#239 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Colour SquaresLeave a comment

Bright sunshine set me off on a project yesterday. Stonehouse Peninsular is known for its architecture, history, sea views and brightly coloured buildings. I took off early in the morning to capture some of the colour combinations on camera before the sun got too high.

The plan is to create an abstract watercolour that features some of the beautiful and whacky colour combinations that occur when neighbouring buildings get a paint job. There are also beautiful abstracts that just occur naturally when colours follow the contours of the buildings.

Elvira’s

Others are just subtly beautiful just because of age.

The one below I particularly love because a grubby downpipe becomes the star of the watercolor.

This is a project that is going to keep me very busy this summer!

#238 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay, Serendipity1 Comment

Finally, yesterday I was ready to ditch any form of wetsuit and just swim. Unencumbered by a lengthy dressing and undressing process. Summer has arrived in my swimming life. The day had been a collection of small domestic positives, admin and chores achieved and dog walks in the sun. One of my walks located some old friends, the white cows who normally sit on the green are having a rest and possibly a spruce up in one of the local secret gardens.

A small tin has also arrived. A reward to myself for selling a few pictures recently. The topics of the exhibitions I am entering later in the year need a more earthy feel than recent works, so I bought some earthy colour watercolours hand made from natural minerals in Pennsylvania just to start off my thinking process.

One of my evening swimming companions took a fabulous panoramic shot of Firestone Bay. The colours in my little tin would also work quite well if I attempted a sketch here one evening.

#237 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Plymouth, Serendipity2 Comments

With reference to yesterdays blog. The plan was to be wearing Coastal Granny attire for another day. Remarkably the pale colours of coastal chic had remained clean and bright, almost certainly because there were no coastal small persons around and because I had remained, unusually, far away from paint. Just some gentle sewing was attempted. On balance I may aim for Coastal Nana, a less influential style in terms of fashion 2022, but more achievable. On balance is absolutely the two key words of this blog. In the picture above I am wearing lycra because plans change. We did not spend Sunday with me wafting around in pale colours and Hannah flying down a zip wire. We registered for an aerial class at short notice. Then we worried a bit about quite what we had signed up for.

https://realideas.org/whats-on/off-the-wall-innovation-lab/?utm_content=211175003&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&hss_channel=fbp-875174035884702

Market Hall Devonport.

We went to the beautiful Market Hall in Devonport and put our trust in gorgeous orange fabric.

And 3 aerial instructors from Off The Wall Aerial.

https://www.offthewallaerial.co.uk/she-who-dares

©Off The Wall Aerial

It was a blast, an anxious blast at times, but most certainly the blastiest Sunday morning in a very long while.

We were gently introduced to our silken slings and warmed up in such a way that trepidation was replaced with temptation to actively try everything that was suggested. However unthinkable moments earlier.

Some of the exercises were fascinating and the urge to just hang, supported only by fabric was impossible to ignore.

Pointy toes and a concentrating face.

Towards the end we threw ourselves backwards, confident that we would be caught by the cocoon of orange fabric.

Trust in the instructors and their ability with knots was instant , a morning well spent and never to be forgotten.

#236 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn fashion1 Comment

Quite by accident today I realised that I was rocking a look that is called ‘Coastal Granny’ in North America. It is also popular in Britain but I am unsure of the name of the style here.

In the hands of an accomplished stylist the selfie in a mirror is a thing of elegance and simplicity.

Not words that have ever been used to describe myself. I have always liked to think that longer legs would be the boost I need towards elegance. It possibly does not help that the best full length mirror in the house is outside of the house. On the plus side I am indeed a coastal granny or to be much more precise I am a theoretical coastal nanna. Theoretical because one grandchild is thousands of miles away and another is in the cooking stage. Now it seems to me that pale colours and grandchildren might not be a good mix, so maybe a theoretical, coastal grandma is exactly the fashion ideal.

Unspattered by the excrescences of small children these pale clothes lasted all day, with walks on the beach and chattering with coffee and friends with dogs.. I believe the clothes could possibly make it to tomorrow. Coastal grannydom at its most theoretical. They even managed a garden centre without mishap. Very elegant indeed! But that was just the plants.

#235 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Friends and Family1 Comment

Blogging about pondering is an almost inexhaustible subject. There are often a few potential blogs bubbling away in the background waiting for a denouement or an illustrative image. Todays blog is a little different as it only really has one image and no denouement in sight. I ping these words out into the ether never knowing where or with whom they will land. The daily stats on any blog tells me how many humans and in some cases bots have looked at the blog on any given day. People are also kind enough to comment on various platforms. This week has been a week of real world interaction and talk of blogs when I have been out and about. I’ve had some fabulous chats about how motherhood impacted the career trajectories of women who created families in the eighties and nineties and about the power of lateral chatting. The thing is with these lovely gems of blog induced natterings, they are never long enough and I always think of something useful to add ten minutes after I have walked away.

The gentle art of lateral conversations.

The picture above and the link below illustrates lateral conversations in a far better way than I can. Thanks to Jack for the real life conversation that inspired this particular train of thought.

https://www.stylist.co.uk/fitness-health/wellbeing/walking-benefits-talking-therapy/601584#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWalking%20side%2Dby%2Dside,person%20they%27re%20with%20directly.

Talking is the thread of this blog, this next conversation may not be so easy to have, laterally or otherwise, but maybe the women who held on to careers and some who couldn’t, need to talk about being a working mother in the eighties and nineties. Being a working mother was not about banging our heads on a glass ceiling, at least there was a chance of breaking through that. The bondage of being labelled a ‘Working Mother’ by society was the most disempowering title ever applied to me and a whole generation of women. Thanks Clare for our chat that made me realise what we all achieved against the odds.

