Lone Pine Lodge

Yesterday I made this necklace.


( more under the cut )

Today was spent in a 6 hour binge of retail therapy, so I had very liitle energy and almost no time to do anything for today. So what I have done is the out line sketch for what I hope will be my final masterpeiece for this month. It will be that or a complete disaster. It will be a monochrome watercolour. The sketch is very shopped as it is barely there in the original.

This is a drawing of a local place but taken many years ago. It is actually a sketch of a pastel drawing of a photo as the photo was in the computer before the one I'm using now.

Today i tried to do an ink sketch of one of my ornaments, a cat. Unfortunately the only ink I could find was my gold so the other colours are water colour and don't have the right something, I can't express what it is, to blend well none the less here he is.



While looking for my coloured inks I cam across some 18 year old photographs that show that dragons have always been an art form for us. They were taken at the 1992 Garden Festival at Ebbs Vale. For those too young to remember them or not from the UK the following gives a brief out line of the brief history of Garden Festivals.

The National Garden Festivals were a high-profile 1980s initiative by the then Conservative Government in response to criticism of their alleged neglect of areas hit by the decline of heavy industry. Environment Minister Michael Heseltine proposed that derelict land should be reclaimed for a Garden Festival as a symbol of the rebirth of such areas. The festivals were held every two years. The first such Festival was held in Liverpool in 1984. Subsequent festivals were held in Stoke-on-Trent (1986) and Glasgow (1988) and Gateshead (1990) and Ebbw Vale Garden Festival (1992) which eventually won the competition. The festivals were highly successful in attracting millions of visitors from all over the country to industrial areas long ignored by British tourists. However they did not always lead to the hoped-for long-term injection of private investment in the affected areas.
Ebbw Vale is said to be the only one that succeeded in doing what it was supposed to do. I made a collage of the dragons found there. The central photo is an overview of the festivals.

Two for the price of one again. This happens when I'm not happy with either.

( nude androgyne under the cut. )

I think I said some time ago that I had a painful left bicep, it seemed to be clearing up but since yesterday it has got very much worse again, probably due to manhandling my suit case in and out of my car boot. I didn't have to do it going as
my cousins boys man handled it in and a neighbour manhandled it out for me the other end. Any how I have been driven to strong painkillers today and that does nothing for my creativity so my contribution today is a photograph of two of the Newport dragons fiddled with, a lot.

It has been one of those days, i woke up at 10:15 am and had to be else where by 11:00 am and then didn't get back home 'til 8:00pm. So today's entry was going to be quick any way so probably not good. Add to that Photobucket has removed two of my nudes I have had to do something very different so more not good. But for what it's worth here it is done in 30 minutes.

Last Tuesday was our last Art Class for the year. As we had all had to hand in our portfolios before Easter Stewart decided to do something totally different and brought in Air Drying Clay for us to play with. Only 4 out of the usual 7 turned up so we had plenty to play with and here is my contribution to the hilarity of the evening.



In case you don't recognise what you see, at 10 o'clock is a mouse 12 is a Martian cat,3 is a new born dragon hoping to grow into her tail and the last one is a plaque, close up shown below.


It's still not very clear but it is a quick version of this.

I still go to art class but I haven't been inflicting any of my class pictures on you as we have been really learning something new each class. This is because the Welsh National Assembly have decreed that no matter what subject is being taught we have to 'take an exam' in it. So our exam is to learn new techniques during the Sept. Term and do a portfolio of paintings of our choice during the Spring term. This will then be taken in and marked. I decided to combine 2 of the new techniques into one picture with a little watercolour so I wouldn't have to do so much. Below is as far as I've gotten woth this picture using inks and pastel.

This is the ink stage



Here I've done the pastel.


I'll show you the original artical when I show you the finished art work.