New paintings and regular art updates.
I didn’t show photos of my hubby when he was alive, but here are a few of them that I painted over 40 years of us being together.
The exhibition is now going to be on next week aswell. I’m pleased because it will give people time to get there. The closing night is now the private view. This Friday 6.30 to 8.30pm.
My art is for sale, except for ones of my hubby, they are my memories of him, I don’t think I could part with them.
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
,
When I failed my driving test I learnt from that experience, I learned that an unmarked crossroads should be approached with caution and you should stop to check if anyone else is coming and give way if necessary. Also if the driver next to you drives over a pedestrian crossing on a one way street, don’t assume it’s clear of pedestrians. If someone is about to cross- Stop!
When I did the follow up test my car would not start… It turned out it was an electrical fault. I sat in the drivers seat while people from the test centre had to give me a bump (push) start. The instructor told me to turn right, I indicated left! I apologised, explained the electric problem had flustered me. We started again, me convinced I had failed again.
We did the test, I passed! I was amazed, but I had learnt from the previous test.
I need one if those old fashioned ‘intermission’ films they used to show between films at a Saturday matinee at the cinema to relax my mind. Gentle music and the sight of a potters wheel twirling might help me to sleep. I’ve forgotten the various little strategies I use to try and fall asleep. Pain and discomfort have held my mind up like a theif of sleep. Haunting me in the night. A few, drowsy thoughts and I’m awake again, sometimes disturbed by a heartbeat out of turn or the patter of cats paws. I have things to do today and I didn’t want to be tired. 6am…..goodnight, I will try counting sheep
What are three objects you couldn’t live without?
I tell a lie,
I could live
But would life be worth it?
Colours swirl and fade,
Brushstrokes create
Patterned surfaces
Canvas grabs paint
Textures grow
Light seems to flow.
No, without my creative things
A life of sadness it brings.
Give me my paints,
I will build mountains
Canvas for landscape
Or face?
Who knows.
Brushes manipulate
Joy it creates.
We just held, a celebration of my hubbys life. He was always interested in acting and theatrical performances so when my friends offered to greet guests at the start of the celebrations on stilts and in circus costumes I had to say yes. They stood outside and looked funny and magnificent. They stayed and enjoyed the rest of the evening. A group of us sang ‘always look on the bright side of life’. A good friend read a eulogy and showed slides and video of my husband. We had almost 200 photos of him on the hall walls. People read poems for him including one specially written and ‘do not go gentle into that dark night’ we had a harmonica playing and a friend singing and playing the banjo. There was a lovely buffet laid on by the hall.
People also wrote memories of him on cards so I could take them away. The plan is to create a memory book of the celebration. I took some of my portraits of him up to the hall.
All in all it was a fantastic evening and I was very pleased with how it went. I think my hubby would have appreciated the occasion. X
I’m finding old portraits
Portals to a previous time
Not photographic images
But paint on canvas
You made me smile
You made me laugh
And cry too
So I hold onto these
Small tokens of love
With all my strength.
X
Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.
When I left school all those years ago I remember feeling like I was falling off a cliff. Hard to change my life.
Everything had been about learning, getting up every day, going to classes, coming home, doing homework. Trying to make the switch to ‘real life’ was a shock. I knew the times I worked would be different, but I got a couple of part time jobs cleaning and waitressing so I was not free to enjoy weekends or evenings anymore. This got worse as I went to college in the following autumn so I was trying to fit in my college work and my jobs and trying to get some work life balance.
I managed the change in my life OK after a few months but strangely it was hard to say goodbye to. I was still with my family and friends. The next year I left home. That was the real shock to my system.
A helibore at Rode Hall.
I’ve just written a post about flowers in bloom on Esther Chiltons blog:
I visited Rode Hall in Staffordshire this weekend to see flowers in bloom. It was the annual Snowdrop Walk. It’s about a mile of paths around gardens and woods and along to a lake where thousands of Snowdrops of various species are in flower at this time of year.
We had to book a time slot to get a parking space because the ground is saturated after a very wet winter and there would not be enough space in the car park otherwise.
My friend and I had a lovely walk around the grounds. We were a bit disappointed because a lot of the snowdrops have already gone over (finished flowering), but there were other flowers in bloom including daffodils, helibores, cyclamen, camelia, and other flowers and shrubs. Flowers are blooming and Spring is on its way!
Wire woven mobiles in my window. The first thing I look at in the morning. One was to celebrate my hubbys 65th birthday, the other Ygdrasil, the tree at the centre of the world was a gift from my friend. I wonder if there will be any more?
Wire weaving is a brilliant skill, I think my friend was featured as a maker on one of the TV sales shows a few years ago. This sort of work takes agility and dexterity.
Creative people deserve recognition and support. In a world where councils, running short of money, are going to close art galleries and libraries, I wonder what people are meant to do to learn and enjoy the arts? Maybe the richest 20 MEN in the world should share some of their wealth more, even if we go back to Victorian values like philanthropy. Art is in our DNA it needs preserving!
Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.
I remember fighting to put a bookcase together. We had picture instructions. Various dowels and screws and covers to go over the screw heads, shelves, and a few bits that made a sort of plinth base thing. It was white coated MDF which had white hardboard that slotted together at the back. It came with pva glue that helped hold it together.
Once we got it out of the box we got confused with how to put it together. Place part A next to part C, use dowel B to join together etc etc… But it gets boring after a bit. You spill the glue on the destructions (as I call them), which stick together and then, disaster(ish). It sort of looks like the picture on the box, but a bit like the leaning tower of Pisa! No matter, we will try putting books on when the glue dries…
Mallaband-Brown