#1214 theoldmortuary ponders

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.

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.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18jx1HKCKe/

#1194 the oldmortuary ponders

I picked up this postcard at The Archaeology Museum (Acropolis)  of Athens in early autumn.

I’ve added the heart because it has become a favourite image. A girl standing with her dad.

I am fairly certain I don’t have a similar image of myself with my dad. Not for any estrangement or complex family dynamics, but because in our family my dad was the photographer and therefore never in pictures.

This is an almost unimaginable concept in a world where smartphones allow everyone to be a photographer.

In our spare room there is a big blue Ikea bag of family albums to be gone through before I put them back up in the roof. I can’t say I hold out much hope of finding a father-daughter picture   of us together until I was in my teens.

In pondering and googling this thought I found a really interesting article which I have shared below.

https://www.itstartswithadam.com/blog/what-smartphones-have-done-to-photography-and-our-capacity-to-look#:~:text=Smartphones%20have%20made%20photographs%20fluid,does%20the%20remembering%20for%20us

And just like that I have found a long form blog about artiness that I really enjoy. I like New World art writing for the same reason that New World wines are so interesting. No snobbishness, less entitled twattery.

Pondering and googling and a day walking in the sun.

It makes me think and that is always a good thing.

#1173 theoldmortuary ponders.

Drakes Island on a dull day.

Cold water swimming and creativity. Where or what is the buzz?

Cold water swimming is repetitive and challenging in my chosen location. No matter what I am stuck with, a cold water dip brings clarity. Since this is about creativity I can share a very recent light-bulb moment.

I was away in Penzance with a number of people for whom the physics of medical imaging is something they could natter about endlessly.

Some of us went swimming in Mounts Bay on a dull, cold, grey day.  After dipping in the sea I found a naturally occurring rock  pool that was big enough and deep enough to hold a whole human .

I could gaze out to St Michaels Mount and appreciate the beauty and bleakness of a winter day. Knowing that my photographs would be lacking a little interest. My light bulb moment arrived as my core temperature dropped.

I could manipulate the image just as I would an ultrasound, X-ray, C.T or M.R.I image. And then stick the images together using a reference point. In this case the island of St Michaels mount.

Taking to the Sky, Mounts Bay.

My own home cold water swimming spot has its own island that I can use as a reference point.

Drakes Island on a dull Day

The buzz this morning was applying my Mounts Bay, medical imaging ideas to Drakes Island.

Poof!! I hear you say this is just photography. Where is the art in that?

But what is to stop me doing a water colour or many watercolours with a registering point and then photographing them and suprimposing.

An experiment for the next few days.

And that is what cold water swimming brings to creativity. A clear mind where new ideas flourish.

Drakes Island on a dull day.

#1168 theoldmortuary ponders.

The Rain it Raineth Every Day. Norman Garstin 1847-1926

Sometimes it feels as if this is true. William Shakespeare wrote the quote which is the title of this painting and the nearly true statement in Twelth Night. One of my favourite W.S plays.

A rainy day in Penzance. What to do?

A lot of enjoyable faffing about and dog walking in damp conditions and an afternoon trip to Penlee Gallery and Museum.  Which was a wonderful welcoming place.

And here is the serendipity of  live blogging.

The sun is out this morning, the Bobbers are up and the sea is exceptionally chilly.

No more arty faff. Just me and sunrise and my post swim plunge pool.

In my dreams the pool was a hot Jacuzzi.

#1165 theoldmortuary ponders

Grumpy greige was banished by bright sunshine and a -1 degree temperature. The local ferry was caught in a sunbeam. Sunbeams bounced off windows as I walked to meet fellow artists at our regular monthly meetings.

The prevailing natter was predominantly about exhibitions in 2025. One of which I am fairly well prepared for and another that I am not at all prepared for.

I started a doodle as I talked which is the first time brush and paper have met one another in 2025.

Honestly sunshine and talking to other artists is the best way to spend a morning.

#1156 theoldmortuary ponders.

The last day of twixtmas.  I thought I would have a little jog through my creative notes from this year when there was a lot of experimentation behind the scenes and there will be more in 2025.

January 2024

Tasting, feeling, painting synesthesia. Eating a frozen rhubarb crumble. The taste of high summer in the middle of winter.

February 2024

Another sensation painting/print. I needed to be ready for a print exhibition. This reflects my own experience of being a year round sea swimmer using an outdoor shower.

March 2024.

Singing rehearsals for a Green Man Festival. I wanted to create a contemporary Green Man.

April 2024

Green Man backlash. The awkward story of Green Woman birthing a fully grown, in-leaf tree.

May 2024

An old painting. The Nearly Home Trees on the A30. The original was lost for ages .It turned up in May.

June 2024.

Still a work in progress

I started experimenting with combining quick sketches and a location photograph. A book group on a quiet Greek beach.

July 2024

Another work in progress. Redesigning and reconfiguring my studio has caused some sketch notes to be found and others to be lost.

This one is currently missing in action.

August 2024

A photoshopped sketch note. Who knows where this one is going.

September 2024

Gilding apples.Finally the apples in a string bag are finished.

October 2024

Learning a new (old) skill. Printing a daffodil using the potato printing technique.

November 2024

Just using up, by weaving, scraps of watercolour and typewritten quotes.

December 2024.

Photoshop combination of two photographs of a December weekend. Firestone Bay at dawn and Glass Bricks at Battersea Power Station.

I always think my sketches are a bit random but this annual review makes me think that they are all linked in some way.

#1120 theoldmortuary ponders.

Does my blog affect my art. I wonder if it does? The map above is the map of a very regular walk.  Today I am not so sure if my art and my walk are in some way linked. I have never noticed this map before. It could be new. I was rather charmed by the little footsteps as they reflect my regular circular walk.

The walk this morning was fabulously colourful.

Domestic admin/yardening followed the walk, planting roses and garlic, but later I put some finishing touches to an ongoing painting.

I can’t help feeling that the centres of my final fantasy flowers look a little like footsteps.

And my choice of colours are pretty similar to the boats I chose to photograph.

#1082 theoldmortuary ponders.

As the dark mornings stealthily shorten daylight hours I am more and more thrilled by the cloud  of crumpled paper that has replaced the ghastly chandelier in the bedroom. The wonder that is IKEA’s imaginative  design for a mass produced item.

We are in the midst of our own Octoberfest. No beers or cutesy German themed servers wearing  lederhosen and low cut shirts. Our Octoberfest is all about ‘Spring’ cleaning the house and some redecorating.

The studio has also had its chandelier replaced by a paper cloud. So much more conducive to creativity. The parchment-coloured wall is new; the blue one will change to dark teal. We want to reflect the colour of our local sea.  Oktoberfesting the studio is a mammoth task.  There are still materials left over from my Fine Arts degree 16 years ago. I have moved them around the country in case random things were ever needed. I have promised myself a proper sort out and rationalisation of art materials. My fabric stache took the hit yesterday. I need a full day of recovery before I tackle paints.

#1067 theoldmortuary ponders.

Lin Deacon

Lin Deacon

Who are your favorite artists?

My favourite artists are my friends who happen to be artists. And artists who I meet and like, whose work interests me.

I realise this may be a poorly written question trying to probe which are my favourite works of art, but just as I would in an exam I will answer the question, not what I think the question is.

Clare Law

https://www.clarelaw.co.uk/

Obviously this only works for contemporary artists or artists who I feel I know through reading biographies, autobiographies or watching documentaries.

Jill Coughman

Jill Coughman RIP

I am far too much of a diplomat to write about artists and their art that I dislike, but I can say that I love the work of Rothko but I rather doubt if I would have liked him one bit.