The Malaguti is a cutie

The trouble with restoration projects is that, while old things can be made to appear new again, they tend to carry on working just like old things.
Take the Malaguti 50cc moped, for example. My hubby has carefully restored it so that it looks great, but attempts to make it work at the speed and efficiency of a modern machine have made, well, yet more work.
Looks great, though.

Teen shopping

My daughter, A, is going to France next week to stay with a French family. So, today we have been clothes shopping in town, in all the shops I avoided for so many years. All the High Street clothes shops with loud, blaring music. (makes me sound middle-aged, I know, but I have so many memories of "fashion disasters" of years ago that those crowded boutiques don't do much for me.
Anyway, we came away with several pairs of Dolly shoes, a jacket and some accessories and even some gifts for the family.
A jewelled compact for the mum, a Mini mug for the Dad, and a football scarf and some Uncle Joes Mint Balls for the French correspondent (he's a boy. There were no girls left) from a delightful shop called Past Times.
A capuccino for me and a hot chocolate loaded with cream and marshmallows for A, and we finally left.
But not before popping in to the book shop for Revision Guides (it's exam time soon) where I found myself drawn to a book about Dita Von Teese.
Only momentarily, though. She just looks so stylish and stunning. Oh well, back to the cooking.

How did they get here?

Our foray into Spring was short lived and it's yet another wet, freezing day albeit with a slightly lighter evening.
But the field behind my house has attracted several new residents - and I'm not sure how they got there.
Two sheep and their offspring have been sheltering in the barn and i can't see any gaps in the fencing/hedge that they could have got through.
I got as close as I dare to take a photo, I heard that sheep can be protective of their young.

And the title is..untitled

At the gallery today, I suddenly realised I hadn't titled my work. I'm not a fan of "untitled" by and large so I only had 10 seconds or so to come up with something.
The best I could do was: "Metal jug with wheat" for a still life. Then "Colours advance and recede, 1 and 2" for two abstracts.
When I got home, I had to google wheat as I was not entirely sure whether it was wheat or grasses I had painted. (I did the painting a while ago in a class.)
Oh well, wheat will have to do.

Two new paintings

I've done two small paintings for the gallery I belong to - it's their show next month and they have asked for contributions. It's always difficult; you do a painting and it seems ok, then someone else sees it and you're waiting for their reaction. If they don't say anything they don't like it.
However, when you're an artist you do your work for you and in fact it's irrelevant if anyone else likes it or not. As long as it has meaning.
So, my two little abstractions are done and off they go to the gallery tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Early evening sky

I love looking at the light changes at this time of year. The sky just seems to lift and get lighter in the early evening and the promise of Spring seems to be here at last.
"Over all the mountains sing
Winter's over, welcome Spring." (from: Mountains Melting by Don Rehling.)

Up to my eyes in suds

My washing machine has broken. On Sunday I tried to change the programme just after it started and it didn't seem to like it. A little further inspection and it seemed the catch had snappped.
Normally, the appliance repair company I use (they're a sort of, one-shop-fix-all country company) take about three days to get out to you, a further three days to order the part and then another week to come back and repair the machine.
In the end, we decided it was probably time to get a new washer as this one must be nearly 10 years old.
Having no washing machine means instant chaos at my house, as on average there are several loads a day going through. I am mindful of environmental issues, however, and I don't wash towels etc straight away.So I have found myself using the launderette in the nearest town centre, in the meantime, something I haven't done for years. It seems too personal, being there with one's smalls in such a public place.
Clearly, I have been out in the sticks a long time.

Blonde Moments

When your natural hair colour is a sort of "dishwater blonde" you can't do much else with the colour than have blonde highlights. And thank goodness colouring these days offers more choice than just the bleach or home colourings of years ago.
Of course, you get the dreaded root regrowth but at least with blended highlights it can be disguised to some extent.
So, on Thursday I had my "root regrowth" done and then D, my hairdresser, spent ten minutes or so straightening with these new salon-only straighteners. Everyone has been complementing me, raving about the style. Also, it's a change from that just-got-out-of-bed look.
The downside of being blonde (natural or otherwise) is people are always waiting for you to have those "dizzy moments." If only I didn't keep living up to it.
Take the other week when I wrote off my car by driving into water. Now, every time there's big puddles on the road everyone says: "You didn't drive through it did you?"
(Um, managed not to this time.)
The list is endless. Maybe your hair colour somehow affects the psyche and you act the role that you see. Take my friend, J, who has naturally red hair. She is often described as "fiery" but she would agree that she doesn't suffer fools gladly.
Maybe J and I should swap hair colour and see what happens.

All you need is love...and a large expense account

This is what Thursday's post should have been titled.

Home Alone (bar the animals)

Everyone's out tonight...hubby and son at the football, and daughter and pals at the theatre wearing most unsuitable clothes for this time of year. I made them put on jackets/coats much to their chagrin. Have just had a large potential painting commission so looks like that's what I'll be doing, with one eye on the tv. Can't drink cos on taxi duty too.

