Author: theoldmortuary.design

theoldmortuary has been a blog for about five years. It has evolved into an almost daily event. Pondering on the things that are inspired by my daily life. Often mundane, sometimes repetitive I swerve from hyperlocal activity to big and small thoughts without blinking an eye. I am an artist and writer. My hometown is Plymouth in South West England, part of me will always be connected to London and another part loves to travel.

#1222 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay, Royal William Yard2 Comments

I woke up this morning with a busy head. The sort of busy head that requires a list to be written for the rest of the month. The list is almost more important than the blog. But the blog is my calming moment.

Morning Mist

But not so this morning.  Jetpack my blog hosts have upgraded my phone App overnight and nothing is where it should be. This development will take a little getting used to! This blog will be brief because that list really does need attending to.

Misty Morning

I also woke up wondering if this was a ‘bad’ photography day. Which I think it was. Aurally the day was fabulous. Mournful fog horns and distant church bells. The 21st  Century was wiped from view. I wanted to create digital images that were truthful to the location but that still made the mist the story.

Stonehouse Tidal Pool in the mist
Royal William Yard in the mist.

Brief and to the point this morning. I’m sure I will get the hang of this brave, new Jetpack world, but today is a day of lists and ticking things off.

Why mist? The Exhibition I am entering in the summer is about exploring the Tamar Valley with the Artist, Turner in mind. He and mist are forever entwined in my humble opinion. Mist and the Tamar Valley are also fairly frequent companions

But work for that exhibition doesn’t even make today’s list.

#1221 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, Serendipity1 Comment

After the fabulous light show of Dazzle which has brightened up my weekend nighttime dog walks .

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/16KaWjxHjM/hi

It was marvelous to see this lovely Magnolia in the dark yesterday.

https://theoldmortuary.design/2025/03/03/1220-theoldmortuary-ponders/

It reminded me to reflect, in a very self indulgent way, on the passing of winter and how as an ardent winterphobe I improved my attitude to my least liked season.

Reviewing things I realise that actually there are only three things I really dislike. January, constant rain, and short daylight hours. None of these things avoidable.

In December I am lifted by the run up to Christmas, festive lights and goodwill.

And I love February for its brevity and skippy nature as the days grow a little longer and Spring flowers spike the sodden soil.

Leaving me just with January to endure. ‘ Find the positives ‘ was the advice from Newspaper magazines each Saturday. I am always an optimist but January sucks my optimism. But I gave positivity  a go and decided to try and create interesting images out of the shockingly dull photographs I was taking. What light there is in January is overlayed with a perpetual mist and large quantities of rain. I tried everything in my medical imaging repertoire of image manipulation, everything in my arty photograph toolbox, some painting skills and used image manipulation software from really old systems to current ones.

There is almost no predictability about which bad pictures will turn out to be visual gems with my tweakments but learning to use all the tools and ideas in my head has been  fascinating. There have been some epic failures.

I even went back to the nineties and bought myself a home printer. Goodness me they have improved.

January and indeed winter 25/26 I am ready for you.

Here is the Magnolia on a gorgeous shade of ‘ greige’, surely my most used word of the winter months.

And finally the image I was aiming for.

Other worldly Magnolia.

#1220 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks1 Comment

Dog walks have been giddy experiences this weekend.

https://devonport200.uk/dazzle/

Four nights of magnificent illuminations and projections and the dogs given access to buildings they would not normally enter.

Quite what they made of it we will never know. But a festival of projected light makes the average last dog pee of the night a lot more illuminating than usual, with paths, walls and steps rather more vivid than usual.

I think a celebrated and projected history of Devonport may have passed them by but they sniffed their way through every location with dogged diligence.

Which allows me to ponder on what they really get from sniffing other dogs pee.

Foxes are supposed to be able to read the pee messages left by several generations. I assume dogs are similar. Wouldn’t it be cool to pick up family and local history by just sniffing,

#1219 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Words1 Comment

Spring is not just ‘in the air’ she is on the ground and surfing the sea. My winterphobic bones are enthusiastic and ready to gad about a bit.

Two solid days of sunshine puts gallivanting back on the daily schedule.

Not that I was ever brave enough to quit my job and go gallivanting around the globe.

I am a small ‘g’ galivanter. Almost certainly because of my family circumstances.When I was at the peak big ‘G’ gallivanting stage, I needed to be responsible and stick around because my mum developed an untreatable neurological condition when she was in her mid 40’s.

As it turns out having to moderate youthful big ‘G’ gallivanting taught me to really max out on small ‘g’ gallivanting. A useful life skill I think.

A collection of Galanthus gadding or gallivanting about.

#1218 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Hybrid PrintmakingLeave a comment

The last winter bob of the 24/25 bobbing season.

A super sunshine day to blow away February and Meteorological Winter. It was a low-tide swim and swim shoes were needed.

I did not do quite so well on that.

But cold feet and a rocky walk into the water is not a combination I could tolerate so two left feet it was.

