The Satchel and the Cozzie

David; oil on canvas; March 2017.

Here's my latest oil painting, scanned directly from the canvas which didn't quite fit on the screen. The actual painting is about half an inch bigger all round, and the scanner made it look more grainy than it really is, but you can still get a good idea of how it looks.

I bought an over-the-shoulder canvas satchel with all kinds of practical pockets designed into it, which seems just the thing for carrying a couple of sketch pads, pens, brushes and a watercolour set around. Until now I've been limited to what will fit in a jacket pocket. So I'd been itching to give this satchel its debut run at the weekend, and of course the rain hasn't ceased to pour in torrents.

I have been writing, of course, doing a bit more to the fifth novel in the Artisan-Sorcerer Series which will be called Morgan. Isn't it funny when characters misbehave? Rowan seems to have independently decided he's to have a more prominent role that I'd intended in the loose plot outline.

I'm not the kind of writer who plans out every detail of every chapter before they start writing. That approach would bore me totally. I usually have a few sheets of rough notes to link events, and these are subject to change as the first draft takes shape. This offers me enough of the story to work on without imposing much detail, so I've plenty of space left for creativity and impromptu extra plot twists.

Landscape; watercolour; March 2017.

The daffodils in our garden are all finished now but tulips are about to open. I'm not over keen on tulips; we inherited them when we bought this house but as this garden is quite underdeveloped as yet they might as well stay.

I must buy a new swimming costume. Mine's a sight. I nearly lost the wretched thing yesterday but then a helpful attendant came trotting past with it clutched in hand. I'd been so busy reminding myself to collect my shampoo and conditioner bottles from the floor of the shower cubicle that I'd left my cozzie draped over the handrail. I recognised it as mine immediately....

Comments

A Cure for Aging?

"All that we profess to do is but this, - to find out the secrets of the human frame; to know why the parts ossify and the blood stagnates, and to apply continual preventatives to the effort of time. This is not magic; it is the art of medicine rightly understood. In our order we hold most noble -, first, that knowledge which elevates the intellect; secondly, that which preserves the body. But the mere art (extracted from the juices and simples) which recruits the animal vigour and arrests the progress of decay, or that more noble secret which I will only hint to thee at present, by which heat or calorific, as ye call it, being, as Heraclitus wisely taught, the primordial principle of life, can be made its perpectual renovator...." Zanoni, book IV, chapter II, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, first published in 1842. Oroboros keyring - Spooky Cute Designs The idea of being able to achieve an immortal life is probably as old as human life itself. Folklore and mythology ab

Remembering Richie Tattoo Artist's Studio

Richard in the street entrance to his tattoo studio in Liverpool. The vertical sign next to Richard is now in the Liverpool Tattoo Museum. Yesterday, my sister Evelyn, Richard and myself stood outside Richard's old tattoo studio and looked up at the few remaining signs, whose paint has now mostly flacked away to reveal bare wood. On the studio's window are stick-on letters which read, "Art", where once it boldly announced his presence as the city's only "Tattoo Artist". I can remember him buying that simple plastic lettering from an old-fashioned printer's shop. This was in 1993, not long after he'd opened the studio and before he could afford better signs. After he'd patiently stuck them onto the glass we realised that from the outside the sign read "Artist Tattoo", so we had to carefully peel the letters off the window and have another go, laughing over having made such an obvious error yet worried in case we spoiled the letteri

Idiots, Dogs, and Plant Pots.

Jim knows how to make himself at home. He does have a dog bed of his own. Several, even. But given half a chance he much prefers to snuggle down in a soft pillow and duvet. Rosie is still enamoured of the knitted blanket. While he's busy snoozing, I've been busy tweaking my YouTube site, improving video descriptions and creating a few Shorts, all with the aim of increasing viewing figures and subscription numbers. Maybe it's just a matter of persevering? I'm enjoying filming and video-making, anyway. Rosie and Jim had a check-up at the vets last week, and were both given a clean bill of health. Jim weighs 10lbs. He's supposed to be a chihuahua. Erm, right.... A chihuahua crossed with a Jack Russell Terrier, we had supposed. This vet was unconvinced, reasoning that Jim's bigger than a Jack Russell, broader across the back, and with a noticeably wider head. Rosie is more dainty, and weighs 5.3lbs, which is still bigger than a chihuahua but easily smaller than a ty

Search This Blog