Mentions: theoldmortuary

#845 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

Hitting a deadline early.

There was a clear plan this morning, get up, always a great start to the day, walk the dogs, decide which prints would be framed for next week’s exhibition. Then submit them before today’s 5 pm deadline. Write the blog then  set about  choosing, framing and mounting the other prints that I am exhibiting. This time next week will be a frantic two days of receiving all the work to be exhibited, building, curating and hanging the works that  the printers have submitted for exhibition.

The fact that I am at the blog stage of the day before 10 am is both a miracle and rather satisfying.

Focussing the mind was achieved quite unexpectedly at a Gelliprinting workshop yesterday. I had forgotten the pleasure of sitting in a space with other artists all trying to harness the techniques of a particular process.

Covid made online teaching improve exponentially and I have loved being in classes with people from all over the world in a virtual art space. I had also forgotten the value of being in the same space with other artists

I have struggled with Gelli printing at home, everyone online seems slick but my attempts were nowhere near slick. I have been a bit disheartened to be honest. Irritated with the flicky hand dexterity of Youtube demonstrators who produce joyous images, seemingly effortlessly. 

Then a friend arranged an informal workshop in a light-filled village hall. 13 of us all failing to completely tame the beast of a gelliplate, but failing together and then lifting each other with tips and advice. A Gelligang, all of us failing a little bit because failure is part of the creative process. The value of failure is harder accept  in the echo chamber of our own workspaces at home. But doing it together makes it easier to learn from.

Tea and cake helps too, as does arty natter, especially when it carries on through the cubicle doors of the toilets. Pearls of wisdom from anonymous women as they pee.

Big thanks to Anne Crozier for organising.

@theoldmortuary

#829 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Architecture, art, Serendipity2 Comments

9 years ago I was exhibiting at a private art gallery space. Brixton East, in Brixton. I was part of the hanging team and was lucky enough to be in the building before the artists delivered their work. The gallery was in a sympathetically restored furniture factory. For a blissful half hour it was just me and a young Hugo enjoying the texture of the old building.

All my favourite urban textures and contrasts were there, but also quirky placements of contemporary things.

And gentle reminders of the former use of the space. A poker-work chair seat pattern.

Borrowed light into a dark space.

Soon enough the space was full of the chatter of artists and later the art lovers poured in.

My painting in the gold spotlight. Momentarily I can say a proud moment. A fab moment in one of my favourite buildings.

But only a couple of years later I exhibited in the same space. I was not in the hanging team.  A classic contemporary artist joke occurred. My abstract art was hung upside down, the curator could not be persuaded to rehang it. Ordinarily I would not be too precious. Art being in the eye of the beholder and all that. But on this occasion, my art was painted on a door, the exhibition was about homelessness. The door handle would have been at knee level. A whole new level of artyfarty bollocks would have needed to be written to make that right. The art gods were not with me this second time in the building. One of my unframed pieces was stolen by a gallery/shoplifter. Everything is forgivable in a building that I love.

I am not normally someone that has frequent lottery winning fantasies but when the owner put this gorgeous space up for sale I would have done anything to be able to buy it. A lottery win would have been my only chance. But something lovely has happened. The building has been renamed and is now a beautiful wedding venue.

https://www.100barringtonroad.com/weddings24

Without pondering today I would never have researched and discovered that one of my favourite buildings has had a happy ending of its own. Without me winning the lottery. Something new to follow on Instagram. In a perfect @theoldmortuary world 100 Barrington would serve coffee and cake when not doing weddings, and in that imaginary world, a somewhat older Hugo would slouch under a chair and watch the world go by.

#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

#770 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity2 Comments

What makes you feel nostalgic?

My favourite, yet random, images give me nostalgia and great joy. For this last blog of the year I gave myself fifteen minutes to find favourite photos from my phone archive. Some of them are serendipitous and conform to the December theme of #celebrating serendipity. Many of them have appeared in older blogs and some have never seen the light of day before. Some give me hope when I hit artists/writers block.

Here they are in no particular order.

