Tag Archives: Painting

One huge job completed in the garden and another spread in my Junk Journal

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Here is the 2nd spread of my completed Junk Journal. If you click on the image you can view it larger. The content is just some scraps of paper, a list of things, names and symbols I wanted to remember and a some more quotes.

I am pleased to say that I feel my muse is coming back, I am beginning to feel like a really want to be creative again.

The first BIG garden job is finished! It took me much longer than I anticipated it would, but there is just a bit of tidying up to do now and maybe a couple of trips to the tip. I had to rebuild almost all of the middle raised bed because the wood was so rotten. Unfortunately I ran out of wood and money so one end is still the old (rotten) wood, but I’ve painted it with wood preserver and lined all the walls with pond liner to give it more protection. It’s not a professional job but I worked hard on it and it’s good enough for me. If that rotten end does fall apart I now have a pallet I can take apart and use that wood to repair it.

I have handed the repaired bed over to ‘the Head Gardener’ (aka T) to sort out the planting. The bed nearest the street wall has already been planted, it has onions, beans, carrots and courgettes (I think). The bed I’ve just repaired needs topping up with more soil and compost atm before anything can be planted and the 3rd bed has leeks and beetroot planted at the moment taking up about the third of the bed. There are potatoes growing in bags at the front of the 3rd bed and the green thing behind it is a temporary greenhouse we bought to use while our old greenhouse is replaced.

That (the replacement greenhouse) is my next (and hopefully my last) big garden job (ever)! The old greenhouse, which was falling apart, has been taken away to be disposed of. We’ve bought a new one to replace it, but I need to do some adjustments to the existing base before it can be erected and put in place. The temporary one is doing OK at the moment. I can’t start working on the base for a couple of weeks now as we are visiting some family next weekend. When I do start the work I anticipate it will take me weeks to get it finished as it is more hard physical labour.

The three raised beds with temp greenhouse at back
Small area of garden near the back door salad veg planted here
Potatoes and beans growing by the garden wall
I just love this giant tree that grows by the pond.

That’s all my news for now. I’ll be back again soon and in the meantime take good care of yourselves.

Big Love AJ xxxxx

We had a Little Adventure :-)

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There is an exhibition of art by the Street Artist Banksy in London at the moment and we went to check it out.

I was going to go on my own just for a quick day trip, but then I asked T if he would like to come too. He said he’d like to come but wouldn’t be able to manage it in one day so it turned into a mini trip. Because T can only walk short distances we had to take his wheel chair which in some respects made things easier, but in others much harder. We spent far more money than we normally would have done, but as this was the first time we had any adventure away from home for years, we felt that we deserved a bit of spoiling.

We left home late morning on day 1, got to London by mid afternoon, checked into a hotel in South Kensington that was near to where the exhibition was and went out for an evening meal at lovely Indian restaurant.

On day two we had a very expensive breakfast in a lovely ‘cafe’ (it was much more ‘upmarket’ than the cafe’s we have where we live)! The bill for the breakfast came as a bit of a shock to us, but the service was very attentive and the whole experience was very nice. Then at 12 noon we were booked in to see the exhibition. The people running the exhibition were all very lovely to us and made sure we got to see everything and T was well looked after.

Smiley Reaper, spray paint on cardboard
Get our why you Can!
One for the flag waving ‘Patriots’!
An iconic image
Tony Walton, Geriatric, Disabled, Non-digital, Anarchist – Free Palestine!


The Banksy exhibition was good, you never know really what to expect of a Banksy exhibition because he never authorises, approves or curates exhibitions like this so it’s all done without his input. A few years ago we went to a similar Banksy exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam which I have to say was probably better than the one currently in London, but if you like Banksy it’s still worth going to the one in London.

At the same venue there was also a photographic exhibition by the Danish photographer Søren Solkær, he is more commonly known for his photography of musicians and as a fashion photographer. But for 10 years he worked on a personal project – to photograph iconic street art and to try and track down the artists and take photos of them with their works. Of course many street artists do not wish to be identified because often they create art outside of the law, but Søren’s exhibition is truly stunning and it well worth a visit. Below are a few shots from his show.

