I saw a face….

I see faces in a lot of things. Tonight’s wispy clouds reminded me of a face. I think these are interesting clouds. You could see that the wind was pretty strong up there. The clouds were being blown across at 90° to the direction they were moving in, shearing them and dissolving them. The weather has cleared up a lot today, but it looks like we might be in for another bout of rain tomorrow.

Does anyone else like spotting clouds too? I used to lie down and look up at the sky. There is a lot up there!

Binoculars

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Want to see the stars? You don’t need an expensive telescope. Maybe just a pair of binoculars (you can get monocular too). You just have to get them set up so you can see images clearly. You can use them to look at the moon, where you will be able to see more of the craters and mare (seas). These are not actually filled with water, but flattened areas amongst the craters. There is the sea of tranquility where Apollo 11 landed for instance. Other things that binoculars make visible include some galaxies and comet Neowise which is gradually fading as it moves away from the sun. It is visible above the western horizon below the star Arcturus (follow the stars of the big dipper handle down till you get to a bright star, then look about halfway between it and the horizon. It is an idea to look in a dark sky area, and allow your eyes to become adapted to the dark for about twenty minutes to allow the pupils of your eyes to open fully.

It’s been cloudy here so I haven’t seen it!

Sea or Sky?

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I posted this and other photos to my Instagram page and a friend commented that they looked like views out of an airplane window of the sea with islands in it.

I had concentrated on trying to see animals in the image. I can see a snarling bears head at the top left of this one for instance. But it reminded me of a holiday in Dorset one year. Driving up over the hills of the county, just before we dropped down towards Weymouth  on the coast, the sky looked like mountainous islands with sea, bays and inlets running through them. I wish I’d been able to take a photo…

The sky had been a pale wash of pastel colours, the sun was setting, but because we were heading due south its glare was catching the sides of the clouds, they were lit up with gold on one side and greys on the other. The ‘sea’ was all pale pinks and blues. If we had not  spent all day driving I would have pulled over. The image faded as we headed towards the caravan site, but it was the precursor of a lovely week away. Maybe I can find some old snaps of the places we visited.

I often look at cloudscapes and see landscapes.

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Setting up a still life.

These are a few pictures I took when I was at college. They are pictures of objects I considered to turn into still lives. I finally did a painting based on the shiny plastic melanin? These pictures were taken almost forty years ago in my studio. The final one is oil paint on board. In one corner if you look closely is the painting of a hill covered in terraced houses that I did a copy of recently.

It’s good finding an old sketchbook with old hotis. It reminds me of what I was doing then. I also found pictures of old friends. I might post a couple of photos of them.

Stay safe and do Art!

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What do you see?

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There was a programme on the radio this morning called ‘the light scientific’. I only caught the end of it but it was interesting, they discussion was about human perception. The scientist had been responsible for the gold/white dress or black/blue dress controversy that went viral a few years ago. She explained that when the image was released she had no idea what a massive argument it would cause between people. Her team had taken a black and blue dress but photographed it under a mixture of yellow and pale blue lighting. When the viewer looked at it their brains subtracted the lighting in different ways, and their perceptions were distorted or changed. As she acknowledged some of the different perception could have been due to the quality of the displays people were viewing it on. So they tried the real dress and carefully lit it. People were then allowed to view in real life. Amazingly they saw one or the other versions. The explanation is that we all perceive colours differently. My red could be your orange. Add to that some people are colourblind. Makes for an interesting world.

So what us my image. It’s an edited view of a window on the new twenty pound note. Not a figure in a funny hat (which is what I see).

My cat watching TV

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My cat likes watching animals on TV. I was watching a nature programme with spy cameras, they were built to look like animals so that they could film various creatures. There was a spy owl that was flying over a pack of wolves and my cat started watching it. She continued to watch till the end of the programme….

She is the only one of about eight cats that we have had over the years that has shown any interest in TV.

She just stares, sometimes if there is a chase she quickly glances at the animal doing the chasing, but to be honest the pictures are edited together so fast that it must not be coherent to a cat who can’t follow the narration! Anyway she’s gone again now. People on TV!

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Spider or beetle?

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Roots can be interesting and exciting. Just be duplicating a picture you can get something fascinating. This looks like a spider to me, but someone else suggested a beetle about to fly. Or I guess it could be a land crab?

Anyway see what you think, have you got any images you can play with and create flights of fancy?

Doodles

After I posted about the wind I decided to play with drawing the eye in it on an app called sketcher free. But what could it be? Then I thought fish eye, and fish eye lens.

Rather surreal but fun don’t you think? I used various pen shapes and sizes and colours to draw it including the ribbon pen and an eraser. Then I used the chrome pen on a medium setting.

I do love playing.

Staring at me?

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Who is that man staring at me? Why is he staring? I have never met him before. Never spoken to him. Trying to hide behind a magazine, I peeped out. . Still staring directly at me! How rude and somehow frightening too. Like when a cat stares at its prey, ready to strike? Or a snake catching your scent … Who was he? How did he know me?

Oh no, he’s coming over. Sitting down opposite me at the cafe table. .

Excuse me? You have ketchup on your face. He grabbed the napkin and wiped my face, like I was a child! Then he got up and walked away. I’ve never seen him again since!

 

Looking at me

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Research has found that if you have a picture of an eye or eyes looking at you there is less chance that you will do something bad. I heard that someone put a picture of eyes on her packed lunch because her food would go missing from the fridge. It worked and it stopped happening. There are also posters you can put up in shops and offices to reduce petty theft. its funny what influences up,

I wonder if I should do the same in our fridge, I buy nice ingredents, only to find they are gone when I come to make a meal, or have a snack, strangely none of the ingredients that need cooking ever go…..

But eyes in the fridge?  I think it would put me off cooking!