Looking out

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Painting from a few years ago. It’s one that I did about imagination and the mind. I don’t know where it went. It may have been sold. The foreground is meant to represent axons and synapses in the brain. Thought happens, but how do you describe it? How you depict it? The eyes are supposed to be the window to the mind.

And how do we know the mind is in charge. Only a few centuries ago, the heart was seen as the centre of emotions. Hence the phrases like “letting your heart rule your head”.

I’ve done similar pictures in watercolour pencils, but they are probably in a sketchbook somewhere. I’ve got too much stuff.

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Got to start painting again

_20200219_130113this is a self portrait I started last year, but haven’t finished. So where best to start when you have been a bit blocked, than to work on something like this.

I want to do a series of ‘green’ portraits. The idea being that I can make a different image that is striking and interesting. Although there is a basic structure done on this I may make a lot of changes. Its definitely a work in progress.

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This was me.

Me at 18.

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I have no idea where there paintings are now, but thus was me at 18. My work was part of a group exhibition for my foundation course in Art. Why did I have curly hair?

I think the picture I was holding was in watercolour or black quink ink? The top picture is my mirrored image, with desks in the background. I don’t have the article any more, it’s got lost in the mists of time. I posted this somewhere on line and kept a copy of it. I can’t say the exact date it was taken… How I wish I could go back to those days!

Tiny paintings

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This is a couple of years old and about two inches by one inch. I’m thinking of doing a few more of these for a craft fair, and to cheer myself up! I have a small commission to do and I can’t drag myself out of my current low mood. In any case I’m OK really, just need to get myself sorted out. Painting helps me feel better, calmer, or excited and happy.

Paint ain’t a bad thing

gets your mind working.

Paint is a pleasure

and a little bit frightening.

Creating your ideas,

putting them down

on paper and canvas.

Drawing out my mind

with colour and texture.

Life can suck,

but paint can pull you back,

giving a solution and reason to be.

 

Game of Rock, Washer, Mangle

Panto rehearsal again tonight… Oops, the body DIDN’T line up on the back of the flattened policeman. But I can sort it out. The rock for the cave scene works fine… The washing mashing machine looks OK too I think…. Anyway its all kicking off next week… Four performances over three days.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday next week are going to be very busy.

I’ll try not to break a leg!

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Today I have been painting…

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Papier mache rock, for the pantomime. It is covered in newspaper and was painted with white emulsion. As I painted it the undercoat of white kept flaking off. I’ve painted it to look like the top is catching a ray of sunlight and the base is in shadow.

While I was doing this I also painted a flattened figure of one of  the policemen in the panto. He has been through a mangle and has been squashed flat. I had to do both sides but I didn’t do each side the same so I might have to repaint the back. Finally I painted clothes on a pretend washing machine. The door opens and a policeman climbs in. Then a child comes out in similar clothes, as if he has shrunk!

Anyway four hours of tiring but fun painting. It’s coming together x

Snake painting,

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Did this Snake and Ladder painting a couple of years ago. It was a bit of an experiment but someone liked it and had it straight away. I don’t remember all the paintings I’ve done, and I’m not the kind of person who makes a list, so there are pictures out there in the world that you might own….

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Painting mugs

At Etruria Artists today we painted mugs, they were blank white mugs and we used on glaze paints that stay the same colour when they are heated. The most exciting thing is that they can be heated in an ordinary domestic oven. They have to be dried for twenty four hours, then heated at 150°C or gas mark 2 for 35 minutes to bake the colours in.

The outside photo is lock 40 on the Trent and Mersey canal. It was a beautiful morning, bright and sunny. I really do prefer coming to Etruria Artists ‘hands on Art’ at the Warehouse next to the lock in the morning rather than the evening. It is on from 10am to 12 noon if anyone wants to come along.

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Thinking about Art

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I just posted this as a comment on a friends page… “I always feel I could do better when I’ve finished a painting, I look at the mistakes not the good bits….”

That made me think, is that why I paint, draw, and create?

Tomorrow I’m going to another friends, she is running an art lunch once a month. I’m hoping I can draw some inspiration to work out what I’m doing next. I have let things slide in January, now I need to try and make more of an effort….

Jupiter Blue

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Would you buy a painting of one of the poles of Jupiter? I’ve done a few paintings os astronomical objects. This is from a photo from the Juno probe a few years ago. I’m thinking if doing a ainting of Pluto’s heart. But although I love it I wonder if anyone out there is actually interested. Maybe I’m too interested in tech. I can’t help it though.

It’s not easy to hand paint these images, it takes ages to blend the colours and build them up. Then you have to make sure it’s accurate, although I don’t measure everything exactly. I can’t compete with photography but I do try my best. Anyway this is a large acrylic on canvas and it is for sale.