Remembering spring

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As we sink slowly into Northern Winter, I thought I would post a picture of the spring earlier this year. The buds were starting to burst, the flowers were opening on rhododendrons. The sky was a warm blue, not the cold, grey, scudding clouds of today.

Warmer evenings, longer days… I can’t wait! I don’t want to make time rush by, but please, don’t let it be a long, cold, harsh winter. We already have flooding in South Yorkshire and parts of the South Midlands where towns like Fishlake have been inundated.

Our local pantomime is on in February, just when winter is starting to get really annoying. We are doing Aladdin this time. I’ve got a small part in it. Hopefully I won’t be falling over while I try to dance!

Trees

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The trees spread across the world, as man finally withered and died. Killed off in a last great mass extinction caused by  humankind’s continuous destruction of the animal population and most of the plant world. Pestilence, fire, flooding and starvation had done their jobs.

All that was left were trees, rivers, marshes, seas and oceans.

The trees kept pumping out oxygen, the world was now habitable for any incomers, but there were none. Aliens may have admired our world, but they exist in civilisations too far away. None of them had things like warp drive. A nice idea, but not really feasible.

Nothing grew, except a soup of bacteria. One day that might evolve into the next great family of animals, insects, worms, critters. If man returned millions of years later he would not recognise the planet or its contents. Maybe the trees would remember….

Angels

Guarding, guiding, helping, supporting.

Angels are (or not) mythical creatures, usually male. They fall into various types, angels and arch angels. Seraphim and cherubim. There are beautiful illustrations of them in icon paintings and renaissance art. I wish I knew more about the art and design of them in various  ancient churches. There are fallen angels which are represented in films. I feel attracted to the complex art that is created around them. The photos above play with the idea and I have tried to manipulate them to look like stained glass windows.

 

Photo glitch

IMG_20191114_165233_550this interesting effect is on my phone. I was trying to take two seperate photos, but my camera on the phone was playing up. I guess this is like a digital double exposure. I haven’t seen anything like it before. It’s quite strange as the first image must have stayed on the image processor or whatever it is and the second image must have added to it. I think the coloured images were the ones I took first?

Would any of you photographers out there know what caused this?

B(u)y me for Christmas! Exhibition.

I’m really pleased to have some of my paintings up at the Brampton museum and art gallery from 16.11.19 to early January 2020. This is an opportunity for local artists to sell their work in the weeks coming up to Christmas. If you feel like having a look I’d recommend it, there’s lots to see and to buy.

It’s going to be a busy few weeks. Not helped by my having a fall at the weekend. I haven’t painted as much as I wanted and I’ve hardly been out of the house. But I mustn’t let it stop me trying to get things done over the next week or so.

I’m going to do some more green, or snowy men, try and get some cards printed and get some glass jewellery finished off..

Watch this space x

I’m the king of the castle..

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My cats play and chase each other every few hours. It starts with the female cat lying down in front of the male cat, he starts to groom her and they start squabbling, she fends him off as he tries to nip her. They then start chasing each other, sneaking up and Pouncing at each other, racing round the room and up the stairs.

Lately it been a game of “I’m the king of the castle, get down you dirty rascal…” a game that children used to play where you would stand on top of a pile of dirt or maybe rocks and your friends would try and push you off and capture the high ground.

I’ve got a pile of clothes and laundry waiting to go upstairs, but the male cat has taken to sleeping on it. His sister objects and jumps up. A few times she has chased him away, only for him to come back and recapture it! I was going to take a photo of him, but he jumped down so I’ve drawn a cat on it. It does remind me of the game we used to play.

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Profile

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I need to practice real drawing, I do a lot of digital stuff, and quick sketches but I only tend to do portraits of my hubby. I think I need to start drawing at a life drawing class again. I vaguely know where eyes and noses and mouths fit, it’s just when you are not looking at a person it doesn’t look real. I have a reasonable visual memory, I know, but that doesn’t make me accurate. I always think I could do better…..like this profile for instance, is the chin to big, the mouth too small, the brow too sloping? It’s all down to practice.

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Twins

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People seem to think there are only identical twin. Born on usually the same day, unless the Labour is long and continues into the next day. They are from one fertilised egg which splits in two and goes on to form two babies (or in the case of other multiple births, more, for instance triplets). Identical twins might not fully seperate in the womb and can end up being conjoined, that is joined together. Sometimes at the head or the body. It is possible to operate and seperate them if they are not sharing organs. This is not always possible though.

There is another form of twin. Non identical. These are two seperate eggs that are fertilised at the same, or almost the same time. Non identical twins are called fraternal twins. They can be a boy and a girl, a boy and a boy or a girl and a girl. They are brothers and sisters born at the same time, but not exact copies. As they grow up their differences become more apparent. They may be bought up wearing the same clothes…. But they are not necessarily the same shape or size. As with identical twins they may have similar interests or completely different ones.

Life can be interesting, a lot of how we live is often influenced by how we are bought up, not just from our genes. It’s the old nurture verses nature argument.