New paintings and regular art updates.
It looks like a coastline with crumpled cliffs and a sandy, rocky beach below. But is that a tall building above the cliff? The scale is wrong. And why is the left side of the sky paler than the right hand side? Because this is actually a close up of an old window, the paint has come off the frame and the wood is dry and brittle. Photo taken a few years ago at Spode Works, Elanora street, Stoke upon Trent.
We had to reinforce the scenery for the play because it’s only made of hardboard and it is stored in a shed leaning up against other props and developed an shape. The wood needs overpainting but I think I can sort it out. X
Sliced wood. How do you make a veneer for furniture? Cut through a slice of wood four times, glue it onto some backing wood like pine and add three more pieces rotated so the result is a symmetrical pattern.
This is what my grandfather, who was a carpenter, did for my mom and dad as a wedding present. He gave them two wardrobes, one large and the other smaller. He used a carcass of probably elm or beech and then used Walnut, polished and stained to a dark glossy finish. They were beautiful. As a child I used to go and look at them. The pattern and colour enthralled me.
Old building in Stoke Town centre. The paint and layers of wood have been deteriorating for years. It’s like some fancy abstract painting. As the weather attacks the surface, more of the lifts. Part of me would like to see it in good repair, but my artistic side sees it as a painting.
I went out to Audlem yesterday to sing with our choir. Thankfully I got a lift there and back because I can’t drive that far.
We sang really well at the Music festival and managed to drown out a band that was playing across the road from us!
We had sung inside Audlem Methodist Hall for the first half and then outside in the garden for the second half. That’s where I saw this sculpture of two birds, I think they were doves, carved out of two tree stumps. I really would like to have a sculpture like this done in my own garden where I had to have a tree cut down because it was dying. I think whoever carved this is very clever.
I was asked to paint some bees today for a craft fair at Growthpoint to raise money for the group. I painted one large bee on a flower and three small ones. I like going to the group. It’s helping me feel a bit less anxious. I can talk to the people there and get things off my chest I’ve had a lot of things to deal with over the last few months, I just want things to calm down.
“We should be sitting on this!”
“But I need a table to pot on”
“Yes, but you have one”
“But it’s got my trains on”
“Well can you move them?”
“No, I’m making a layout, I got some ‘n’ gauge stock” “I want to build it up”.
Sigh, “OK but the plants can go in the garden, the bench needs varnish or something to protect it”.
I didn’t mention to hubby that the last bench was treated in the same way, the wood rotted and the bench collapsed. I bought new wooden slats, but ‘someone’ (hubby), nailed them on to something else….
Acrylic on canvas painting, work in progress. Of trees and rocks or stones. But I don’t remember what I was doing with it. I found it in the summerhouse while I was helping clear it up. I must have started it sometime last year. Perhaps in the winter. I’ll have to make a story up? Maybe it was too cold in there and the water froze, or the weather changed and continuous rain put me off. I’m going to get my brushes out and try and finish it off….
Flowers in a wreath seen on a bench last year? Was it a memorial to someone who had passed. Remembering a share time together looking at a view…. I wonder.
The bench itself is in good condition, the wood is starting to go green and will need to be replaces one day. I had a bench and the slats rotted. I went out and bought new slats but never found someone to put it back together again. I guess benches and people are similar. If they aren’t looked after they have a tendency to fall apart!
When you heat your home with a log burner I guess you will get through a lot of wood, and apparently it has to dry out so that it burns hotter and steadily? This is what’s left of a friends store and she hopes this will last for a few months. The only problem that has been found is that wood fires give off carbon Dioxide and tiny particulates.
I guess eventually we will all have to shift our energy sources. My hubby says there is a hydrogen pipe line in the north west of England and that there is talk of adding it to gas supplies and even converting them to hydrogen only in time. I know some vehicles run on hydrogen fuel cells. The emissions when hydrogen is burnt is water, the hydrogen is produced by splitting the hydrogen and oxygen from water…. A circular system? All we need is energy to create it, solar power? And safety systems to make it safe as it has a higher burning temperature.
My hubby says it has a higher calorific value and has weaker electron bonds so its easier to split the bonds between the hydrogen atoms. Anyone who saw it being lit in chemistry class will know it ignites with an explosive bang! You can’t just use hydrogen for cooking and heating on its own as it burns too hot. The cookers and boilers will probably be OK with a mixture of hydrogen and methane. If they use hydrogen only they will need modifying or replacing. But that is for the future. In the meantime I hope my friend has enough wood for the rest of the winter.
Mallaband-Brown