Since Last Time

Hi there once again - remember me?

Long time no see as they say (or type, or read or whatever), and yes, it has been a long time - around a year in fact since I last posted anything! Shocking, I know, from someone who's been trying so hard initially to get a regular blog up and running, and making the most of what the modern world has to offer. I could guess that it has to be just about one of the longest 'time outs' taken in history - so what is it that has absorbed so much of my time since we last 'spoke'?

Well, various things, and not all technically art related - I have to admit. Here in my small home town some of you may recall that I help out at a local children's art group twice a week. At the same venue, once a week is also an adults art group - though this is purely a 'taking part' as opposed to a 'teaching or learning' group. The same can be said for Monday night's to which my art materials (more often than not my watercolours) attend a Life Drawing class in a nearby town. This is not a 'teaching' or 'taught' group, just something I really enjoy and look forward to, and I have to admit that my work has come on no end since starting - and is something I would recommend to anyone who wants to improve their work. My main tip here is to use materials you can work with very quickly, as our longest pose lasts only 40 minutes - and we only get one of those per session! The rest are split between one, two, and maybe five minute quick poses.

There are mixed views for me regarding Monday nights, as it's the same evening chosen by the panto/theatre group I'm also involved with. This means that a good half of the year the Life Drawing has to lose out to rehearsals, readings and other theatre related things, as we normally put on two shows per year. Theatre is deemed as being another form of art, and a sub-division from that comes the form of stage lighting, to which I have now found myself attached since our latest production. As I am deemed 'artistic', that means I'm a suitable candidate for future stage lighting requirements. Lost yet? Not as much as I am I can assure you!

One fun day I had was a day a good friend came over who wanted me to help her recreate a scene she had painted on a mug while doing a day's pottery/ceramics session. Her master plan was to paint a similar scene onto a canvass and hang proudly above her fireplace. One landscape canvass, around five hours and goodness knows how much acrylic paint and mugs of tea later and she was happily driving home with her prized possession still wet on the back seat of her car. Happily it survived the journey, and is now in pride of place in her new home. Result!

Like most 'artists' I have also been trying to collect plenty of material which one day may find itself on paper hanging on a wall somewhere. The Rivers Humber and Trent, weekends near York, time in the Cotswolds, to Blenheim Palace, and two weeks in Mexico, have been my main sources for this last year. Hopefully, sometime in the future, I hope to be able to sit and make something out of all this material. Let's just hope it doesn't take another year!

Until next time - whatever your art - enjoy it.