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Painting Boats and COVID 19


 

Here's my latest watercolour painting, which I've called Messing About on the River. Okay, it's a canal rather than an actual river, but narrowboats can go on rivers if they're careful and the water's not too choppy. Choppy water risks tipping them over due to having a flat hull - or so I'm told. What do I know about it, really? I've been on a grand total of two lovely narrowboat cruises and read a bit and watched too many YouTube videos made by people who live on narrowboats, but my direct experience of them is minimal.

I quite fancy the idea of living on a narrowboat. The ability to travel around appeals. The lack of space to paint in, and my total lack of any relevant mechanical, electrical or navigational skills would be major obstacles, as could my dodgy knee when climbing lock ladders or, indeed, actually opening or closing any canal locks. Richard would need a second narrowboat just to store his beloved Dr Who collection as there's no way he'd part with that. Also, we couldn't travel far as we'd have to keep coming back again in order to go to our jobs, and as we're not off on the same days either...  A pipe dream, clearly.

This painting comes from photos taken by me last year while cruising down the Shropshire Union Canal. The video is low-tech, being a slideshow of still photos rather than an actual running film. My little obsolete-even-before-Kodak-went-bust Kodak camera will film only if you keep your finger on the "film" button, which is a bit tricky for most practical purposes as the button is TINY and slowly sinks into the pad of the finger holding it down, causing filming to stop.

Other news...  On Monday 26th October I had a routine weekly COVID 19 test and on the following Friday the Test & Trace people contacted me, just as I was getting ready to go to work, to tell me that my test results were positive. So now my husband and I have to self-isolate. Neither of us are ill in any way, I'm happy to report. We will come out of isolation on Thursday 5th, when I should be able to return to work as normal. Richard can't, as the restaurant where he works will have gone into lockdown by then so he'll be furloughed a second time.

So while I've been at home, I've been painting a narrowboat...! I'm not sure about this painting, but then I always find fault with everything I paint. I invite you all to share your views, anyway.


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