
You glitter and gleam in the light,
Swimming in your tank,
How I wish,
You could be free…
Fish!
New paintings and regular art updates.

You glitter and gleam in the light,
Swimming in your tank,
How I wish,
You could be free…
Fish!

Shimmering silver and gold,
Flicker in the sunshine,
catching erratic mayflies.
Slipping down the stream,
glinting and glimmering,
Sun and shade stripes of branches,
camouflaged and hidden
above the pebbled bed.
Leaping and jumping
flying fish for a second
mid air,
then like raindrops falling,
back into the crystal clear,
cold, brisk, water…

The clouds lifted over the mere as the sun set. For about five minutes it stopped raining and the drumming on the roof eased. The mere was almost invisible in the darkening evening. The only indication of it were reflections of house lights on the waters surface.
One strange ripple broke the surface. The wake of something moved across the glassy water of the mere.
A duck was heading for its nest for the night. Snap! It was gone.
A few feathers were all that were left.
The ripples stopped as the predator sank deeper. Patrolling now up and down the bank, a snap here, a snuck there, finding food…. The Pike picked its prey carefully.
Every so often my Facebook page comes up with memories of older paintings. I think all of these were done in 2016. They were on display in Cinders Hub in Newcastle-under-Lyme and two of them sold. I still have the painting of the koi carp. I realise now that although I paint a wide range of images I do like repeating certain themes.
I love colour as you can see, and I also love pattern.

George was a good cat. If he climbed on windowsills he would carefully place his paws so he didn’t knock over the vases. If he climbed to the top of the bookcase, somehow he would not knock the books down. Even if paint was spilled on the floor he could avoid walking through it. Oh George was a clever cat. He could be seen in the window of the house. Not looking out, but looking into the room. A twinkle in his eye.
George had one bad habit. He chased the goldfish in the bowl. It would hide behind the plastic castle in the corner. Waiting for George, who could stare for hours, to get bored and go away.
One day it was cold and grey, the weather was stormy, and George decided to look out of the window and watch the trees waving in the wind. Suddenly a bolt of lightening struck one of the tallest trees. There was an almighty cracking noise, and a huge branch came down hitting the window and smashing it. George jumped out of the way just in time, his paws softly landing on the carpet. But then he saw the goldfish, it’s bowl had been knocked over. He sniffed it as it lay flapping on its side. But, instead of eating the fish he carefully gripped the tip of its tail in his mouth and ‘plop’, dropped it back into the half full bowl. Then he placed himself next to the bowl and watched the fish swim.

I was just sitting in my local Chinese takeaway restaurant and decided to draw one of the fish they have swimming round in a large tank. When I had done it and the food was ready I showed my drawing to the lady behind the counter. I explained that it was a quick sketch as the fish kept swimming. It looks a bit worried but that’s just my drawing.
I asked how to say thank you as the food there is always lovely and the people in the restaurant said xie Xie and wrote it down next to the sketch. They are Mandarin speakers. I had asked if they were Cantonese. But they said no. The words are very similar in both languages but that the writing of Chinese script is the same in both languages (dialects). I think I remember reading that in a friends blog here, that even if the words are pronounced differently the script is the same.
Anyway it was a tasty supper and it’s nice to communicate even if it’s only with a few shared words.
Thinking about it the words I have learnt in other languages like Greek and Thai all tend to be the ones meaning please and thank you. I must have been bought up right!

Who you looking at?
Bluob blubble
My spotty fins are nicer than yours.
My stripes are neater
My mouth is bigger,
I’m a serious
Fish!
Up in the hills between Ruthin and Wrexham in north wales is a little fishery called Llandegla. Its almost at the top of the hill before you get to the top then drop down into Wrexham, on the road, on the left hand side ( there is another fishery further down the road on a side road).
There’s a cafe and camp site for small caravans in the grounds of the fishery and the opportunity to catch fish if you want (Vegetarians look away now).
We had lunch there, hot smoked trout with new potatos and mixed leaf salad, which was delicious.
I kept up my habit of sketching, and did a few pictures, one of them I gave away because a boy there was interested in doing art.
So day trips continue, where will we go tomorrow?
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I have posted some more of my old drawings for you. As you can see I have lots of ideas, some of them come from photographs I have seen in magazines, others are from my imagination. I have a few more left, so I might post them later in the week.
I hadn’t seen the slideshow option before, hope you like it.
I do like dolphins, I swam with a wild one a few years ago. We were on holiday and came back to the caravan site in the late afternoon. There were a pod of dolphins in the sea. I got in the sea …I only took my shoes and glasses off…. then swam out about 20 yards. One dolphin stayed near the beach, it kept swimming near me. There were people in wet suits further out, and people in the shallows, me in the middle…..I can’t say it was spiritual, but it was amazing.
The next day there was a warning sign saying that the dolphin was called Georges who was an adolescent male. He had hurt himself because he was too curious and had been hurt by propellers on boats. Apparently you could catch illnesses like pneumonia from the damp air from his blow hole.
I didn’t care…. I had a wonderful experience.
After a couple of weeks struggling with a cold I’m now preparing work for a stall at an international womens day event at Burslem School of Art on Saturday.
That basically means getting paintings together that I can display for sale.
The last time I did something like this was when I sat inside at Spode Studios last November when it was almost as cold inside as outside! I only sold a few tiny paintings. I have also had a stall in the winter a few years ago. It was cold and I did not sell much. So I have to say I’m a bit nervous of doing it.
At least I have some new business cards and labels done. I’m trying to be more professional. Is there anything I should think about?
There should be quite a few crafters there on Saturday. Hopefully it will be a good day.
