Category: Serendipity

#401 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Street Art1 Comment
Stickers add to the palimpsest of Street Art

After two days of Tamar Valley art @theoldmortuary is going to double- back to Dublin for a quick whizz through some street art. Dublin being Dublin there is also some great wordage included. Starting with the Love Wall on Love Lane.

Check out more work from Anna Doran below.

http://www.annadoranart.com/

There was not exactly a plan A or plan B for our trip to Dublin. There was one fixed item on our itinerary but the rest was left to chance and the weather. As things turned out the weather was perfect for just wandering the streets. Our wanderings for Saturday and Sunday were about 20,000 steps each day divided into two sessions, longer daytime adventures and then after a rest an after dark trip out.

Sometimes the quest for good coffee and baked goods brought us an unexpected extra of street art.

Alongside great coffee, cardamom buns, fuel for more walking and a sticker pole.

https://www.properordercoffeeco.com/

Other street art was more commercial and directive.

But street artists also get in on the act.

We found a lot of work by Oriel.

Too much lovely street art to share it all here but this James Joyce quote on Harman Street sums up our two day visit.

http://www.signsofpower.com/info

#399 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Drawn To The Valley Artists, SerendipityLeave a comment
©Annette Wrathmell

It was a flat-cap kind of day at an exhibition in Gunnislake today, and not because of this excellent print by Annette Wrathmell.

Mark Fielding was giving a portrait sketch demonstration and his sitter was Andy Spry.

Andy is a daffodil grower with over 300 varieties of daffodils nurtured in his fields. Mark is a member of Drawn to the Valley and a well known portraitist. I was keen to watch Mark at work but my attention was caught, not so much by the sketching, as by the easy conversation between the two. How often, if ever, do you get the chance to watch the natural ebb and flow of a conversation between two people who have not previously met. I had thought I was there to witness one thing but became absorbed by something else altogether. The conversation between the sitter and artist was fascinating, sweeping from Daffodil varieties to the legacy of local artist Robert Lenkiewcz. Mark Fielding, was once his pupil. On the way the conversation touched on the hands of working men.

Andy talked about the wisdom of generations of flower farmers.Mark shared some of the wisdom of Lenkiewicz.

The tone of the tone.

The colour of the colour.

The shape of the shape.

It was a flat cap kind of day.

#395 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Travels1 Comment
Starfield Library, Seoul.

We are off on an adventure to Dublin. A trip, to possibly the most beautiful library in the world. We have been to some fabulous libraries and bookshops so the bar is already set quite high. The serendipity of the picture above could not be allowed to pass. The picture of a gentleman, not reading his book was in a temple. The same day I found this contemporary man, not reading his book in the Starfield Library, Seoul. I will let you know how the comparison goes.

Star field Library, Seoul

#393 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Art for sale, SerendipityLeave a comment

Art Exhibitions don’t always play to my strengths. Face Value which starts on Friday, naturally calls to Portrait painters. I love painting portraits, I just don’t do it very often. This is the only true portrait I have submitted. ‘Fred’ is a fondly remembered school friend. He is a singer and can sometimes be found performing in Neds in The Hague.

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For the rest of my submissions I took myself off in a wordy direction. The border lands between Devon and Cornwall are home to some of Britains few remaining areas of Atlantic Rain Forest, quite a stretch of ‘Face Value’ but I painted a portrait of the forest floor in October.

The third submission is faceless and undervalued. The Tamer Valley is famed for its important role in the Industrial Revolution. Mines from this area exported minerals all over the world. The mines and the miners who worked them are celebrated all over the Tamar Valley.

Rarely mentioned are the women who worked in the Mining Industry. Bal Maidens we’re consider to be low skilled, manual workers. In this painting I have designed a commemorative Stained glass Window to honour the women who played an essential role and rarely get a mention.

And finally a tongue-in-cheek image. Landscape with Coffee stains. Mugs of tea and coffee are a regular sight in the studio. There is nothing more irritating than putting a mug down on expensive paper. Today I just thought a bit laterally, saving face and getting good value.

#391 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn London, SerendipityLeave a comment

Two days in the shadow of Christ Church, Spitalfields. It being November the shadows are very sharp. Two days in the company of some great writers who were also pretty sharp, an eclectic mix of writers honing their skills towards better blogging. In the hands of The Gentle Author, a blog is a thing of beauty. A distilation and clarification of facts and images, conjured into easily digestible, beautifully readable essays that educate, delight and inform. We were there to be shaped and eased into creating blogs that people wish to read To aid us we supped at the The Townhouse, a well fed brain is more absorbent. Our hosts Fiona and Clifford fed us very well, in their small but fascinating Art Gallery, at the back of one of my favourite shops in London. As luck would have it there was a painting of Christ Church on the gallery wall so you can get an idea of the bottom half of the church. Something I could not have easily achieved due to the plethora of electric scooters and skate boarders who arrived at the exact same time as I was taking the photograph. Writing a blog can be a risky business!

