New paintings and regular art updates.
Looking forward to seeing fireworks on November 5th, bonfire night in the UK. Also known as Guy Fawkes night when he tried to blow up the houses of parliament several centuries ago. Children say the rhyme “remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot”. Nothing to do with the American General Election thankfully! And something people actually enjoy X
What does it mean to be a kid at heart?
Up until recently I think I’ve been a child at heart. I loved to joke, to see the lighter side of life. I liked nothing more than a good comedy, or watching silly videos. Using puns or wordplay to make merry.
But now? A year of world tragedy, personal grief, heath issues has stomped on my head.
I want a time machine, a way of going back, or at least a way of improving my timeliness. Give me a glimmer of hope, lift some of the gloom. Let me get my hands in paint again, spreading colour and love around me. Give me a box of glitter to shake over it. Please. X
#bandofsketchers prompt neighbour, Playing with sketches, turning one face into two symmetrical but different faces. Digital drawing.
I painted a dragons eye on Saturday and found someone at the craft fair I was at on Sunday was crocheting karma Chamelions. Weirdly the eyes seem to match! How odd. I’m not sure why I bought the soft toy, it might go to a neice. I was so pleased I thought I’d take a photo of them together. X
One of the problems with the little canvases, the weave is too bumpy so it’s hard to get a smooth surface, I could put a thick layer of paint on first but it might not stick properly? Anyway it’s fun exploring different images.
I drew this in the 1980s I have it on the stairs and it’s badly faded. I might use filters to try and restore how it looks? It’s sad when you have created something but the sun destroys it over time. I don’t know if you can buy ink that is resistant to sunlight? Maybe?
I’ve just got back from the local theatre, Claybody Theatre at The Dipping house, Spode Works, Church Street, Stoke upon Trent, Stoke-on-Trent.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable performance. It was set in 1967 on the Bentilee housing estate, on the edge of the city of Stoke on Trent. A city of potteries and coal mines and steel works that had since suffered industrial decline.
It’s late summer on the estate when several people see a bright glowing light in the sky that goes from red, to slightly greenish to a blue hue. It ended up on TV with locals talking about what they had seen, but no real explanation. (this was the era of science fiction programmes on TV, like The Invaders, or Space family Robinson and even Fireball XL5.)
What I enjoyed was the local knowledge. The speech was real Stoke on Trent accents, with a smidge of Durham and a twang of American or Irish.
I won’t go into detail with spoilers, but there is a mixture of 1960s memories, a touch of romance, a lot of local in jokes. It was useful knowing Bentilee estate, I have worked there. The comedy made the audience chuckle and laughter out loud. I do enjoy Deborah McAndrews writing. The play got a loud round of applause at the end. Good to see local friends who had come out to see it!
I’ve been trying to paint a galaxy over a few weeks, dots and smudges, dots and smudges…. Then I got a bit bored so I looked up images of the sci-fi classic Dr Who and decided to add his tardis with a bit of a sparkle to make it a bit more dramatic. X
Tasty 1970s food before real foreign food was a thing. I particularly liked the chow mein vesta made (I don’t know if it’s still manufactured).
This is my faulty memory, I thought it came with prawn crackers but when I saw the photo I remembered they had a little packet of thin strips of noodles that you had to fry so they puffed up into little squiggles of crispy noodles. I’m guessing that the food was cooked In pans, certainly it was before microwaves, and it was unusual to have anything like this (except dehydrated mashed potato). I remember the jingle ” for mash, get smash!”
What’s your favorite word?
Tranklements is an old fashioned word meaning bits and bobs, a collection of odds and ends, shiny things like a magpie would collect.
I think it is an old historical word from the Midlands of England. Certainly I’ve only really heard it used in The West Midlands around the Birmingham area. I think its a dialect word.
In context you could say I’m just getting my tranklements together if you wanted to gather your lace making kit or a bag full of knitting stuff. Or bits of costume jewellery, a bag full of paints or makeup.
I like it because it sort of explains what it means just in the sound. It should be used more often!
Mallaband-Brown