart across the surface

waterlilies open pale petals slowly

the world is calm

clouds float in an azure sky

contemplate

and relax.

Out for food.

Just back from a delicious meal at Sangams balti House in Stoke-upon-trent, the town Stoke-on-Trent City is named after.

I had a King Prawn and Lamb balti, and a garlic nan. My friends had a fish dupiaza and a Chicken and mushroom dupiaza. There are two Sangam Balti restaurants here. I think because they needed more space they were so popular.

There is no alcohol served on the premises but you can take your own. The portion sizes are good and the food is hot and tasty.

Worth a visit if you are in town.

Silly idea

Doodle of a flying fish… Yes its daft, I was just thinking about different ideas, air and water, crazy evolution. I don’t know what gave me the idea, where it came from. We are doing idea generation at college and we have to come up with new ideas, this was just one of them…. I need to do more, it’s only being playful…