Famous Jensen Interceptor Owners

These include: Cher, Clark Gable, John Bonham, Frank Sinatra, Ginger Baker, Cliff Richard, Stevie Nicks, Rob Lowe...Roger Moore as James Bond.

when love breaks down

I haven't followed Macca's divorce too closely, but obviously I've seen the headlines. I hope that, in spite of everything, he and Heather see their way to being friends for their daughter's sake.
But is it that easy? Marriage can be difficult even when things are going well! My parents divorced when I was in my mid-twenties, just as my daughter was being born. It was as though my Dad was going through a classic mid-life crisis when he left Mum for another woman.
Not easy in the years that have followed, Dad won't communicate with mum any more and I only found out he had married in 2000 after the event. We all somehow rumble along and I wish it was friendlier between everyone. Maybe it's true that you only get out of relationships what you put in.

Old Cars renewed

My hubby is into restoring old cars. In fact, he'd probably agree he has OCD about it but that's for another post.
The Jensen was pretty special after some work, new engine and coat of paint. Think Starsky and Hutch.

all we want is a room somewhere

This is our sculpture studio, it's an old Nissan hut and it's going to be demolished. We have been promised a new room by the art school organisers but you know what it's like...colleges get more money for information technology and so craft-oriented things get pushed to the back of the list.
Well, let's hope we get our room. Do we get to keep the cobwebs?

glorious pink

These two pics are from last summer, when pink and blue were featuring strongly in my work.

not so dumb after all

I'm a complete dumbass when it comes to matters technical. But I still managed to install sitemeter. Champagne all round I'd say.

Colourful Canvas

Last year I was working with paint and canvas, creating a series of stained paintings (like the pink and blue one here). Helen Frankenthaler is one of my favourites for this type of work.

Last Christmas

Christmas 2007 was spent visiting family in Canada. We went from their home in Toronto, using Via Rail to Montreal, then drove to Tremblant.
Here are a couple of snow pics.

Goodnight, ladies

One of my dogs, Zena, and my cat, Sue, keep a respectful distance from each other. Yet, as this picture shows, they quite like having each other around. Maybe that's the limit for canine/feline relations. Oh, and by the way, neither is allowed on the sofa.

My heart goes out to Scarlett's mum

Nuff said.

It's raining again

I live in one of the wettest areas of England, surrounded by three rivers which overflow at least a few times a year these days. I've been marooned in floods twice, managing to write my car off last time.
Silly to drive into 12 inches of water that goes round a corner? Yes, but I had two youngsters in the back of my car encouraging me to go through...
Even the man in the Alfa garage rather foolishly drove a brand new sports model directly into the river overflow before realising too late that the water was 18 inches deep.
So this morning we woke to minor floods after a night of heavy rain. This, however didn't stop my daughter's school going ahead with their camping expedition. So, wrapped up in waterproofs from head to toe and carrying a rucksack that weighs a ton, A was dropped at school an hour ago to begin the muddy adventure. Thank goodness the camping store was open and I could get some waterproof socks for her.

The Clay is the Life

I have uploaded a photo of two of my portraits (or busts). They were made out of clay, then cast into plaster and finally cement fondu, before being patinated to ressemble bronze. This process saves a fortune (real bronze casting would be about £900) and has been around for hundreds of years.
The title of this post refers to a saying in sculpture: "The clay is the life, the plaster the death, and the bronze the resurrection." From the days when religion and sculpture went hand in hand. In fact in this post-post modern world there is no longer a figurative tradition in the way there once was. Since Duchamp, Cornell and others led us towards conceptual art, anything can be anything so long as it can be justified.
When I was at art college (I only finished last year as a mature student) a lot of people worked in film, and I saw some excellent ideas expressed this way.
But I still look to Brancusi and Manzu for simplified shape and form, their work seems modern even today.

Add or ignore, that's the question

Since I joined Facebook in January, I've added the people I know and a few I vaguely know. Then on search I found a couple of old work colleagues from years ago, and it was fun getting in touch.
But a few times I have been added as a friend by people I don't know. (all male). I ignored the first three but the last one was interested in the same football team and I was a bit curious so I accepted. Then 20 minutes later I got an invitation to talk by telephone! (I didn't)
The person seems ok but has over 200 friends and many of these must be people met online. Now I'm in a slightly odd situation of having a friend I don't know. What does everyone else think?

Welcome

If you should stumble across this blog, I welcome you.
I live in the countryside in England and work as a visual artist. (among other things... I am a mother, I have two kids, and two dogs and a cat.)
So let's talk about my day. I took Zena, my collie-cross-with-chinese crested dog for her hydrotherapy today. She injured her cruciate ligament playing football on new year's eve (that classic footballer's injury) and now hops around on three legs.
The swimming is supposed to help but so far it just seems to be costing an awful lot. At least she has made a couple of new friends, a Weimerana (not sure about the spelling) and a Labradoodle.
I have never seen one of those before, and apparently they are a sought-after breed.
Anyhow, I'm working on a sculpture at the moment, but that can only be worked on once the kitchen is clear.