Nature Takes Back Her Own

Nature Takes Back Her Own

I have no new artwork for todays blog. As you know I have been working on my series of three on the Four Seasons.

I have decided that I am happy with the colours and the shapes of the three that remain. Somebody commented that they liked the one I had discarded for summer. This person liked it , saw two people in discussion in it. I did also and that was why I decided to discard it. It did not fit with the other two.

Jerry commented on the colours of the “Summer” and wondered about the blue. I always see blue skies when I think of summer.  It is easy to remember the many shades of green. In Ireland they say that there are forty shades of green. I would not argue with that. But I think there is also forty shades of blue. Mt challenge to paint in blue has made me even more aware of that colour.

So I still have to paint winter. I cannot begin because I have no white paint, and I do not think I can even attempt it without that.

So today I have gone back to a painting somebody asked me about the other day. I have shown it on here twice before. The answer is, I still have this hanging for sale. It seems that many people like it but nobody wants to give it wall space.  Such is life.

This blog is linked with my other.   The Right Invitation

The Squirrel

Mothercare.

I had not painted for so long, and when I did I was never happy with anything I managed to complete. As most of you know I have a very dear old friend called Archie, of whom I have spoken before, and painted. Last week he came to me asking if I could help him out. One of his neighbours was having a special birthday, he wondered if I could make him a special birthday card with a squirrel. It seems his neighbour has a passion for the little creatures.

I looked back through my walking pictures to see if I had any inspiration. I found this picture of a squirrel among them. As I looked I noticed something I had not noticed when I took the picture. I do remember at the time wondering why it was not running from me, as they normally do. It was only now I noticed the small one tucked underneath her tail.

I did a pastel drawing of it about 16"x 12" and then photographed it and made it into a birthday card whith his neighbours name on it. I threw in the original pastel painting as an extra.

At least I was forced to get my pastels out. SO watch this space.

This blog is linked to my other. I Am Overwhelmed

Along The Canal

Along The Canal

On my other blog today I speak of one of my students. This little watercolour was painted along the canal where he and I often ran together. I have left much of the rest of this blog today very much the same as it was yesterday. This watercolour I still have hanging in my home. I actually like it which is unusual for me to say that about a waterclour I have painted.  Maybe it is because the place has many happy memories for me.

A Moment of Togetherness.

The snow was deep painting everything in wondrous white.

Silence surrounded me,

broken only by my pressing of the snow.

Then all at once I saw them,

three deer stood like sentinels before me.

Ears pricked as two sped off in haste.

The other looked and caught my eye.

I gazed in awe into the deep pools

eye to eye we stood.

Slowly he stepped aside to let me pass.

With thankful thoughts I left him to his day,

But in my heart I carried him on my way.

Nor will I forget that moment when we were one

And all of life stood still.

A second that will last eternally.

I thought I would share this moment with you. It happened as I ran through the woods a few miles from my home. I have run these woods so many times and have been inspired by the beauty often. But this one moment will be with me for a long time. How I wish I could find a  way to express it in art.

This blog is linked to my other.    Being A Good Teacher

Cold Mornings

Cold Autumn Mornings

This painting was one of my early abstracts. It was just at the end of autumn and the first hints of the winter to come were visible in the early mornings. I do not know why I painted this but it was the first of many paintings that my fingers played a large part in the creation of.

This painting now hangs in the house of a good friend. I used it as the picture for a christmas card.

I looked at it again this morning and it just seemed to fit the day so well.

This blog is linked to my other. The Rules of Ownership

Portraits

Portraits

I have always enjoyed looking at faces and people. The face is the doorway to the heart and the eyes the gates to the inner being. There are some faces that just call out to be painted because they show the inner being of a good person.

I showed you yesterday a portrait I had painted and asked if you could guess who it was. I laughed and laughed when Katherine said she thought it was my father. He is old enough to be my father but no he is just my dear old friend Archie whom I talk of often.

On my other blog today I am telling a bit more about his philosophy of laughter and I have used this picture of him. He will die a thousand deaths if he ever sees it on here but here it is. This is him at his very best, making people laugh just by being his old self.

I asked if you could see the glint in his eyes in the portrait? I hope I captured that you sure can see it in this real life picture of him.

