New paintings and regular art updates.
We don’t really celibate the feast of St Patrick in the UK. Yes we sang Cockles and Mussels yesterday at choir, but we don’t wear shamrocks or green top hats. Yes some towns have a large Irish population, and will enjoy the festival, but we are eclectic here and celebrate other religious days too, including Celtic ones like Beltain. Often people gather at Stonehenge to celebrate the Solstice. The world is full of joyful days to be treasured if you look hard enough. X
He sits and thinks, that old gargoyle, homunculus, pottery sculpture. The hidden being in the garden, or up on the roof or gable. A cheeky little figure, used to add interest or even to channel rain from overflowing gutters.
Ancient symbol of fear or fun. Some are spooky others more playful. A curiosity on ancient churches.
I love the author Terry Pratchett and his playful descriptions of living gargoyles, their mouths unable to move properly so they speak like they have something getting in the way. They struggle to speak clearly. I’ve tried to find a quote to explain Pratchetts reasoning…
From wiki lspace.org:
“Consider them moving masonry with a personality. To some, gargoyles are considered “urban trolls”, because they are stone-based. Gargoyles may be very distantly related to trolls, if they are related at all. Trolls are large humanoid rocks with valuable minerals for blood vessels and neural networks. Gargoyles live well in Ankh-Morpork which is steamy and baking in summer, so their nervous system is very likely different from that of trolls (for an explanation, see trolls). Gargoyles have various, slightly monstrous shapes (just like the gargoyles you might see on really old-styled buildings), many with wings and claws, and all with a mouth that is shaped like a pipe that cannot be closed. Due to this pipe-shaped mouth, gargoyles have difficulties pronouncing consonants, and it takes some mental translation to understand their speech (see Men at Arms). Gargoyles are extremely good at sitting still for a long time and watching the goings-on, therefore excellent job candidates for stakeout Watchman or semaphore watcher (watching the signals on another semaphore tower and relaying it).”
I decided to draw a Fire Horse design in my Artrage app. It’s the symbol of the Chinese New Year. It’s basically a finger painting using various tools in the app. It also allows you to add metallic tone. It’s simple and fun to use.
Imagine meeting this on a dark night. It was bought up to our writing group for last year’s Halloween. Did we write creepy stories? Not really, more ghostly ones.
It’s interesting as a group to have prompts, you don’t know the random ideas that get thrown around. We all have very different styles and so we come up with stories that have contrasting ideas. Life has given us all different experiences, and it’s great to grab from those playbooks.
By the way, the spider got put away for next year,
I just found this photo taken in the church when we performed jolly and merry songs for Christmas. When you are in the choir stalls you don’t know what the place looks like. I didn’t realise it looked so sparkly.
I think we were about 30 strong and we mostly sang ensemble pieces and Christmas carols, but some of us sang solos too. I sang eidelweiss from the sound of music, but I did forget two lines. I sang a cappella as I’m not very happy with timing if I have to sing to background music, and also I can pitch the sound to my voice and not to a set note! I had fun despite the nerves. X
Making spooky hats for an upcoming play.. My friends bats on a hat.. Very random.
We are recreating the Mystery Play we put on in July, but as a bigger production. One scene has bats causing mayhem so my friend created this. They will also have bat shaped cloaks and we have a backcloth with skeletal trees and a witch flying in front of the moon. One lot of scenery done, about 8 more scenes to do!
Penkhull Theatre Group. February production.
One of the most fun things we did when we went round carol singing on Monday night was to pile into the local fish and chip shop was to sing a couple of songs to the staff and customers!
About 20 of us squeezed into a small space, singing “Welcome all, good friends here, a very merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!” we sang it as a round of three. The place was full of jollity and hilarity. I’m glad we did it, it’s one place we have never sung in before.
Sometimes you just have to doodle, To be free. Drawing n the Artrage app. It’s one of my favourite places t draw digitally, you get various pens and thickesses. You also adjust the metallic effect. I enjoy it.
Usually I send cards to my friends, but the local card shop has closed, the post office closed and one of the post boxes has been removed.
I decided I would make a donation to the charity Parkinsons UK instead. They do work on trying to find and resolve the causes of Parkinsons disease. Hopefully I will be helping others in my circumstances.
Cards are a fun way to show you care about your friends and family. They were first sent by the Victorians in 1843. They became more popular in the 1860s and 70s. People used the penny post to send them to their loved ones. I do t really want to stop sending them, but digital life affects reality.
Yesterday in Newcastle under Lyme for the Christmas lights opening. A large reindeer puppet strolled round the town centre. It’s movements steered by three puppeteers, directing it’s head downwards so that young children could stroke it’s nose. The head was lit up and you could see it’s eyes blink.
It was a lovely and beautiful sight. I think it was made by BArts.
Mallaband-Brown