We still have two months of very cold water to swim in. Yesterday was 9.4. It could have been worse.

My two left feet were absolutely fine, when you can’t feel your feet they don’t care who they are.

The refreshments of the day were a glorious lemon cake and salted caramel chocolate bites. Worth every moment of our chilly swimming.

#1217 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

Yesterday was the most predictable of days. Chores, errands and dog grooming.

A publicity poster for the National Trust ( A Charity in the U.K that protects beautiful places and spaces) did not reflect my lived experience of a late February Thursday with chores to do.

I knew exactly where I would find myself and the list was not thrilling. But the sun came out, a gap appeared in my to-do list and,the somewhat dull, life admin was achieved early. Thanks in no small part to the parking deities who were endlessly kind yesterday.

After the dog grooming I returned to Wembury beach car park, where the poster was and took my pristinely clean dogs for a walk on the beach. A treat rarely available to them due to beach restrictions for most of the year.

Where will I find myself? Back in the same place.

And in finding myself in exactly the same place as I had been two hours earlier I had two delightful moments of serendipity. A hug from a friend and fellow club administrator who was cliff path walking. And an encounter with an off-duty witch. She was astride her witches broomstick by the sink in the public toilets.  Not a word of explanation as to why she had a broomstick between her legs but being English we made pleasantries about the weather and the tragedy of a closed cafe. She said cake was her downfall and affected the brooms performance. So in some ways she was grateful.

In an alternate realm perhaps.

#1216 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

A little extra blog with a prompt.

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?

Not for a whole day . Just a morning or afternoon or evening would be enough.

I would love to experience actually being the conundrum of humanity that is an Alpha male.  Potus or Putin perhaps if I were aiming for infamy or more humbly, any regular Joe who just sees women as inherently inferior. I could wear the invisible Stag Horns of a person who actively seeks out confrontation and domination in the tiny details of life as well as the more significant ones. Actually, any horn would probably do.

Just a portion of a day would be enough to start with, to give me some level of understanding. It would also give me plenty of time to make my apologies and relax my jaw from all that jutting both real and metaphorical.

Meanwhile the Alpha male I have briefly inhabited could perhaps enrol on a Lambda ( Lovely) man course and we would both have been enlightened.

#1215 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay1 Comment

Silhouettes and sunset. 5 people are filming and recording an interview on the tidal pool slipway as the sun sets.

I’ve been lucky this week, my late afternoon walks have rewarded me with vivid colours, although these are enhanced, and dry conditions. The morning walks much less predictable. My feet have been quite giddy. Two outings without socks and boots. The omens for the end of winter are good, in my humble opinion.

I feel that any moment the need for thermal underwear will arrive and that soon after that the winter coats will be sent to the cleaners and then stored in the roof. Not exactly picturesque signs of a winter retreating but for a winterphobe like me every step towards Spring is a step in the right direction.

#1214 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art1 Comment

Starting with my palm tree I drew a simple sketch on watercolour paper.Then traced it and made a copy on more water colour paper.

Then I photographed the first painting as each colour was applied.

And finally made lines and cross hatch to improve the depth.

The second painting was much simpler and quicker. I just painted everything in its corresponding complimentary colour.

Then the fun of using all the techniques I have been practicing this month double and sometimes treble exposing photographs. But this time the photographs are of quickly rendered water colour paintings.

Two clear favourites emerged after an afternoon’s digital tinkering.

#2
#1

So much serendipity is built into these images. #1 narrowly wins because I love the sharp shadows that have been created by being off-registered. The image suggests a hot summers day.

#2 more perfectly aligned is like a different time of day.

I have two painting days scheduled for this week. I think the next one will be spent doing either a portrait or a nude. All that from a potted palm in February.

And saving the most exciting fact until last. The sunshine made its way into the studio for several hours today. That is certainly a sign of the ‘S’ word creeping up behind late winter.

#1213 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Serendipity3 Comments

Far too late in February I have realised that I usually enroll on a creative course of some sort. Three years ago it was a mindful watercolour course with Tansy Horgan which really shook up my way of working with colour.

https://tansyhargan.bigcartel.com/category/in-person-courses

At the time I was working at an art gallery showing an amazing exhibition called Songlines featuring the work of Indigenous   First Nation artists from Australia.

https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/songlines-touring

©theoldmortuary

This was an abstract image inspired by my last day stewarding at the exhibition, created to express what I had learnt and felt about the experience of being submerged in the art of a significantly different culture.

I realised this morning that both learning mindful colour mixing with Tansy Horgan and being drenched in the colours and mark making of  Indiginous Australians has informed my recent hobby of digitally altering  deliberately dull and uninteresting photographs

So much so that I have not painted since Christmas.

I have had a painting project bubbling in my head for some time.

It’s too late now to register for a course in what is left of February. Time to get my bubbling project down on paper and resolve to be better organised next Winter.

©theoldmortuary

For now the Songlines painting combined with the rainy palm tree in my back yard.

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