Category: abstract photography

#1367 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, artLeave a comment

Yesterday’s hunt for a particular sketch threw up a huge pile of unfinished paintings. Of course it did not throw up the piece I was looking for.But I found a missing stache of unused paper. The big summer tidy up was effective but not entirely logical. I had a good couple of hours weaving 2 Gelli prints together. They were prints one and two of an experimental seascape.

Not hugely interesting on their own they take a much more powerful stance as a woven collage.

I popped into a craft shop to collect some sepia ink. In a quiet corner someone had written.

“Stick it before you knock it”

A sensible woman, experimenting with paper weaving should have seen that for what it was.

There was knocking, of course there was, but knocking loosened up my weave, which actually improved things. But by then the dark evening was upon me and dogs needed walking.

Goodness I am a grumpy bitch about early dark evenings, but a very bright first quarter moon was out and about to improve my mood. Reflected in the tidal pool. Of course I took a picture.

Which I then superimposed over the woven prints.

Which at least gives me an idea for where this experiment can go. But for today I will be gluing like a demon.

Stick with me, blog friends!

#1360 theoldmortuary ponders

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Patination on a copper cauldron from HMS Coronation.

Quirky specialist museums are a bit of a guilty pleasure. It is not always the artifacts that interest me but the obsession and dedication of the human curators, collectors and conservators that gather, protect and display random objects with a common theme.

Often specialist museums are run by volunteers who are doing their absolute best with a small budget and limited professional input.

H.M.S Coronation at Penlee Point

In a fancy pants museum a cauldron, made in about 1660 and retrieved, by divers from the wreck of HMS Coronation would be on a plinth in a glass case. I would look at it in wonder at the beautiful abstract patterns created by nearly 400 years of wear and tear many of those years 5 metres under the sea just off Penlee Point. Not too far from home.

But in the Devonport Dockyard Museum the cauldron calmly rests on the floor with almost no signage or fanfare. Enabling me to cause absolutely no harm and take these gorgeous, to me, abstract photos of patination created entirely by coppersmiths who lived 400 years ago and the sea.

I was so thrilled  by the abstraction I completely forgot to take a photograph of the whole object!

I am going to have to go back…

#1331 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, Architecture, art, blogging, Bobbing1 Comment

Our Autumn Equinox performed pretty well yesterday. Our 12 hours of daylight were sun-filled with just a hint of chill.

And if natural sun were not enough we popped along to Devonport Market Hall to see Helios an installation by Luke Jerram.Featuring a giant orb, representing the sun and an ambient soundtrack that represents many of the cultural, social and science impacts that the sun has on humanity around the world.

Bean bags and chairs are provided for static appreciation and the architecture of the Market Hall encourages  360 degree viewpoints.

I managed to get one of my complicated images. Which has half of my body balanced on a table and plugged into the mains via a socket extension. A dangerous position to be in, if it wasn’t just a trick of many lights.

12 hours filled with sunlight of different sorts. My final moment of sun worship was a little on the chilly side but worth the cold to spend time swimming towards the setting sun.

Helios is free to visit at the Market Hall, Devonport. Open daily until Sunday 28th September.

#1280 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography1 Comment

May is always my favourite month. 31 days of gorgeousness. I have been nurturing two climbing roses since my birthday in November. This one is called Claire Austin, she has been chosen for beauty and practicality. She is a spiky and reliable woman. Chosen to clamber onto a garage roof and deter the local cats from using our yard as a latrine. Not the most glamorous of jobs for such a beauty. I am still painting Turneresque images . 250 years ago when Turner was a visitor to Plymouth my back yard would have just a rocky outcrop surrounded by sea on three sides. Claire Austin would have been scrambling over rocks and turning her many pretty heads to the sun, I gave her a little bit of Turner yesterday.

The other rose is also growing but does not have a single flower head. The name ‘ Crepuscule’ is an odd word that makes me think of grumpiness. So far this rose is living up to the sensation of the name. Sturdy green growth but no sign of glamour or effort to climb anywhere. No background painting for the grumpy one . Instead, I picked some Arum Lillies at the Tennis Club. Cool white beauties under trees in an old quarry. Probably the quarry where the rock that was used to build my house was quarried from.

