12/03: HOLA!!! CARNIVAL TIME AGAIN

This time tomorrow we'll be at our house on Fuerteventura where the temperatures will be AT LEAST 25 degrees warmer than here in Kent - probably closer to 30 degrees warmer.

We're flying at 'silly hour' tomorrow morning but that's great as it means we'll have done our major shop and be at our house by lunchtime ... relaxing and dozing by the pool by early afternoon!

This weekend is the culmination of a 10 day Carnival and the main procession with floats, dancers, bands etc will be on Saturday evening - always a fantastic spectacle and experience!     It coincides with St Patricks Day celebrations on Sunday so this won't be a quiet weekend on the island methinks!


We travel with handluggage only which means we take advantage of low cost airlines (Ryanair) where handluggage is free (under 10kgs) but suitcases cost a fortune!  We always upgrade to get good leg room.    Downside is we're restricted as to what we can cram into our hand luggage.   We have clothes out there so normally take food and paperback books ... and anything we're asked to bring out by friends.

This trip my bag contains some daffodils (in bud) from our garden as we can't buy them on Fuerteventura and we love the colour/scent.    3 large packs of Cheddar.    One huge chunk of Stilton and 2 kgs of parsnips for a Veggie friend out there.   A couple of mattress protectors (we've only ever seen the plastic covered ones on Fuerte ... for incontinent peeps)  LOL

When we first bought the house there it was very difficult to buy certain essentials (Marmite) but in the last couple of years several new supermarkets have opened on the outskirts of Town and most things are available (but many at very inflated prices).   

We aren't the sort of Brits who go abroad to eat English food, watch English Soaps and Football in Sports Bar (heaven forbid) but we do love Colmans Mustard and Marmite - both of which are very expensive to buy on the island.

Last year we took a jar of mustard in our bags and it got confiscated at Stansted airport (UK) as we'd used the wrong size clear plastic bag for liquids!     Bl**dy jobsworths!    So now we're very careful to use only clear plastic bags issued by the airport at £1 for 2 bags!!

Can you guess what this is?

Yes ... its a 'specimen bottle'    I need to take some stem ginger in syrup out to Fuerte - not a lot - just enough for a dessert I've been asked to make for friends out there.  We've never found it for sale on the island so needs must!     Bearing in mind the restrictions on exporting liquids the only container I could find was this.  But I promise its unused   :-)

If asked, perhaps I'll just make up what body part I'm transporting ... no, never does to joke at airports does it?

Right ... better sign off here as need to do final jobs in the house.   House-sitter arrives tomorrow so everything needs to be in order before she gets here.

Next post will be from warmer climes      

Hola !!

11/03: THE WAITING GAME ...

Don't you just hate waiting around for collections/deliveries etc.?

I had two pictures booked for collection today and the carrier was scheduled to pick them up between '9am and 6pm'.     Actually, it wasn't too bad as he turned up around 2pm

We also had a return visit booked by a Gas Engineer who has been trying to sort out our 'sick' central heating boiler which keeps losing pressure and failing to heat the house.  

I have lots of jobs to get done before we fly back to Fuerteventura on Wednesday morning but couldn't leave the house for fear of missing one of the callers.    Sadly that meant I was forced to tackle the housework LOL.

As it happens, it wasn't the day to be out and about anyway - gale force wind and icy conditions with snow/sleet showers made it very unpleasant outdoors.    After a stormy night we were greeted this morning by the sight of a huge section of the asphalt roof on our main shed flapping in the wind.   One of the retaining wood trims had been torn off and the asphalt just took off - the wind was blowing from an unusual direction.    So after a makeshift  repair most of the asphalt is kind of in place and hopefully will keep the rain out for a while.   We're reluctant to have the whole roof replaced just yet as its the shed where our Blue Tits are setting up home in the nest boxes.  I don't want to scare them off.

After my panic with the spitting W&N fixative spray the other day, I've successfully worked over the spotty bits.   It doesn't really look as though I've achieved much since the last post but I had to take a couple of steps back and then rework the picture.   I think its a good thing that I'll have a break from it now.   It will be good to come back to it with fresh eyes and concentrate on the texture/coat colour now that the 'foundation' is in place.