I said I was going to paint this, but I never will because I know I never could catch what this is all about.

Laugh with my good friend Archie.

This blog is linked to my other.Laughter In The Rain

The Beauty of Age

The Beauty of Age

I still look in wonder at that drawing that Barbra did of the roots of the trees I pictured. She saw in those roots exactly what it was I saw the day I took the picture, and managed to convey it with pencil.

Today in my other blog I was talking about how age can often affect us, but we must not let it diminish us. Sadly youth often only lets us see in others what we see with the eyes. When they see me out running they do not see the hundred and more marathons that lie behind the runner. All they see is an older man who they could run faster than, if they had a mind to.

I have today added another marvellous picture or two of the roots of trees. I am not sure they would make the same beautiful painting that Barbra created with the other one, but let me tell you above these roots were two magnificent trees. Without these old and gnarled fingers and their years of age they would be just two more trees.

Art has the power that few other things have of letting us see something that others do not. The inner being of nature and of people.

I have also once again shown you a painting I did of an older man. I hope like me you see his inner wit and wisdom. I will leave you to guess who he is.

This blog is linked to my other.Now What Was It I Came Up Here For?

A Painting in Thought.

A Painting in Thought.

I have not had a minute to myself to sit down and paint or draw since the completion of the apple pastel. But that does not mean that I have not been thinking art. I had a marvellous walk during the last few days. I walked in the highlands of Scotland with my son and daughter in law.

The beauty at this time of the year is stunning. I could not help but take pictures of some of the views. I am sure I have taken the same scenes many times before but strangely enough I have never painted any of the places here, that I have walked so often.

I have added one or two to this blog just to let you see them.

I am hoping that seeing them on this blog just might inspire me to the next stage. Turing one of them into a painting.

Maybe I have so many I can never choose?


This blog is linked to my other.  Oh My Goodness Look at That

Can I Tempt You? - Pastel

Can I Tempt You? - Pastel

You watched as I struggled with the new pencils. Some of you gave me a great deal of help and advice. Some even had a laugh at my expense. Maybe I will be remembered as the man who painted apples with straight lines. You know who you are and even now I am still laughing.

I took a larger sheet of pastel board and had another attempt at the same painting. This time I used pastel pencils. I painted it on white board in an attempt to make the colours of the apple brighter than they were on the black paper. I am not sure that it has worked out as I hoped but I think this subject still has worth for further exploration and attempts.

I have had a terrible time photographing it. I either get the apple looking good or the hand looking fair. I cannot seem to get both on the same picture. So please forgive the photograph I have put on here to share with you.

I am having to head off early tomorrow so not sure when I will post again but hope in the meantime you all feel creative and create a marvellous memorial.

I am not being sad please read my other blog to see the positive thoughts that lie behind this statement.

This blog is linked to my other. The Things We Remember

The Moron of the Glen

The Moron of the Glen

Yesterday I packed my new sketching folder and headed out to see if I could find inspiration to make me open it and begin. Sadly I walked and walked and the pad stayed in the bag.

Today I am going to take one of the pictures I showed on yesterday’s blog and make an effort to use these new pencils. I am so thankful that so many of you are as encouraging as I flounder about this way and that.

I feel enthused by the encouragement of so many of you and then others tell me to stick to the paint.

Let me see what today brings. In the meantime, I wonder how many of you are familiar with that wonderful painting of a Scottish stag deer in all its splendour, standing on a high ridge looking out over its terrain. It is called, “The Monarch of the Glen.” Prints of this painting hang in so many hotels in the highlands of Scotland it has almost become unnoticed in its popularity.

I was walking the other day there climbing a steep path. As I turned a small bend there before me was the sight you see in the two pictures above. I snapped quickly and when I saw the results I just could not help laughing. Here was not the Monarch of the Glen but the Moron of the Glen. The poor lowly sheep in all its glory.

He made me laugh out loud I hope he does the same for you.

So please stick with me as I try to rise above the doubts and make a start.

I do notice more people joining this blog and I thank you all for doing so.

This blog is linked to my other. Why Do Some People Always Complain?

Where Do I Begin?