Beach huts are a huge inspiration to me. I have actually only ever been in one once. I am an admirer not an inhabiter.

I love a sunbeam, this one landed on my mother-in-law when we were having afternoon tea.

Firestone Bay in purple mood. One normal photo and one editing error which I love because I don’t understand it.

The picture below has possibly never seen the light of day before but there is a link to my most significant art moment.

Using mixed media I tried to depict my mother and her friends in the 1960’s when they were busy young women setting up clinics to provide women with Contraceptives and specific women’s health needs.

I depicted their story on a pillow that was exhibited at Tate Modern in London.

It would not be @theoldmortuary blog without Hugo and Lola. Hugo looking every inch the smoking matinee idol with a dog chew and Lola in her dark chocolate puppy phase before she faded to beige.

Another perennial blog subject is coffee and this homage to stove top coffee was found in Cuba.

I love a complicated image and this glass and concrete shot is a favourite.

Words too give me inspiration. The seasonal cuteness of an alley near my workplace in Marylebone.

P.s I just found a link to the history of Grotto Passage.

The Weird And Wonderful History Of Grotto Passage

A visual pun or two.

And something that reflects my love of books.

My random paintings that are not commercial in any way but that give me a kick up the arse when I falter.

Including one that has serendipity all over it. I did a watercolour of Mussel shells and my granddaughter dropped actual shells on it.

Other shells also thrill me.

I always love the potential of somewhere interesting to sit.

I love simple acts of remembrance. Sunflowers wrapped in newspaper in a Spanish church.

And finally and fittingly for the end of a blog at the end of the year. Starting out to sea and pondering the future. Dungeness in Kent.

#756 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity2 Comments

Busy waters @theoldmortuary HQ. The first of our Christmas family have arrived. Who knows when I will snatch blogging moments for the next couple of weeks. Contact will be maintained but when I can slip into the blogspace is going to be more serendipitous than usual.

I love this image of an iconic British phone box. Familiar as a symbol but represented in a neglected and dilapidated space. The half hour or so when I research and write the blog are a daily piece of quietude. Inside the blogspace is a meditative and peaceful zone. The inside of these old phone boxes were a similar sanctuary where we would communicate with unseen people just as I am now. Even in busy waters.

#689 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home, Serendipity3 Comments

This patch of England has been my home since 1988, it is far from my place of birth and in that time I have not always lived here. But it is where my soul has its feet under the table. This morning for no reason in particular I wondered why Plymouth Sound was a ‘Sound’. Geography had the answer.

© Wikipedia

Yesterday we were at the far west reaches of the Sound, at Kingsand and Cawsand. The furthest point seen through the circle is, I believe, the far west point of Plymouth Sound before it becomes the Atlantic Ocean.

Conversely dog grooming occurs on the furthest easterly point at Wembury.

Yesterday I was able to take a photo of Both the easterly point and the most westerly with a wooden tall ship in the middle.

The Pelican of London had just left Plymouth and was taking quite a buffering from the wind as it sheltered in Cawsand Bay. Madness to think that a tall ship moored here would, in the past, have been ripe, low hanging fruit for the smugglers, pirates and wreckers of  all the places we love to walk our dogs and enjoy gorgeous scenery.

Bigger than a bight and wider than a fjord . Packed with history and landscape. 99% of @theoldmortuary blogs occur from here.

#674 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment

How do you relax?

It is no surprise to any regular @theoldmortuary blog reader that over the last 3 years my relaxation comes from swimming in the sea with ‘The Bobbers’. No one is more surprised than me to say this. If I were writing this blog in 2020 my answer would almost certainly have been reading or listening to music. In Ocrober 2020 four and then five of us started swimming regularly in the sea at Firestone Bay. That number has swelled to 21 as of yesterday.

What started as an immune system boosting, cold dip, for one bobber has become a fellowship of swimmers and Coach. There is nothing official about us, just a Whatsapp group where times of ‘Bobs’ are called. The Whatsapp group messages rarely stick at just a tide time and weather prediction. Our Bobbing friendships have similarly become intertwined, interesting and most importantly supportive.

