Scamp thought I wanted to go in to Glasgow today and I thought she wanted to go in. It wasn’t until we were walking down Bucky Street that the crossed wires became untangled. We had travelled in on the bus and had just been to John Lewis where I showed Scamp the toy I’d like in my Christmas stocking, an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II. Apparently Santa may not have any left as a lot of boys and girls have asked for that self same thing. Oh well, never mind, I’ll just have to wait until it turns up on MBP, second hand.
Went and had coffee in Cafe Nero at St Enoch’s, then headed back up to Sauchiehall Street. Blacks were having a closing down sale and I managed to snag myself a new Berghaus jacket. Maybe not as good as an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II, but a lot more practical.
Just missed the bus home, but that’s about par for the course at the bus station and got talking to a wee visually impaired man who told me you should never sit with your legs crossed because it restricts your circulation. You won’t feel it at the time, he said, but it will get you later. I don’t know where he got that information from, but he was quite adamant about it.
Weather was mixed. Beautiful bright sun one minute, torrential rain and hail the next. Scamp says we have to blame Storm Eva for that. When I got home I slapped some paint on a canvas while I waited out the hail storm that was battering the window and then went out for a walk around St Mo’s. It didn’t rain, but the sun didn’t shine either. Managed one shot of a confused wee green shoot that thinks it’s spring. I think there are more cold winds, hail showers and possibly sunny intervals between now and then. Keep your fingers crossed ….. but not your legs!
Late getting to bed last night and up fairly early this morning. Fred P was picking me up to go to a colour mixing class at Cass Art in Glasgow. It didn’t turn out to be the most interesting class ever, probably the least inspiring I’ve been to in fact. However, it did make me smile when one woman managed to get the sleeve of her pink sweater in the deep blue ultramarine oil paint and then spread it across the front of the sweater too. It’s the sort of thing I would do, but I was circumspect this morning and dressed in my oldest rugby shirt – and I didn’t get a mark on it! All we did really was make a colour wheel, something I’ve been teaching weans to do for donkey’s ages. The example above is about the best photo I’ve taken today!
I did get up quite early(ish). Well, before 9.00 anyway. Started an oil painting on a square canvas. I tend to shy away from square photos and paintings. I always think a square shape is quite boring. Not as dynamic as a vertical rectangle (portrait format), nor as relaxed as a horizontal one (landscape). However, I’d seen an interesting oil at the weekend and was impressed with the way it used the square format, so I set to work. I was using water-based oils which might seem a contradiction, but they work well. I like the smell of oil paint and also natural turps, but I know that not all people find it so favourable, so I experimented with the water-based oils and quite liked them. They seem to dry quicker than normal oils, and that’s a pity, because I like the fact that you can work into previous layers and change them. That’s the difference between oils of any variety and acrylic. Acrylic dries quickly, too quickly for me. What I do like acrylic for is the ability to layer washes when using the paint very dilute – as watercolour in fact. Once a wash has dried, you can layer another on top without the fear of one mixing with the other and diluting it. I digress. This one was to be in oils and it’s sort of half finished at present. I’ll take a fresh look tomorrow.
