Category: Painting

Robin – 6 October 2016

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Went out for lunch today at Vecchia Bologna today. It seems that the restaurant has dropped the Vecchia part. It’s now just Restaurant Bologna. Vecchia must be too old fashioned 😉 Lunch was the usual excellent quality. I had the pate and Spaghetti del Chef. Scamp had mussels and the spaghetti. Scamp drove today, which was great because I could watch what was passing the side window instead of being totally focused on the car in front. Saw some more of these hay bales disguised as figures. Today’s was on the Carse of Stirling and they were made into a cow and a wee man. It looks like they are all made by Young Farmers. Unfortunately, I forgot I wasn’t driving and didn’t take a photo.

Today’s photo was taken much earlier in the morning when I spotted this wee robin queueing for its breakfast. I’d taken a few photos when he turned and caught the light, showing off the texture of its feathers.

Today I tore up the oil painting I’d done the other day. It just didn’t work tonally, on a colour basis or in terms of composition. So, basically it was crap. It had to go. However, it had performed its function of getting that landscape out of my head.

Which brings me to today’s sketch which is in absolute contrast to yesterday’s. Today’s was a detailed sketch with no attempt to record the image in my head and reproduce it on paper which is what blind drawing is all about. I’d originally intended to draw part of Doune Castle for today’s Inktober, but decided on something a bit simpler. Doune Castle is still on the list of things to sketch. I like buildings. N D’Ag posted an interesting YouTube video on Facebook on how to draw two point perspective and I may try that out some time.

I was a bit better organised today and got most of the heavy lifting completed early, which means I may go to be on the same day I got up … maybe.

Weather was lovely today with lots of bright sunshine. Looks like more of the same tomorrow with a little more cloud, just a little.

A Brighter Day – 4 October 2016

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Not just brighter with sunshine, although it was a sunny day, but brighter on the computer front and in my general demeanour, as a result.

I stapled a prepped sheet of watercolour paper to my painting board, built up my easel and started getting a landscape out of my head and on to the paper through the medium of oils. It was partly successful in that, although the landscape wasn’t the best I’ve done, it was a refreshing experience working in oils again. I’m going to try the same landscape again soon in a different medium, perhaps pastel. It’s years since I last painted in pastel, probably not since I was doing my Higher Art about 25 years ago! I’ve dug the pastels out and found some pastel paper, so there’s no excuse not to get started.

Today’s photos come from a walk through St Mo’s today. The toadstool made me think of a poem by Elizabeth Fleming which might ring a few bells with two or three of my readers, although it was a long time ago, even further away than when I last used pastels! I was amazed at the detail that appeared in the little seedpods and of course the Blue Trumpets always look so unearthly. They always make me think of the moon landscape in the Clangers. Google it if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Oh yes, and there’s a shot of Mr Grey on Flickr too. The sketch is for Inktober – Google it.

Settled down to the fact that I’ve lost all the rules I made up in the Hazel app, and realised that most of them were redundant now. I’ve re-written the ones I use the most and will write more as I feel the need. I’ll also back the bloody things up this time. Lesson Learned!

That’s about it for today. A beautiful bright day, if a trifle cold. A cold trifle would be nice too!

Wallflower – 14 September 2016

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14-sept

Sitting it out at Salsa because there are too many men in the second class which is an unusual state of affairs. It’s not a problem really as the sweat is running off me as we’ve just completed our second advanced class of the week. I did think of joining Colin’s class, but I’m never sure what it is he’s teaching. Sometimes it’s definitely salsa, sometimes it’s more like bachata, sometimes it’s almost certainly quickstep or tango or something else ballroom and there are times when it’s something entirely different. It’s difficult to see where they blend together. I did do his warm-up which is always a challenge, just keeping up. Tonight was no exception. That probably explains why I’ve reached melting point.

We had intended going to Kirkcaldy on the bus, but lethargy got in the way.  It’s been postponed until another day, a sunny day, because sunny it was not today. After we had dithered around for a while, we decided to go for lunch instead and then went for garden stuff at B&Q.

