August was a blast. September is the month of holidays @theoldmortuary, but most importantly it’s the month of more interesting light and textures. This year September will be all texture and no holidays. The angle of the sun both in the mornings and evenings makes everything look a little bit more interesting. Trawling through my photo archive some gorgeous textures popped up. Textures are my references for abstract paintings. I stuck to textures photographed in past September’s to illustrate this blog.
The first one is a lovely Palimpsest photographed in Devonport. It is a traditional paper advert posterboard. I drive past it a lot , you have to catch it at the right time. Seemingly one team rips the old posters off and another one follows up and sticks the new one on. I drove past between the two visits and luckily got this lovely piece of serendipity.
The next two are also in Plymouth, one in a hotel and the other in a restaurant. I’ve stuck them together because that is what I do when I’m trying to work out the way forward in a painting.
Textured inspiration also comes from the preparation of food , another two stuck together, one coffee and one gravy.
A couple of years ago we went to a Jazz Festival in Nafplion in Greece.
The venue is an Art Centre and was also holding an exhibition of wedding dresses. Not normally something that would attract us , but I am so glad not to have missed it . The textures of the wedding dresses were amazing and deserve a blog on their own but there were also this colourful, textural piece that can brighten up this blog first.
I love the juxtaposition of beautifully crafted metal and plastic flowers.
If I wasn’t sticking to the ‘photographed in September’ rule I could share loads of pictures taken in European Cathedrals of ornate gold leaf work , gem encrusted and beautiful, with plastic flowers in a jam jar, close by,somewhat ruining the aesthetic.
Black and white texture comes from a negative image of a blackboard and plastic wrapped rolls of hay, looking other worldly in the sharp sunlight.
Finally a little pink texture, the Dahlias grow in our garden and the Crochet and cracked paint were an installation at Plymouth Art Weekender a couple of years ago.A city wide art festival held every September.
https://plymouthartweekender.com/
Despite Covid-19 the Art Weekender will be held in Plymouth this September.
Not just any Newspaper, The Financial Times. The pink, in colour, paper. The two actual Pink Papers, one Lgbtq and one Sport were not the same colour at all. Both are no longer published in print form.Sometimes I just buy the Financial Times for the joy of its colour combinations. I always loved it in the days of Black and White ( Pink) printing but with the advent of colour the pink just gives everything s little joosh, a brightener, a lift. I am not by nature a pink person but this Financial Times Pink floats a whole flotilla of boats for me.
It is the pink of both my grandmothers’ underwear. One, a sensible woman who wore Directoire Knickers in peach. She would be horrified , if she were alive today and able to Google, to discover that her choice of undergarments were now the underpinnings of a Vintage Fetish.
Many of the images on Google could not grace Ponderings. Some of the wearers had male looking bulges, others cavorted and posed, plump rounded buttocks presented like over ripe peaches with a short shelf life . My other, more lively, Grandma wore the same colour underwear , her knickers also had a French sounding name, French Knickers, and were trimmed with the most amazing lace. She would not have been shocked by anything she discovered on Google and would certainly have embraced Vintage Fetish. In fact she was known for embracing anything.
In a strange twist of Google Image fate, my sensible Grans, sensible knickers have become the things of Vintage Fetish.The racy Grans fancier pants are just that, Fancy Pants . No images of women or men posing erotically in her peachy knickers.Peach is the next bone of contention. What colour is the Financial Times or indeed my Grandma’s knickers?I’m not certain the actual colour can truly be described as Peach but Salmon does not strike the right tone for underwear or sage financial journalism in my opinion . Salmon is the descriptive word the Financial Times chooses to use. It has to be said it is certainly slightly fishier now than it used to beLuckily for Pandemic ponderings the Pantone Colour Institute and Hex have come up with four descriptive names that are a close fit to Financial Times Pink, and Grandmas knickers.Bisque
Blanched Almond
Old Lace
Papaya Whip
Whatever the name, this pink is the one I search for, but rarely find in shops. It is not often in vogue, but was quite recently. Almost too popular particularly on Instagram. I have a very striking pair of newly purchased daytime Pyjamas.( Is that not in itself a delicious idea, DAYTIME pyjamas)
A Financial Times Pink Chaise longue would be the perfect place to lounge while reading the FT in my daytime pyjamas.The overall effect might be a little eccentric, but not, I think over the top.
Newspapers to Knickers, a classic pink ponder.
Print is the prompt word for the Art Group.Printing is Dirty work and I absolutely love to do it. There has not been enough printing in my life.My fish are a popular print.
But on the whole I do not do anywhere near enough printing.I should do more , it was a printed piece of work that was exhibited at Tate Modern.
Note to self, spend more time printing.Fine Art printing is one thing but written word printing is a whole other world. Bringing Pandemic Pondering to the written word brings me to The Mayflower and the postponed anniversary celebrationsLocally in Plymouth , England 2020 was set to be a hugely significant year. 400 years since the sailing of the Mayflower and the founding of America. Events were planned all over the place. The Pandemic has delayed celebrations.Printing is the key to this date,not the arrival of settlers.
The Mayflower was not the first ship to deliver Europeans to America in search of a different life. What made the date of the arrival of the Mayflower significant was the signing of a printed document. The Mayflower Compact. 2020 is the 400th anniversary of the signing of that document. The actual date of arrival of the first European migrants to The New World is unknown. The 400th anniversary had, in reality, already been missed so postponing the party for a year is regrettable financially but not historically a problem of accuracy.https
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