Day 33 Lockdown blog. 25/04/2020

Image. Guitar Case decorated with African fabrics. 2019. COVER UP. This guitar case was bought at the Totnes Christmas market and I set about brightening it up with fabric scraps, so there’s an idea for you to fill the lockdown time. It doesn’t have a guitar in it though, which reminds me that you can’t…

Day 32 Lockdown blog. 24/04/2020

Image: KITE LADY DANCING. 2014. Watercolour and Gouache on handmade paper. Private Collection Devon. This little painting deserves a poem and so I’ve written one today. As they say in Strictly, ‘KEEP DANCING’. DANCING. The kite lady dances on the stage, without a care she turns and spins, lost in the music that the piper plays,…

Day 31.Lockdown blog. 23/04/2020

Image: Once upon a time. Watercolour on Handmade Paper. 14 x 10 cm. 2013 CEREMONIES. Today it really struck home how important ceremonies are for our wellbeing. The Oxford Engish dictionary defines them as: (a set of) formal acts, often fixed and traditional, performed on important social or religious occasions: Ceremonies are a way of coming to terms with and celebrating fundamental milestones; births, deaths, and all…

Day 30 Lockdown blog. 22/04/2020

Image: View from our front window in Devon. THE COPPER BEECH. This magnificent copper beech wakes us up with a red glow which fills the house as sunlight passes through the leaves. It is at least 150 years old, perhaps older,and the home for so much wildlife. Beech trees provide important food and homes for…

Day 29. Lockdown blog. 21/04/2020

Image: Family photo outside 90 Parker Street, Preston. 1959. With thanks to my sister Hilary for the photo. MEMORY BOX Our faded photographs fill the minds memory box, old box brownie black and white records when negatives were processed at Boots and half of them didn’t come out. Today they are stored in a cloud…

Day 27 Lockdown blog.19/04/2020

Image: Parks and Gardens. Acrylic on Canvas. 120 x 100 cm. 2019. FLOWER POWER. There is no doubt that we need to keep our parks open and the recent announcement to that effect was both welcome and eminently sensible. In this blog I have mentioned before the plight of people cooped up in properties without…

Day 26 Lockdown blog. 18/04/2020

Image: PAINTED POEM 2 and 3. Mixed Media on Canvas. 2019 PRIDE. They say that pride comes before a fall, which is understandable if it is solely for your own achievements but pride in your children achievements is surely admissible, at least this proud father thinks so.  If you have children I am sure you…

Day 25 Lockdown blog. 17/04/2020

Image: Brave New World. Acrylic on Canvas. 2010. Private Collection USA. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BREXIT ? Given the current crisis Brexit now seems a far off problem with little relevance, but slowly and surely the wisdom of reducing our already limited free movement, together our separation from Europe is increasingly called into question. The earning…