French artist Invader in front of some of his pixelated mosaic work
Borondo in front of his work Narcissus
Blek le Rat
Brazilian-born street artist known as Pixote in front of some of his work

That evening we went for an even more expensive and delicious Italian meal at Rocco’s. Well worth the cost.

The next morning we were up early and making our way home. Unfortunately it took a lot longer than it should have done because our train was delayed by ‘a couple of horses on the tracks’ at some point that meant we missed connections. We got home exhausted at about tea time on day 3 but having had a very enjoyable time.

That’s all for now.
Hope all’s good with you
Big love AJ xxxx

Going Bigger

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Mondomix

Hello Friends

I hope all is good with you.

I am trying to get back into regular blogging again so the image above is a project I worked on earlier in the year and completed in May.

For some time I have been wanting to work on bigger pieces and not solely in journals, but I wasn’t sure how things would work out so I didn’t want to waste money purchasing big canvases and expensive paints.  Where I work we often get large and heavy items of equipment delivered in rough made crates, usually made of plywood.  The crates just sit around in the yard and deteriorate until someone eventually decides to dispose of them.  Often the equipment is not used for a while so it all sits outside and crate deteriorates in the rain and weather.  Late last year I found an empty crate still in good condition with a lid that measured about 2′ by 3′.  The lid had a rough frame of wood on the back that stopped the ply from warping, so I asked if I could take it.

I bought some sample pots of Valspar paint from B&Q in Turkish Blue, Party Pattie (pink), Bonjour (yellow), Neon Apple (green), Bengal Tiger (orange), Beet Beet (purple) , Hot Shot (darker orange), Cleopatra Sunrise (bright blue), Spring Fever (light and bright green) and High Voltage (bright red).  It cost about £20 for 10 pots of 236ml paint.

I painted the lid with flat white paint and then did this:

Work Map

It’s finished off by adding detail with paint pens.  I have hung it on my office wall at work.

Then I found a bigger piece of plywood measuring 3′ by 4′.  This one didn’t have a frame on the back so I made one with rough wood I found in our cellar at home and I painted this:

Mondomix

The photo is not very good because I had to use a mobile phone and it didn’t really capture the detail too well.

The second piece I donated to the Mondomix festival in return for a free ticket to the event.  They put it up in the Yurt behind where the DJs played.  Here are a couple of photos taken by other people at the Festival:

Mondomix 1 by David Cramp DJ Lucia Decermic

DJ Lucia Decermic photo taken by David Cramp (copyright David Cramp 2016)

Mondomix 2 by Kathy Lockwood DJ Dabba Ranx

DJ Dabba Ranx photo taken by Kathy Lockwood (copyright Kathy Lockwood 2016)

I learnt some things from painting bigger:

  1. If I am going to continue with the bigger theme I need a bigger studio and more time!
  2. I’m used to working on the horizontal plane – most of my art is in books/journals so I work on them flat on the desk.  These two pieces were also worked on flat,  but I think I need to try to start working vertical, after all a wall (which is my ultimate aim) is vertical.
  3. I probably need to simplify things, not sure how to do that yet though (need to experiment more).
  4. It takes a lot of energy to complete a bigger piece, so I am full of admiration for people who paint huge walls, they must be super fit (and a lot younger than me)!

 

So what does it all mean?

I had a conversation with a good friend yesterday about how other people (experts) explain art and how if you are an artist you (apparently) should be able to explain what your art means.  Well I don’t have a clue what my art means.  I know that I am creative because it is an imperative within me and it makes me feel good – I love colours, repetition and symbols, they ‘speak’ to me at a deep level, but there is no way I could put that into words and explain it to you or even to myself.

It’s the same for me when I go to a gallery or view someone else’s art.  A lot of art really moves me and makes me feel joyous, usually it involves bright colours, repetition and symbols (so there is a correlation between the art I like and the art I make) but I have no need to try to explain what deep philosophical process the artist might have been trying to explain.  Maybe they just want to make beautiful pictures and that’s all there is to it?  What do I know?

Here are just a few of the many artist’s whose work I really admire, if you have time you might like to check them out 🙂

David Shillinglaw, Yayoi Kusama, Nikki de Saint Phalle, Keith Haring,  Os Gemeos,

I do often wonder what it’s all about but I as yet I still don’t know.

Until the next time, take good care of yourselves

Big love

AJ xxx

 

 

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