Category: art

#1291 theoldmortuary

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Procrastination, SerendipityLeave a comment
Saint, Good Witch, Goddess

I absolutely knew I was procrastinating while writing yesterday’s blog.

#1290 theoldmortuary ponders

I was avoiding the reality of my Washing machine having broken down at the worst possible moment.

Over the weekend a neighbours cat had found it’s way through the window of our bathroom and he had marked his territory in the only way non-neutered Tom Cats consider effective, and had blessed a bathmat with an enormous pool of his pungent urine. It had been marinated in the broken washing machine overnight.

Knowing I was procrastinating and pondering procrastination turned out to be an artistic journey.

Having an interest in the absurdities of Christian and Celtic Saints and their claims to fame and good works I googled

‘Is there a saint for procrastination?’

A negative result turned into a new little project . There is no deity, saint or witch with any responsibility for procrastination. There is however a male Saint who acts against procrastination. Saint Expeditus.

©wikipedia

And just like that I felt the urge to find  a wonder woman called Procrasta. To give a name and a face to something I can be awfully good at at times. I had an unused water colour woman from an old project.

Procrasta a Goddess.

I am currently working on a Celtic Witch project so thought I would have a little fun with my image while avoiding the bathmat. My apologies to Saint Expeditus.

I popped Procrasta into a photo editing App and asked for her to be romantic . Saintly even.

Saint Procrasta

And finally I gave her a contemporary switch up in much the same way that I am doing with my Celtic witches.

The Good Witch Procrasta

Today I am not procrastinating . I am in that infernal loop of waiting in for a Washing Machine engineer between 8 a.m and 1pm. 

Hoping that my new Saint, Mr Expiditus has had a word in an engineers ear.

P.S  St Expeditus was not available today, instead he sent St Jude. The engineer was delayed until the afternoon and my washing machine was deemed to be a lost cause.

#1287 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Bobbing, Serendipity, Yardening1 Comment
Full Moony bobbers under a Sturgeon moon.

Share a hobby you’ve picked up recently — what got you into it?

Not just me and not just the Bobbers. A little moment of skinny dipping in Firestone Bay under a full moon.

Although with full disclosure I had to paint the Sturgeon moon and add it to the image afterwards, because the sky was densely greige with clouds.

The three swimming bays were alive last night with the happy chatter of swimmers who had discarded swimwear, and their allies who swam alongside wearing textiles.

A Full Moonie is all about swimming at night under the full moon even if the moon fails to turn up.

What got us into it?

Just one bobbers 60th Birthday Bucket List, earlier in the year.

Who  knows if we will keep it up through the winter. Nothing is impossible with the Bobbers but I suspect nudity might be very brief in the winter months ,no matter how hardy we believe we are.

The swim was silkily warm and thoroughly enjoyable. As ever the after-bob chatter was free flowing and wildly multi-faceted.

@theoldmortuary had spent the day working in the yard. Just a small amount of painting left to do before winter. But having painted the moon for the bobbers it would be a waste not to see it over a nearly finished yard.

If only our still green tomatoes could be so easily faked.

Five heatwaves and not a single red tomato yet.

But with a multi-purpose Sturgeon Moon even a ripe tomato is possible.

Following on from yesterday’s blog ⬇️

#1286 theoldmortuary ponders.

Artistic Interpretation and Artificial Intelligence. A.I two ways.

#1286 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, pondering1 Comment
Photograph of an original watercolour of a Mackerel. Artistic Interpretation.

What’s the weirdest coincidence you’ve ever experienced?

No weird coincidences to report. Some strange ones and some lovely ones throughout life but I can’t think of a weird one.

But my pondering head has been pondering the good and bad of witches and wizards recently and how witches are seen as malign and worrisome creatures and wizards  as benign and benevolent, in general.

Language shapes my unscholarly thinking. When a witch bucks the accepted trend she is labeled as a ‘good ‘or ‘white’ witch. When a wizard goes rogue he is considered ‘ wicked’

But it seems to me the default is female witch=bad, male wizard= good.

While creating art I use sketching, painting, collage photography etc to produce an image. Artistic Interpretation if you want a definition. I also use digital manipulation and computer generated imagery. Artificial Intelligence

A.I and A.I

For many years in the production of Medical Images I used skill and radiation or ultrasound. Technology and computers vastly improved what could be discovered and diagnosed during my career. There is a definition very frequently,but only recently commonly used for such innovation. Artificial Intelligence.

A.I.

Now that’s a weird coincidence.

I suspect that A.I is the witch when it is Artificial Intelligence and A.I is a wizard when thinking about Artistic Intelligence.

Also weird.

Digital Photograph of the same painting, tidied up, using art and photography programmes on a computer,
ready for prints to be made. Artificial Intelligence

The original painting looks much better in real life. Artistic Interpretation.

The prints will be as good as technology allows. Artificial Intelligence.

A.I a weird coincidence.

