#1622 theoldmortuary ponders.

Hello November. The beginning of the slow, grey, slither towards the shortest day, Winter Solstice, followed by the, equally grey, clamber out of the monotone abyss in January and February.

For a couple of years now I have been fascinated by altering greyish pictures like this using the classic photographic/radiographic physics of image making that I learnt in Darkrooms during the analogue years and then the digital manipulation of the digital, computer generated years. My career was more or less 50/50. All the excitement of the digital age saw dark rooms repurposed, new skills learned and to a degree the old knowledge abandoned. I have moved from wet processing ( chemicals in tanks) to digital and AI assisted image making.

As an aside I do wonder if the initials and concept of AI would seem less threatening if it was called Assisted Information rather than Artificial Information.

But I digress. Thank goodness my brain did not have its head completely turned by the digital age and carefully retained all my hard learned analogue photography/ radiology physics.

Hard earned because I was a reluctant student of all sorts of physics. I really had to knuckle down and learn it.

In my imagination my analogue skills are all neatly stored in my brain like this

This however is probably closer to the truth including the eighties wallpaper.

Now I could bore myself with all the analogue physics skills that take a poor and dull photograph, taken an hour before sunset.

Into a vibrant celebration of a late afternoon in November. Nobody needs to be bored by me on a Monday morning. Although I been asked to give a talk to an art group in the New Year.

Imagine skipping off to an art group for a social gathering with fellow artists and a woman turns up and starts talking about Physics!

This idea is going to need some finessing.

#1621 theoldmortuary ponders.

If you had to sum up your life philosophy in one sentence, what would it be?

Probably this. It is not a unique thought but part of a quote from a book I picked up in a hotel bar.

The book was largely forgettable but the quote stayed with me.

Waldmeer by Donna Goodard.

No judgement at all about the book, I didn’t have the time to fully read it and chanced upon this quote.For completeness I might add.

There is a depth to life that only comes from our connection to other people whilst walking a dog.

Walking my dogs in the parks of London and here now, in my coastal community in Devon I have engaged with some fascinating people. People with dogs are obliged to stop and talk with one another as their dogs engage in bottom sniffing. Some people without dogs want to stop and talk with me because they want an interaction with my dog. All these random conversations can lead on to longer conversations as your dogs decide that you will circle the park or peninsular together.

Of course I joke about adding the dog bit. But without igniting a dog v cat debate, I would say in my fifty years of being Team Cat there was never a point where owning a cat expanded the depth of texture, friendship or communication of positivity with other humans. 13 years of Team Dog and I have lost count of all rhe gorgeous and delightful interacrions that my canine companions have engineered.

Hugo with his/our gang in Dulwich Park. The High Court Judge, The Principle Dancer at the Royal Ballet, and the owner of an International Model agency. Just dogs doing their thing and humans doing the same. But in any other life those humans would never have charttered so freely.

There is another interaction with an artist, so famous there are T.V programmes about him. Hugo felt that love was in the air as did the very famous artist whose owner was not in the least bit bothered.

He would have been bothered in the future if any puppies were created because Hugo could not help himself when art was being created. Not really a problem at my level of the business but nose prints at his level may not have been quite so acceptable.

#1620 theoldmortuary ponders.

When I sorted out my physical portfolio I was surprised quite how pink I had become. A couple of winters ago I did an on- line course with Tansy Hargan.

Obviously, without ever realising, I was searching for something in my creative world to change.I am nearly 3 years on and so much has changed. Not least a Worldwide recession, at a granular level it means there is less of an appetite for buying original works of art. The large and bold Acrylics of my past creations do not sell so well and if they don’t sell then I have to store them. Doing the Find my Colour Voice course took me back to the world of watercolours, a place I have always loved. But doing a Fine Art degree as a mature student broke me out of my comfort zone. As it should.

The humble conker as a metaphor for watercolour.

I am not a sleepy dormouse who has returned to sleep in the comforting, velvety husk of a Horse Chestnut. I have returned to watercolour fully prepared to balance on the outer spikes of the husk from time to time and even on occasions to hang just by the tenacity of my tail.

I was hugely surprised to discover there was a lot of pink in my colour voice. One of my exercises from the course is below. The Dormouse has a paintbush loaded with pink paint

I am a little disappointed that I didn’t think of making October, Pinktober. So much pink in the portfolio.

Pinktober is over without ever getting started . 2027 and October is going to be Pink, unashamedly so.

link below to Tansy Hargan, the unlocker of pink.

Source: Tansy Hargan https://share.google/OqpzvPd7q9276diui

#1613 theoldmortuary ponders.

What do you think is the future of AI?