I blooming love May.

#1225 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, Hybrid Printmaking1 Comment
Devonport Park.

Some days are just so full of lovely conversations that it takes a while to sort them and file them appropriately in my memory bank while extracting the nuggets of gold to be used immediately.

One such nugget, is that my evolving photographic technique is called Hybrid Printmaking. Using printmaking knowlege combined with digital techniques ,my analogue skills just happen to be medical imaging, to create unique artworks.

Following on from that conversation was an explanation, see below, which I possibly cannot recreate as succinctly as it was explained to me.

“When an analogue skill becomes redundant it can become an enlightenment in the digital world”

Wow!

Less wow was my choice of clothes yesterday. Back buttoned dungarees on a day when I knew I would be using public toilets for a large part of the day.

What was I thinking??

#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.

#1205 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photographyLeave a comment

Is winter ebbing, with spring quietly edging? At the moment. I sense we are entering the scrag end of winter. Daylight hours have increased but temperatures are still challenging. Signs of spring are everywhere, yet the mud of winter pulls at my feet and marks my clothes. Me and mud have never been friends. Even the magical mystery mud of music festivals fails to charm me, the feint aroma of Medieval toilet systems does not enhance my experience. My childhood mud was mostly livestock mud from dairy farms or piggeries. At school we ran through the flat arable fields of the Essex countryside. Probably the purest mud of my experience but I didn’t love it.

And then just like that I remembered that one of my favourite views is actually a mudflat.

From which I must conclude that mud  charms me from a distance. I just don’t enjoy being in it. My apologies to mud for being such a grumpy guts.

#1195 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment

Picture yourself in a boat on an Ocean.

With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.

My apologies to The Beatles for lyric altering.

Mid-February and a Friday Bob brings the gift of Marmalade.

Gill’s marmalade is fabulous and we have been given a pot, or two every year since Covid lockdowns.

Inspirational Bobbers

A chilly bob warmed up by the thought of marmalade and butter on hot toast.

And for me the challenge of creating a marmalade sky to accompany this blog.

You can just about see the tangerine trees on the end of the island.

Here is Gill the Marmalade Goddess and Lola as you have never seen her before; as a doggy hot water bottle for intrepid February Bobbers.

Let’s get the weekend started.

#1192 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photographyLeave a comment
Devonport Park Bandstand.

I’ve finally cracked a small achievement in my creative wishlist for the winter. A bandstand in winter can be a forlorn thing. Useful only to shelter people and dogs from the rain. But bandstands in themselves are quite heart-warming things. Memories are made in and around bandstands. Music is the obvious #1. But they are so much more. A meeting point for friends and lovers. A hang-out for teenagers grappling with hormones and impending adulthood. Parents with buggies trying to form useful, supportive friendships with strangers ; who just happened to conceive a child at a similar time. Somewhere to think about friends and family in other realms.

Essential to me, in this image, is the ever present rain and the complete banishment of greige. Even though that was my reality.

#1187 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography1 Comment
Forder Creek.

Friday has arrived with bright sunshine.

My day is shaped though by the aftermath of Storm Éowyn.

Monday I needed to contact some old friends to help me solve a problem in another friends garden. A playhouse had been lifted into some trees that bordered on a road.  I couldn’t solve the problem immediately but they were able to sort things out. They have a weakness for buns so it seemed entirely appropriate to reward their efforts with baked goods.

Although I did check out all things tree related in my friends garden in case I needed help again. The weather gods had been kind, so our bun* eating was unfettered by any actual physical labour today.

Buns, tea and immense amounts of chattering were interrupted by my dogs testing their dog-proof fencing. One Bantam and one chicken were quick to alert us that the dog-proof fencing had a design fault. Poodle crosses and poultry are not a peaceful or particularly safe combination but the novelty of the moment kept the chooks just one step ahead of the dogs.

Very exciting times for January.

  • Spell check keeps correcting bun to bum. Why did I not use the word cake?