A Birthday Christmas Present

  It was my birthday last week.

 Perhaps the most intriguing present I received was from our next door neighbour, She'd heard that I have a dolls house which has been developing into an installation since I obtained it to help with my research for a painting, 'Fools Gold'  (which you can see on my PRINTS FOR SALE page).

 When I said  I had carried on collecting objects so that it looked as though the house was frozen in time on Christmas Eve, she gave me a knowing look.

I was presented with the most beautiful   box of  cards, wrapping paper, trees, paper chains, all in miniature. It turns out she is a dolls house enthusiast and makes everything herself.

There are pictures of the house on my Facebook page.

Count Me In

 I've now started working on the final canvases of my picture  'Memento Mori'. Each member of the family is represented  by a bubble in  the nine paintings.

I thought I had completed the first one when I realised I had missed a bubble out! At school, I was always rubbish at Maths.

Luckily, without changing the composition too much, I was able to paint an extra bubble in the far off distance.

I'll need to be more careful with the next one.

Apocalypse Now

 I was visiting an art  college  and wandered into a large modern building, where high up, I saw a Victorian puppet theatre. As I got closer I realised that there were people inside  and they invited me to join them.

Everyone began to leave but the only way out was to jump up,  to climb out of a slit in the back wall. I didn't have the strength to do it.

When I awoke, the dream was so vivid that I was able to write it down. It was the start of an idea for my next painting! I see my entrapment as a metaphor for the pandemic from which we are trying to escape.

It will be called 'Dreamtime'.

Click and Collect

 Although our local art shop has been closed since Christmas, I 've managed to get what materials I need through a click and collect system.

I email the head office and arrange a time to collect stuff from the Ely shop when someone will be there.

Recently, I've managed to get the nine canvases for my current painting 'Memento Mori' as well as some oil paints which I was running out of.

The shop should be opening again on 12th April when restrictions are lifted.  Lets hope it does, as Click and Collect isn't quite the same as mooching around to see what you could buy.

Light Over Dark

 Although I have some way to go before I've created the perfect bubble, I am starting the final painting anyway.

'Memento Mori' comprises of nine small canvases and I have just finished staining them black before I start the painting. I decided to work 'light over dark' after looking at Millais' painting 'Bubbles' in which the said bubble hovers against a dark background.

Millais apparently had a sphere of crystal especially made for the purpose. I've had to rely on photographs from the Internet and some pictures that Max took of him and Sebastian blowing bubbles a while ago.

I did however, retain a glass Christmas bauble which I thought might prove useful. 

Some Offering

 I've been rereading my Mexican Day of the Dead book recently. I had originally used it for reference when painting 'Ofrenda' (you can see the picture on the PRINTS FOR SALE in my website)

I had made the painting to celebrate the life of my mother and always imagined the word ofrenda meant altar. However I was wrong. It means offering. It seems obvious really as in Mexican culture the relatives celebrate their loved ones by  laying out special foods and objects on a kind of altar.

I'm not about to change the title though  as my picture used the Mexican tradition as  only one of its influences and I think the two words are interchangeable anyway.

Guilty Secret

 I've noticed for a while, big packs of brushes and sponges in different shapes and sizes in the children's hobbies section of W.H. Smiths. Those sort of funny, stiff brushes  used for gluing.

 There aren't many shops open at the moment, and these packets were going down pretty quickly. Obviously, lots of people are doing more arts and crafts at the moment.

Although not  needed  for my current painting, I finally succumbed and bought a set before they had all gone.

 Sometime I want to do some free marking making experiments (I already have a set of wire brushes)  for a picture were chaos is an important feature. Dots, dashes, scratchy lines etc. are just what I'm looking for.