The image above is created with AI using the prompt . ‘Create an image of this photograph in the style of theoldmortuary’ Similarly I have asked and got others to ask AI to write a blog in the style of theoldmortuary. Both examples were ‘off’ in so many ways that they could not be credible as unique or one-off pieces of creativity coming from my mind on a specific day.

AI is a tool and like all tools in the hands of humans there is every chance that humans will misuse it. There is not a tool in the world that was invented for good and altruistic reasons that has not been perverted for selfish, egotistical and criminal uses.

The future of AI is in human hands something to celebrate and worry about in equal measure.

Recently Google offered me an AI critique of one of my paintings. It was O.K , truthful in it’s way but nothing like the multifaceted communication a friend would give me. Or the performative input an art lecturer might deliver or the supportive discussion a committed art teacher would offer to help me thrive.

The future of AI as a tool ,just like everything else,is in the hands of humans and that is as unpredictable as the outcome of the wheel or the screwdriver.

As unpredictable as a watercolour painting.

AI also got one thing wrong. It is Pinktober not Inktober in this house.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EhbSt9P8X/

#1611 theoldmortuary ponders.

Here is the painting that has been waiting to get out of my head for two weeks. Important for two reasons. Memory and sensation.

Yesterday just after I finished it . I read an old article by Julian Barnes, in the Guardian, about memory. If a Nobel literature nominee writes about something that I would like to write about it is infinitely better if I share his words rather than offer my own ponderings.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/16/we-remember-as-true-things-that-never-even-happened-julian-barnes-on-memory-and-changing-his-mind?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

The painting represents the sensations of just one cup of coffee in a roadside cafe. Part of a repurposed petrol station and garage in Etél, that has been turned into a community and small business hub.

The coffee was new to me and I was having a good day, taste wise. My sense of taste and smell are impaired and intermittently fail me completely since Covid times.

Everything about that one cup of coffee was full on. The environment, the chunkiness of the cup and the flavours dancing around in it. Cherry, orange and milk chocolate. I have not painted the home-made Pain au Raisin which was phenomenal.

I am mindful that the juice oozing from the cherries is exactly the pink of the marker pen on the coffee dispenser. Possibly a nod to my own little. ‘Pinktober’ project. I also included some coffee beans and my own Moka pot in the composition. This exactly represents my memory of that one gorgeous but simple cup of black coffee.

I just feel the need to trap good memories in any way I can. I hope you have read the Julian Barnes article. I have no meaningful contact with anyone who knew me before the age of 21. One schoolfriend and I see each other once a year. We were not even school friends, we caught the same bus and lived in the same village but as awkward teenagers with similar backgrounds barely conversed. Thankfully we are not those people any more so I get a path into my past when I am with him. Beyond him, tide and time have washed away friends, colleagues and relations from that era of my life *. My recollections of that younger era may be a work of fiction from my own,admittedly, vivid imagination.

Enough self realisation for one day. What about the painting?

The delay was not kind to my models. The over-ripe cherries went into a crumble on the same day. The oranges into a Spanish Chicken and Chorizo stew and the chocolate…

The chocolate forced me to eat it, shocking I know, even the coffee beans were ground to make more coffee. A terrible way to treat models who posed so beautifully. I was not remotely that unkind to the people who I knew from 0-21, life just floated me and them on different paths and into different realms.

*This summer I also met a school teacher, that was a really lovely moment too. Reminiscing is a delightful way to spend a few hours. He was my history teacher, I gave him a guided tour of Stonehouse touching on its remarkable history. I was not as sure-footed on the history as he might have liked, but eating cake in the exact location of a Beryl Cook painting may have glossed over those lapses. I was always better at art.

#1608 theoldmortuary ponders

Another remarkably sunny day on Dartmoor, gave us peaceful forest bathing and bright river walks.

Walking in a forest that is recovering from the hottest summer it has ever experienced, it was only planted in 1931, was made all the more peaceful because the grass has only been growing properly for about a month. Soft new grass in every direction made the forest floor look freshly upholstered in fresh green velvet. The perfect acoustic muffler

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Keep the word muffler in mind, you will need it later.

Although just to keep you interested the beautiful, beautiful day was pretty crisp. We were on Dartmoor and the air temperature was 5 degrees lower than at home. The first use of a wooly scarf, a muffler, kept the chill off our necks.

We did not experience the temperature of the crystal clear river water. Lola did, and made no comment. Muffled or otherwise. She was much more interested in snuffling out fungi than making idle chit chat about water temperatures.

She was also happy to be basking in dappled sunlit silence, next to the van, the queen of everything she surveyed.

