Dreamy

I was going to paint tonight but I'm far too tired and consumed a little too much wine.

This morning I had made a mental note to remove the bottle from the fridge so I wouldn't be tempted by its cool, fresh, fruitiness. I forgot.

Then, as I contemplated the heavy grey skies, I figured it wasn't the sort of weather for white anyway... That thought went the same way as the latter.

So here I am singing softly to myself wafting in and out of a dreamlike state and scanning in paintings I made 'earlier'.

I may well treat myself to an early night.

Hic

Aloha!

Did someone say Hawaii?

I can hear the sounds of the surf, smell the vanilla beans and feel the music pumping through my veins. Shall we grab a board and go surfing?

Layers of sunshine, flowers and holiday make up this piece. There are raffle tickets for luck and secret words hiding beneath the paint.

Can you see them?

Sharing some Summer with Sunday Sketches - Aloha!

When Van Gogh and Picasso time travelled

I'm not sure if I ever shared these on my blog before. I can't think why because frankly it's a bit of a scoop - after all, it's not often that one finds evidence of time-travelling artistic legends getting together to paint.

Dr Who fans may remember the episode where he meets Van Gogh. What we didn't get to see was a quick trip they took in the TARDIS via 1936 (to pick up a certain Picasso) to 17th century Holland to visit Mr Vermeer.

There they spent a happy few hours painting a young lady who happened to be sitting for him that day. Vincent was rather enamoured of her by all accounts and gifted her some jewellery to wear. Not to be outdone, Pablo gave her his scarf. I know which one I would have preferred, although that head gear would have been useful to cover up my bed hair this morning.

 

 

The questions on everyone's lips of course are:

Which of the portraits she felt most represented her character and beauty? And,

What happened to the Picasso and Van Gogh versions. Well... funny you should ask...

Sharing with the Artists' Playroom 'inspired by famous artists' theme.

Vulnerability

A little creepy. Empty eyes. Statuesque perhaps.

Collage, stamping, drawing, spraying, blending, painting. A bit of everything in this. A maelstrom of technique and message but nothing coherent. I know how she feels...

A bit vulnerable perhaps? I just watched Skyfall. Nice to see Bond being a bit vulnerable. It's all the rage. Iron Man is at it too. Makes a change to see the heroes act a little more human. It makes me feel a certain connection - like they could get tennis elbow from gardening too...

Sharing for Sunday Sketches.

Spring Showers

Crash Bang Wallop - it's May!

Spring has finally arrived as a green haze wraps itself over the shrubbery.

This mixed media piece was inspired by April showers but finished on a sunny May evening with a crisp and cold Chablis running through my veins to welcome in the season.

Now that I've finished with my romp through the A to Z of blog posts, it's nice to catch up with a few artistic challenges. This one's for the Artists' Playroom as we explore spring showers and flowers.

Dripping onto the page is a mixture of inks, acrylics, oil pastels, coloured pencil, acrylic pen and rain!

Z is for Zebedee

Zebedee has a magic moustache which is pretty cool. It is also a rather splendid moustache.

Zebedee had a habit of arriving just when he was needed - sort of the reverse of a traffic warden.

For those that don't know, Zebedee was a character from The Magic Roundabout a favourite TV series from my childhood which may go some way to explain why I am the way I am today, tomorrow and yesterday.

In fact, my sanity after Blogging from A to Z mixed with writing for a living and consequently spending way too much time at a keyboard seems strangely akin to Dougal et al. I think perhaps I should eat some of the poppies that Ermintrude was so fond of and go fly a kite...

"Time for Bed" said Zebedee.

Night night.

Y is for Youth is wasted on the Young

When I was young I never really thought about giving break-dancing a try. Now I'm in my 40s I'd love to give it a go. Only thing is I've already got tennis elbow in one arm and the other morning I pulled a muscle in my neck just by rolling over in bed.

When I was young learning was pretty boring. Now I devour books on Marketing, Motivation, Science, Creativity, Presentation, Confidence building, Sales techniques... I can't get enough... My brain has become a sponge eager to absorb new nuggets of information that can be mixed and blended with what's already stored up there - the bits I can remember anyway...