I had a go at a couple of  small watercolours and finished off an acrylic that’s been languishing against the wall for too long. I may frame it up and see if I’m happy with it. I’ve decided that even for sketching and wash, it’s far, far better to use watercolour paper, even cheap stuff.

I did manage a quick visit to St Mo’s later in the afternoon and was thinking that with the warm, damp weather we should be getting to the season for toadstools and mushrooms when I chanced upon a neat little creamy white umbrella, right in front of me. To get the shot, I wanted a low point of view (POV). That meant I couldn’t check focus through the viewfinder, but one of the Oly designers had considered this eventuality and made the back screen articulate so you can turn it horizontal. Even better, you can set the touch screen to activate the shutter. So clever.

As I mentioned, it was a dull, damp day. I’m hoping tomorrow will be better.

Rain – 3 August 2016

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DSC_6063- flickr--216It rained today. After that it rained again. Later on it rained. There was no point in waiting for it to go off. It was on for the day.

What I did do was finish off the painting I was doing.  I’ll try to remember to photograph it for tomorrows blog.  All I did today was add a couple of bits of dark shade to the farm buildings and then some darker areas to the windows.  The trick with painting is knowing when to stop.  I stopped early.  Next painting is going to be an acrylic of maybe oils.  It’s too easy to get locked into adding too much detail in a watercolour.  This isn’t colouring in, it’s creating an impression of the scene.  I don’t really like the ultra-realist styles.  I admire the skill in them, but I don’t like the paintings as such.  Photographs can do the exact same thing with much less effort and of course much less skill.  Yes, acrylic or oils next, on a big canvas.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for weather, but I wouldn’t bank on it. The poor gazania at the back door doesn’t understand this Scottish weather. I’m not sure I do either.

Broken Back – 29 July 2016

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When you’ve got a really small garden like ours, that retains the water when the rains come and ends up turning into a swamp, the majority of your plants have to live in pots.  After we got the fence built, all the plant pots were dumped into the centre of our swampy postage stamp.  Today was the day to put a bit of order into the chaos.  Scamp had decided that since we had moved the compost bin (another back breaker), we should rethink the area immediately in front of the fence.  She decided that we would lay down some weed suppressing fabric and then put some white pebbles on top.  The plant pots would then sit on the pebbles and they would provide drainage.

We drove to Tesco, because they were doing a 3 for 2 deal on pebbles.  Well, they would have if they had any pebbles.  Ok, next stop Dobbies which were also doing the same deal.  Yes, they did have pebbles in a variety of sizes from really small things that were really chips up to big bold boulders and almost every bag was slit open with the contents strewn around.  We’ve been thinking that Dobbies quality has fallen away sharply recently, and this is the proof of the pudding.  Next stop, B&Q.  They weren’t doing any deals, but they did have lots of different bags of different sized and different coloured pebbles.  Scamp decided that the white pebbles were out and large golden chips were in.  We bought three bags, hoping it would be enough.  Getting them into the car wasn’t a problem, but I wasn’t looking forward to getting them out again.  Scamp wondered if we should have bought a cheap barrow to wheel them into the garden.  In retrospect, we should have.  Truly, retrospect is the only 20-20 vision.  We finished off the front of the border with some big boulders we’d dug out at various times from the garden, and it looks good.  Three bags of chips were almost enough.  Perhaps we need just one more bag, to finish it off perfectly, but it looks beautiful as it is, and anyway, I need time to allow my poor back to get better.
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To put some suppleness back into my angry muscles, I went out for a bike run in the late afternoon.  I wanted to photograph a local farm that I’ve wanted to paint for a while.  I ended up photographing three different farms and small holdings and may manage to get paintings of them done soon.
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Feeling sore tonight, but the effort was worth it.

 

Drip, Drip – 25 July 2016

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25 July b

The title refers, of course to the weather.  Yet another rainy day, but as I write this in the back bedroom while Scamp watches Celebrity Masterchef (boak!), there is blue sky with some clouds of course, but blue sky nevertheless and the promise of a better day tomorrow.  Hope it’s a better day for Scamp too.

