Shelf Life

Dr Scops makes friends.

These girls find life very hard. They have to sit around a lot, contemplating things.

Jesus is getting back to nature.

Small pile of circles which are in a box of other similar things. The box is on the shelf.

The Brockley Jack.

P.S. Dr Scops, Gothic Lolita, (left of the three girls), tiny doll, (on her lap)-are by Beth Robinson(blog) of strangedolls.

Violet-(right) is from Nicole Johnson of Mealy Monster Land. Her Blog is here. Dr Scops' friend is from Greenwich Market. She looks like china but is plastic. I don't normally go for the Victorian type of doll but I liked her.

Plastic Poodles

400-600
300-450
How I changed the width and height in edit Html to make the picture slightly bigger. I am writing it here to remember it! I have put it back as I realise it looks pixelated. I will try it again with higher resolution photos.
They are going for a walk along the newly painted shelves Helen! That was quick commenting-it has only been there for two minutes!
Sonia said
'Broccoli Pirate
Green Pirate
Green Sparrow'
Sam said-'Is the pub called "Broc-depp" by any chance?
Linda Sue said 'I too thought it must be green sparrow or green Jack- no body would ever name a pub Broccoli!!'
Kenda said 'I also love the light fitting and would guess green sparrow for the pub although I'd love to find out it's called broccoli johnny's or something really cool!'
I liked all of the guesses but these four were the closest so they win the tiny prize-yet to be decided-it will be a surprise prize!
The pub's real name is The Brockley Jack (which I think no one would have got-the Brockley part anyway! It is named after a highwayman. Here is a page with a bit of history and some ghost hunting!

Weekend Events

Finding this article about Rachel Whiteread and her dolls houses. Thinking that two is quite enough for me unless I win the lottery. Finding this magazine on the hall floor on Friday evening. Having a look at the work of Jane Cather-absolutely beautiful.

Seeing Edna's little smiling face among all the other beautiful cloth and clay dolls. This is a group submission by Jane Des Rosier-who teaches doll making using cloth and clay techniques. Edna has been gone a long time now but I hope to see her back here one day!

Seeing my name in print-really exciting! Deciding on a whim (a whim born out of long pondering and purchasing large items such as dolls houses when I HAVE NO SPACE!) to completely reorganise all of my shelves, including painting my ebay shelves white. I was not sure about this but am so glad I did it, as everything looks much better displayed on them now. ( I will take pictures to show you!)

Giving a woman and her son a lift to the woods two miles away to find their runaway dogs. She was asking anyone she saw if they had seen them. She asked me just after I got home from buying paint, then asked a van driver and he had seen them. I felt so sorry for her as she was so worried-I hope she found them.Enjoying putting all of these things back on the shelves in different arrangements. This is one of my favourite things to do. Also enjoying rediscovering books I had forgotten, putting my Penguin books on my Penguin bookcase-bought second hand many years ago-complete with Penguin label.

Catching up with our ex-neighbours who called round unexpectedly today. We made a date to have a proper evening together in a couple of weeks.

Enjoying two late nights and two long lie ins.

Eating a delicious roast chicken dinner this evening cooked by Andy-thanks Andy!

Talking about what we want to do for our summer holidays.

Watching Antiques Road Show.

I will tell you the name of the pub tomorrow or Tuesday and announce the winner of the prize! Funny that one person has been there but they were kind and didn't give it away!

Shadows and Phone Pictures

Moving rain shadows on my hand in the car after work last week.

Random photo from my phone from Christmas. Andy's feet and Bertie's back.

I had forgotten about this until I downloaded the pictures from the phone tonight. I was shocked and amused one Saturday before Christmas, to see this painting in the window of my favourite charity shop. I think this counts as a shadow shot too due to the sensitive shading on the cheeks! It was a really good painting if you want a huge bottom on your wall. I wonder if they sold it. I must ask one day!

One of the lights in the pub we went to last week. There were also great big black cylindrical shades on some of the lights and it made me think about scale and how with lighting it doesn't particularly matter-I am thinking about the dolls houses.

Can you guess the name of the pub from this visual clue? A prize to anyone who can!

This is not really a shadow shot, but it is from my phone, and it represents a world alien to mine(in terms of work that is) On Friday, a colleague and I had the task of trying to complete a complex self-evaluation form for the Foundation Stage at work. (FS being the age group we teach-up to five) It is part of a whole school document that needs to be completed by the senior and middle management and is basically a summary of where the school is, aims for where we want to go, and proof of how we know these things-lots of data analysis. My colleague is the FS coordinator-a post I covered her in for a year, and wanted my help to do this. Our head suggested we have a day out, but work out of school, and recommended a local hotel-a Holiday Inn where we could do so. What a lovely day! The work was actually quite interesting and the setting was perfect for this kind of thing-hushed and business like, with lots of other work type things going on around us. I was very curious about what the other users of the space were up to but guessing had to be enough! Coffee, lunch and pleasant staff also added to the whole experience. Oh well, back to the real world on Monday!

For more shadow shot tales from around the world, visit HeyHarriet here.

Shiva Paint Sicks

I have some very old oil bars by Windsor and Newton which are still usable, but have gone sticky so are incredibly messy to use. I ordered a basic set of Shiva Paint Sticks (oil paint in a crayon form) from America and mainly used these. They are lovely to apply but initially messy as you have to get the hard skin off first. Yesterday I just used my fingernails and got in a big mess. Today I used a palette knife and still got in a mess but not as much! The oil paint is lovely and creamy and can be blended with fingers, a brush or a blending stump. I used my fingers. I love the way the colours blend in unexpected ways. The effect is different to anything else I have used. The face above is a made up one. The one below is from a photo of Alice Liddell.

Femme Becomes Homme

I have a couple of books of works of art owned by the Tate Gallery. I love looking through them from time to time, and came across this Picasso painting the other day. I think it is so beautiful and wanted to have a go at a copy using techniques from the portrait class. This is how it turned out! As I said in the title, femme became homme!

She looks slightly elfin with that large ear and pointy features.

The transformation begins!

Though I think he/she is wavering here a little.

Completed!

Finished Tower Blocks

Day time shadows on the buildings.Night time disco city.

One video has music and one doesn't but I can't remember which is which!

They are on the hill behind the street of two houses that lives in the kitchen. I don't know who lives there but they like pretty lights!

On a different subject, Candace in Athens has visited the sketchbooks from the sketchbook project and shared photos here. Here also is Candace's own sketchbook.

She has also shared a 'chair' exhibition organised by Arthouse here. I really love some of those chair works-especially the little paper chairs-I want some! Thanks Candace!