It looks a bit fuzzy here  but I'll worry about getting better photos when I've made more progress.

09/03: MY HERO(INE)

Just a quickie

I was cursing this afternoon when the update on the horse portrait I'd planned to show went wrong.    As the portrait is destined for Singapore I decided to use a little more fixative than normal - spraying between layers of pastel. My W&N Fixative let me down, and not for the first time!    I've taken a can back to my supplier before with the same problem - blocked nozzle and 'spitty' delivery of fixative.

This can started to go funny a couple of weeks back so David took it to bits and cleaned the nozzle which fixed the problem temporarily.    I started to give the horse a light spray today in readiness for adding the next layer of pastel and suddenly the picture was splattered ... spots everywhere.     I let it all dry out and hopefully I can remedy it, but I'm not a happy bunny.   This fixative is around £12 a can so can't afford to keep replacing faulty tins.


Then I read the Blog from our friend Debbie   Ellies Dairy  and put things back into proportion.   Debbie is owned by a herd of pedigree Toggenburg goats and is employed by the goats to oversee the milk and cheese production at Ellie's Dairy.  

This is Baby/kidding Season so Debbie is busy helping with the births and in her last post (tonight/yesterday) was at baby no. 122!!        Debbie is surviving on little/no sleep during this busy kidding season so deserves a huge round of applause and a medal .... or at least a good night's sleep soon.


Good luck Debbie ... hope the rest of the babies are delivered safely and quickly and you can catch up on your sleep!   Look forward to seeing the little kids soon


Debbie knows the names and characters of all her goats and they are probably the most spoilt goats in the World!

08/03: WET WEEKEND

We've had horrible weather in Whitstable today - fog first thing and drizzle/rain all day.     So I knew I wouldn't be tidying the garden or even watching/photographing garden birds today.    But they had other ideas - there's been a never-ending stream of hungry birds raiding the feeders today.  They've really been posing and putting on a show - obviously a bit of rain can't stop them stoking up on seeds and suet as mating/breeding season is upon us

Despite the fog, and the rainspots on the windows I managed to get some photos of a woodpecker who visited our garden several times - well I don't really know how many as I was working hard at my drawing board most of the day  LOL

A bit soggy, but posing nicely on the apple tree closest to the house so the fog/rain wasn't so much of a problem for the camera:

and a visit later in the day, to a tree further from the house so the pictures are a bit murkier

If you've been paying attention to my posts (!!) you will remember that I showed photographs of a woodpecker in my garden last Friday (St. David's Day).    That woodpecker had a red flash on its nape and I've just found out that means it was a male (thank you Google).   This woodpecker has no red patch so its a female .... I hope that means we have a pair visiting the garden - if not perhaps I need to start a dating agency.    Romance is definitely in the air

The juveniles have red caps so I'll be looking out for youngsters in a couple of months as the breeding season is sometime between April/May I believe.

Talking of Romance being in the air, David and I were en route to our voluntary jobs at Pilgrims Hospice eBay office on Wednesday.   We stopped at a roadside post box to mail a birthday card and cards for the Mums (Mothering Sunday this weekend in case you'd forgotten)!   Next to the postbox was this telephone kiosk and, as I had my camera with me I couldn't resist ....

Not sure how much detail you can see ... but as with so many phone boxes in England some of the glass has been kicked out and the graffiti artist has been busy ... shame the offender is illiterate!

So ... somebody had a good night out - that's an empty bottle of bubbly (or pomagne) in the kiosk and its true the kiosk really is in the middle of nowHere (note the correct spelling) but hope the lady was dead impressed anyway!

This is what I've been up to today.    

Zinc is sadly no longer with us.     This is the second portrait of the three which are going to Singapore and this horse belonged to my client's daughter.     The colouring is what we in England called 'flea bitten grey' so I need to find out what they call it in Singapore/Australia ... but in any case there are a lot of spots to portray.

I'm working in pastel on graphite/black sanded paper.   The camera hates this combination and really comes up with some weird images.    Basically this is just the outline and a very understated background.  I've had to tweak this in PaintNet to make it look dark enough .. 

