New paintings and regular art updates.
My hubby in about 1982/83, sorry the photos blurry the cat is the same one as in the other painting. It’s propped against the wall and the computer is in the way. The title is Summer Dream. It’s oil on canvas. There are standing stones at the top and a female figure with long hair blowing in the wind, (meant to be me). It’s supposed to be set in the west country.
Another narrative painting.
1980s large canvas. Painted in oils, it was only a few years later that I started using acrylics instead. It’s about 5 ft by 4 ft or something like that. It depicts our old front room, in the house we used to live in. The cellar underneath the front room was starting to collapse, its vaulted ceiling held up with an acroprop. Why was I painting a giant cat? Because I love them, and patterns (wallpaper, clothes etc). The small cat in the corner is playing with a roll of wool. The box says Walsall Art supplies, where I came from. I’d call this a narrative painting.
It’s warm on top of the armchair, now my radiator is fixed. And the new chair has a flat area at the top so the cat can happily fit. In the background is part of a large painting I did in our old house. It’s oil on a huge canvas. Like a lot of my art I forget it’s there sometimes. The little cat in the corner was one of the first we had when I moved there.
Old photo from a summer about four years ago. If ever there was a photo that could be turned into a painting I think this is it. Outside a school in Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent.
An empty space…. Twenty-five years had a detrimental effect on our armchairs. The springs were gone and I’d added pillows and cushions to try and build them up. At one stage we thought of reupholstering them, they had been very comfortable. But no, when you have to put books in the base of them to hold them up, and the springs dig into the carpet you know it’s too late! I rescued the seat pads and used them to boost the cushions on the settee which is really only used for guests to sleep on. Waiting for two ‘new’ (secondhand) chairs to be delivered tomorrow.
Late greeting to 2024’s calendar
You arrived at the start
Of January (not a wonder)
And ended 2023 at last
A year I don’t want to remember
Not a good year for me.
May this year be better and hopeful
A leap year, an extra day
February 29 a blessing
Where happiness might just stay.
Apart from that added adventure
The rest may be simply the same
But hopefully pleasant and gentle
I don’t want 2023 again!
When I got an ink roller to blot out the name and address on a letter I realised I could also draw with it. This is from 4 years ago and came up on Facebook memories. This was one of my experiments. Since the roller made quite a wide mark it turned into a fat cat! Some of it is using a fine line pen but if you use the roller edge you can also draw lines.
Westport lake. A splendid place to visit is one of our local reservoirs. It helps supply the Trent and Mersey canal. In winter when the trees and bushes are skeletal the warm glow of a sunset can make it seem anything but cold. Pleasant memory of a walk with my hubby.
All my cats have black patches on their noses. Apparently the black in cats is actually a type of tabby (ginger) and sometimes in bright sunlight you can even see stripes where part of the coat has faded. Most of the cats I have had have been black and white, none of them were pedigree and a lot of them were cool characters. One particular cat was very intelligent. She came when I whistled or called, but would also jump across gaps when I called her and liked to ride on my shoulder. She was a stray when we got her and lived to a good age of around 19.
Want to get a pet with an independent personality? Think of adopting a rescue cat!
Sleeping is a issue yet again. I’m either too cold or too hot. Lost without my hubby who passed away three weeks ago. I really have a heavy heart. I just spent the last hour or so remembering things we did in the past. Going for bike or tandem rides when we were younger. The feeling of almost flying along, racing each other down hills (I was always more cautious). How he took in a stray cat a few years ago that had come limping into our garden, it turned out to have been abandoned by it’s owner. That cat is now sleeping on hubbys bodywarmer. I think it misses him as much as I do. It’s almost 5am. Going to make a cocoa.
Mallaband-Brown