College musings

Posted on August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Anthropology, Art ideas, Blogging, College course, Learning, Levi-Strauss, Life, Richard Sennett, Theory, Understand2 Comments

Our discussion today was about Levi-Strauss the anthropologist and his discussion about how food can be an analogy for life.

I found it hard to follow, Raw was the raw ingredients, before things are transformed by cooking. Then he discusses how cooking by boiling is somehow female, while roasting is male? Then raw can go to cooking, then rotten or directly to rotten. We discussed the paths we are taking as artists on this course. Have we gone from raw and unformed to cooked, and do failures in ideas indicate rotten. We also had to read from Richard Sennett’s book ‘The Craftsman’ which helped to explain the ideas.

Someone suggested pickling or fermentation as other outcomes. I have been an artist for so long I don’t know if I’ve changed that much? Possibly, as they say practice makes perfect.

Just a little picture of my world at the moment.

Tummy rub?

Posted on August 13, 2020August 13, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Belly rub, Cat, Claws, Humour, Kicked with back legs, Learn, Life, Sharp, Stroke10 Comments

Dare you? Sometimes when a cat rolls over and shows you it’s belly it’s being friendly, and sometimes not. Beware if you reach your hand over. You can be grabbed by the front paws and kicked by the cats back legs, and don’t forget the teeth! major damage can ensue. I’m not saying disaster will happen but its worth watching for twitching tail and grabbing paws with claws out. If you don’t you can end up at the sharp end of your cat!

Pears

Posted on August 13, 2020August 13, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Block of wood, Crop, Fruit, Garden, Growing, Life, Pear tree, Pears, Plant, Support2 Comments

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The pears are growing big on the tree and starting to weigh the crown down. Soon they will be ripe. I hope they are ready before their weight snaps the tree! At the moment it’s held up with a block of wood.

Gardening is learning. Finding out how to support plants when they need it. I’ve been told the tree has black spot, but it survives. And is covered in pears.

Terraces by the canal

Posted on August 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Canal, Cauldon canal, Etruria view, Hot day, Houses, Life, Morning out, Terraced houses, Travel, Trent and merseyLeave a comment

The sun beating down on Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent today. Terraced houses lined up near the canal. This is the Cauldon canal that heads towards Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands where it eventually joins with the river Churnet. The houses are lower down than the canal so there is a big retaining wall made of stone that prevents the water escaping from it. You can see the wall as it lifts up into a bridge over the canal on the left hand side. The street slopes away down towards the Trent and Mersey canal which is joined to the Cauldon canal by a series of locks. The Trent and Mersey is in the valley and runs close to the Trent River (which is really only a small river running through the city). The Trent eventually runs to the sea at Hull after passing east through Nottingham I think.

So these terraces are connected by water to many places. You might see them if you ever travel the canals.

Thunderstorm

Posted on August 11, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Energy in the atmosphere, Forked lightening, Hot, Humid, Life, Lightening, Sheet lightening, Storm, Thunder, Weather, West of usLeave a comment

There is a thunderstorm to the west of us. I managed to take one shot of a very bright sky but I could only get a picture of them by videoing it. I don’t think I have enough memory to post that. I’ve also included a screenshot of the current storm from blitzortung, a Web site that shows live lightening strikes. It’s mad. You know the scene in the War of the worlds with lightening but no rain.. Its like that, except you can hear it rumbling away, we saw lots of forked lightening flashing horizontally across the clouds.

I switched my plug to the washing machine off. I don’t want the cb board to be fused like it did on my old one.

Typing stuff

Posted on August 10, 2020August 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Ache, Blogging, College work, Cramped, Life, Small space, Social media, Tired, TypingLeave a comment

My life is full of typing at the moment. College work and blogging, and then all my social media too. I guess that’s why my arms ache? I’ve only got a small space for my keyboard as I only have a tiny desk. An old wooden table with a hinged section screwed in place on the side but too rickety to use.

I could use the dictation mode on the computer but I think there is too much extraneous noise to use it.

Anyway back to boggled eyes….

Paint texture

Posted on August 10, 2020August 10, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Art, Black and white cat, Blogging, Cat, Cat image, Impasto, Life, Oil on canvas, Oil painting6 Comments

I was looking at my old summer dream painting and noticed how dusty it was. I realised that the surface od the paint is quite raised. This was when I was painting in oils in a more impasto way. I don’t do that in acrylics, I don’t know why, because it’s quite interesting to look at? Maybe it’s something I could try out. I have a large tube of white oil paint. Maybe I could add coloured chalk into it as an experiment. I can do anything I guess.

I do like how sassy I got this image. She’s got real character. A proper glint in her eye.

Drawing portraits

Posted on August 9, 2020August 9, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Design, Drawing, Faces, How do I?, Life, Measuring, Pictures, PortraitsLeave a comment

_20200717_170656_optimized This is from a few years ago. I think it was just someone in a cafe or a pub. I don’t remember asking permission to draw him. But this is about twenty years old, so there is no reason why I would. What I like to do is draw carefully. I don’t pick my pencil up to measure, but I do look carefully. I try and get the proportions right. I look at the length of the nose, the width of the lips. The length of the hair and the shape of the person’s face. Portrait drawing and painting can be nerve wracking. But I enjoy doing it. I’m addicted to art.

Abandoned cat update

Posted on August 9, 2020August 9, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Abandoned cat, Animals, Blogging, Caring for cats, Friendly, Integrating the cats, Life, Looking after the cat, vetsLeave a comment

The abandoned cat is being extremely loving. He’s made friends with both of us now. He comes when we call and now our cats are almost inoculated (our male cat needs one more shot) there is the possibility of introducing them to each other. I will have to get him to the vets for a check up. That will be interesting as he’s a big cat, at least half as big again as ours. Still I guess I will find out. I want him to be inoculated too so he has more of a chance of a healthy life. Then if we can integrate them, maybe he can come indoors a bit, as long as he does not fight with the other two.

USK prompt, fabric

Posted on August 9, 2020August 9, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Blogging, Drawing, Fabric, Life, Permanent markers, Prompt, Sketching, Usk challenge, Usk Stoke-on-TrentLeave a comment

Today’s challenge was to draw some fabric. So I did our airer with my summer dress on it, together with the carpet and the sofa with coverings. It’s not very exciting but it is colourful. The greys were done with a permanent marker that has almost run out so I darkened it with some watered down black water colour paint. The yellow thing hanging on the corner is on of my fabric masks. I’m looking forward to seeing what the other urban sketchers have done today.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life