Category: art

#804 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Food ( but this is not a food blog), pondering, Serendipity1 Comment

What’s your favorite thing to cook?

I love cooking anything with British summer fruits. Not a thing I do much of in the depth of winter. But where cooking fails, art steps up. I had ordered some romantically named water colours in the depth of winter, they arrived on the cusp of February and the little test piece I painted when they arrived, had all the piquancy of my favourite summer puddings.

The names themselves are delicious.

School Disco

Byzantium

Caravan Green

Gooseberry

Rowan berry

I doodled away giving everything except Byzantium a run out on paper. To be honest I was being sidetracked.

I was actually supposed to be creating a pillowcase from an old pyjama jacket.

But the temptation to try the new paints suddenly became urgent. Probably because sewing the slippery fabric was as difficult as it had been to sleep in the pyjamas.

I didn’t give Byzantium a moment on the brush. I’m not sure why. But it gives me a fine excuse to have another doodle this weekend.These paints are all hand made by Tansy Horgan.

https://tansyhargan.bigcartel.com/

I have a project in mind that will need Byzantium. I am slightly concerned that Byzantium may be a bit of a bully. Caravan Green turned out to be exactly that. Hugely versatile on his own, but a little bit of a bully when mixing with others. Gooseberry was a dream,fading out to something imperceptibly beautiful the more dilute I made it.

School Disco was a dream. As pink and pushy as Barbie. I was always a rather conflicted Disco goer, particularly the termly torture of a School Disco. I loved to dance, but in that dreadful hierarchy of teenage years my acne and bookishness cast me as a wallflower. Not that I needed to be picked to be danced with. I have always had enough chutzpah to dance as if no-one is watching, but the judgement of the school ‘beautiful people’ is a harsh spotlight to step into.

And lastly Rowanberry.

Does anybody apart from birds eat a Rowanberry? The paint was fab. A super bright red/orange with a bitter edge. I can’t wait to pair it with Byzantium on a doodle.

Apparently it is a foraging classic.

Easy Homemade Rowan Berry Jelly

©LarderLove

Goodness it is good to get back to classic @theoldmortuary pondering. February really does feel like the start of something.

#804 theoldmortuary ponders

#781 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art2 Comments

Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?

My mum was given an old copper preserving pan by my grandparents when I was very young. They had replaced it with a much lighter aluminium version. The copper pan is very heavy duty and almost impossible to lift when full of jam or marmalade. The pan got more use in my parents house for making mulled wine at Christmas. 

It has been mine for the thirty years since my parents deaths and had a different life as a plant holder or for a while as an artist’s muse. I am not the artist of this fabulous still-life but my pan, kitchen table and a rug  are.

Artist- Stephen Fuller

Yesterday, not realising that I would be writing about it today I moved the pan into the sitting room to hold some of the fragrant candles* that we were gifted over Christmas. What I didn’t do was to give it a good clean. There will be a later image today once I have done that rather grim task.

* On the subject of fragrant candles. Am I alone in enjoying them? I read a list of most unwanted gifts recently and they were listed along with socks and toiletries.   How ungrateful.

Two copper preserving pans and a posing dog.

#754 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Photographs, Serendipity1 Comment

I love a mirror selfie. The one above was entirely accidental. I was photographing a card design on my workbench and accidentally flipped to the actual selfie mode and photographed myself in the mirror ball that hangs in the window of my studio. I am the pixelated orange blob in the centre of the mirrorball.

In Venice recently, my feet put in an appearance on an Arnaldo Pomodoro , Sphere Within a Sphere, sculpture. The rest of me is lost in a dark crevice.

And in Dublin I embellished the same sculptors work a year ago

Back in Venice I doubled myself onto an unnamed sculpture by Anish Kapoor.

Yesterday I had to remove myself from my own painting to include it in the blog. Here is the original, a highly glossy resin piece.

I dressed the part to visit a Yayoi Kusama installation in Hong Kong

But most times the reflection is unavoidable. Here I am hanging with Mick, as you do.

Helmut Newton

The serendipity of this blog is that it is two years since the last blog course I attended. The final piece of advice given by my chosen mentor was to put more of myself in the blogs. He absolutely did not mean visually. He wanted to hear my voice in my writing. Any sort of self exposure feels a bit awkward, written or visual but I have tried to take his advice and after two years I am finding the whole thing a bit easier. She says, pulling a quizzical face.

#743 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Serendipity4 Comments

Oxfords Word of the year 2023 crept up on me with such stealth that I had never heard of it and certainly not used it. Rizz!

https://corp.oup.com/news/eight-words-go-head-to-head-for-oxford-word-of-the-year-2023/

Word of the Year 2023
After more than 32,000 votes, and a team of language experts, Oxford’s Word of the Year 2023 is…
rizz.


What does it take to command attention without even trying. A whole lot of charisma, or the shortened form, ‘rizz’.