 So I have all these beautiful pencils, a variety of kinds of pencils. I look at them and wonder just where do I start? I always enjoy watching people arriving on a caravan park. They roll in with their caravan or motor home. The first task is to find what for them, is a suitable pitch. One that gets full sunlight or one that is in partial shade. The more pitches that there are vacant the harder the task becomes. Some people can end up trying four or more before they are happy.

It seems that choice is not always a good thing. On the other hand I saw a really funny thing the other day there. I was walking along a woodland path, coming towards me was a man and woman and their two little dogs. The dogs were fighting over a stick, and it was a very serious battle they were having. The ground was covered with equally sized sticks, but they both, out of all the hundreds both wanted the same one.

So here I am, with all these pencils, all these lovely shades of black, and all these beautiful colours and I do not know where to begin.

I thought about the drawing I had done of the little bridge. Could I maybe do that in colour? Too difficult? I thought of the beautiful drawing sent to me by Barbra and the picture of the little tree by the lake I have brought home with me. Is this possible or again is this too difficult?

The little stone boat shed by the jetty I ran past every morning and made up wonderful stories about as I ran. Even more difficult?

I am at a real loss, spoilt for choice and a feeling that no matter where I begin it will lead to the wrong choice.

A fellow blogger, the other day, sent me a message about one of my very early blogs commenting on a vase of blue cornflowers. Maybe I should try and do something like this.

One thing is sure, as another blogger has said to me, I need to stop running and get back to my first real place, ART.

Have any of my blogging friends got any good suggestions to help me?

I thought I would share this picture with you just to make you smile. In the background is one of the mountains I ran up. The one in the distant centre, it is called, Coniston Old Man, in the foreground is just simply, The Old Man. Have a great day.

This blog is linked to my other. What Every Woman Wants

Oh and Jerry I will try hard to post a few extras but I need also to try and catch up with reading blogs.

I Have Added Some More Dark Spots.

I Have Added Some More Dark Spots.

I am always amazed at how helpful you all are. I mean that in the most sincere way possible. Not long after I had posted my blog yesterday I received an email offering me advice on how to make this drawing closer to completion than it was.

The person who sent me the email will remain my secret but I thank her so much for taking the time to offer the advice.

So I hope like me we are all still getting something from my posting the changes and the developments. This is the last time I will post it. I am now definitely going to take it with me next week and in a quiet moment look at it again. I will look at it with my eyes half closed. I will study it upside down. I will leave it and glance at it from time to time. In fact I will do all of the things I have been advised to.

I have no doubt I will make small changes, if not some radical ones.

This has been a wonderful learning experience and I thank each and every one of you for you help, advice and encouragement.

Now I feel that I have had a fair number of free lessons from some great art teachers. Please send me your accounts. Oh but please do not have any surveys on the back of the receipt.

If that last sentence does not make sense see my other blog. How Many Does It Take

Have a great day. I promise this is the last of the Little Bridge.

Its Jackie Again

Its Jackie Again

Yesterday I posted a sketch of Jackie. I did say it was just a sketch and that I was aware that it was not a good sketch. I posted it because he was a person who fitted the nature of my blog.

I am so glad that I did. Fellow bloggers got in touch with me and told me how I might change it, work on it, and make it better. It was so refreshing to get some real good feedback.

As most of you know I have not touched any paint in ages. Yesterday I thought I would listen to you and have a try at doing this again.

One or two have seen my effort and have pointed out where it can still get better. I have never worked with just pencils before. I love the smell of paint. I love the touch of it and its spontaneity. I never ever dreamed for a moment that I would find something in a few pencils.

So today I post Jackie again. Both, the first and the second version. I know Susan and Barbra will tell me it still has a long way to go. I know they are correct.

But that is exactly what I thought this little blog was all about. I started this blog to show a fellow artist how I had produced a certain painting. It just went on from there.

Now it is back there and it is you showing me. Thank you all. Feel free to ask me to add anything you wish in this blog.

Susan asked me yesterday about the new trainers. I am just about to go out and try them for the first time. The painting Kim did of my old smelly ones, she tells me she sold. Congratulations. Imagine my old smelly trainers hanging on a wall somewhere. Maybe the owner wants the originals? Ha ha.

This blog is linked to my other.  Please bring Your Own Spade

Large MM Abstract.

Large MM Abstract.

This painting was created using the same methods as the one I used on my blog yesterday. It seemed right to put the other one on again today.