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© Marc Gooderham ❤ Sold

Our writing sessions took place at 5a Fournier Street.

What went on behind closed doors is cloaked in quiet confidentiality to allow freedom of expression and wild creativity.

Our group brought great diversity of life experience, gathered together in a 17th Century sitting room.

I leant a great quote from one of the course members. It would have been appropriate, for certain, in the era of this bedroom but continues to resonate in the 21st Century.

“Shit, or get off the pot”

Which is a good place to end this piece but in my archive I have quite a cute photo from the exact same location nearly 10 years ago. I had gone to the cafe in the basement to enjoy tea and cake.

Hugo trying to become a stock item in a Huguenot House.

#383 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, SerendipityLeave a comment

Farewell Gilly Bobber. The bobbers gathered for a goodbye gathering for a bobber who is moving to West Sussex. Gilly has been a musical addition to our bobbing gang for some time. She wears a raspberry beret and cocktail length swimming gloves. Which always promotes the other bobbers into a Prince tribute act.

A good selection of bobbers gathered today to see her off the premises.

Bobbing and bobbers are one of the great positives to have come out of the Covid years. Time to use a fabulous quote from Mark Twain to send Gilly on her way.

Goodbye Gilly from our home bobbing safe harbour.

#382 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home, SerendipityLeave a comment

This is the time of year, the lull of winter before Christmas,when journalists seek words from Scandinavian countries to ease the pain of cold, wet weather and shorter days. We’ve had a couple of days of walks, talks and rainy days. I can recommend days spent with friends doing exactly that. Cake and coffee may also have been an intrinsic part of our activities.

Talfädighet is the Scandinavian word I have chosen as the way to lead a better life in the run up to the festive season. It means talkative, it may look like a tall cupboard from Ikea but it is one of those delightful words like Hygge which will,for certain, make November more tolerable. Let’s all be more talkative.

#381 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, SerendipityLeave a comment

This boiling sea was the setting of our final October swim. Storm Claidio was on the way. Looking over the wall into the swirling sea it would have been very easy to turn around and walk back home. But I had already waved to the swimmers in the water. Getting in, was tricky. Being in, was thrilling. Getting out, was a relief. A mug of tea and a Tunnocks Waifer biscuit was the reward.

After the event it was most definitely the most wonderful swim. The turmoil of the water made effective swimming impossible at my, rather low, skill level. Even bobbing about and talking was quite a challenge but the whole experience was fizzy, energising and a great way to see out October, still without a wetsuit. The picture below is a full-colour image of the water as we got out, not a spot of colour to be seen.

#380 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

I love an old sign that time has rendered slightly inappropriate. This one was on the side of a coffee shop and interiors store. Not intruding would be very bad for business. Another sign was just deliciously eccentric.

The coffee hounds have been anxious to get to this coffee shop all summer.

Famed for the homemade cakes and good beverages, it was the least we could do to take them on a sunny weekend, fact-finding excursion.

Reciprocity Cafe and Eco shop are housed in the old stable block of Port Eliot.

https://www.porteliot.co.uk/

A place of fabulous festivals and general good times. For now though it is a coffee destination and the supplier of very fine cake. Gooseberry cake, still warm from the oven. What better way to spend the last day of October. Knee deep in fallen leaves, if you are a dog, and finger deep in cake if you are a human.

#377 the old mortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, Serendipity3 Comments

Hard on the heels of yesterday’s blog of favourite photos is the last of my little digital haul. I have no idea if more domestic organising will fill our day so it seems a good idea to get the blog out early. The Peacock lived near Cadiz in Spain he roamed a nursery that was set in a derelict old house and garden that also had a cafe in the old greenhouse area. Seeds from our bread bribed him to pose so beautifully. The wonderful staircase below was also taken somewhere near Cadiz. For some reason, I want to use the word Lacuna to describe the negative space created by the spiral.

I think it is the bone-like quality of stonework.

Taking bone-like as the link this next picture is also from near Cadiz and leads us somewhere.

But in true pondering style not to a particularly related photo. Yesterday I had an existential moment, not of the particularly philosophical sort. More of a David Attenborough moment, even that makes it seem very grand. The reality is much more mundane and happened on the tyre of my car on the way to the charity shop. Like many people I often have mixed emotions when I watch wildlife documentaries. In awe of the camera work and yet slightly concerned for the mental well-being of Camera operators who have to sometimes witness sad events unfold without being able to intervene. Yesterday I was that camera person.

Oh the moral conundrum.

” What would David Attenborough do?”