Out and About

Here’s a summary of recent pictures I’ve made, I’m quite pleased with them all. Making collaged backgrounds has been successful.

It’s the last day of sunshine for awhile. I might have to go out food shopping later. A is home, a cold and damaged tendons in his arm. He ended up in A&E yesterday because the physio he saw worried about him having either a fracture or shoulder dislocation.

I’m wondering about carrying this tumblr feed on. I don’t feel that bothered about doing it anymore. It’s become a chore where I don’t know what to write rather than a pleasure.

Adios!

Hijabi girl on a skateboard in Vans with a Fjallraven Kånken backpack, I almost whooped when I saw her. Not enough girls skate and certainly not enough Muslim girls. I’ve had this thing going about the lack of play among young women as opposed to boys. It’s wrong. Playfulness is important in so many fields, it allows us as adults to improvise, invent and improve. In science, engineering, the arts, mathematics. We should aim to extend girls’ play well into young adulthood and beyond. And no, I don’t mean anything pink or involving small humans.

Trump is out. This is probably one of the most important days of my life and I’ve seen 60 winters. Now we just need to kick the lying cheeting Tory lot into touch and we can breathe again.

I’m off to Harwich. It’s my brother’s birthday tomorrow so we’ll go for an outing. We’ll also catch up with the legal business around our parents’ estate, it’s all rather stressy. We think we won’t use the solicitor that means doing the tax forms ourselves.

This leaf has so much brilliant detail. It almost looks like reptile skin.

These are the last days before we enter a new period of lockdown. It starts Thursday. I had a quick whip round Hobbycraft before it closes, cards, paper, storage boxes, alphabet set and an ink pad. I’ve bought letterpress wooden letters, coming from Germany next week. All exciting.

Found this coloured pencil design when I was looking for something else. I love coloured pencils, you need ones that give strong colour. It’s also really good to blend two colours together.

The week has begun, A’s back at school and I’m home alone. I’m waiting in for a plasterer and someone to fix our oven. It’s past 2pm it all seems to be getting a bit late.

I spoke with my brother. I don’t know what to think about him. He did say he feels he’s struggling which is good in the sense that he very rarely opens up. The flip side is I feel he’s another person I will have to look after.

I made this collage of arrows and borrowed Jean Michel Basquiat to put on it. I remember when he first hit the art scene and I did love that he’d got connections with the graffiti world. I’ve always liked people who push the envelope in all art forms. Also the sense of outsider art.

Been for an 8 mile walk round Ashridge today with A, Sian and Molly - Keren’s dog. It was a dull day and the woodlands were packed with people. There are definitely more people using outdoor spaces these Covid days. Maybe that’s a good thing.

The half term days are concluded, it’s now the weekend and we’ll have the trek of weeks running up to Christmas. I expect our lives will be further restricted as this virus ratchets up its power and reach.

When A went running I went for a walk in the park and looked at leaves and fungi. The droplets on this leaf magnified the structure of the leaf underneath, how beautiful and the colour has a distinct subtlety. I met an old guy who was also taking photos with a DSLR he showed me some of his pictures including a mauve mushroom.

My sewing machine has arrived. Thrilling and scary all mixed up. Need to get it out of the box.

Someone wants a copy of one of my images. I’ve messaged them back to say, of course. Need to know what sort of quality and size they’re thinking of. It would be my first sale on-line.

Have you missed me, 10 days without a post? I’ve been very busy making pictures. My work has taken leaps forward in skills and quality, I’m really excited by it. Having quality time to work is great, I can make pictures using my best energy hours in the day, all those hours went into my job - I gave 35 years of my life to education. Now it’s “me” time.

Busy, busy, busy with image making. I’ve enjoyed it. In life I find this isolation difficult. The situation with sorting my family’s stuff out, legal and actual, is mega stressful. I’ve rather stepped back from it all but I know I have to engage again at some point and that hangs heavy over me. On top of that, I’ve caught a cold, a common cold but in these times of pandemic it feels like an extra stress. A is making me tea, it smells good, love is a strength.

This digital manipulation has really got me going. This was a plaster bust I photographed once when we stayed in a grand French house whilst travelling home to England. This particular image and how it turned out reminds me of the New Order album cover for Technique.