When I was young, I thought people in their 40s were really old...

When I was young there were enough hours in the day to get everything done - stuff like this blog post! Running out of hours today, so let's just go ahead and publish - then it's Z tomorrow and we're done with this crazy challenge!

X is for Xylem

Now it's time for a little game. There used to be a show on TV that used this format, but I can't remember its name. My sister and her husband would know - they both have a remarkable memory for 80s trivia - but they are not somewhat inconsiderately not answering their phone!

Anyway, the rules of the game are as follows. I present to you the word Xylem and three alternative definitions for said word. All you have to do (without cheating and using a dictionary, Google or calling Auntie Doris) is pick the one you think is correct!

Ready?

Xylem is a character from Marvel that acted as a sidekick to Captain America in four episodes of the 1960s' TV series. Although never fully explained, it was assumed he was of extra-terrestrial origin.

Xylem is a short piece of music composed specifically for the xylophone. It originates from 4th Century China where the instrument was used in water divination.

Xylem is a tissue in plants that conducts water and dissolved nutrients upward from the roots and also helps to form the woody element of stalks and stems.

Just send in your answer written on the back of a homing pigeon to the usual address by last Tuesday and you would win an amazing prize! Yes, you could be the proud owner of a Xenopus which is either:

a) an African clawed frog with an unusable tongue

b) an extinct species of cat which hated all others of its species to the extent that they wiped each other out in vicious battles.

c) the world's largest musical cloud hypervisor


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I don't know about you, but I'll be glad when this Blogging from A-Z challenge is over...

W is for White

Every month something special drops through my letterbox - another magical journal has found its way to me so I can add my own pages to the wonders within.

Eight artists contribute, adding their own interpretation to the journal's colour theme. This month I received Angie's White journal. A scary colour - but we were allowed a dash of another so mine became rose white.

I cannot tell you the joy this project brings. Sharing this journey with my friends every month fosters a strong connection. We are a tribe that supports and strengthens. I feel a great sense of belonging... they are very special ladies. It is ubuntu.

Sharing for Paint Party Friday and serendipitously we reach W in the Blogging from A to Z challenge ... nearly there!!

V is for Vampire Diaries

My guilty pleasure.

Given the amount of quality televisual experiences available, I do worry that my two 'must watch' programmes are a series about teenage vampires and a matchmaking show for people with more money than sense.

Maybe I just need a complete break from the more serious side of my life. Today I've been writing about the acquisition strategy of a cloud hosting company - I need some light relief.

The Vampire Diaries is delightful in that it doesn't really take itself too seriously. The plot has more holes than a pair of torn fish net stockings, but well, who cares? It's the eye candy that draws me in. Such pretty boys... I am but a shallow creature.

Firstly there's delicious Damon who likes to take his shirt off at regular intervals (though possibly not as often as one would like) and mainly wears black. He has this slightly wonky smile that sets the heart a-flutter and a very hard stare when he's being protective of those he loves. He's flawed, he's angry, short-tempered and fun.

Elijah is back. It wasn't fully explained where he went, but I figured it out as I saw him pretending to be a doctor in another show - must have been handy to be near all those blood bags. Elijah is a more of a gentle soul as vampires go; a romantic, less impulsive than Damon - but possibly easier to handle.

Klaus is a proper baddie. The cast seem to forget this on occasion and cut him the kind of slack not normally given to someone that murdered members of your family and close friends. Sometimes the script writers like us to see into his troubled soul when he gets his paints out and comes over all sensitive. However, underneath the oil paintings and creativity he is still a psychopath - albeit one that has a rather 'puppy dog' meets 'come-to-bed-with-me' smile.

Alaric was rather tasty too but unfortunately they killed him off.

So, we await with bated breath the next instalment. Will Elena recover her humanity? Will Caroline fall for Klaus? Will the scriptwriters come up with a more interesting plotline than Silas - the supernatural creature that can pretend to be anyone he wants to be (conveniently negating the need to pay for an extra actor)?

Stay tuned...