I am not sure that it fits with the blog I have written today on my other blog and for that I apologise.

I am still struggling to come to terms with the fact that somebody I have got to know on here is off sleeping in a car and I can do little about. I also have a dear friend who is going through Chemo at present and I can do little about that either.

Another of my blogging friends is also very ill and can not paint because it is exhausting her. I can do nothing. I feel helpless.

In the meantime here I am complaining that I cannot find the inspiration to paint, seems so trivial. At the same time my health is daily increasing with the tough schedule I have set myself. I have lost 28lbs in weight running better and yesterday cycled twice as far as I had thought I could and intended.

So one day soon I will paint. I have been trying to do some drawing but it is far from good enough to show on here, after showing Barbra’s tree roots.

I have also been remiss in leaving encouraging comments on the many blogs I read every day. That I will put right .

It is these thoughts that prompted my other blog this morning.

I hope you have a good day.

This blog is linked to my other.  So You Thought Nobody Was Watching

The Conspirators 2

The Conspirators 2

I just could not help using this painting again today. Yes I used it not so long ago, I am aware of this. I painted just a short time before I had this painters block that I am going through just now. I still have it, it is hanging in one of the inns where I hang works for sale.

I do not think it is going to sell, but after the lesson I learned from so many of you the other day I am aware that this does not matter. MY son actually made the comment that he thought it was a great painting but not one you would hang on your wall.

It is a painting of two friends, husband and wife. They are a couple who I have never heard them say a single bad word about anybody. The title therefore is probably not the best of titles, it just seemed to fit.

They are a wealth of little good stories about other people, not the gossip type, just they always have something good to say about the most difficult of persons.

Fits well with the other blog theme this morning, I hope you agree.

I painted it using pastel. Whenever I start painting again this will be the first one I will change. I think I might even just give it to the couple. You never know they might like to hang it on their wall.

Have a great day and remember my other blog. Tell somebody today you care.

This blog is linked to my other. Tell Them You Care

Be Still

Be Still

It was good to hear again from my friend Missy who purchased yesterdays art. She also at the same time bought this one. Yesterday she and her secretary read the blog about her painting and said that it gave them some pleasure. I have therefore today added the second of her paintings.

It does actually fit well with the theme of my other blog this morning. The power of words, to cause hurt or healing, to bring joy or sadness. Art also has this amazing power, to say so much without the use of words at all.

This painting tries to capture in an abstract way the sense of power in waves and nature. It also talks about the struggle we have to find inner peace. Many have commented to me about this painting and its title, “Be Still”. For that reason I will say no more about what I was trying to say in it.

I was painted large and on canvas using acrylic.

I know it continues to bring some joy to my friend and for that I am grateful.

If we can say a small thing to uplift another or paint a picture that gives others a joy, we have succeeded.

This blog is linked to my other.  What Was That You Said?

Alpha Omega

Alpha Omega

I just had to put this painting back on my blog today. It is just amazing how life turns out. These last few weeks I had not heard from a friend in the USA for ages. I was considering emailing her, but for one reason or another I had not. Maybe because I had not been painting and did not want to tell her, you see, she was the first person ever to buy a painting from me who did not already know me. So although not my first sale, my first real meaningful one in terms of her being a stranger.

Since then she has become a great friend whom one day I hope to meet, with her family. She says they are all longing to visit Scotland one day.

This is one of two paintings she bought from me. On more than one occasion she has urged me to keep painting and I have because of her words.

It was she who told me the story of the man with the patches, I used on the other blog.

Life has not been going smoothly for her, but seems to be getting better again. I will never forget her, or her family and I will never forget this painting. I have small print of it in my study.

It and the other one were very large canvases. The painting was done in acrylic. I think the title says what was on my mind as I painted it.

I learned from her how to say, “Hello Ya'll.”

So let me say to Ya'll, have a great day and if you are looking for a little laugh to start the day check out the other blog.



This blog is linked to my other. People Do Some of the Funniest Things

Music Movement Dance

Music Movement Dance

I really do have to get back to painting. I keep putting off and off the day when I will lift a brush or a knife. I painted so many bad ones lately I have lost the heart to do it. I keep telling myself that I need to concentrate on getting back to full fitness then we will see.