Laying down basic colour and defining facial features etc .. this is mostly using whites/grey/blues and pinks.   The background looks far brighter here than in reality

This is where I stopped this afternoon as the light was so poor.   Early days but I got a good start

The BBC has forecast rain tomorrow and most of Sunday and light snow Monday and Tuesday here in Whitstable.   Hope its better where you are

07/03: CLEARING A SPACE

The idea of exhibiting at our local Gallery last week was to try to sell some of the 'practice' pieces I've  produced over the last few years.   Some were created specifically as competition/exhibition entries and others simply to demonstrate my style of work to people considering commissioning portraits.

My studio is crowded with works that I'm bored with looking at.  I need to free up wall space for new work so I was happy that two of the originals sold

Pat's Cat:

and Grace - the Silver Poodle I photographed at a local Dog Show a while back.   I'm not sure if the picture was bought by Grace's owner (which would have been nice) but in any event she has gone to a new home

I also sold several photo prints of my work - some in frames and some simply in mounts with cellophane wrappers so - good result and my banker (David) was happy!   All my business cards were taken so hopefully there will be some commissions in the pipeline in the future. 

Then this morning I had a call from a lady who saw my work at the exhibition last week.  She went home and checked my website but decided she couldn't afford to commission a bespoke portrait just yet and wondered if the spaniel pastel was still available as it reminded her of her own dog.    It is still available and so will be delivered by David tomorrow as the lady lives just a short drive from us.   

Reggie the dog will be en route to Singapore at the weekend.    One of three for the same client but the other two will be finished/shipped together at the end of April.    I'd intended to make this a mid sized portrait just head and shoulders but have actually extended the body and will ship it with the larger mount/mat so the recipient can decide which she prefers when its presented (its a surprise)

This is cropped to where the larger mount/mat fits

and if she prefer less body showing she can swap to a smaller mount/frame which will look something like this:

04/03: REGGIE UPDATE

I have been running round like the 'proverbial fly' today

Here's Reggie the dog with his body fur extended a little more

Then the Goldfinches arrived to distract me ... the sun was shining in the garden and I just picked up the camera and took a few photos - I'm really pleased with this one.  No cropping or adjusting (just reduced in size so Picassa/Blogger don't get sniffy) - this is exactly how it turned out.  I know a professional photographer would do better, but I'm an enthusiastic amateur so humour me :-)

  
the bird on the left is in the shadows, but I still like the picture

Then it was off to the Spring Meeting of the Whitstable Bowls club this afternoon.   Whilst there I managed to miss a call from the Gallery saying that a Buyer wanted two of my pictures if she could have a 'bulk purchase discount'.   By the time I got the message the potential buyer had left the Gallery to get some lunch with the promise of returning later to find out if I had been contacted and would agree to the discount.    I agreed, but I won't know till tomorrow whether the 'buyer' returned .... I hope she did but time will tell!

Did a little more work on Reggie when I got home late afternoon but then had to collect David from a meeting he was involved in .... so this was photographed in artificial light this evening.   Just to show where the picture will be cropped ... although I extended the pastel out to beyond the mount aperture area so, in theory, the client could make a larger portrait of it by using a bigger mount and frame.

It needs a bit of brightening as the pastel dust has dulled the highlights a bit but I need to get feedback first re. coat colour etc ... then it should just be another hour's work to finish Reggie (fingers crossed)

and I'm chuffed to have received a Blog award from a fellow Artist/Blogger ... more about that in the next post as its heading for midnight and I'm very tired ... still got several emails to answer but they may have to wait till tomorrow when I functioning a bit better  :-)

04/03: TIME WASTING

Oh dear ... how to waste an hour at the computer!   I love this video clip - but at the end of the clip there's an option to 'mashup your own pony' and that was fatal .... check out the Bollywood version :-)

Dancing Pony

Then the birds are at it again ... distracting me.   I needed to top up all the feeders this morning.   As soon as I'd finished the garden was a mass of activity...

The Great Tits carry sunflower seeds to a handy branch then hold them in their claws whilst pecking to get at the centres.    The lawn under the seed feeders is absolutely littered with discarded shells ... hopefully it makes good compost anyway!

and I learned something new today ....

