New paintings and regular art updates.
It’s a wire cat my friend made, she’s done fairys and birds and squirrels. But now she’s gone onto making cats. I really like this, it’s about 12 inches tall and 9 inches wide. I’ve got it on my windowsill along with a collection of ornaments and a couple of plants (which I keep forgetting to water). I think its well modelled and quite cute. She certainly put a lot of work into it.
My friend took me out this afternoon for lunch. We went to a pub called the Star at Stone and had a pleasant lunch. It’s on the Trent and Mersey canal and sits next to the towpath so it’s reachable from the water as well as the road. The decor is quite rustic and a nice mash up of old chairs and oak tables.
On the way home we drove home through the countryside on a road that parallels the main road but is more twisty and interesting. The sun was low and shining on the sides of buildings giving them a beautiful glow. A definite pick me up after days of grey mist.
A friend just came round to see how I was. I’d just finished watching the George C Scott version of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, so I was happy to ask her in. She’s a lovely person but a bit excitable and overwhelming.
Anyway she started tidying up the kitchen and put some things in the recycling bin. I heard her moving things and came in to find she was mixing up the types of waste. Not only that she had put my refillable olive oil bottle in the bin. I had to ask her to stop and pulled it back out again. Then she went in the bathroom and managed to break a bit off the tap, (it just needed screwing back in place).
I know how my stuff works and she could have asked instead of coming in like a bull in a China shop. I appreciated her concern for me but please let me do things my own way.
By the time we had chatted for half an hour I was feeling fraught. Thats why I feel a bit grumpy/scroogy. I’ve got used to my own company, I like doing things my own way and I was getting frustrated by her trying to take over. She’s gone now and so has my almost Migraine. It’s left me feeling like a bad host!
Ouch! Kneading my leg, pulling holes in my leggings. I know you love me but that hurt! Sharp claws might be a good hunting tool for cats, but my flesh is punctured! I love you dearly, but sometimes you dig in too hard. Please get off my lap. I’m off to get a drink and a few painkillers!
No it’s a friends knee!
My friend was wearing a pair of trousers with abstract cats on it. At one stage the folds in the cloth made it look like a giant, one eyed alien cat was staring at me.
I can imagine a world with different coloured beasts, each of them monocular or cyclopean. Perhaps they have no need for binocular vision, especially if the planet is always foggy so you never get to see great distances. Or an ocean world with dim views of reefs full of eel like creatures? Colours would be similar to the way octopuses or squids change when attacked or showing emotions.
Whatever you want to think, but I do like the bizarreness of this photo.
Who is the most confident person you know?
My friend was the most confident
Always full of go
Tackled problems
Always in the know…
I wish she was still around
But she left a while ago
To pastures new
With confidence
But no big ego!
I wished her luck
And said go with the flow!
A local author and friend, called Fred Hughes, wrote an article on Facebook and in our local paper talking about how, as he has grown older, he has found himself crying more. One example he gives is when the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, burnt down two years ago. He lives nearby and found himself bought to rears because of all his memories of what had happened in that place, meeting people, enjoying good company and hospitality. He said that apparently hormonal changes can affect men because they are bought up to be stoic and strong. It must be a real shock to the system to allow grief and sadness out.
I think crying is good for you. Women do seem to be able to cry more often? I have wailed and cried and felt deep grief recently, not least because of the Leopard fire. The last two years have affected me a lot with various events. I’m not a stoic person although I try, when you have worked with people you have to try and stay professional. But without crying I would have exploded!
Here’s the portrait I painted of my friends dog and a photo of him with it x.
I think I posted it a couple of weeks ago but it’s only just winged it’s way over to America. His owner is really pleased with it. It’s a watercolour painting. Quite small. I enjoyed doing it although it took me a few months because of everything going on in my life. Happy it’s arrived.
My friend went for a walk today and stopped off at the ice-cream van where I lost my purse last week. And guess what? It was there! I spoke to the van driver over the phone and he was happy to give it my friend (she was with me last week). Even better, the money is still in it! She’s going to drop it off later. For once I feel things might be on the turn with my luck!
My friend just sent these photos, they are his model VW van next to a couple of my paintings. They made me laugh! I haven’t seen them for a few years so it came as a nice surprise to receive his message. I’m chuffed aswell that the scale works. I want to go somewhere for a trip now.
Mallaband-Brown