Sometimes in the past, pre 2020, I knew that if life was tripping me up, with too much to do or think about then a couple of hours in a good book would set me right. Not so much now. Even in the depth of winter I know that a dip in Firestone Bay or another cold alternative is exactly what I need. Developing an eclectic and supportive group of ‘bobbing’ friends has also been life changing and life affirming. People who I would never have met in any other way have been brought together by a shared interest in getting chilly on the coastal edge of Plymouth Sound.

In fairness to ‘ Bobbing’ it does do a lot more than relax. This blog could equally have asked all of the following questions and I would have written something similar.

Where do you laugh the most ?

Where can you always get advice?

Where do your maddest conversations happen?

Where can you always get a hug?

Where do you enjoy biscuits the most?

7 Bobbers Bobbing

#635 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Family, Serendipity4 Comments

@theoldmortuary we have been without Dads for quite a long while. So it was a surprise to us that today was Fathers Day. We were at a party recently when people were excitedly discussing their grown up children visiting at the weekend.

” How lovely” we said ” Why are they coming this weekend”

“Fathers Day!”, said with incredulity, was the chorus.

It says a lot about targeted advertising that we are no longer made sad by being bombarded by advertisers trying to sell us gifts for our deceased parents. Post Covid it seems that people are making more effort to mark these days, not with gifts but with visits. Family time is more precious when it has been denied or not easy for 2-3 years.

Now we get to witness ‘ Fathering’ from a different direction. Our three granddaughters have two excellent Dads, their mothers are excellent too, but that is for another day.

Fathers Day is, for us, a day of celebrating a job well done, by the next generation.

However my photo archive has failed me. To illustrate this blog I wanted pictures of Seahorses, creatures where the Dad really does the hard graft of actually giving birth. They are not so good at barbeques or reading books but, giving birth! That is quite a good task to lift.

All my photograph archive held, was a horse by the sea.

Or an Apron in a shop window.

© Cream Cornwall

Spitalfields Life

Link above to another Fathers Day blog. So beautifully written that I had to share.

#608 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, SerendipityLeave a comment

And so we are in Hong Kong and wall art presents us with two quotes. One, possibly more useful than the other. The one above is the more useful. Below is one that is not quite so immediately thought provoking.

Beyond quotes we plunged immediately into authentic Hong Kong life. Authentic because we were in Sham Shui Po, Hannahs’s birthplace, authentic because much of the architecture is protected and the area is unlikely to become over-developed, and authentic in an @theoldmortuary way because it is the home of independent and intriguing coffee shops.

Colour Brown, Sham Shui Po

Even Tatler talks about Sham Shui Po and that’s fairly rare for genuinely working-class areas.

https://www.tatlerasia.com/dining/food/coffee-shop-cafe-sham-shui-po

Accompanying us on our daytime adventure were our growing family, one of whom danced with delight last night when we touched down at Hong Kong airport just after 7:30.

There is also the promise of a trip to an exhibition by Yayoi Kusama. Expect dots later in the week.

#545 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Devon, StonehouseLeave a comment
©Hannah @theoldmortuary

Without any planning this week is turning into a low tide kind of week. Hannah did the late evening walk and caught this beautiful image, which is exactly as it presented itself to her. This is an unused wharf,which again we rarely photograph. In fact, just like an old fisherman tale, it is the site of the ‘ one that got away’ We were here last summer with our granddaughter VV, who was visiting from Hong Kong. She,at 3,was a very diligent dog walker, taking complete care of Lola’s needs for the whole walk. This, in turn required us to be hypervigilant so no chance of a quick smartphone photo. The tide was in and the day was very hot with no shade. Something was going on in the water, there was a lot of fishy activity. We all looked intently into the water. Basking in the shade of floating seaweed we spotted a small shark or a large dog fish. Most likely the Lesser Spotted Dogfish which is common in these parts,where it is also called a Murgey. Just like fishermen, this one who got away from our photography, was larger than average. For an excited 3 year old there was no Murgey or Dogfish about the find. We had gone on a dog walk and found a shark. A Shark! At the end of the road!

Nothing to see here.