Yesterday was a well balanced day, for Bobbers. Water temp 9 degrees and air temp 9 degrees, and, for a while, sunshine. This morning we have mist, but for the first time this year the sun has some strength, and the right angle, to make happy mist, not greige. The happy mist is slightly enhanced here.
Both things though strongly suggest that Spring is on the way. A fine thought for a Monday morning.
Sunday already in what has been an unusual week. We should be just returning from a city break in Spain. However our new passports failed to arrive, we had both planned for this unlikely event by making, but not discussing, Plan B’s. Mine was to take a city break in Britain, Hannahs was to decorate the spare bedroom . Hannahs Plan B won the vote which made for an unusual week because I was able to attend two meetings that I had sent my apologies for.
The book club meeting had the potential to be a little awkward as I had not read the book as I had not anticipated being there. Fate however was very kind to me. As I arrived people were unusually standing outside the venue and looked very pleased to see me. Mistakenly they all thought I had the key. Since I knew I shouldn’t be there, I felt smugly confident that I was not the key holder. I joined them outside and we all looked expectantly at the next arrival who surely must have the key. Once we were all there, it was plain the key was missing in action. Book Club was officially cancelled. What are the chances of that! I didnt have to admit to not having read the book. The key was later found in someone’s book bag.
Meanwhile I was hatching a virus, not something you want to take on a holiday. More Novid than Covid I could still go about daily life and we sourced stuff for the redecoration of the spare room. Largely trying to re-use, re-purpose or recycle. We did one trip to Ikea for some hanging rails and one trip to the local Scrap store for fabrics. We will finish the room later today so pictures tomorrow.
My other meeting was a gathering of artists to natter, drink coffee and plan for future exhibitions. Artists were encouraged to take a small piece of work with us to do whilst nattering.
For a while I am sticking with the meditative mark making and colour mixing that is being taught on the course I am doing. Even in the midst of great quality conversations I found it was quite easy to ‘doodle’ with colour and shapes. The top picture is the whole thing. I decided to depict the meeting in colour. The central motif was my coffee cup full of gorgeous multi-flavoured black coffee.
Around the coffee cup I doodled the twelve attending people. 11 artists and one art lover. The art lover, a lovely man called Nick was depicted slightly differently from the artists , I just used two colours for his part of the picture.
Everyone else got more shades of colour and were a little more entwined depicting exchanging of ideas. Some people get larger segments than others to denote that in any meeting you cant always talk equally to everyone.
With just a little digital tweaking I have turned the whole thing into something quite different. I have superimposed the black and white image over the coloured version. I always make a digital black and white copy of any picture, it helps me assess colour balance and tonal changes before the work is finished. I can’t quite work out if this image expresses the energy of the meeting, or, indeed, the exhausting elements of this weeks Novid *virus.
* Novid , a nasty old virus that consistently tests negative for Covid-19
An unplanned week, nearly over.
This time last year our precious Cornish garden plants had been in their containers,for moving house, for nearly six months. Ready for a pre Christmas move in 2020. The transaction was long, with many pitfalls along the way. Right now they have all spent 18 months in containers despite many of them not being considered suitable for container growth, we have only had one casualty. The house sale contract was only actually completed late in September 2021, not a time when we could do too much about them. Another whole winter in containers has done them no harm and this weeks brief sunshine has brought out some blooms from under planted bulbs.
This Buddha got a major head injury in the move but has grown, over winter a fine wig of succulents to cover up her caved-in temporal and parietal bones.
Two pumpkins from October have also survived the winter and are bringing colour to our yard. Despite all the recent storms, we are due another one today, Spring might well be just around the corner.
Most artists work in isolation, myself included. Today was quite different, 12 artists from Drawn to the Valley got together in a cafe to natter and get to know each other. Most of us were unknown to one another or had not been in contact for a long period. We plan to meet regularly from now on, once a month, in the same location, Ocean Studios Cafe in the Royal William Yard, Plymouth.
https://realideas.org/our-spaces/ocean-studios/
Some of us brought small projects to work on, others just brought themselves and fabulous conversations.
I wondered if it was possible to paint a meditative mind map whilst in the company of others and it turns out that I could. Depicting the flavour flooding out of my herbal tea and mingling with the intriguing topics of conversation that were surrounding me. It is currently unfinished because I also talked a lot, no surprises there. But I am further along than when I took this picture.