I suppose the bleak spell of no sales has also been playing on my subconscious mind. On my other blog today I was giving thought to yesterday and the pessimist I met. I really need to go back a read what I wrote today and take it to heart.

This painting was painted at the request of a family friend. She was a lover of music and signing and dancing.

I tried to convey all three in the abstract painting. It was done on two canvases making a large painting that certainly made a great statement in the room where she hung it.

She liked it, I like it.

Now why do I not just remember that today and after my run stop making excuses and get on with it.

I hope you have a wonderful day with a glass half full not half empty. (See my other blog)

On second thoughts before jerry says it, I hope you have a wonderful day and your glass runs over with joy.



This blog is linked to my other.  It All Comes Down To How You See It

Along The Coastal Path

Along The Coastal Path

I have used this painting before. I apologise that I have not had any new works for a while. I have painted nothing that I would share. I am hoping that maybe my time away will inspire me to do something that is worthy of sharing.

I do so love the coastal path and it will be interesting to run and walk some parts I have as yet not seen.

This painting was done after one such run. I was never happy with it and recently toned down the sky and added the two sailing boats. Still it has not sold and I suspect it never will.

The first time I showed Sharon from Dundee said she liked it.

I do so enjoy painting seascapes and have maybe got to think about returning to that subject and give the abstracts a rest.

This is painted in acrylic on canvas.

In my other blog I talk about rejection. It is not only people who face rejection so do some paintings. I have at last learned though that just because a person does not like a painting it has nothing to do with their liking me or not.

Ha ha. I laugh because I was talking to an artist yesterday who had as yet not learned that lesson.

Have a great weekend.

This blog is linked to my other. What You're Really Saying

We Are How We See Ourselves.

We Are How We See Ourselves.

In my other blog today I was taking a very light hearted look at the process of ageing. Something the young do not believe ever happens to them, but the reality we all must face.

I have been neglecting taking account of my ageing and have allowed myself to get unfit and have increased in weight. And it did not just happen overnight.

Yesterday I hit a target and had done for two days in a row and was feeling not too bad about life. Then I saw this my first and only self portrait. I remember doing it, more importantly I remember the night my son snapped this picture of me. He took it with his new cell phone. I was still running daily and still only hitting 140lbs.

Not the best ever self portrait, but I never got round to trying another. Maybe one day I should.

I have been reading articles about self portraits. Some people think that they would never do them because it is self indulgence. That it takes a certain inner pride to accomplish it.

I found it the exact opposite. It was impossible to sit and study yourself without also doing an inner stock take.

A inner stock take helped me get some perspective back into my life, so it was a good exercise.

I recommend it to one and all. Be brave and have a go.

This one was done in pastel I did it in one fell swoop.

It now languishes in a drawer somewhere. I keep telling my children I am keeping it in the off chance that one day I may become a grandfather. I will then hang it above the fire to keep them safe.

Frightening indeed.

I cannot leave toady without commenting on the ongoing work of Barbra- Joan She is painting the picture of the tree I used as a photograph recently. What amazing patience she has and what a wonderful eye for detail. If you have a free minute go look at it. She posted the ongoing work a few days ago. Hit her name and it will take you to her blog.



This blog is linked to my other.   Age Is Catching Up With Me

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing

This is an abstract I did not too long ago. It was produced using texture and a series of glazes. I really was happy with the finished effect.

It seems that I was probably alone in that. I know my wife did not like it at all, neither the painting nor the palette used.

It has been hanging for sometime now and probably long enough to give up on it.

I will not be able to paint over it because of all the texture so I think I will look for a corner in my study and hang it there. I am after all the only person that ever sits in this room.

I used it today because it does make me smile and that is just what I was talking about on the other blog. Those people who have the ability to make us feel good.

I had a difficult meeting yesterday with somebody I found it very difficult to agree with or even come close to agreeing with. I will have to work on that.

How I rejoiced when I later met with the old friend I talk about today.

Then, to open the blog before going to bed and read your comments, just finished my day lovely.

Yes it is good to know there are people who have the ability to make me feel like dancing.

Shame I can’t dance and sign but hey one out of two is ok.



Have a good day I hope you meet somebody who makes you want to sing and dance.

This blog is linked to my other  Ten Past Eight