Generally, I’d say my week went well. I’ve been busy everyday. I’m going to let this art phase roll on until I’m beginning to get an idea of where to take it. I probably need to start experimenting with printing and types of paper. I can definitely feel cards coming out of it but of course people don’t use physical correspondence much anymore.

Self portrait, watercolour and photo collage. I quite like the fact it could be an album cover. Had an ok day, think I’m getting better at planning and using my time. Went for a walk first thing then made pictures, did an on-line course about adapting paper patterns, got my prescription. I now qualify for free medicines, seems neat. Andy’s making some spicy peanut butter noodles for tea.

I’ve had a great experimental day. I photographed a small watercolour doodle and then cut it out using Pixomatic placing it on a plain coloured background using Phonto then I made slightly different coloured versions and layered them using Blend Editor. You get lovely painterly qualities with both positive and negative spaces. I think with a bit of work they could make great greetings cards? What do you think. I’ve also now just extracted a heart shape from the crossed ovals.

Making things lets your mind wander and dream of new possibilities. One thing tumbles into the next. I find it a captivating experience.

This is the start of my properly thought out journey into ceramics. I’ve seen lots of pots that have ‘mechanical’ patterning, a bit of a brutalist vibe. These impressions will become stamps to create raised up patterning on vessels I build.

I could build patterned wall plaques and I’m also be going to buy plastic tubing to create cylinders that I’ll then build into vases. Hopefully, these vases can have the textured patterning on them. It’s proper artistic work, experimentation, refining skills and making better things.

An unexpected Watford day. My brother has a slight cough and sore throat, hopefully not COVID. I ducked out from visiting Harwich and got myself a bit more chilled and relaxed. Found a fisherman’s sweater in the white shop for £4.50, also some Viners forks.

Back home I worked on sticking in some diary inserts. My 60th birthday diary is pretty much complete.

This character caught my eye. I think he’s with the woman in the picture and I didn’t want to be seen snapping him. I like the dark shape of him against the brighter colours.

Me. I’m fascinated by how my ears stick out which I catch sight of in my shadow. I was home alone for the first time it seemed like in ages. Rested up, it wasn’t until late on that I realised I would not be off to Harwich this week.

Watched a great documentary about Vivian Maier, she was a total eccentric. We saw an exhibition of her work in San Sebastián. I feel there is a similarity between her work and mine.

An early evening view from the stone pier across Dovercourt Bay. It was exceptionally, low tide so even more sand and mud flats were exposed. The day passed ok, we walked out towards the backwaters this morning then had roast lamb for Sunday lunch followed by apple and blackberry crumble.

I snoozed in the afternoon while the gang watched old detective show re-runs and talked to each other about any nonsense that flitted through their minds. There is a lot of twaddle spoken, I’m surprised my brother doesn’t shut them up. He just walks off and disappears.

We took Tony to Standsted Airport for his flight home to Dublin. It was so nice to be just the two of us again. Glad to be home but feel a bit funny too, it’s like another step away from my dad’s life.

We went swimming in the sea in the afternoon escaping the family chit-chat. There’s a sort of freedom floating in the sea. Next we went onto some scrap land where there’s an old radar tower and bundles of brambles. We foraged for blackberries for lunch tomorrow. Then we crossed the park area that is hosting a fun fair, I did my best to get some good shots, you need time and patience to get something reasonable. I don’t want to be noticed or questioned - I’m terribly shy. Finished at The Alma for a swift drink.

Look at this beautiful casket. It held my dad for his final journey. Every detail of it is perfect. The greenery turned out just right.

The day went smoothly. I made picnic bags first thing then got my outfit on. The crematorium service was Quaker so there was a brief eulogy then people could stand and contribute their own thoughts. We had Aarvo Part’s Summa for going in and Benjamin Britten’s Sunday Morning from the Sea Interludes going out.

It was a beautiful day, a strong breeze but sunshine and still quite hot. We all sat on benches and on the lawns and ate the picnics. I was surprised just how well that went, most people stayed but a couple left still taking theirs with them. As always there is not enough time for every person but I spoke with a fair few.

When we’d returned and rested up, Andy and I went and bathed in the sea. Such a freeing experience, I tried to let go of all the stress and worry. I still can’t quite believe he’s gone. There’s something about his death which is making me feel sad now for my mum. They both had such a difficult decline into dementia. It is a cruel illness.