What’s in a cats mind? Waiting for something, but what? No sounds outside, no rustling leaves, but he waits. His sister or brother outside. Is it them he’s sitting, waiting for.
The cat likes to be patient, it’s in his nature, will he see a spider cross the floor? I wrote this, then looked up. A click or clack and he’s out the cat flap, to explore.
Night sits over the house. Will he see a mouse? Will he wait and stare some more, or pounce? No presents please. I don’t need the hassle. You sit and stare, at peace.
I thought so! If you fold a British bank note you can make the Queen either frown or smile by folding a line through each eye and down the nose…. You can do the same with Grumpy Trump! I just couldn’t resist experimenting by doing a quick sketch of the mugshot of the politician and then folding the paper. If you tip it up it smiles, tip it down it frowns more….
Enough space to live, to fit in, to get what you need. But not too much, so you crowd everyone else out.
I like the ideas in Japan where space is at a premium so it is designed to be suitable for peoples needs. Things like fold up beds, or rooms that convert from one use to another. Innovation and recycling of materials.
There is a TV programme called George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces, where every week someone is trying to get the most home space out of a tiny space. Some of the solutions are incredible.
Look at the Earth and our cities, we are too wasteful. We want too many things, we want the biggest car or house, without realising less is more. Each of us could accept slightly less and share out assets better!
So town planners need to consider the resources we have, the cost of living, how things can fit together to make things better (or worse). Just having a little garden space can be very fulfilling. Life doesn’t have to be awful in cities, but it does need to be less haphazard and more organised, otherwise things tend to the chaotic and entropy builds. Cities fall as well as rise. We need serious thought and planning.
One of my favourite flowers in the hanging baskets. Begonia flowers seem to come in big and small sizes. I think I heard that they have male and female flowers. But I might be wrong? They are quite fleshy and thick petaled, some of them are doubles like this one (double the normal number of petals). They look amazing BUT they are crammed with petals and that makes it harder, or even impossible, for bees and pollenating insects to collect nectar from their flowers. It also means that they are unlikely to be fertilised so I’m not sure if you can grow them from seed? This is all speculation on my part. I think I need to hear from a real gardener! I may not even have the correct identification of the plant!
Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt was flowers. I did a flower sketch using symmetry tools in the Sketchbook app, and I just used a couple of paintbrush tools (salty watercolour and an ink brush). I varied the number of petals on each flower and tried to create something impressionistic.
I think I’ve always cared about people. My mom used to say I had a soft heart. I like films that you would class as weepies, ones that bought a tear to your eyes. I’d sit on the sofa with my mom and have a good cry.
So I’m motivated to try and support people. I wonder if that is just a perpetuation of a female role model ? It certainly was pushed when we had our careers guidance. It was suggested I went into nursing, I which didn’t set well. Why not a doctor? Anyway by then my motivation had changed. I wanted to be an artist, and for forty years I’ve pursued that role. Not to be famous. Not to make money, but to create art (and care about people).
Although I was not able to attend the Open day at a spode this weekend, I arranged to have one of my paintings Autumn Spring exhibited alongside other people’s artwork. I think it looks quite good. I was experimenting with an abstract idea in 2019 just before Covid arrived. The idea is a mixture of oblong and squares on the Autumn side, all jumbled and crammed together and is opposed to Spring which is more lyrical and fluid. Representing overwhelming waste and damage, and what we are doing to the Earth, and the renewal and regrowth that the Spring could bring.
Cat in a hat mug. My design that I draw to make children laugh if they are grumpy. I’ve been drawing it for years and so I decided to paint it onto a mug a few years ago when we went to a pottery to do some decorating. I don’t even remember where I did it, but the mug says 20, so it must have been three years ago. I have black and white cats but I always imagine this as a ginger tabby cat. X
I’m going to choose ten starring James Stewart rather than lots of random films…
Mr Smith goes to Washington (an honest politician).
Harvey (costarring an invisible rabbit)
It’s a wonderful life, with Clarence (an Angel)
Destry Rides again (cowboy)
The Philadelphia story,
Winchester ’73 (cowboy)
No Highway in the sky (about metal fatigue in a plane)
The Glenn Miller story
Vertigo (Hitchcock film)
Rear Window (Hitchcock film)
There are many more but these are ones I remember. There is a filmography on Wikipedia with more details of his films. He was an amazing actor and I loved his films from an early age.
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was costume. Here’s Jacob’s coat of many colours sketch using the Artrage app, I just used the oil paint tool. Then I edited it in sketchbook and added the toggles and background etc…
Mallaband-Brown 