I'd always thought that only male Robins (our English variety) have red breasts.   I believed that females were less gaudy .... like our house sparrows where the males have black bibs and the females are plain.    So I've been curious about a pair of robins sharing garden space recently and even helping each other at the fatballs feeders - one hanging precariously on the feeder and dropping bits to the floor which the other robin picked up.     Robins are known to be fiercely territorial and will fight to the death over their 'patch' so I couldn't figure why these two were rubbing along so well together.

I finally got round to Googling it this morning (as you do) and found that male and female robins are very similar, almost identical in appearance in fact.  So this must be a breeding pair visiting the garden every day.   They'll split up again once the little ones leave home I understand but for the short breeding season they'll put up with each other's company.

not the best shot of them but they're very active little things

David and I spent yesterday afternoon manning the Made in Whitstable art exhibition.     Lots of visitors showing great interest but only 2 original pictures sold (not mine) and lots of prints.    I've sold several prints but looks as though the pictures will be coming home again on Tuesday evening.   Never mind, most of my business cards have gone and I know that this leads to future commissions so its never wasted time/energy.

I have a meeting this afternoon so just a couple of hours to do a little more on the dog pastel - just going to extend the body fur a little more so he's not a 'floating head'.   Fellow blogger Peter Barker has told me off for 'truncating' earlier pet portraits and I've taken his words of wisdom to heart .. thanks Peter!

Hope to have another update later

02/03: CONCORDE & DOG UPDATE

On this date in 1969 Concorde 001 successfully completed its maiden flight.   How many of you remember that?   Must confess I do - my uncle was involved in the design of one of the components (refrigeration system I believe) so my brothers and I had a special interest.  I was 10¾ at the time (and you know how important those ¼ years are when you are growing up)

Such an iconic plane but sadly the last commercial Concorde flight was 2003 (first commercial flight was 1976) and I never got to experience its supersonic speed

Weather looks similar to what we have today - grey skies again!

Here's the latest progress picture of Reggie the dog .... I probably won't do any more to the portrait till I get some feedback from my client.  I have a selection of ref photos showing the dog from a 'young man' to an advanced age so his coat colouring has altered considerably and I need a bit of guidance here before adding final whilskers etc.   My client isn't available for a few days as she has been whisked away by her husband for a surprise long weekend I'm told.  Lucky lady!

I will need to give this pastel a good spray with fixative as it is going to Singapore so will need additional protection whilst in transit.  Fixative tends to dull colours a bit but it can't be helped ...

We're off now for the usual round of family visiting.  I'm also going to deliver the family group portrait to my client's Mum-in-Law who will keep it safely till next Sunday when it will be presented to the recipient as a Mother's Day Gift.     The delivery address is only 30 minutes drive from where my Mum lives so I'd rather hand deliver the portrait than entrust it to couriers as it is rather large!

01/03: ST DAVID'S DAY

How time flies, March already.    I love this month - the daffodils are about to bloom and the clocks change at the end of the month.   In England we put the clocks forward one hour and prolong the daylight - makes such a difference and means Spring/Summer will follow shortly.

My own 'St David' (hubby) had to attend a meeting early this evening and I chauffered him to and from the venue so forgot to photograph the next stage of the dog portrait in daylight .... will do that during the weekend

The garden visitors have been doing their best to distract me all day .... and I'm pleased to say that I managed to photograph the woodpecker this morning when it made a return visit to our pear tree (well I assume its the same one we saw last week)

Beautiful or what?

but I am beginning to wonder if we are overfeeding our feathered friends

Who ate all the fatballs???   just look at that tummy

might have to make the doorway larger

its a tight squeeze

There was lots of activity at the nest boxes today.   My tumble dryer is inside this shed, against the wall where the boxes hang and I was drying lots of bed linen.  I think the blue tits were enjoying the 'central heating' generated by the dryer.


the robin has learned how to balance on the fatball holder now - he's holding his stomach in here and looking quite trim

relaxed

and by the end of the afternoon ...... ready to pop!!

the Long Tailed Tits are such tiny little things ... but even they are looking very rotund at the moment

I assume the birds are all stocking up in readiness for breeding/egg laying - they'll be kept busy feeding youngsters very soon.

A few of the chaffinches have figured out how to use the seed feeders but most of them struggle - I think the perches need to be an inch or so longer.    As I showed in a previous post, some of the chaffinches have deformed legs and claws so I guess that's why they struggle to land on the feeders.   They are meant to be ground feeders anyway but it seems those who master the technique of landing on the feeder perches then maximise the visit and chomp their way through a mountain of sunflower heart seeds.

