Painting outdoors

I’m not sure why I didn’t tell you beforehand what I was doing yesterday, but I had been a bit intimidated by it.  Shadows of flowers are what I paint at the moment.  I do lots of other things too but I do like painting my shadows.  Yesterday gave me an opportunity to have a go on a larger scale.  In the end I plumped for a little 4×4 foot panel and that took me 5 hours!

What did I get up to?  I was one of many artists painting outdoors at a live arts jam in Peterborough.  Most were amazingly accomplished street artists using spray paint and then there were a few of us on our first live jam outing painting on smaller boards with acrylics.  It’s stunning to watch the full process from primed fence panel to finished huge painting.

In my case I raided my shed of paint, remembered the screwdriver to open them, copied one of my shadow paintings and prepared to have a go making it a little larger larger.  To challenge myself more, I decided, minutes before starting, to paint it upside down square by square…

Hmm yes, I don’t know why either..

The sun shone, I had a wonderful day with friends and family and the organisers were happy we turned up.  Here’s my finished version.

ps.. Sorry I’ve not posted for a few weeks, the blog’s seemed to merged into posts about events rather than the usual mix.  I’m sure the mix will come back.  You’re getting two posts today!  If I write, I want it to be on my work in progress (novels number one and two at the moment..) and seem to have amassed numerous friends with editing whips… which is good.  I’ll get my books published one day.

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yoga robin has mouths to feed

It’s been an odd year weather wise and that’s had impacts on flowers and insects.  How’s that affected me?  There’s this robin..  Well, there’s quite a few that treat my garden as their territorial dispute line.

I only have to appear at my back door in the morning and the word goes out around the birdy neighbourhood.  Then they all appear with their ‘pity me’ eyes and I feel obliged to provide them with some sustenance before I get my own fist cuppa of the day and some breakfast.

It was only when I decided to take a picture of one very persistent Robin that I realised two things.

They stood on one leg.  I almost convinced myself they only had one till I realised they did actually have two but one shot up pretty quick when they landed.

The other thing I realised was that this particular robin is feeding 3, very hungry, freshly fledged, youngsters.  As I stood close, trying to get a picture, they went from one to another then a third to feed all in turn.  The youngsters were all perched nearby where I hadn’t noticed them before.  Unfortunately I was so busy being amazed by the family feeding fest in my garden I forgot to take the pics..  oops…  one for another post – does taking pictures preclude you from seeing what’s in front of you or do you see it more?

Back to today’s topic..  No wonder this robin chases me as I awake and practices yoga as often as they can.

Do you know what goes on in your garden?

 

Olympic torch celebrations, would you go?

Someone runs along the street, passing quickly by, did they have something in their hand?  Maybe a long stick?  It looked shiny, like it had a candle pushed into the end  which was lit or maybe it was just some fabric flowing from it that looked like a flame.

Would you line the street for that?

Oh, and by the way there will be some artsy theatre before it comes past and some young people singing..

Too right you would, if it was the Olympic flame and you knew thousands might turn out to watch, and if you knew what the artsy theatre company was..

I saw the show in Cathedral Square Peterborough.  It was Close-Act  a group I’ve never heard of, shame on me.  They were stunning.  My pics don’t do it justice mainly as I was a bit afraid and excited at the same time.  You try taking decent snaps with your camera on the wrong setting and being surrounded by giant dragons..  At one point I was convinced I was being corralled and surrounded within the group of dragons by the evil witch.. yes, I know “grow up Lynne you’re 51 and an adult”.  I dispute both those facts after yesterday.

The singing, well I’m not sure about posting pics of that but the shoes caught my eye and were in front of them..  Before the flame arrived lots of local school choirs sang with adult Peterborough choirs in the arches in front of the cathedral while a local group danced.  It was serene and beautiful and I was very moved.  That doesn‘t normally happen when I hear children sing, they did very well.

And the torch?

Then the whole crowd moved onto embankment literally minutes away from my home and the festivities carried on into the night.

On the Internet I learn that Close-Act are an international street theatre company based in the Netherlands that’s been running for 12 years. “Spectacular theatre turns festival and townsquare upside down!”.  They were spectacular and turned  Peterborough upside down yesterday.

When Peterborough decided to celebrate the Olympic torch coming to town for the night, they did it in style.  Well done to everyone involved and thanks for giving thousands a night to remember.

Air show #Wadd12

I’d love to show you my pics.. settle down, there you go.  Ooh yes there’s a lot of the sky.. hmm.. yes I went to the air show.. wait a mo.. see that one.  Ooh there’s the plane then there’s the sky again.

Ooh look see they’re rotating round each other and again and again and again wow it was amazing.  Not the same looking at the pics for you no?

Yes they’re a little small but they were fast and huge and loud and when it rained and I sat in the car it shook from the vibrations.  Ooh, come to think about it that was when they exploded the building.  Yes, I think they do that each year.

Look at these.  They made a heart in red smoke then drove a blue arrow through it.  Yes, it is a little faint.  They had to fly through the cloud.  No, it wasn’t the red arrows they had to do a flat show.  No, I don’t know what that means either.  I assumed they meant they couldn’t fly up and down.  Yes, there’s a lot of pics of this heart.  I had the camera on continuous to make sure I got some pics of planes.  Yes, that meant I got a lot of pics of smoke and sky too.  Why wouldn’t you want to see those?

Here’s the red arrows.  Maybe a flat display but there was nothing flat about it.  Wonderful I tell you.  Yes, only seven formation this year, very sad..

This next pic’s very arty, isn’t it?  It rained so I took it from inside the car and the rainbow isn’t a rainbow it’s the smoke from lots of planes.  Love the green and orange.  I think they might have been the Italian Air Force.

The sun came out and the blades performed in their lovely little blue planes.  No, I have no idea what type they were.  Yes, the sun was out.. there were still clouds too.  Look closely, one is upside down.  Yes, I know it’s a bit out of focus.  Aren’t you impressed I managed to get them in the frame at all?  I only have this little point and shoot you know.  No, I didn’t crop any of these photos.  I’m not a professional photographer.

I’m tired too.  I had a wonderful and very exciting day.  Yes, I agree, you should have come with me so I didn’t have to bore you with all these pics.

I do like a good air show and Waddington was a fab airshow this year, even with a few drops of rain.