shift

Hello peeps me here - who am I? Where am I? And what have I been doing?
You may ask. Cor long time no blog hasn't it been - and now with Pot tucked away in India I can safely re-launch (ha ha ha) As you can see from the end of my last post - things seemed to have come to a grinding halt..

Anyway it was like I had these 9 scriptwriter followers and then lured them over to an art blog under false pretences - ha. I've been steadily slapping up art on facebook as I go - drawing those dark pieces now - through strangely they're not as dark as I suspected they would be - and going off on other tangents...For those who haven't seen already, I'm putting this 'Rapunzel' one up. Working on a companion piece for this right now (love using these natty phrases 'companion piece' or 'diptych' )



Plus the world has been spinning me into the middle of a rather peculiar web of serendipity lately. I kind of try not to look at things too closely or read too much into stuff - in case I scream. One small example is that I saw a lovely little ornamental tree thing in my usual food superstore and thought it'd be perfect for my mum's birthday. It even had a plaited trunk - cute. Anyway she loved it. "Ficus" she enquired "isn't that a fig?" My hackles rose and I glowered at the offending item feeling cheated & wondering If I could suddenly hurl it out into the street - without her noticing....

So myriad stuff like that. Everywhere all the time. Keep my head down. BTW has anyone seen those kind of magnetic arrange-the-beaver iron filings things in the shops? Jeez.

But anyhow, I've always been a great believer in following your own path, listening to your gut, instinct and what what. Other people often get it wrong for you. Years ago I remember going for a job cleaning toilets in a nightclub in Leeds and I got the job and the day I started the manager came round and said, 'Oh we can't have you cleaning toilets, we'll have to put you on the bar.' So reluctantly I struck up a pose behind the bar and started serving drinks. On my third day I got the sack - for not smiling. See - I'd have lasted a lot longer in the toilets.

So what else? Anyway October's planetary shifts are already being felt and I shan't tempt blog karma by talking too much here. But the house is sold, papers are being filed, plans are being made - holes in the floor gape angrily - but who cares? - time to make a life shift huh.. what say you...

Plus sat down a wrote a lovely new synopsis ..

Cheers to autumn or spring whatever hemisphere you may be in.
Laters.

teeth

So whattagoarnhereso? Still arting about. This one above you may remember from the old blog, I did back in 87 and not 89 as mentioned elsewhere - blinking 22 years ago - some of you weren't even born then huh? That's what aging does - overloads you with back story. Anyway those aeroplanes in that basket were part of some billboard that was all over the underground at the time - some may recall. I stood on the platform and fell in love with it. Shame Concorde is gone now. Anyway the reason I put RRH drawing up here is because (during a rather prolonged absence) I've been scratching away doing sketches for 'Hum of History' 9 - 22 - or rather the Act Two of this series - quite a task - plus I want to get all the 14 sketches finished (and visually coherent) before I even make a start turning them into large drawings. Quite apart from the fact that I don't have any room left. The RRH is actually going to influence the style of the next segment - which will be far more charcoal-y, edgy and dark almost monochromatic compared to the first 8. Plus tons more drama. Ha!

Also quietly working on some book plates and a proposal for a huge scale project.
Kind of quiet on the blog. Still waiting for the remainder of jazz book funds to finish that off. Blogging about waiting around for stuff isn't all that interesting is it? So hope the new (or even the old - while moving desks) powers-that-be get their fingers out soon..

Laters..

sky

The other day my daughter drew a picture of a man climbing a long ladder into the sky to get into an aeroplane. Woooo!

Anyway - slowing down now with the pastels. Running out of steam - I think finally - phew. So the first act of 'Hum of History' (parts 1-7) is finished - with the rest of the series to be continued later...
Now the desk summons. Writing. But meanwhile catching up on a whole heap of films this week - all those you've already seen - but which take forever to hit these shores.

How are you nine persons doing?
Laters

response

Hello my few. Pot reminded me (in the intimate environment of the mini-chatroom that accompanies a wordscraper game) that I'd not blogged for ages and yes it would have been even longer - were it not for that meme below.

I try to keep up a slight pretence that I am writing here and there, but my word count this year so far has been zilch. Even though I do feel the urge - every now and again..

But I'm still smitten with drawing - mainly because it is so lovely to get an instant response. There's blog/facebook feedback and my daughter of course - who demands to be in every picture - but also reactions from the few folk who stroll through the house from time to time. You don't get the nasty shades of 'no' of script responses. People can wrinkle their nose or walk away - but they tend not to - they always say something unexpected . Yesterday a couple from Canada came. He was fascinated by Helen's microwave on the canoe (he in furniture - I think) and talked about making kites. His wife was pleased the naked lady had the good sense to keep (what are clearly her best) shoes on. She thought the kite tags looked like medical sutures.

My daughter, when she first saw the picture with the orgy (and big hand) announced she was going to report me to the police for drawing people doing rude things with no clothes on. She sleeps in the room with the Ark on the wall and, in the morning, tells me what everyone on deck did during the night. When she comes back from school she always notices who's new on board.

So that's what I enjoy - engagement.

Laters

unimportances

Rules

1) Put the link of the person who tagged you on your blog.
T'was Potdoll of course

2) Write the rules
Here they are

3) Mention 6 things or habits of no real importance about you:

i) I prefer savoury to sweet
ii) I drink between 8-12 cups of tea per day
iii) I love hoovering up dead cockroaches but not emptying the bag later
iv) I'm now addicted to wordscraper - especially 'random rules'
v) My favourite colour is olive green
vi) I can't count (as pointed out in comments) and get left and right mixed up too

and I tag you

closer

Update: now finished
In the end I used google earth (of course) to 'image' the world. I find I keep downloading and removing it - but it was perfect for finding exactly the right piece of the globe for the picture - plus it can stretch and contort the continents as the world rotates. That arm-like inlet ending in two fingers (on the bottom leftish) is apparently the Suez canal. So I printed off the bit I needed a couple of times and worked from that - but still haven't worked out quite what happens up beyond Japan at the top. I think there may be room for a small piece of Australia above or near the peach bird. The oceans were a bit of a nightmare - so much space really. Then there's still the constellations to work on...
In photographs, the egg seems to have this ethereal glow.

Ploughing on..

Laters

window

For the next picture I'm taking a small section out of No 4 and expanding it - from this:


to this.

I went to an opening at the gallery the other evening and - looking at the space, worked out that it could probably accommodate 8 pictures really well - plus maybe a few sketches and photographs. I'm on the 6th. The one decribed here will be no 7. Then there's always one I made earlier I could pull out again...

Laters