Pertaining to someone’s ability to attract another person through style, charm, or attractiveness, this term is from the middle part of the word ‘charisma’, which is an unusual word formation pattern. Other examples include ‘fridge’ (refrigerator) and ‘flu’ (influenza).

In our bobbing world of wacky conversations we certainly discuss the theory of rizz we just didn’t know there was a twinkly new word for it. The word ‘allure’ was used.

15 of us have been cold water swimming, ‘bobbing’ for nearly 3 years. In that time we have gathered irregular non-bobbers who come to watch from the sidelines. There are benches where family and friends can sit and take in the sea air.

Allure or rizz as it can be called is an entirely unintentional characteristic. I’ve had it all my life, this is not a boast just a statement. From conversations after swimming you either have it or you don’t. As you can see from the top photo. I am an entirely normal human being , not glam in any way. You would pass me in the street both now and thirty years ago, as in the portrait. What neither the portrait or photo show is the message writ large on my forehead that says ” Talk to me”

Rizz, is both a blessing and a curse. Strangers can be fascinating but sometimes there just isn’t the time or space in my schedule for a deep and meaningful with someone I don’t know.

One bobbers mum came to watch us one day last summer. She has rizz and she knows how to use it. ( I don’t use it because I am at heart an introvert, it uses me.) When we got out of the water she was deep in conversation with a man . By a gorgeous blogging piece of serendipity they were both from Oxford. He was originally from Plymouth but after a long career in glamour photography had settled in Oxford. How on earth did he alight next to a woman, also from Oxford to enjoy a 30 minute conversation in the sun. Marie has Rizz, it exudes out of her like honey from a hive.

Rizz is genetic. Marie’s daughter, a bobber has it. A few weeks ago I was talking to a stranger. ( Of course I was!) We alighted on a person we both knew in common. ” Magnetic smile” were the exact words used. Marie’s daughter emitting her rizz!

So there we are, a whole blog about a word I hadn’t heard of until two days ago.

Now about the portrait, and there are two more by other artists, also done because of rizz. When I was a mature Fine Art student I was approached to have my portrait painted as part of someone else’s course work because I had an interesting face. For interesting I think we can swap the word rizz. Curiously not one of the three portraits have the words ‘ talk to me’ across my forehead. I absolutely know those words are there because why else would an introvert get so involved in extrovert things.

©Peter Orrock

https://www.peterorrock.com/about

I have lost touch with Peter but he has 30 paintings for sale on Artfinder.

#737 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, SerendipityLeave a comment

Pondering December 1st.

Admirals Hard

On the threshold of the festive season and where to take pondering for a whole month.

The picture above was serendipitous about a month ago. The incoming tide created a meandering tide mark that leads the eye to one of my favourite local doors.

Celebrating Serendipity and where it leads me is going to be the theme of the 31 blogs that will ease us into 2024.

The first few days will still draw heavily on my recent Italian trip but who knows where serendipity will take us. This morning at 0 degrees I already know that life and not serendipity is going to dip me in the sea.

But back to last weeks serendipity. An Andy Warhol painting  that caught my eye. Not to be too self absorbed, but Illeana Sonnabend, an American-Romanian Art Dealer, born in 1914 was a doppelganger for me in the 1980’s.

As luck would have it there are no retrievable photographs of me in that era but if me and Illeana were in the same room and at the same age you might easily mistake us for twins. Serendipity at its very best.

#736 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Serendipity, Words2 Comments

One of life’s pleasures, of my sort of aimless wandering in a foreign city, is indulging in capturing the textures, colours and experience of inconsequential but interesting things.

I loved the texture created by the loss of mortar between the bricks of this wall in Venice. Texture and ginger colours was a bit of a thing for me on this particular day. I was able to see the original painting of a mythical bird woman by Max Ernst.

The imperious bird-woman commands our attention with her direct owl’s gaze, and seems alarmingly about to step out of the painting. The robe depicted here may refer to the mystic initiation of Christian Rosenkreuz, founder of Rosicrucianism. It seems also to have autobiographical allusions, with the artist present in the green swan or heron. Much of the highly textured surface has been created by decalcomania, a technique of dabbing at wet paint with rags or paper to create a puckered surface. The comprehensive meaning of this painting eludes us, as is characteristic.

Max Ernst’s paintings often baffle me, but even when reproduced the textures he creates are thrilling. To see one up close and actually see the picture in person was a fabulous treat. But as a word collector I was almost as thrilled with the word ‘decalcomania’

So much to take in, in one walk. Time for refreshment. Which turned out to be just one more moment of inconsequential discovery. My poor old post-covid taste buds long for anything that stimulates them into action, however brief. Ginger is a regular drink of choice and the fierier the better. There was an Italian soft drink that promised great things with its name.

Gingerino offered not a glimmer of ginger but it was one of the bitterest and delicious things I have tasted in a long while. Despite its nuclear colour I was hooked and rather giddily had another. Sadly it seems my discovery was just a very brief holiday romance. Gingerino and I will never be reconnected in the U.K.

