Tag: Umbrella

Tall dark STRANGER!

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I was just walking to the post box when I noticed someone in a dark hoodie and trousers walking behind me. I’d decided to post a letter and I’d left my bag at home as I’d decided not to take any money. But I did have my phone in one pocket and was carrying an umbrella in the other hand.

As I walked I noticed he was keeping up with me because I walk slowly so I expected him to walk past. But no he was close to my left shoulder, I put my hand in my pocket because the phone was protruding slightly.  I stopped to look in a shop window across the road so I turned to look at him. He dawdled past me but I noticed he turned and looked back. I started to walk slowly again and watched him. Every few yards he looked back. So I kept stopping and looking in windows. Finally I got to the post box. He was about fifty yards ahead of me and once again looking back. I waited until he ambled off again. Then I turned around and headed home. As I got to side streets I walked up them and then back down. I only noticed him looking back again once.

I felt anxious about this and it made me quite nervous. The man’s appearance and his activity was strange. Was I right to avoid him?

Umbrella mural

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Umbrella mural I painted for the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent in about 2006/7. Based on a design by Clarice Cliffe the Potter. The white line on the top left was a white ribbon hanging down that had been used to decorate the Arnold Bennett suite in the back room of the Leopard. About 3 x4 foot. Emulsion paint on lining paper which was glued directly on the wall. Sadly the hotel burnt down a couple of years ago and all my murals were lost.

Paintings for a friend

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Over several months a friend has been collecting some of my smaller paintings. She sent me this photo of them yesterday and it struck me how varied they are!

The galleon painting has gold paint on it to give a feeling of the sunlight reflecting back up onto the reverse of the sails.

The small painting of the woman in the woods was taken from a photo from a friend, I loved the atmospheric feeling of it and tried to evoke the colours of autumn.

The dragon is based on an image that I had created for my college piece on the mythology of dragons. I had drawn and designed a children’s book and this was one of the ideas I used for it.

I’m so pleased my art is being appreciated, I love being creative and it keeps me going. X

Chomped cherries!

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Pecked at!

We just gathered some cherries off the ground because the rain and wind has knocked a lot off the tree. This is about a third of them that were too bruised, damaged or pecked. The rest have just been washed thoroughly in salty water and I’ve put them in the fridge to eat tomorrow. I will thoroughly rinse them again first.

The plan is to get a broom or a stick to try and pull some more down and collect them in an upturned umbrella. I hope the weather doesn’t intervene in the meantime! Praying the wind doesn’t whip up and blow them off. There’s still plenty left for the birds…

Rainstorm

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Detail, pastel, my drawing ‘land and sky’

“it’s gone black over Bills mums” they say round here when it goes dark and cloudy. When the clouds pile up and you sometimes get snowy white tops to them when there is some blue sky too. The wind suddenly whips up. I was out in something like this today. One minute rivulets of rain were running of my brolly (umbrella) and the next it whipped inside out! The gust almost took it out of my hands.

I turned into the wind, getting soaked, and used the gust to bend the umbrella vaguely back into shape. Then I closed it to make sure all the little struts were shutting properly. One thread had wrapped itself round a strut, so I had to release it before I could concertina it down into shape. But all was well.

On the way home the sun shone in front of me and I looked behind at the dark clouds in the hope of seeing a rainbow, but sadly there was none.

Going to a new home

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Autumn painting. A woman with a red umbrella walks through a damp and misty forest with leaves scattered around. I worked from a photo someone lent me so I don’t know who’s photo it was. If there is a copyright issue I will delete this post.

I had problems with the body length and the length of the legs, trying to get them and the arms in proportion. I had to play with the colours and shadows to try and get a realistic light on the figure. I also tried to make the trees bluer to send them back into the distance.

Three new?

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Enjoyed starting a few paintings today at the Orme Art Group after turning up with no reference photos, I forget to take my phone and it has some flower photos I was going to use! Thanks to a lady called Steph for letting me borrow her pictures.

These are only daubed in… I will go over them and add details later. I started one little canvas but I didn’t want to muddy the colours so I started another picture, then another. I’m hoping these all have a feeling of atmosphere. I want them to look misty and damp.

Inside out!

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The wind was blowing as we walked round Trentham lake today. That was fine, the weather was cool and cloudy but dry. We walked past the reopened miniature railway which had a diesel train running on it with happy children and adults riding on it. We did think about taking a ride but decided to head towards the end of the lake to the cafe to get an ice cream. We noticed strong gusts of wind and the clouds darkening but it wasn’t bad and I had a large umbrella that I was using ad a walking stick.

We sat and had an icecream but felt the patter of rain. So we decided to walk back the way we had came. Then we fought a head on blast of wind and rain! The brolly was being buffeted, twisting in the air. Its handle and stem were bending in the strong gusts of wind. Suddenly it turned inside out! We both fought it back into a sort of shape because it was still raining, but a couple of spokes are hanging down and the cover has pulled away and is sagging. Sadly it was disposed of when we came home… Mm

July Cats

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A calendar with a kitten, cat hooks for key rings, a bit congested but an interesting photo I think. If you look closer you can see an umbrella leaning there. The calender hangs from a paperclip. Oh the joys of non style! I’m messy, not stylish, I’m not tidy, I’m a pragmatic housekeeper. If it works just leave it! July, it’s a cute month. (apologies for the use of the kitten photo, I don’t know the photographer).

The Colour Room

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Mural of Clarice Cliff umbrella tea set I painted at the leopard Hotel.

I’m excited, a film about the life of Clarice Cliff, the Art Deco pottery painter and designer has just come out on film. I’ve also found out some of my friends are extras in the film! I want to find out if I can go and see it at a local screening.

Clarice Cliff is famous for designs such as “bizzare” and other geometric shaped pots painted in colourful and stylish patterns. She was working in the 1930’s at the same time as other paintresses such as Suzy Cooper. Apologies for my lack of information. If you look her up on Wikipedia or perhaps the museum services at Stoke-on-Trent City Council. She is very famous here. X