#1285 theoldmortuary  ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, fashion, MusicLeave a comment
@theoldmortuary immersed in the art of Yayoi Kusama

It has been quite the week, the deaths were announced of two internationally influential women. First Dolly then Yayoi Kusama.

A different realm will be awash with Polka dots and Rhinestones.

I have never been to Dollywood but I most certainly would have dressed the part. Beneath my normal day to day exterior is a woman who loves sequins, rhinestones and lurex.

Polka dots are a little easier to bring into mainstream life.

Both of my regularly used swimsuits feature Polka Dots.

And I was hiding in plain sight at an immersive Yayoi Kusama exhibition in a Marimekko dress.

EBay or extravagance fuel my passion for these eclectic loves. Thankfully EBay is the richer source as semi-retirement and a more environmental attitude to fashion all but excludes extravagance.

Where did this all start?

My mum was a Charity and later an N.H.S. manager in the Sexual Health world. She was also a very adept seamstress. She made costumes for what became known as the  Braintree Musical Society ( prev Operatic and Musical) and later for my Dancing School.

The floors of our home were scattered with glorious fabrics a few times a year as costumes were required or altered for shows. My Sindy Doll and Trolls had  extensive small wardrobes of the most glorious of garments.

Rhinestone Jacket, Lurex Shirt, Sequin Skirt. Quietly hanging in my wardrobe waiting for their moment to shine.

Of the two women I would say Yayoi had the more comfortable sartorial choice. Polka dots can be a pattern on any fabric. Twinkle, as chosen by Dolly is a texture thing.

Polka Dots do not chafe. Twinkle on anyone’s anatomy tends to chafe a bit, or a lot.

So long and farewell to two brilliant women. You leave the world better embellished than it would have been without you.

#1282 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 2026, art, Family, Firestone Bay, Scrag End of Summer, Summer1 Comment
© theoldmortuary

One week left of August and I feel the itch and anticipation of the arrival of September. Although I have never formally worked in education I always feel the 1st of September is a far more significant New Years Day than the dreariness of the 1st of January. The summer months, especially the summer months of 2026 have imbued a more relaxed feeling to life in general and to my art based creative life. September 1st will be the time to galvanise and gird my arty loins.

Girding your loins means to prepare yourself physically, mentally, or emotionally for a difficult task, a hard challenge, or a conflict. It functions like saying “brace yourself” or “roll up your sleeves”.

The last of my, summer, arty play dates with granddaughters occurred this week.

She sailed off to France yesterday taking us from 3 arty workshop girls down to none.

I don’t buy any special, inferior, art materials for them . They use what I use. I fret a bit about my  fancy brushes but not much else. I do catch them diving into my store cupboard for stuff I haven’t laid out for them but so far we have not had any arty drama’s beyond the normal drama that 3 girls can create in any situation.

Official Summer 2026 has sailed. We are in the liminal space that I think of as the ‘scrag end of summer’

Scrag end is an inexpensive cut of meat from the neck of a lamb or mutton. It contains a lot of bone and connective tissue, but it is very flavorful and becomes tender when cooked slowly.

I very much enjoy the ‘scrag end’ of summer. It is more tender and a little slower, more relaxed and less pressured. Poignent because it is an end but enjoyable because, for now, the actual end is unknown and unexpected pleasures will occur before that happens.

#1278 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Firestone Bay, Hybrid Printmaking, SerendipityLeave a comment
Partial Eclipse 2026, work in progress.© theoldmortuary

It is just over a week since I bobbed during the partial eclipse with 9 other bobbers. At the time the experience was both peculiar and beautiful.  Peculiar because we swam for virtually the whole of the eclipse experience. Quite often with special Eclipse glasses which gave us a completely safe experience to view the eclipse in real time, but our vision  was limited to black and red vision of the black moon obscuring most of an orange sun . While our bodies were experiencing the sensations of the sea and our ears were hearing the happiness and exclamations of a bay, full of happy swimmers.

When we didn’t have the glasses on we were experiencing ever changing highly saturated colours that slowly darkened and changed as the moon crossed the sun. One of my Eclipse glasses visions was of sparks of light like golden diamond twinkles firing off the perimeter of the sun. I think caused by drops of sea water on my eyelashes or on the plastic lens of the eclipse glasses.

I knew I wanted to create an image of the experience, but which one?

Until I decided to throw caution to the wind and put all my recollections into one image. Not as mad as you might think for someone who worked in medical imaging. For example a CT scan image is made of many amalgamated pictures taken from lots of different angles at slightly different times.

My hybrid printmaking technique with photography and painted or mono printed images uses exactly that technique, modified a little.

Yesterday I had to get a bit of a wiggle on to get this image off to a printer for a test run Giclee print. It is still not the finished article but I will need to see how a print looks.

So that’s where the image is currently but what about my personal recollection?

