It's a Mannequin Officer...

...is what I will say when I get stopped while depositing this body in the lock up. It is my lovely mannequin girl who has to go to there for now, so that her room can be turned into Andy's stay at home office. I have set myself the target of two weeks to get the little room emptied, and then he can work in there and I can sort out the rest of the flat without disturbing him. I also need to get it cleared so that, once he is in there, I can put up the big cat tree I ordered today. I have been promising Oliver that he can have one once there is enough room, and I ordered it today to encourage myself to get it done. 

I managed to throw out some teaching degree essays and course work. One of the essays was on spelling-how children learn to do so, and I couldn't even bring myself to read it so it had to go. All of it has been in Mum's loft for the last 25 years so I don't need it. When I have finished this massive task I have set myself there is a problem in that I don't want to bring all of that stuff back. I am already forgetting what is there. So we either move, or I just go down and get rid of it. I can't worry about it now, but I will continue to try to get rid of some of it as I go, rather than store it for no reason. 

I have never wrapped up a body before, and have also never sat and stuck cloves into an orange. I had to make Christingle candles with Reception on Wednesday, using cocktail sticks and sweets and I really enjoyed it. Then I had a conversation with one of the teaching assistants at break time about how her family used to do lots of baking in preparation for Christmas and how her Mum made the kids make decorations such as oranges with cloves. Anyway, it was very therapeutic to do, if a little painful, as some of the cloves are quite sharp. The red berries are cranberries, held on with cocktail sticks and I only had a tealight which is also held on that way. It smells delicious if you sniff it closely. I also strung some cranberries up in the hope they might dry out so I can use them to make a wreath. I have made a couple of wreaths in the past and quite enjoyed it so am going to try to make one tomorrow. I have cut a couple of long pieces of red stemmed dogwood which bends and weaves beautifully into a circle. I also cut some bay, forsythia and will get ivy tomorrow. It will make a change from packing the back room!

I found my small collection of old typewriters. This one is a lovely colour. I think I would call it pistachio green. It works ok too and I had a go with it this afternoon. It is so satisfying to do, though I wouldn't want to use one long term in comparison to a computer keyboard as it is quite hard work. 

 The case of this one is a dirty blue grey colour, and is slightly paint spattered. It doesn't promise much, so it is a lovely surprise when you find the bright gem inside. 

Beautiful Things

Recently I have found myself walking around in a bit of a miserable trance like state whenever I am not called on to do anything. I am not like it at school or home so much, as all the in between bits when I am travelling to places. So this week I decided to make an effort to take pictures of things again, instead of considering it and walking on or not even noticing. There is just so much beauty to be found.

These Gingko leaves against the white sky look like a fabric design. I will have a dress please!

Perfect number plate where I happened to park on a foggy morning last week.

Serious lion face on a bright red door.

I just love everything in this picture. The simple sign, the black, pale yellow, dark red and blue. 

The colours in this one are beautiful too. 

Stark pollarded plane trees make great shadows.

This one may not fit into the title, but it made me smile, though I am not sure whether it qualifies as passive aggressive. It is also a bit misleading, as although it says there is no dog poo fairy, I can clearly see one at work. 

Such a blue sky, such a sharp shadow, and repeated triangles. Thank you small park down the road from school!

This was this morning. The tower blocks in the distance looked so dramatic against the sunrise stripy sky. 

The gate where we let the children in. Girls too!

 

Old Journals

My tidying and decluttering has meant I have been able to look at my old art journals without lots of things falling off the shelves! I thought I would share some of the pages I liked occasionally. It is strange that some are immediately memorable, and some I don't even recognise! Like this page below. I don't know who or what inspired these two. This journal is from 2014 so not that long ago really.

This page is also not memorable. I think I was drawing photographs from a book about Julia Margaret Cameron.

I know why I did this one. At a certain point in the year there was a massive trend for tartan scarves, which, for some reason annoyed me. Maybe it was because they were not genuine, like Andy's McCallum tartan one is, but fake tartan fashion. So this is my attempted rendering of some fake tartan wearers. In the end, probably the next year, I bought a big tartan scarf too. 

Here is a happier tartan wearer. Maybe I had changed my mind by then.

This journal is one of the ones where I have re-purposed an old book. I have quite a lot of those, and using them involves some preparation, in gessoing or painting the pages with acrylic to make them stronger. Sometimes I leave sections of text or pictures showing, as they are inspiring. This book is 'The Bridge of San Luis Rey' by Thornton Wilder. I have read it but don't remember much, though Wikipedia has jogged my memory. 