Today we are saying goodbye to a new, old, friend. New friends who die in the early stages of friendship are a huge potential loss. Who knows what fabulous shared times are to be missed. With only a tiny repository of past shared memories there is not much for us to trawl through. Bolstered by coffee and pastries we are celebrating what our dear friend Ken did best, we are caring for his granddaughter whilst his older family members and friends celebrate his life at a service to mark his passing. We have big boots to fill, a grandpa is a very special person. Ken was a very special grandpa and he was also a very twinkly new friend. Off now to twinkle somewhere else.
Without passports we are seeking our holiday pleasures much closer to home. At home to be precise. I am a complete sucker for peeling paint and although this neighbours door is not strictly peeling it is the sort of thing that I love to find when I am abroad. Bright shafts of sunlight would make it perfect but yesterday was not that type of day here.
Stripped back ready for refurbishment there is real history in these paint layers. The door could be original and may date back to the 18th century. Once a grand townhouse built some time around 1760, the home has been converted into flats. Stripped of uniform colour it is now obvious that the letterbox was not centrally placed.
If the door is original the letterbox would have been retro fitted for the start of the postal service in 1840.
By the time I walk past again today the door is likely to be shiny and bright under a new coat of paint. All that simple domestic history hidden again until the next time.
Today the number may be less informal.
Even this simple photo reveals another little piece of history. A modern door security lens. So much to learn from one simple door.
This is not the picture you should be seeing today. All things being equal, and some passports arriving @theoldmortuary, todays picture should be a breakfast set up on the quayside of a warm Spanish town. Instead we have both set to with paint brushes. I’ve been catching up with the end of my colour course and Hannah is catching up with the gradual refurbishment of the spare bedroom.
When not painting we have decided to travel the world with the available culture in our city. So far we have travelled to Havana with Cuban Ballet, the inspiration for the top picture. Tonight we are off to Japan and tomorrow a crime ridden Social Housing estate in London. As yet unbooked is a trip to a South American cafe, other destinations to be added as time permits. But for now I am on roller duty.
The bobbers have effortlessly slipped back into the usual routine of three dips, into the sea, a week after a period of very stormy weather . Right now the water is 10 degrees but the outside temperature is only 4 degrees. This is a strange combination to get our heads around, but right now it is almost worse for Andy our regular coach/safety man. He stands on the shore keeping an eye out for Spearmint the seal or anything else untoward. It is really cold just standing still and watching. Last nights bob had three other non swimming onlookers so they all kept each other warm by chattering. Spearmint kept away, so the chatting was not interrupted by safety issues.
The sunset last night was rather gorgeous. The sun sent out an evening sunbeam to slightly warm us up, post swim.
Before slipping away into a golden dusk.
Something three bobbers celebrated with tea in bone china cups.
Blue Sunday, the sun is erratic today but when it is out it is OUT.
Last night we went to some Cuban contemporary ballet. Just mind blowing and we were in the front row so the sweating and the heavy breathing of the dancers was very very real. In truth the raw energy of the performers made our evening.
The picture below is another blue example of raw energy and huge joy.
A rogue kite wrapping up our grand daughter in Honk Kong.
Finally in the theme of blue is the Plymouth Christmas lights, reprogrammed to show solidarity with Ukraine
Blue Sunday in three pictures.
I learnt last week that longstanding residents of Stonehouse call the recent influx of wild or outdoor swimmers “Dryrobers”. This is infinitely more polite than the residents of the Lake District where the same groups of people are called ” Swimmers in Wankerobes”
The bobbers are unapologetically swimmers who wear these types of garments.
Nowhere in the companies website do they mention increasing, post bob, talking time or the comfort of patiently waiting dogs. There is even a large pocket that can accommodate a champagne or prosseco bottle for Birthday Bobs.
Yesterday the water temperature was a balmy 10 degrees while the air temp was 7 degrees. Today they have both dropped a further degree. But even in such chilly times we managed over half an hour of proper post swim chatting.
Certainly in large numbers ‘Dryrobers’ look like swarming, plump, insects stuck forever somewhere in the pupating stage of life. With head feet and hands emerging from a protective cocoon their bodies have no intention of leaving.
The popularity of outdoor swimming is a post-covid phenomenon that shows little sign of going away as the pandemic ebbs away. Coastal areas have become 365 days a year destinations, which is almost certainly a welcome boost for independent businesses who suffered so greatly during the multiple lock downs. Swarms of happy, healthy people is a good thing to have emerged from a sad and difficult two years of Covid-19.
theoldmortuary.design 