Not a particularly arty day, 3 meetings. 1 veterinary, 1 arty, I tennis and 1 time sensitive proposal to submit before midnight tonight. On time for the vet, tennis and the time sensitive proposal. Only actually late for the arty gathering. Of all of these things the proposal was hanging over my head and was certainly what caused so much creative procrastination this week. Form filling is not a favourite pastime but needs must.
Feeling mighty proud of beating the midnight deadline by six hours. I just hope the creativity keeps flowing now I have no reason to procrastinate.
The picture above is street art found in Plymouth featuring nine lighthouses.
I just stuck them together digitally and made the colours bleed a bit . Of course what I should have been doing was filling in a form to be more than 6 hours away from a deadline that I have had for 3 months!
Sometimes life and art collide in the most unexpected places but also in the most timely way. I have a few projects on a gentle simmer. At surface level they are all quite different. At a granular level they have many similarities.
The image above is made from 3 photographs taken in the same location at about 7 am this morning.
A SunriseA rust stain on concreteSome glass bricks at Tinside Pool
What inspired the header image was a beautiful stained glass window at a Thanksgiving service for the life of a friend.
Stained Glass by John Piper at St Andrews Church
Having this beautiful window to concentrate on was so comforting when words stopped flowing. Grief robs eloquence and quietly waiting for words to stream again was made a little more comfortable by having this previously unseen church window to explore with moist eyes.
Rolling forward to 6:30 this morning and my eyes were dryer, thank goodness, and darting about a 90 year old Lido. One of my simmering projects.
I love, love, love a glass brick and the crazy abstract patterns they create. Today I wanted more. These glass bricks face the south. What I wanted was the limpid sunrise to be seen through a glass brick.
Armed with some digital skills I popped outside to catch the sunrise. In catching the sunrise I found the rust stain on concrete. I stuck them all together and made a stained glass window which pretty much fulfills my mornings wish list.
It is not every day that a large lorry rocks up in our neighborhood and opens its doors as a mobile art exhibition.
Our life here is shaped by the sea, our day was shaped by the needs of a three year old with a limp. The two situations fitted together perfectly.
The exhibition was curated from the Government Art Collection.
My favourite piece was one that has to be seen to be believed . It doesn’t photograph easily. In my, not so humble opinion, my photograph is better than the one in the brochure.
Brochure.My photo of Bengal Tiger Van by Chila Burman.
I love it because it is a composite image of a seaside ice cream van transposed onto an enlarged image of a ten pound note. Printed and then hand embellished with South Asian patterns created with glitter which is actually tiny,tiny Swarovski Crystal. Every time the door to the gallery opened and allowed sunshine in, the Crystal lit up in much the same way as inbuilt holograms do in actual £10 notes.
The absolute joy of this image is doubled or trebled because it is printed on my favourite named Somerset Velvet printing paper.
Oh to live in a world where I could roll around on Somerset Velvet and be embellished with Swarovski Crystal.
Meanwhile the 3 year old with a limp did the serious business of listening to an artist talking about their work on some head phones. Just as she did in a recent blog.
After a summer of entertaining 3 granddaughters in arty pursuits it is time to put my studio in order.
I found a fabulous triple width pencil box in the bathroom. Previously it had held lovely beauty products.
Pencil cases are such a September thing. Never in a lifetime of September’s has there been quite such a useful pencil case.
Just organising it gave me the urge to get on with creativity rather than the procrastination of sorting out the studio. Not only Procrastination but this week I need to get an application for a commission submitted before anything truly arty happens.
For clarity the rather grubby tissue in the pencil box is actually a putty rubber.
An earlier blog mentions putty rubbers and my origin story with them.
I like the idea of art that knocks you off your feet. Gillian Ayres
Early September is my time to catch up with Summer exhibitions. This year notably because heatwaves made me less inclined to do anything much. I very much like to be knocked off my feet by art.
Gillian Ayres is an artist whose work explodes colour. Colour is absolutely my favourite thing about both art and life.
Due to a climbing frame injury, I had a three year old ,with a limp ,as my gallery escort. She loved the sensation of huge canvases of bright colours.
We paint the essence of something. I don’t know how to be very clear about it in words. I suppose that is why I paint. Gillian Ayres
Me too, my work is more representational but the essence is always important and I have to be very careful not to be too wordy or literal in my thinking and vision for an image.
Visiting an exhibition with a three year old is like doing so after a couple of glasses of Fizz or some other perception enhancer. There is both giddiness and instant joy. The colours and scale of the works we looked at were both monumental and vivid.
Wise nana-ing limits actual art appreciation to about an hour. Another hour is spent creating our own mistress pieces in the hands-on gallery.
Then lunch in a nearby student cafe with more colour and texture than the ubercool sophisticated gallery cafe.
The gallery gift shop allowed a small person to see herself reflected in colour.
Drenched and submerged in all things colour my delightful guest asked to go back to the gallery. Music to an arty Nana’s ears.
This time she chose which exhibition to visit. She couldn’t have chosen better. I met an old favourite painting by George Shaw.
Meanwhile she studiously listened to the artist describing his work.
And together we chose the work we would most like to steal from the gallery.
I find the idea of theft from an art gallery is the most wonderful creative thought process. When I used to work in an art gallery I used it as a conversation starter not only with children but also with grumpy old curmudgeons , who were being mean spirited about the art they were viewing. To be honest I use it on myself when art or anything visual is not to my taste. A little crime fantasy focuses the mind on positivity I find.
What did we do after all this colour drenching?
We pottered off to an allotment and found yet more colour. Just enough to fill a small hand.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