Until she wasnt, a low rumble eased its way towards us.An invading force of more than 30 Land Rovers pulled into our idylic spot. Great big 4×4’s rolling into our space. Hefty thighed passengers jumping out to queue and somewhat overwhelm a horsebox coffee shop parked in a different clearing. In a moment we were surrounded by vehicles. Some provocatively threw up their bonnets.

Crowds of eager people looked into the inner workings. Others stood around in awe. Some even ventured to touch the still warm inner parts of another persons vehicle. We had been overwhelmed by an enthusiasts event. All over the forest car park knots of people touched, photographed or simply gazed at Land Rovers. Two hours of inexplicable motor joy. Then a secret sign, the crowds dispersed and the great conundrum of vehicle enthusiasts wherever they turn up. It seems that no matter how, pristine or beautifully restoratively engineered vehicles have been prepared and turned into festish objects, One aspect is deliberately left a little rough around the edges or even has the effect deliberately enhanced.

Exhaust Mufflers… Or Silencers, in the U.K. Car enthusiasts seem to love to make a noise with their vehicles . Deep,throaty, farty noises. Unexpected pops and bangs. Thus with a cacophony of unneccesary noises over 30 Range Rovers left the forest and we were bathed, once again in lovely silence.

Googling the words Range Rover and Bellever Forest showed us exactly what the noise was all about.

A strip off apparently! No nudity was noticed by us. I think that may have been a good thing. I am just thrilled to have used the word muffle 3 ways without ever seeing a shortened version of the word.

#1603 theoldmortuary ponders

I have been pondering the meaning of community today. I am not sure I could make a list of the communities I am involved in. Someone would be certain to point out one I had forgotten.

The artist community in real life and on line is an easy one to identify, although this year I have skipped joining in with Inktober. An informal group that responds to daily prompts to draw, paint and sketch using ink.

During October I am certainly using inks but not responding to someone elses prompting. Yesterday I realised that this October , for me,has become Pinktober. For an entirely random reason.

While I was in France I managed to buy a bright pink Bic fine tip pen. Traditionally watercolour paintings can be enhanced with pen and ink. Usually but not always black. I prefer Sepia but a set of five bright colours really set me thinking and so two pictures this week have been embellished with pink and I love it.

Not that I can belatedly join the 2026 Inktober community as none of their prompts could inspire a seascape or a random collection of three mussel shells, a cracked pebble and an Oyster shell.

Maybe I could talk my way onto 28 th October using ‘Trophy’ as these shells were happy trophies brought home by a grandchild. Or indeed October 31st ‘Flex’ because to paint the collection of shells I flexed a little to turn over the mussels to reveal their beautiful blue sides and the pebble to show the crack. I also flexed my mind a little bit to overlay the watercolour painting with the original photograph of the collection from the beach. The serendipity of doing this works brilliantly in this instance . Giving the hybrid print of this painting more abstraction and artistic heft. So flex on the 31st of October this one will be.

Another of my communities will provide ‘Trophy’ on the 28th of October. One of my local community WhatsApp groups advertised free Quince, generously left for anyone to collect.

I love quince and these are really quite a trophy. They will be my fruity muses sometime soon and after a painting is done they will be cooked to make Quince syrup and Membillo a gorgeous rose coloured jelly to eat with cheese and ham throughout the winter. The Quince may well join the Inktober community. Better late than never. They will also be enhanced by pink ink. In my own solitary community ‘ Pinktober’ of just me and my pink Bic

#1601 theoldmortuary ponders.

I think Autumn has properly arrived, I have cooked a crumble.It was either an accident or serendipity.

This fabulous collection of beach findings caught my eye in the sharp shafts of sunlight that are indicative of this time of year. They were collected in the summer by one of three granddaughters and stored in the studio which they also use as a playroom. I found it when I had to change the position of the blinds in the room. Just 3 mussel shells an oyster shell and a cracked pebble. But the composition is so lovely I will just return it to the windowsill where it had been placed for safety

An unplanned autumnal arty moment.

The actual autumn project was a still life of a coffee pot with a plain white coffee cup. The coffee in question, Ethiopian Sidamo is new to me and I am quite obsessed by the flavour of it

As part of my still life painting plans, I posed the flavours that I get from rhe coffee. Which we bought in France two weeks ago.

Milk chocolate, Orange and cherries.

The cherries were the inspiration for the crumble. Which is a slightly curious pairing,.Apple and Cherry crumble anyone?

My plans for today.

Domestic Admin

Prep/planning for a still life representing the flavour of Sidamo Coffee.

Walks with Lola

A painting started

What have I actually achieved ?.

Domestic Admin

Prep planning for a still life representing the flavour of Sidamo Coffee.

Walks with Lola

An unusual crumble.

No painting. And now two to do instead of the original one.