A day of remarkable ginger texture is definitely a day well spent.

#735 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Serendipity, Travels1 Comment

Yesterday’s blog, https://theoldmortuary.design/2023/11/28/734-theoldmortuary-ponders/ , was all about an exhibition squeezed into our journey to a railway station that was absolutely the sort of thing we love to visit.

Todays blog subject is almost the complete opposite. Easy Jet decided at fairly late notice to cancel our flight home, giving us additional time in Venice until an alternative flight with a different carrier. Next door but one to our hotel there was an exhibition that would probably never be on a ‘must-visit’ list.

©Fondazione Prada

A replication of a 19th Century Venetian Portrait exhibition last curated together in 1920. Proximity to our hotel was key as we had agreed to meet some fellow abandoned travellers to share a water taxi when we discovered we were all on the same alternative flight. So we walked around Fondazione Prada the central bigger building in the picture above and visited Ca’ Pesaro the smaller white palazzo.

We could easily have filled our time in the Modern Art galleries but the deeply pigmented colours of the walls of the portrait exhibition lured us in.

Who wouldn’t be lured in?

What a revelation. The vibrant wall colours absolutely focussed the mind on the gloriousness of traditional portraiture. The anonymity, to us, of the subjects somehow made the whole exhibition easier to view. We even noticed an anomaly.

Was she lonely and just decided to sneak in the back with the joyful family?
Maybe we could have found the older man too?

Real credit to the curators for making unknown portraits interesting. Just one room differed in layout from the 1920 exhibition. Maurizio Pelegrin, an installation artist born in Venice created a space with a very different feel. Like a squirt of lemon on a rich and unctuous meal. Just perfect.

#714 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, autumn, Words1 Comment

I learned a new word yesterday.

I am shocked that I never thought to question what the counterpart to misogynist is. Both misogyny and misandry are pretty easy to spot but it never occurred to me to give the dislike of men a name. Now I am thinking myself  into a circle of over thinking.

Is it misandrist of me to think that misogyny is more commonly experienced in society.

Thankfully my second new word of the day is much easier to get my head around. 

Goodness I love biomimicry. Yesterday a friend was knitting with variegated knitting wool,which was the exact shade of fallen autumn leaves. At the time she was sitting under this piece of art.

©Yan-Feng

These were exactly the colours of the day yesterday.

Two new words in one day!

#703 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art1 Comment

People who work 24 hour shifts should not be allowed into retail spaces after the shift ends. 10 years after this shop was just a short bus ride from my place of work my art materials store still holds weird and wonderful art materials that I bought from this very specialised shop. Their website suggests they sell hard to find items.

Not hard enough to find, for my art material acquiring habit. I knew exactly how to get there. Even when running on zero energy I loved to look at and then purchase some of the amazing things they sell. A little bit of sparkle or deeply pigmented paint brings me deep joy. Some of my supplies are so special I will probably never finish them.

Money well spent I think, madly perhaps, when I wasn’t thinking straight but goodness do they give me pleasure. Sometimes I just look at them , colourful moments of potential creative pleasure.

Cornelisens Gold Gilding wax on canvas.

#680 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn archive, art, Art for sale, Serendipity1 Comment
Autumn in an Arsenic Mine

Facebook Timehop keeps coming up with old friends. Not the human sort but artwork that I have entered into exhibitions and then sold. October is traditionally the beginning of my artistic hibernation. Last exhibitions have been entered and the unsold works return to the studio. My work is not particularly gift-worthy so unlike many artists my exhibiting season does not extend towards Christmas.

I have got into the habit of having an experimental phase for a few months from November until February and then I knuckle down to create some new pieces to replace those that have sold the previous year. This year has been a little different in that some large works that had been leased/ loaned to a company that had huge white walls, were returned to me when the company moved locations. The last one of these pieces was sold last week.

Deadheading

I miss paintings when they are gone. Just as dog breeders probably miss puppies.

The one below was given a high gloss resin coating so the farewell picture also features a self portrait of the artist. (Me)

Dive

As paintings are sold and others return the studio gets a bit of a reshuffle. I’m not entirely sure how a reshuffle differs from a tidy up but this year there is a distinct difference. The tidy up meant I completely lost two monoprints that have an interested buyer. The reshuffle of this week has found those monoprints and an original watercolour which I need to make some cards.

Nearly there trees.

One more original to find. Pumpkins also needs to be turned into cards but somewhere between the tidy up and the reshuffle he has gone missing. So missing that there is not even a photograph!

In contrast to these pictures my experiments are quite different and may never see an exhibition. Yesterday I painted Storm Agnes in Tranquility Bay. A slightly strange mix of reality and imagination, but that is the point of experimentation.

Storm Agnes in Tranquility Bay.

It does me good to reconnect with sold pieces of art. I had almost decided to stop painting bigger pieces as they are so difficult to store, but seeing these has galvanised me into future action on bigger canvases. They, at least, never go missing.