Scamp’s new phone was due to arrive this morning between 9.12am and 10.12am.  I just love DPD’s accurate time intervals.  Anyway, it arrived just around 9.15am and as she opened the parcel and then the box the phone was in, I noticed that the seal was broken on the box, the bit that says “If the seal is broken reject the phone, blah blah”.  I carefully took the phone out of the box and noticed there were finger prints on the protective plastic cover.  The cover itself looked as if it had been removed and replaced.  You know how it looks when that’s been done, the bubbles and the edges not quite right.  Now it might be my paranoia, but in these days of heightened cyber security fears, that sort of thing shouldn’t happen.  We eventually agreed that she should phone Vodafone and request a replacement in a sealed box.  It took three phone calls and finally a post on Facebook to get the thing almost sorted.  I say ‘almost’ because she now has to wait 48 hours to get approval to get the replacement from a Vodafone shop.  Neither of us can understand why she has to wait that amount of time and neither of us is happy with the result.  Customer service from Vodafone has been shocking for both of us now and I don’t think either of us will be renewing our current contracts.

I’ve been painting experimentally today, using cling film to create interesting effects in watercolour.  I tried doing the same thing with acrylic, but it wasn’t as successful.  The next thing is to try it on a real painting, and on a larger piece of paper.

Neither of us went to salsa tonight.  Me because I couldn’t really be bothered and Scamp because her shoulder is still giving her some pain.

Did you know if you overwater a spider plant, the plant gets rid of the excess through the leaves?  That’s where today’s photos come from.  It’s amazing what you find out.  Every day’s a school day.  I never thought I’d say that again after June 2014.

Better weather forecast for tomorrow.  Let’s hope they aren’t lying.

A Foggy Day – 21 June 2016

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The last full day on the ship started foggy.  Apparently the foghorn had been sounding all night, but we didn’t hear it.  One of the benefits of living in the bowels of the ship.  After breakfast I went to art class.  Today we were painting flowers, at least, those of us who were not finishing off yesterday’s Tuscan farmhouse.  The flower was a hibiscus, a light pink one against a background of dark green leaves.  This was a bit of a challenge for me as I’d never really painted flowers before and certainly not in watercolour, But with a little thought and my gained confidence in painting wet in wet, I got a fair representation of the photograph.  I even got a ‘well done’ from the teacher.  Teacher’s pet, that’s me.  No long after I started, the foghorn started and all was white around us.  After what seemed like 10 minutes painting, the teacher said it was time to pack up.  I looked at my watch and I’d been painting for an hour and the fog was almost gone.  Then I realized I hadn’t heard the foghorn for ages.  Totally engrossed I was.

Scamp had come up to meet me and we went back to the cabin to do the inevitable packing.  Most of it’s done now and we’ve just been for lunch.  Scamp’s off her class and I think I’ll try to sneak a photo of her.

In the Doldrums – 20 June 2016

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20 June

Well, not literally in the Doldrums.  We are nothing like becalmed, with winds blowing from the north at about 20-30 knots and the ship moving at 20 knots, effective wind speed on deck was 50 knots which apparently is Fresh Gale.  Cold too, with that wind and cloudy but with the prospect of some blue skies later.

Painting class today was a Tuscan farmhouse and was a lesson in using graduated washes and planning a painting.  I enjoyed it and was quite pleased with the finished article.  Afterwards we wandered round the ship.  You couldn’t do much because most of the deck and promenade are was cordoned off because of the high winds.

We didn’t see a single ship until late in the afternoon when we passed another cruise ship off on the starboard.  The weather had improved a bit.  The wind had dropped and the sun had come out, but it was still quite windy, so I took the above shot from the cabin window.  I was quite pleased with the finished article.

Dinner was in Epicurian and was an experience.  From getting my ham starter cut from the leg at the table (not the leg of the table!) to the creme brulee being flamed and the white chocolate ball being cracked open by the waitress, it was a brilliant meal.

Headliners show at night was really good, then drinks at deck 18 before bedtime.

