New paintings and regular art updates.
What mask do you hide behind? Are you a wise owl or something more peculiar. I’ve seen photos of Italian masks, all black, with a massive beak shape. I think they wore them during the plague? Apparently people have recreated them and are wearing them during the pandemic. It’s because we are more interconnected than in the past, so people can reference historical times and be recognised as doing something that would not have been understood in the past…..
Life, the world, history, fascinating,
X
What is going on? Four ambulances came up our street in half an hour. Non of them had flashing blue lights. They were all presumably making there way over the hill to the hospital (we are on the main route). We’ve also seen a helicopter going over. I will see what the evening news says.
It’s worrying because our hospital takes covid 19 patients. I worry for them. Being alone and away from their families must be a fearful time. And yet across the road there’s shouting and laughing from a closed down pub. I wonder if its allowed but I won’t report it. There could be consequences….
Road traffic seems on the increase. Apparently there has been a lot of speeding due to reduced traffic. People have been caught going over 150 miles an hour in a 70 zone and 69 in a 50 zone. Madness. There has been a rise in accidents.
Maybe that’s why the ambulances have been busy.
Today’s challenge in a friends Facebook group was to post a picture of yourself with the colour blue. I can’t find my facepaints so I put on a hat, picked up a magazine and stood in our bathroom with its blue painted walls.
I guess I could filter it and change it to intensify the blue.
Meanwhile I’m thinking of how to depict purple, which is tomorrows challenge. The idea is to collect a whole rainbow of colours and then the admin of the group will create an artwork. Interesting…
I love green. I’ve done a painting of myself as a green woman, and this is a selfie I did in the garden today. I was trying to complete a challenge with a group of friends to post an image of myself with different colours of the rainbow. Today the colour was green. I started out wrapping a pale green scarf round my head, but it didn’t work very well, so I went outside and stuck my head through the leaves of various bushes.
Are you doing any strange challenges or being prompted to do things you wouldn’t normally do?
Art you enjoying doing some crafts or art work. What occupies your time in these odd times?
X
I’m going to keep my distance and still wear a mask.
The latest in the UK is that from Monday six people can gather in a garden as long as they keep two meters distance. You can even use the bathroom as long as you thoroughly clean the toilet and wash your hands.
So that will be everyone running round looking for barbecue charcoal and burgers. Buying beer. Drinking, hugging, having a laugh. It’s already happening near us. A closed public house has people meeting in their beer garden. Hidden behind a fence, but you can hear four or five people laughing and joking. No I’m not against fun! Please don’t think that. But there are a lot of vulnerable people about…
One, asymptomatic or presymptomatic person meets five friends, they share a beer or three. The next day he visits his mate and the mates elderly parents in their garden. Then he pops down to the shop for some food for tomorrow’s barbie. He doesn’t bother about keeping apart, he’s relaxed because he’s been able to meet friends and relatives, different people on each day.
Barbecue day arrives, the sun is shining, but our friend feels under the weather. He’s got a bit of a fever and a dry cough. His partner is cooking breakfast but he can’t smell it. He decides to dial 111 (our health telephone line), and is told to book a test. He needs to drive himself to the test center, which is forty miles away, or they will post him a kit out. Eventually it arrives, but he’s too ill, his partner has started feeling under the weather and they are worried about their parents.
Track and Trace can’t find out all the contacts because of the number of people involved.
So I’m keeping a distance and wearing a mask. It may not be much of a defence.
Stay safe
X
The wire fairies dance together,
flying in a fair,
Twisting and switching
through the warm air.
Flitting through the flowers,
chasing errant bees,
hiding in the trumpet flowers
of convolvulus and weeds.
Little silver fairies,
made of twisted wire,
forged by clever, loving hands,
metal from the fire.
A few flowers from the garden today. The flowers are starting to develop, the big summer plants are a bit swamped with ivy and scrubby bushes and so we have cut back branches and peeled ivy off trees a bit today. Only what you can do with a pair of secateurs and a small pruning saw.
We need to lay some pathways, and where a spring has erupted in the garden we are going to put a few pebbles to simulate a stream flowing down under the hedge. We live on a hill which is a very old Volcanic plug. The water percolates out further up the hill and we think because that was built on a few years ago it might have got diverted down towards our house. I don’t know….
I tried to zoom in on this goldfinch but the colours are really bad. It’s got a bright red head and yellow flashes on its wings. I tried to enhance the colour and exposure but didn’t get very far. If I try and enhance the red the whole picture goes red. So I can only post these images.
There were also blue tits, house sparrows and blackbirds feeding this morning.
I misidentified it as a zebra finch. It is actually a goldfinch
X
Drawn in artrage oils and edited in photodirector changing the colours and style.
This is what I mean about playing with are, yes this is a scrappy sketch, but it’s my scrappy sketch, amended and changed how I want. I would love to illustrate a book using a style like this. I could imagine creating pictures about a crazy cat in a children’s book.
I was once offered the opportunity to illustrate a book but the publishers woukd only allow the author to use an in house illustrator. I was very disappointed as I think I could have created a different atmosphere by working with her. Oh well….
We have to put a piece of wood under one bough of the pear tree but in the strong winds last week we had to put step ladders under the other limb. Surprisingly there are lots of pears setting on it. It may be that it’s because it’s more horizontal and fruit does tend to set (develop) on horizontal branches. Thats why some fruit trees are tied onto walls. Is it called espalies?
The cherry tree behind it is also covered in fruit. Looks like it might be a bumper crop! The bush/tree cut in step shapes is an old evergreen we have had for years. It grows slowly and I practice topiary on it. The rest of the garden is very leafy. I’m going to have to get someone in in the autumn or winter, to cut things back slightly and let a bit more light in.
Mallaband-Brown