©Matt Holmes.

And so back to my original illustration which nicely shows how life, and blogs, is a series of interconecting shapes all created by the line we walk and that even computers can’t make it perfect. Life like this image is made more attractive by its imperfections. The imperfections are what make great conversations.

#234 the oldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Film, SerendipityLeave a comment

Time passes and sometimes that feels inexplicably sad. Top Gun, the movie was released in 1986 just as I was about to embark on my childrearing years. The release of Top Gun Maverick, this year, when I no longer have the same familial responsibilities is a marker of some sort. The freedom of Youth relinquished willingly and excitedly to form a family and then the evolution of old age and freedom because that family no longer needs you to be that responsible. Me and Maverick have had the same career trajectory too. He is still ‘just’ a Captain because he was always better at the job he loved than promotion. I never progressed much either, because I also enjoyed the job, but also because in 1986 having a child was not the best career move for a woman. Me and Maverick just bobbing along at the same level for 36 years. What a strange parallel!

Beyond that strange gap of 36 years Top Gun Maverick is a rare thing. A Sequel that is possibly better than the original. It was a bit of a weepy for me. Maybe my brain realised I was witnessing more than just a film, before I did.

#233 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Bobbing, Colour Squares, SerendipityLeave a comment
Watercolour scraps.

Its been quite the painting day here, but first the morning bob needs a mention purely for its novelty moment. It is not unusual for us to be passed, at some point, by Royal Marines out on training runs. What is unusual, however, is to hear the command, “Shirts off” and just like that the Marines took their shirts off and plunged in the sea.

The Bobbers, of course, were completely cool with this but not so another swimmer. The Marines chose a good day, it was a fabulous swim.

©Marianne Bobber

Meanwhile the outside of our house is being given a big makeover. Dark blue masonry paint and a yellow front door. The decision had been made and the paint purchased but moments before the paint was applied I was still checking Pinterest to see if the colour combination worked on other peoples houses.

I was in a deconstructing mood and chopped up a watercolour that had been deliberately painted to be cut up.

The scraps are endlessly fascinating.

Below is the reason for creating all this vivid mess.

These squares represent nearly a year of observing the sea colours on my daily walks on the Stonehouse Peninsular. This is my first experiment with the technique . #1 stacked up in the studio.

#232 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Serendipity1 Comment

I found this bunting high up in a tree yesterday, while I was walking in the rain. A soggy reminder of a busy weekend, not particularly Jubilee themed for me, more arty really with a side serving of jubilance Three paintings went off to their forever homes over the weekend and another will go to a permanent gallery space later this week.

Lester Longwool goes to Devon

I have always loved the unintentional glamour of agricultural shows. Farm animals given the red carpet treatment for their moments in the judging ring. I used to like to photograph them as if they were celebrities. Painting them in Watercolours is a recent fun thing to do. Lester Longwool in the style of Marc Bolan is the first of these I have sold. As it was a group exhibition he was sold to someone unknown to me. I hope he makes his new home happy. I wonder if he did actually go to Devon, that was just his working title. Below is the unsold, version with him going to Cornwall.

Lester Longwool goes to Cornwall
Silver Birch Plantation

The Silver Birches, above, went to a friends house. I know I will see this one again. As for the last one, well it was never planned to be for sale. It is a large A1 watercolour project planned to be the backdrop for some digital work. For use as a source for a theme, background, marketing and website for some musicians. Once the project was over I had thought about cutting it up and repurposing it but the client did not want it destroyed and so just like the other two it left the cost confines of the studio. When all the creative work is done with it I can write a whole blog about the experience.

seachanges

There was one charming image that came out of the Queens Jubilee. It is just something cute to end a blog with before I knuckle down to some maths, the unpleasant side of todays studio work.

Jubilee Ma”malade Tea by Eleanor Tomlinson

Please take a moment or two to look at Eleanor’s website, lovely art is good for us all

https://www.eleanortomlinsonart.co.uk/

#231 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Firestone BayLeave a comment
©Gilly Bobber

The sun sets on an unusual 4 day weekend when the Queen celebrated her Platinum Jubilee.

The bobbers got together in their usual place, Firestone Bay, to have a dry bob. A bob that does not require immersion in the sea but that does involve food and nattering. We gathered for a picnic at Stonehouse Lawn Tennis Club for a picnic overlooking our usual swimming spot.

The topics were, as usual, wide ranging but the Queen was touched upon and South West Film Archive provided vital evidence of one bobber presenting the Queen with a bouquet of flowers, she also, thoughtfully, gave Prince Philip a button hole, carefully wrapped in tin foil to protect his uniform. Posterity did not record that moment but we do have a still from the bouquet presentation.

©SW Film Archive. Shelley Bobber meets the Queen.

Today was a significant moment in history. None of us will ever see a Royal Jubilee again, so full on picnic time it was, with Sandwiches, Sausage Rolls, A cheese, pineapple and silver skin onion hedgehog, Fritatas, Scones, Strawberries and cream, Savoury Pin Wheels, Cherries, Crisps and Prosecco.

Games were played.

Trees were planted, cheers were cheered, and the National Anthem attempted. A good day was had.

#230 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn artLeave a comment

Lovely buns brought the Drawn to the Valley, Spring Exhibition to a close. 100 visitors and members came to the final day of the exhibition and the afternoon was further enhanced by tea and cakes for everyone. Buns are a fine way to spend part of Saturday but a puppy is an even finer way to make the day memorable. Meet Mini, a friends Dachshund baby.

And if a little puppy wanted a cuddle it would be churlish to refuse.

And just like that Saturday passed in a joyous whirl of buns and puppies. Perfection really.