New paintings and regular art updates.
New year, new blog ideas? I’ve been writing and adding images here for over three years and I’m bothered I might be getting boring. I have tried explaining simple cience here, written short stories, shared art, and posted photos. But is that what people want? I am a captive of my own thoughts, I try and be cheerful, but sometimes I can be a bit down, if you know what I mean. So January? I need to think about what I’m doing. Any thoughts, let me know?
On the windowsill a pale white/pink Amaryllis about to burst into flower and a minature rose, salmon pink and lovely. A present from my hubby for Christmas. They are looking lovely this JANUARY 2022!
Now 2021 is gone, its done. It will never come again. I hope 2022 is better, we see sense about the climate, we do everything we can to stop the spread of Covid. That we start caring for each other and make more of an effort to help those with the least resources.
X
My friend is offering a beautiful print for sale and as a limited edition (not the image here, it has similar colours). I would love it, and it’s at a fair price for an artist to charge. But all I could think was, car tax and other bills are due in January. I have to realise I cannot afford it. Now I feel guilty for just enquiring.
I realise I don’t charge enough for my art. I have this strange idea that I want my art to go to a good home, so I undersell, swap art, or offer ways people can pay in installments. But I’m also doing other artists a disservice. If I charge less, how can they charge more? I think it might be my upbringing. Having a belief in myself? I guess it’s just how I am.
As the last few minutes to midnight tick down I wish I was at a midnight service for Christmas. There isn’t one this year, and it makes me sad not to be able to go. It’s the carols that really get to me. I think Hark the Herald Angels sing is my favourite. I remember being in the school choir. I wasn’t very good, I think they used me for volume!
Stay safe this festive week, and kee well. No doubt I will add to this blog tomorrow… I don’t think it will be very exciting though!
A Clarice Cliff pottery pattern that I painted as a mural in the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke on Trent. The design is called umbrellas. It’s one I would love to own.
Nostalgia is that warm feeling you get when you see or remember old or ancient images or things. I haven’t looked up the actual definition. But things like this, or even old TV shows like The original series of Star Trek, give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I know somehow I’m safe, like I have gone back in time, as a memory or a thing I learned about in the past.
I get the same thing with the James Stewart film It’s a wonderful life. I think nostalgia and being nostalgic must be good and calming for the mind. The equivalent of a mental sigh.
Is big brother watching us? Sometimes posts get put on social media that are wrong or mistaken, not deliberately but by lack of knowledge perhaps. . I’m in a group that has had warnings about misinformation a couple of times. No indication why. The mistaken Post was about the colour of reindeer eyes?!? Not political or racist, not anti one religion or another, just a shared post with a misleading photo. It’s strange, it’s as if the police are taking action for someone lighting a sparkler on bonfire night when the Houses of Parliament are about to be attacked by Guy Fawkes on November the 5th. So what can we do about it? There’s no information what to do? Delete the post? Yes, but does that remove any threat to take further action? I just don’t know. But it feels like being on Santa’s naughty list!
Funny questions, why do they ask. Looking at social media I see questions like this quite frequently. Some people answer, others say it is a way of gathering information. I’ve started giving weird answers. My answer to this was: the rightious indignation of honey bees.
I like words so it’s fun to make up strange answers. Why should people know what I ate for lunch? Or which side of the bed I sleep on. Or how long ago I ate a biscuit? An hour ago…. There I go sharing personal information again… And my password for everything is not drowssap either!
I just saw a photo of this painting and thought of simpler times. When people could meet in groups, no one wore face coverings, and there was less fear in the world.
The conversation flows, there is gentle banter, there are smiles and laughter. People drink and eat and share food, a mouthful or two of delicious fruit or a compote. Wine and beer, fruit juice and water. The voices murmur, no need to shout through a mask and at a distance. I hope we can go back to more carefree times, but we will have to see. Stay safe. X
Coffee with sweetener, cream and whisky.
I don’t take sugar, which makes it harder to float the cream on top of this drink. The whisky is only a single measure of a blended scotch. The coffee is a decaffeinated instant coffee. If I had some in I would eat a sweet mince pie with it. It makes me feel like Christmas is on the way. I remember when I was first allowed one of these on a family trip to an Indian restaurant.
I sometimes have it without alcohol, it’s not always what I want to drink, but this is a treat. I think as the weather has got colder I’ve started to have more comfort food. I must watch my weight.
A lot of the time now I switch on the subtitles on the TV. Not for me but for my hubby, even with hearing aids he struggles. But when you read them, the ‘live’ ones, there are some strange mistakes, mainly homophones where sees is misinterpreted as cease or seize for instance. Some are real howlers. ‘He was pudding the shutters down’ , or spelling mistakes ‘the fig was thick that night, it was hard to sea’. I’m sure I couldn’t do any better. But some of them are hilarious! And distracting. Tonight I was watching a dancing show and instead if dancing a Rumba it said Room bar!
Mallaband-Brown