A life on the ocean wave – 18 June 2016

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnother day at sea.  This time we are sailing down the south coast of France and then Spain aiming to pass the straits of Gibraltar at around 4.30am tomorrow and no I don’t intend getting up to see it happen.  I’ll rely on the captain and his minions to do it all by themselves and without my help.  Hopefully we will arrive in Cadiz tomorrow morning.  We’ve already been warned by the excursion staff that all the shops will be shut, so we might as well book one of their visits to Seville instead.  Why?  Will the shops be open there?  I’m sure there will be restaurants open in Cadiz, anyway, who chose to have sea days on Saturdays and Mondays and port days on the Sundays when all the shops will be shut?  P&O you are becoming a pain in the arse.  We hear more and more people becoming dissatisfied with the service they are getting from this company.  However, there are the fanboys who are counting up the days they’re accruing from this old fashioned, out of touch company.  I know I’ve said it before and reneged, but this time I’m sure.  I won’t be back.

What of the day?  It dawned cloudy with the chance of the sun breaking through.  By 11am that promise had been confirmed, and it was hot.  I had gone to the watercolour class and managed a reasonable likeness of the sunset we were asked to paint.  It turned out a bit dark and I messed up with scraping the side of the round brush across the paper, but that’s just down to lack of practise.  Others in the class were happy to suck up to the teacher, but of course I put my foot in it when she asked me what make of paint I favoured and I said “The cheapest”.  She definitely has Scamp’s disease.  NSOH.  No Sense Of Humour.  Very po faced she is.

Sunbathing on the deck then lunch in Smash & Grab and it was very tasty, but again, very little info as to what is in front of you in the buffet.  “Assorted Fish” or “Assorted Meat” doesn’t instil much confidence.  After lunch Scamp went to her class, I went for a snooze, got lost trying to find Scamp, she then couldn’t find me and finally we both met up again in the cabin.  Scamp went for a quick spot of sunbathing and I went looking for the mysterious deck 19, the highest point on the ship.  It was pretty breezy up there.

Tonight was a Black Tie night again so I wore my kilt.  We were at a table with an ex farmer and his wife, a market gardener and his wife and a single lady.  Conversation was lively with the farmer.  The market gardener asked questions, but didn’t listen to the answers.  Perhaps we bored him.  The old single lady it seemed couldn’t read.  I don’t know if it was a sight or a mental problem, but I felt really sorry for her.

After dinner we watched the sun set and Scamp thinks she got a few photos of a pod of dolphins passing by.  Drinks in Metropolis Deck 18 and then it was time for bed.

This little Windows 10 tablet/computer is great for typing up these blog notes, but I really need to find a way of disabling the touch pad.  It just seems to fire the cursor anywhere it feels like and before you know it you’ve typed a whole line of nonsense.  Nothing new for me, but unintentional drivel is different to my usual nonsense and should be avoided.  The other stuff cannot be avoided!

Cadiz tomorrow.  A walk around the city walls is in order.  My memory of Cadiz is this graffiti on them:  “My life is shit … And you?”

Flooers – 3 May 2016

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combo bFlooers is a sign that I didn’t find my muse today.

The morning was a bit frantic waiting for the lady to come to give us a quote for a new boiler.  The final figure was a bit more than Scamp or I had anticipated, but we knew it was going to be the most expensive.  We were quite intrigued with the amount that heating technology has advanced in the fifteen odd years since we had our present boiler installed.  Then, smart phones were an inventor’s dream.  Today you can control your boiler remotely from anywhere in the world with a smart phone.  Whether we can do that control, in fact whether we will need to perform that degree of control will depend on the final cost.  Another quote coming tomorrow.

I finished an acrylic painting today.  Not finished to my satisfaction, but like Whistler allegedly said, “I intend to do no more to it.”  I think it’s already about an inch thick in paint in some places.  Later, after dinner, I did a few wee delicate (for me) watercolours, teeny wee things, but I like them.  Something I saw in a gallery in Stirling.

Photographs were hard to come by today, or to be more exact, subjects were.  I’ve watched Scamp’s Forest Flame gaining in colour day by day and now the flowers are out, they’ve almost reached their maximum colour intensity.  The flowers are quite insignificant compared to the bright red of the sprouting leaves.  Dandelions are a favourite of mine.  I like the ragged looking yellow head and when the time comes, I love the dandelion clock with the little ‘ballerinas’.

Early rise tomorrow to take Scamp’s car in for MOT, then more technology overload with another quote for a new boiler.  Oh what fun!