Here is this year's entry, 'Almost Naked And Surrounded By Life'.
And so far, for 4 years now, I have always had to make this trip twice, as any un-selected work has to be collected the following week. I did say to the official who received this year's entry from me, "I hope I don't see you next week," to which she quietly smiled. But most likely I will be seeing her on Saturday, as I arrive again at Wimbledon College of Art to re-wrap my work before catching the tram, train one and and train two back to Southbourne station. However, fingers crossed!
I did deliver some more artwork though, which I know I do not have to collect in a week's time.
Keeping up the very pleasant task of giving my nieces and oldest nephew an 'Un-Christmas' present,
I dived into my plan chest to unearth a trio of mermaid prints for Olivia.
When I met Olivia's then boyfriend and now fiance Jon, I admired his line-work tattoos, some of which featured mermaids. Going by the feeling that I love mermaids, Jon loves mermaids and Olivia, and Olivia loves Jon and most probably mermaids too, I chose a set of three mermaid lino cuts. They have a coloured, lino-etched background too, (really fun to do, involving wax and caustic soda. Not only do you get a great effect, but you can use the residue to clean your drains. Result!) and line-work mermaids printed over this.
To add to their collection of mermaids. (They've got one now, even if they didn't have one before!)
And going from creatures who use their beauty to lure people, to a creature who is depicted sometimes as just hideous, and sometimes as hideously beautiful, Medusa.
At Trinity, in Winchester, for the past 3 weeks, we have been working on creating the head of Medusa, using papier mache. Instead of using snakes as her hair, I incorporated my 'Fun with Fruit' theme, and created hair inspired by fruit. In particular, the banana, the satsuma and the lime.
It is always a learning curve to work in a different way, or with a different medium. Rather like with some of my early paintings, I did no planning as such, but rather let the head evolve as it was made. Now it is almost complete, I realise that with more planning and studies, I could have improved the shape of the face by having ears, and a defined chin. Next time, before applying glue and newspaper to the balloon, I will apply some thought, and some ideas to paper.
The day after visiting Wimbledon, we travelled to see Mum, and also brother Mark, Ella and big boy Jem. We had planned to dine out that night. and after having sampled some of the wares from Maccaloo on our previous visit, we all decided to dine there. http://www.maccaloo.co.uk/
There is a good up-beat feel throughout the restaurant which is obviously very popular.
Here is little Snowy enjoying a selection of beers, and also a most beautiful jug of water too. Being a young and sensible sort of dog, Snowy has been brought up to drink responsibly, unlike his owner who came of age in the 70s!
A lovely time was had by all....and it was hard to choose what to eat. I enjoyed my steak but did like the look of Mum's fish, my second choice. (Four of us chose steaks, and they were all cooked longer than requested, a rare came out as medium rare, and medium rare appeared as medium to well done.) The 'Duo of Creme Brulee' ran out just before we made our pudding choices, but this slight disappointment was more than made up for me and Ella by the 'Malteser semi-freddo'. It was rather large but Ella and I managed to eat it all.
Let's walk away from gastronomy now, and veer towards literature.
This is the book that was chosen for our book group,
There are the rave reviews on the back of the book, which made it seem all the more enticing.
My advice to you...........
Don't waste your time reading this, unless you also enjoy reading Elle, or the Daily Express.
Instead, take a trip to Midhurst and visit the excellent bookshop there. It is a step into the past, in all the right ways. http://www.wheelersbookshop.co.uk/ If you are my age and have always loved reading, just take yourselves back to your favourite childhood bookshop.
By all means choose your own book, but this is one I can heartily recommend. In fact, I am trying to read it slowly, to prolong the pleasure, whilst wanting to read it quickly as I want to know what happens. As I love Cold comfort Farm, it was a joy to find that Stella Gibbons had written more, and I look forward now to reading the rest too.
Mr Cooper has had an exciting time, involving books. We have 2 piles of books in the house, one is the 'keep' pile, and one the 'get rid of' pile. Mr Cooper, with a rush of enthusiasm, took all the 'get rid of ' pile to the charity shop. He had forgotten that some we had planned to sell, as two in particular are worth more than my car. Luckily he was able to retrieve them the following morning.
Here is the title page from one of them, a book I have owned since I was 19.
But having lost the 'book of Beasts', if only for one night, I now want to keep it, as it has been the inspiration for quite a few paintings and needlepoints.
Here is 'How to Steal a Tiger Cub', which has been a needlepoint and a painting.
Oh and by the way, I spent a pleasant morning a few days ago now, returning to Wimbledon College of Art, to collect my rejected work. All went like clockwork, and I was there and back, courtesy of Southern Rail, in just over 4 hours. The fastest time ever, so all was not totally lost.
Oh well, I shall see how "Almost Naked But surrounded By Life' fares in the National Open Art Competition. http://www.nationalopenart.org/
Wishing you all a successful week ahead, and if you lose something, may you either find it again, or realise that you don't actually need it anymore.
Have a super-fun weekend too!
Looking forward to catching up with you shortly. And don't forget to follow the advice from little Snowy....enjoy a selection of beers, alongside a lovely jug of water. "Woof woof!"
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