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Category Archives: painting

Poster, Kindness and A Poem

One of my pupils with whom I have stayed in touch makes beautiful pieces with her delicate painting and immaculate lettering. Each of the phrases touches me and is part of my philosophy.  She has given me permission to share this lovely work with you.

Thank you, Rachel McCann, artist

Someone down our street very kindly put out a bucket of Narcissi for people to help themselves to – so I did and they are gorgeous, scented and full of colour.

There were so many flowers in the bucket that I imagined their back garden to be bursting with daffodils and that brought to mind the much loved Wordsworth poem, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

 

 

Stories, Strong Women and Love

I’ve been ‘watching’ the rugby over this gloomy weekend and at the same time, I have read almost all of a fascinating new book, “Cornwall Herstory” a collection of stories of Cornish women in history, edited by Lesley Trotter, a friend from choir. It is utterly compelling and I am loving it.

The following picture came my way last week for International Women’s Day and seems right for today too.

And this one is always good to share.

Sorry, don’t know the designer here. Do tell me if you do.

 

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Angels, Sea Glass and Drawers

I’ve worked on my Angels for Ukraine again today and experimented with sea glass for the heads of the smaller ones. I like the way they are not round like the glass beads I usually use. I think they show character!

The tall drawers that I keep all my materials in are very lovely, highly lacquered and painted with lilies.

Detail

 

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Open Studios, Lunch and Coffee Crown Cake

It’s Open Studios week in Cornwall and this morning we went to visit the studio of one of my favourite local artists, Sasha Harding, one of whose beautiful paintings we bought twelve years ago. Today we bought two small ones which I will show you when we have hung them. This is one wall of her gallery, taken with permission, of course.

A lovely sunny day called for a proper summertime lunch with homegrown leaves.

I’ve made a coffee cake for tomorrow’s market as I do almost every month. I decorated it to be a crown and sprayed the points with edible gold as a nod to the jubilee celebrations.

 

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World Book Day, Street Art and Sheep Art

On World Book Day, it seems right to remember Shirley Hughes who died yesterday. Her beautifully illustrated stories were an integral part of our children’s lives. The children she drew and the situations she put them in were all so real and always had kind outcomes. We still have Helpers, bought in 1975 and now kept here for LiveWires to enjoy.

Helpers by Shirley Hughes

Ute, a blogger friend, has also posted about street art being done in solidarity with Ukraine. Here is one she has discovered:

A local photojournalist spotted some sheep in a field in West Cornwall, painted in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

Photo by Greg Martin / Cornwall Live

 

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Friends, Street Art and Sydney Opera House

We all need friends to keep on an even keel..

The following street art is in Paris.

Support is being shown all over the world.

 

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Welsh Cakes, St David’s Day and Street Art

It’s St David’s Day and to celebrate my heritage, I made Welsh Cakes as my Mum used to do. I still have the griddle that I inherited, that Mum used to use on the Aga but, sadly,  it cannot be used on an induction hob.

 

Warm Welsh cake with butter and Blackberry and Apple jam

 

This beautiful artwork in Cardiff has been  painted by leading street artist My Dog Sighs (Credit: Lee Smith)

 

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Cottage, Cygnets and Meeting the Artist

We met our friends for breakfast at The Heron on the side of the Malpas River and had a delicious breakfast with delightful company. Across the water is this lovely white cottage with its own stone steps down to the beach.

Walking away, we spotted two swan families on the water with six cygnets between them.

Afterwards we went into Truro to the museum to collect the print of Tony Foster’s Lockdown diary 1 which I fell in love with when we first saw it a couple of weeks ago. I showed you Lockdown Diary 2 in a post that day. You can see it here. You’ll be able to see the print when it has been framed.
I was excited about collecting the print and even more so when the staff said that Tony Foster was in the gallery and that I should go and meet him. What a lovely, friendly man! He was so easy to chat to, about his paintings, about the Grand Canyon, about the danger our beautiful and fragile planet is in, about lockdown and his delightful record of those strange days.  He was gracious enough to let me get a photo for this blog. He is standing by Lockdown Diary 1, a copy of which will be on our wall before too long.

At the back of the catalogue are the following words.

 

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Exhibitions at Truro Museum

We set off to see the Tony Foster exhibition at Truro Museum and came across two more wonderful rooms. What a day! Firstly we came across a beautiful Kurt Jackson painting.

In the next room we came upon a Welly Dog, aka a Tinners’  Hound, made by David Kemp. Regular readers will know that we have our very own Welly Dog and we love him very much, all the more so as he was a gift from the lovely Bill Mitchell.

Then,  a small room full of portraits where we came across a friend, an activist in the XR movement, a brave and beautiful person whom we admire so much. Antonia put me in touch with the photographer,  Gavan Goulder, who has very kindly and generously given me permission to share it here along with his words which introduce the exhibition and the words of Antonia herself. Here is the link to his website where the words can be read more clearly and many more rebels and their stories can be found. I am so in awe of the bravery of these people who are fighting for our planet and the futures of our children and grandchildren. We help in the ways we can but I am not brave enough to risk arrest despite my Great Granny being a Suffragette who was force fed in Holloway in her battle to gain the vote for us all. In fact, despite the beauty still to come, this exhibition was the highlight of my day. Thank you to Gavan Goulder and to Antonia.

At last, we came to Tony Foster’s work. We heard him talk many years ago, in the Truro Museum,  about his paintings done  in the Grand Canyon and the Himalayas and there were some of those paintings here today but the special works for me this morning were the little paintings done during lockdowns, all done in Cornwall on his daily and limited walks.  Here are his pieces from the second lockdown, each a painting done in the afternoon following his morning walk, whatever the weather based on the little sketches he made while out. Each sketch has a little commentary. Click on the photo and zoom in and you can, just, read the words. If you, dear Reader, are in Cornwall before Christmas, do go to the museum and revel in all the beauty to be found in there. The staff have done a wonderful job of curating all this loveliness.

 

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Path, Street Art and Leonard Cohen

On my way to collect my beloved Beetle from our local garage, I went past a favourite lane, covered in wet Autumn leaves.

Further up the road, I had been told to look out for something that I would enjoy seeing. It was this delightful Dalmation guarding  what at a first quick glance looked like people at the beach. It wasn’t until I came home and zoomed in on the photo that I realised it was Dorothy and her pals at the end of the yellow brick road, a lovely humorous continuation of the yellow line on the road.

For those of my dear Readers who also like Leonard Cohen, I really enjoyed reading about him in The Guardian today in their ‘My Best Shot’ feature. The photographer is Ian Cook and  this is his story.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

 

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