little time to paint

After our return to the UK there has not been much painting. Lots and lots of music to play and arrange and, although I love it, I was longing to get back to painting.

But last weekend was taken up with getting things ready for a joint show  with Artists 303, a well known west of England group, at Ilminster Arts Centre 

Here is one of my paintings there - much looser than my architectural work usually is.  Last summer I had been doing some big, detailed, ink and watercolour drawings of  Wells Cathedral  but moved onto some looser oil pictures and then this, acrylic on cardboard (I can't measure it as it is not here, but about 60 cm wide ) - I like it but what do you think?  I call it Dreams of Wells

tablets for travel sickness?

Recovering from yesterday's travelling; 12 hours "on the road", Brussels to Bridgwater, UK. 

 Eurostar is fast and comfortable but there is a lot of waiting.  I sat in St Pancras station finishing lunch whilst better half went shopping .   It gave me time to do a little more Nexus tablet drawing.  It is smaller than an iPad and discreet.  This man in Pret a Manger had no idea I was drawing him

for Lutje's thoughts on the day ,(and some lovely photos) see this

e-drawing

For several years I have wanted to draw on computers.  For five weeks now I have been the proud owner of a little Google NEXUS pad and had tried to draw on a free app. OK ish!

But yesterday my better half gave me a stylus and here is my first attempt.

"Better half reading"

I am hooked = but off now to do some real drawing.

art and Kraft?

marking, cutting and gluing

sealing and painting with acrylic

the first one,  about 40 x 40cm

detail of a smaller one

in progress, about 40 x 40cm

I am pleased with them so far. I am thinking of mounting them on a panel rather than framing them to keep their slightly irregular shape and display the material

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sexy cardboard?

Wikipedia tells us that
Corrugated (also called pleated) paper was patented in England in 1856, and used as a liner for tall hats, but corrugated boxboard was not patented and used as a shipping material until December 20, 1871. The patent was issued to Albert Jones of New York City .............read about it here

Some of my corrugated cardboard was damaged, exposing the corrugations, the internal skeleton.  I love this stuff, perhaps it is my architect's eye that enjoys the economy of structure and the great strength for so little weight. This was particularly nice stuff since it was composed of two layers of ridged paper of different pitch and running in different directions with an additional membrane separating them. A huge improvement in strength/lightness.

I wanted to cut into it, to expose it's core.......

what I found delighted me and I was busy for hours

so, with Stanley knife, PVA glues, acrylic gel and paint I  made lots of abstract reliefs which I will show you tomorrow

I think these two people,  from yesterday, were happy too?

charcoal and acrylic paint on card

be adaptable ...change is good for you?

back in the autumn, and after prolonged discussions over comfort and matters feng shui , a new sofa (self assembly of course) was delivered from

it is so very comfortable, geriatric knees can cope with exit and entrance 

and I can almost understand Flemish TV when ensconced in it

maar

the HUGE cardboard crate was a bit of a problem

 I cut it up in tidy pieces to take in the car, later,  to be recycled

we stored it, pro temp, in the studio but it was an eyesore, it blocked the door,  until, coming home after a few weeks away I decided to paint on a few pieces, to loosen myself up

 

and then I thought .....

this is fun!

I will keep the card and use it ..... and I did (but you will have to wait for my next post!)

it's cosier indoors

A week of snow now ... the birds flock around the house looking for the food we put out.  Tits , sparrows, finches robins and lots of blackbirds

this little chap was sheltering from the falling snow, all puffed up for warmth and waiting for his turn at the table

A few minutes later I did these very quick little painted sketches from memory, acrylic with a big flat brush on A4 card

Lutje has posted pictures of the birds and the snow too; here and here