I think I must have found this in a Sunday supplement, and the dragon was related to Chinese New Year celebrations at school.

Two forgotten pages.

The book 'A Beautiful Darkness' by Fabien Vehlmann inspired this page.

Reviews to describe it below:

 "A twisted tale that draws from the likes of Alice in Wonderland and The Borrowers, only Beautiful Darkness presents a much bleaker allegory about brutality. As the tiny people lose hope, their underlying pettiness, greed and jealousy become evident despite their polite words and pretty faces." --Los Angeles Times Hero Complex

"It's The Borrowers meets Lord of the Flies." --Comic Book Resources

The last picture is a girl with a rabbit skull as a hat. I found the skull on a walk near a river in Northumberland when we were staying with our friend Phil. Not sure why I made it into a hat!
 

Madeline

                  

Madeline's portrait is finished. She says she is happy with it and it is helping take her mind off the economy which is being talked about on the news going on behind her. Painting the map skirt was a lot easier and more fun than making it. I don't often get impatient when making something, and see no point (usually) making something I am not enjoying. But I really wanted the map skirt to exist, so I had to put up with breaking thread, sore fingers and things not going as planned at first! 

                    

Black and white to see tone-skirt ok, shoes have none!      

                            
 

Me on Google Street View

I was going to feed one of my cats in the summer and the google maps car drove past me. I have been checking every so often since then to see if I was on it, and here I am! I have seen them before but this is the only time I remember when I knew exactly where I was and I was walking. I don't know why but it is quite fun to be on there. When I first started using street view my neighbour Dee was putting the bins out. I love street view. It is such a useful tool and fun to tour areas of the world where you are not from or have not been, as well as your local area.

I was going in the grey door on the left of the two men. It is the back entrance to the cat's flat which is just above, and saves a ridiculously long walk to get there from the front. The cat is very shy and stays under the bed. This time I could look under and see her, frozen and waiting for me to go, so that was a first!

 

Anchor Update

I was wondering, like River, where all the anchors come from, and googled that question. I didn't find the answer, though I suppose some are from the shipbreaking that used to go on, but I did find the Big Anchor Project, which records anchors wherever they may be around the world, under the sea, displayed on land, beached like mine, or in museums. I often feel that I don't use the internet very well and am always happy to find a new thing to explore. I have learnt quite a lot about the parts of anchors in the last hour, and also about map references! I have recorded my anchor, a stocked anchor I now realise, and have put the information I know from a photo from a distance of about 10 metres. I may go back at some point and do some measuring so I can record more! I didn't know anything about the parts of an anchor, and now know that the stock is the part that goes through or around the shaft-the knobbly bit on top of this one. The shaft is the main length of the anchor. The flukes are the bits at the end of the arms-the thing poking out of the mud. This one is puzzling as the fluke is not at 90 degrees to the stock, and because I can't see the rest of that part it is hard to tell what is going on. If my information is wrong I suppose my anchor may not make it through moderation!

 

Rotherhithe

I haven't been here since before the first lockdown and fancied a change of scenery. It is an easily accessed piece of the foreshore and there is lots of parking nearby so an easy place to visit. The sun had gone by the time I arrived but it was pretty mild and I enjoyed my walk. I love this little path that leads to the steps.

There was a family with two young children on the shore so I suppose they made this perfect sandcastle on the step. I was a bit worried to see the two children filling up their buckets from a dribbling outlet in the wall. It could be rainwater but it could also be sewage. I should have told them I suppose but it was too late by the time I saw what they were doing so I didn't.

The colours of this old boat are echoed in the colours of the flats behind.

This anchor is really huge. I wonder how long it has been there. There are at least four anchors on my usual bit of foreshore, though I have a feeling one has been taken-the smallest one without a long piece of chain. Even the small ones are extremely heavy (obviously!) I saw two men taking a small one from Rotherhithe on one of my visits. They were really struggling. Even if I could I wouldn't take one, as I like seeing them there. 

Pretty iridescence on this bottle. 

Anchor close up-as close as I could get without getting stuck!

I can't see any redeeming feature in these buildings in Wapping. Apart from maybe the diamond pattern on the left hand one. They look quite impressive glinting in the sun, but they weren't glinting today and just felt oppressive.

Thanks for the kind doll painting comments, (and the extra info on Trypophobia Steve!). I recently spent some time looking up artists who paint toys and found some good ones, then lost my list. I found it again today so here they are.

Peter Jones

Joyce K Jensen

Margaret Morrison

Jonathan Queen

Kate Stone