Really one of the loveliest things I have done in a really familiar home environment. I still haven’t quite found the words to describe the experience. But I have found the many layers of a half decent picture.

#1276 theoldmortuary

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, domestica, Serendipity1 Comment
Current work in Progress

26 years ago I started my journey towards taking a degree in Fine Art. Something I actually wanted to do at 18. Suddenly art began to create a bigger need for stuff. Evening classes and short courses prior to this moment tended to provide materials so art stuff had not left a big footprint in my storage. The next 26 years have been significantly different. Two homes have had actual art studio spaces. Two have not, and currently I have a hybrid space that requires me to be more sensible about what I keep and what I don’t. However the garage at our current home housed 26 years of my creative left overs. Like a snail I moved arty stuff around the country physically and in my mind. As an art gear archive the garage was pretty poor, it had been packed by our removers and there was no logic to it.I also never imposed logic on it, choosing to pick bags at random when I needed something For some inexplicable reason on the last day of the fifth heatwave the time had come to sort  and clear 26 years of stuff that might come in useful in a creative way. Sorting and going through it all showed my artistic journey. I can see the same decisions made on something created 8 years ago and in the work in progress illustrating this blog. But the truth is I can make those decisions without filling a space with the odds and ends of 26 years of creating. Time for stuff to be gone.

After the clear out

The garage is clear now, two trips in the camper van did the job. A small amount of materials went into my current workspace.

I had thought a clear garage was just a long overdue project, but it turns out it is not just the garage that is clear. My head is significantly lighter. A good few hours of going through and getting rid of old paintings and the associated materials I gathered on the way has been astonishingly cathartic.

What a puzzling and delightful outcome.

#1270 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn artLeave a comment
Working lunch.

The 5th heatwave of the year has slightly driven me indoors to start some post summer art projects early. The research and thinking/tinkering process has been ongoing for some time but yesterday was the first paper and pencil/paint  action.

But the heatwave drove the day and my daughter and granddaughter wanted to do a cool dog walk and then an even cooler dip in the tidal pool. I suppose I have never taken the time to sit on the edge of the tidal pool in peak summer and just enjoy it as a safe play area and people watching zone. I love it best when it is empty or has just one lone figure. 6 people as in this picture are way too many. Imust have cropped out 30!

The heatwave drove us to have a very continental lunch. Cheesy chips from a cafe and fresh figs from the tree on the tennis club.

I have no idea when my current arty project can be shared. Contemporary Witches could be the working title.

Quite a lot of witchery work was achieved yesterday. The tidal pool came into its own while I was ckearing up after the creative phase of the day. I submerged one of my very simplified water witches under the waters of the tidal pool. Giving myself an accidental pool witch.

©theoldmortuary, The Firestone Water Witch

I love the struggle of creating art, the struggle is where lovely accidents happen. In setting out on an actual project it seems I have found myself a side project. Heatwaves have a lot to answer for.

#1268 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, dog walks, Procrastination, StonehouseLeave a comment
Early morning boat

A fifth heatwave looms, so Lola and I set off early to get a decent walk under our belts before things get too warm for her paws. Instinctively she pushes the walk , pressing me to add her favourite sniffy places  as appendices to my planned and intended walk. At a basic level I need her to have had a couple of effective wees and a poo. She knows this. In the pouring rain both are achieved with speed and she turns her head for home with determination.

Days like today she  holds on to her eliminations, rationing them until she has had her desired length of walk and her fill off sniffing other dogs wee messages.

I look at little boats and plan a painting.

Although right now I am supposed to be focussing on figure drawing not solitary row boats. Or indeed clearing out the campervan after a weekend trip. The art of art as procrastination.

#1266 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, SerendipityLeave a comment

Another morning camping in an orchard with just the sounds of nature and sizzling bacon.

Our evening was spent listening to the sound of a birthday party in a house hidden completely from view.The playlist was  eclectic and suggested possibly a 60th or 70th birthday. It sounded like fabulous intergenerational fun and ended at 10pm when the valley fell silent.

Our day was spent in our favourite Cornish town. Doing familiar things. I have known and visited Penryn for more than 40 years.

A friend grew up there. More recently I attended one of the local universities to do some post-graduate study.

Falmouth Intensives, a personal view.

The town is home to two university campuses now. Something unimagined 40 years ago. We are regular visitors and our favourite chair, at home, was bought here on ebay in a very shabby state but is now a thing of great beauty and comfort.

In all our visits we have never needed a supermarket, which is why a giant Asda was a complete shock to me. Walmart has a share in Asda. This particular Asda has all the larger and finer points of Walmart without the sales of firearms. I only needed 5 things. It took me 45 minutes. I could never have predicted that beauty products would be hidden in an upstairs corner!

The shock of the new!

We returned to the familiar territory of coffee shops and charity shops.

Status Quo and a surprising brand of crisps.

Sometimes our granddaughter, Bonnie is called SuperBon.

I am not certain the illustration is shouting out the product.