This male is particularly handsome - very bright plumage.   The chaffinches seem to be the most slimline of our bird visitors at the moment.   

this female couldn't get the hang of landing on the feeder perch.  I watched her make several attempts then she gave up and waited on the grass to pick up seeds dropped by the other birds

The females aren't as brightly coloured as the males but they are still very attractive I think

another few weeks and our hedgehogs will emerge from hibernation so we'll have evening distraction as well as daytime distraction in the garden .... never a dull moment

28/02: NHS WOES ... AND DOG UPDATE

After M-in-Law's ops to fix her broken shoulder and hip in September, she has had to attend regular check-ups at the hospital to ensure everything is OK.

For her first check up we joined her at the London Hospital and waited 6 hours before she was seen (despite having an appointment).   That's on top of 2 hours driving for us to get to the hospital.

At the second check up she had X-Rays then we waited with her for 4 hours before being told the consultant had been called away and would be back 1 hour later to resume the clinic.   We took M-in-Law home without seeing the consultant.

We made a complaint to the NHS ... nobody should have to wait that long for attention, especially a 94 year old in a wheelchair!   We asked that the Consultant simply look at the last set of X-Rays and telephone her to sign her off. 

He wasn't willing to do that so today we accompanied her to the hospital yet again with his promise that she would receive priority treatment.   She got seen just 10 minutes later than the appointment time - a miracle.  She was seen by a Registrar while the Consultant sat in the far corner of the clinic avoiding our eyes (LOL) but at least she was seen and signed off ..  What has happened to our NHS for heavens sake?

So we got back home around 1pm and I was able to take advantage of some natural light to do a bit more work on the dog portrait. 

I stopped off at the framers and picked up the mount for the family Group Portrait which can now be delivered at the weekend in plenty of time for Mother's Day.  

Last night's Private View at the Gallery went well I think ... but I did feel out of place.    I'm just so conservative compared to my fellow Whitstable artists.   I really need to get pink hair, or some 'arty' outfits in my wardrobe - Alice-in-Wonderland style dresses seemed to feature heavily last night together with gingham or mismatched lace separates, patterned tights, work boots (or at the very least some colourful wellies).   Bit like my art really - that looked out of place with this particular exhibition which is mostly contemporary.    We stayed for about an hour then sneaked out.    Hopefully the viewing public will include a few more grannies and conservative folk who prefer pets/animals  LOL

Well its been another hectic day.    Tomorrow I'm looking forward to staying home and cracking on with the dog.   May even make a start on the horse as well - so long as I'm using pastel for both I enjoy having more than one picture on the go

26/02: EXHIBITION SET-UP

My replacement camera battery charger arrived this afternoon and I'm very pleased that the supplier has actually sent me an upgraded version which works perfectly so I was able to charge a battery and take my camera to the Gallery this evening.   I photographed most of the works hung tonight (although some artists were late in arriving/setting up) so probably won't bother taking my camera to the Open Night/Private View tomorrow evening where there will be lots of people milling around so difficult to take photos.

There is a real assortment of work here for the exhibition - probably more contemporary art than 'realism' but also a fair selection of jewellery and crafts

These are my pictures for hanging in the main Gallery - carefully laid out on the floor at home and photographed so we could crack on quickly this evening

and here they are on the wall - a bit crammed together but never mind ... we only get a couple of hours to hang the works and there's always a bit of confusion with people borrowing each other's drills, spirit levels, steps etc ..

 

At the risk of repeating myself, I love Alma's glass ornaments - mostly fish and chickens but a few other creatures included here.  

There will be more artwork on display but David and I left everyone to it and went off to buy fish & chips for Supper as it was pretty late by then.

I have hung a couple more pictures in the main Gallery window looking out onto the street but it was too dark and too cold to stand outside photographing the window.

So tomorrow David and I are off to our usual Wednesday Voluntary jobs at Pilgrims Hospice eBay office and then back to the Gallery in the evening for the Private View.   Thursday I need to crack on with the Dog commission which is required to be completed/despatch asap.  The other 2 commissions for this client will follow on later.