New paintings and regular art updates.
What is one word that describes you?
I decided to use the form of a limerick poem to describe the one word ‘eccentric’ that I have chosen for myself. The painting is of me as a green woman…
I’m rather eccentric, that’s me
I prefer that to ‘mad’ you see
I love paint and mess
With nothing to stress
And my mind is a buzz, like a bee!
Coming into the bathroom
You always want to know
What I’m doing.
Paws dip into the water
From the tap
A delicate splish splash…
Lick paw and return
To the gentle trickle
Silver sparkle
Nose wet
You saunter off..
A year ago my cat had pinned me down on the bed! I didn’t usually have my phone with me but on this occasion the stars aligned and as I woke up, stuck, I decided to take her photo. Nowadays she sneaks under the covers next to me. She will maybe stay still for ten minutes, sticking her claws in me as she kneads away at my leg or side. Then, I think she must overheat, she will rush out and escape. One of the other cats sleeps above the cover and gently snores. If they see each other they sometimes hiss at each other, but generally they are chilled about things.
A strange little doodle of a blue coloured bird, just experimental play with the Artrage app. It not exactly exciting, I just wanted to try an get an idea down of what a bird would look like. I’ve got several criticisms, the neck is probably too short, the tail too long and basically the colour is far too bright. It’s like the bird has had a can of paint poured over it! But I’ll call it done.
Lots of friends came to my exhibition and it was lovely to see them. I’d taken a box of wine and some orange juice and I really was scared that no one would come. It’s strange how anxiety can affect you, but I shouldn’t have worried. I think its like a performance anxiety, stage fright, having to talk about your work, explain the thought behind it. I luckily knew most of the people there so I didn’t need to panic!
The exhibition is on for another week so I should be able to show more people round during the week. X
I collect all sorts of things, and today I remembered I have a bowl made of buttons glued together, inside it is my marble collection. I need to clear the bowl out, it’s very dusty and some of the leaves from the plant above it have fallen in over the winter. I can’t wash it because it’s held together with PVA glue. I’m going to remove the marbles, (hopefully without losing them), wash them and dry them then put them back in the bowl.
So why am I writing about this? I guess it’s just that I collect all sorts of things, perhaps I should get rid of things? Maybe it’s a trait about being an artist, gathering shiny objects. I guess I’m a bit of a Magpie.
I realised I haven’t doodled much lately. I guess I’ve been too busy and distracted. So today I drew this cat in the Artrage app on my phone. It’s meant to be a tabby cat with grey black and white fur. I didn’t use the metallic option at all so the paler colours show up better than they would if I had. It’s like everything else, you learn what works for you.
Esther Chiltons blog has writing challenges every week, I’ve started trying to do some. New beginnings was an interesting one.
This is what I wrote :
New beginning?
I hope so.
My life has changed in so many ways. I’m having to reassess what I can do, can afford, can maintain.
New beginnings means the garden is starting to flower, I hope to get outside and maybe paint if I feel up to it. I need help to keep the garden tidy.
My main wish is that my health improves and I can have some real new beginnings….
Esther does other challenges, like on Mondays we try and write a limerick with a certain word in it, or on Thursdays a set of words and a limited number of words to use. It’s fun. Why not look her blog up?
We just held, a celebration of my hubbys life. He was always interested in acting and theatrical performances so when my friends offered to greet guests at the start of the celebrations on stilts and in circus costumes I had to say yes. They stood outside and looked funny and magnificent. They stayed and enjoyed the rest of the evening. A group of us sang ‘always look on the bright side of life’. A good friend read a eulogy and showed slides and video of my husband. We had almost 200 photos of him on the hall walls. People read poems for him including one specially written and ‘do not go gentle into that dark night’ we had a harmonica playing and a friend singing and playing the banjo. There was a lovely buffet laid on by the hall.
People also wrote memories of him on cards so I could take them away. The plan is to create a memory book of the celebration. I took some of my portraits of him up to the hall.
All in all it was a fantastic evening and I was very pleased with how it went. I think my hubby would have appreciated the occasion. X
14 years ago and we had heavy snow. On the night of 14 February 2010. The orange sodium streetlamps cast a reddish glow across the snow. Those lamps are now changed to white LED lights. Less energy used, less atmospheric lighting. No snow!
This has been the hottest February on record. Even in the alps and other mountains in the UK and Europe the amount of snow is 47% less than in previous years. Not good for skiers and winter sports.
This was on my Facebook memories today.
Mallaband-Brown