
Painted on canvas in acrylics. Took about an hour, just keeping my hand in. I worked from a photo I found on the Internet. I just liked the colour of it. Hard to catch the subtleness.
New paintings and regular art updates.

Painted on canvas in acrylics. Took about an hour, just keeping my hand in. I worked from a photo I found on the Internet. I just liked the colour of it. Hard to catch the subtleness.

The rain came down in a torrent this evening, it was drumming on the roof so hard it drowned out the radio in the kitchen. I was just about to go out and I stood and waited for it to blow over.
I had watched a short video on my phone earlier. It was supposed to show a cloud burst over a desert, but it looked wrong, something like a waterfall but with waves and eddys and tiers a bit like a chandelier. People’s reactions were incredulous.
I then saw the caption at the bottom “generated with AI”. The rain I experienced was real, not AI. I don’t mind that people are creating images, I do it a lot myself, and it’s good watching a film where someone has used CGI to create spaceships, or add landscapes, or alter how people look. But AI seems alien, creepy, like it knows the rules but does not know how to follow them? It sometimes adds extra fingers or distorts faces.
In the end I prefer reality.

Sunlight on birches
Silver and brown.
Spring is a blooming
In woods and on ground.
Bluebells are over
Now comes the new
Garlands of roses
Covered in dew
Clematis climbing
Lilac are blue
Purple and white
Flowers scented too.
Remember the birches
Other trees shine
Oak tree and walnut
Hornbeam and lime
Oh lovely summer
In you come soon
When sunlight is brightest
At wondrous noon.

A bit splodgy… Sneak peak! Work in progress. I’m struggling with fine details as I shake as I paint…
A4 size acrylic on canvas, I’m hoping I can refine the details as I go….

Artrage digital drawing. I saw some poppies against a grey sky and I decided to quickly draw a representation of the colours. Drawn using a stylus rather than a finger painting. I like the ways the stems aren’t always straight.

I went out to Audlem yesterday to sing with our choir. Thankfully I got a lift there and back because I can’t drive that far.
We sang really well at the Music festival and managed to drown out a band that was playing across the road from us!
We had sung inside Audlem Methodist Hall for the first half and then outside in the garden for the second half. That’s where I saw this sculpture of two birds, I think they were doves, carved out of two tree stumps. I really would like to have a sculpture like this done in my own garden where I had to have a tree cut down because it was dying. I think whoever carved this is very clever.
What are you good at?

I often write here about Art and other activities I’m good at, but one of my favourite things is solving TV crime mysteries. I’m relatively good at it, I often know who the guilty party is well before the end. I have to stop myself saying who it is though, as its an irritating thing to do if I’m watching with someone else.
I would imagine that the makers of films and TV shows want people to guess so they include clues, but unless it’s a programme like Columbo where they show you the guilty party straight away it can be more of a challenge.
It’s a bit of a niche skill though, reality is not the same as a story. Life isn’t a tale we tell ourselves. I don’t think I would ever want to be a real detective, it would be too messy and upsetting. I just enjoy the fantasy of being good at guessing the criminal !
What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?

Having it all? Enough to live, enough to share, enough to give…..
Freedom to learn, freedom to understand, freedom to care for others as well as yourself. Friendship….
Time to think, time to follow a dream, time to allow life to happen.
Having it all does not mean being selfish, or prejudiced. Misogenistic or Misanthropic, and I think it also means keeping idealism alive.
People who have it all should support the world and nature as much as they can with the means they have. Fairness above all is important, and a wish to care.
Who would you like to talk to soon?

I don’t get to speak to some people often enough. My sisters live away from here, miles away, so I’ve got to talk to them over the phone, or on the Internet. It’s the same as being on a zoom call, still friendly but no hugs. I get to see one of them occasionally.
I know I have lots of friends, but I still isolate myself when I’m feeling down. Certain things like choir cheer me up but it’s still a big effort and when I’ve had a shaky day like today it’s just hard to reach out. I don’t want to impose on them. I wish my cats could speak, what gems would they pass on? I imagine the words feed me would come up frequently!

Some leaves are falling despite copious rain. It’s mid may up here in the northern hemisphere, but spring and summer feel far away. What is happening ? Is the climate changing? Maybe it’s a slow motion version of the film the day after tomorrow. Some talk of the Gulf stream current dwindling has been mooted over the last few years. The stream pulls up warm water from the Atlantic up the west coast of Wales and Scotland then on up to the Arctic. This floats above cold water travelling underneath it in the opposite direction. But humans seem to have the ability to mess things up. I have no proof of this. I’m merely speculating. But the weather is cold and grey. I think I’ll take a vitamin D tablet.