Splodges

Our regular Wednesday (no-school) extra curricular activities involved splodging paint this week. We resisted the temptation to get our fingers in amongst it, unfortunately. ('and make up for the sobriety of my youth')

Anyway, here are the results, numbered, which are Chloe's and which are mine?

Number One

Number Two

Number Three

Number Four


We're seeing all sorts of things besides butterflies, and with a bit of tinkering with the graphics tablet, we might be able to get a few other animals out of them. Any suggestions?

throwing it about some more

Chloe had her first judo tournament yesterday, and the difference from the last collective session apparently couldn't have been greater. I couldn't be there because I was travelling back from the UK; not something I allow to happen usually, but it was a positive choice to be able to watch a friend perform in a show on Friday night. No regrets there. In fact, given the stress of the event, and the thought of watching people attack my only daughter, it was probably a good idea I wasn't there. It would have been hard holding myself back from launching onto the mats and giving her attackers a good slapping. Anyway, tough as it was ...


... the pride is almost palpable. That's my girl!

Sand and lots of it

The last week or so took me down to (and up and down and up and down) the Dune de Pyla - the largest sand dune in Europe near Bordeaux.

Done and eating!

It took another hour or so, cost me a new blister, a few scratched knuckles and a soggy knee from kneeling on the grass; but we got there, and Chloe's delighted. We started feeding him from the mountain of compost material that's been piling up in the garden for three years. he's called Clifford by the way. Not the big red dog, but the huge orange pig. As Chloe said, it beats watching TV.

the rolypig has arrived

Chloe and I entered a competition to win a rolypig composter. We're putting it together in true three steps forward, two steps backwards MFI/Ikea fashion. But we will win, and we'll have a photo up here soon!

Hitting the spot

Taken at last week's Batala Portsmouth rehearsal. I get there whenever I can, but my back's been too dodgy to strap on a drum for the last few months. Still, it's fun. There's a bit of interest in the idea of a band here in France, and I'm planning to run an afternoon workshop to give people who've expressed an interest a go at hitting the spot. If that goes well, I'd hope to run a short project of say 10 weeks, aiming to perform in public once or twice. Since talking about it, we've had two offers of gigs and one of a workshop. And we haven't even started yet!

Throwing it about a bit

Chloe's judo club had the parents in for a bit of a demonstration at the weekend, and this is one of the shots I've played with since. I decided not to show the ones of Chloe tackling the massive black belt 2nd dan, but this one, who she actually managed to throw. Once. I don't think he underestimated her a second time. After all you don't learn anything the second time you're kicked by a mule. (Country boy's law.)

Snow at last

It makes the investment in my snow tyres a little easier to bear! Although I don't suppose the daffodil has any such positive sentiments. Chloe on the other hand ...

Daffodils instead of snow

Taken a couple of days ago; where there should be snow, there are flowers thanks to an exceptionally mild winter so far.

Happy New Year

Celebrate with this CAS podcast ...


Click here to get your own player.



Cheers to Angus 45RPM for the link

More doing

Progress report on another element of the exhibition - 'real' sunflowers preserved in 'exhibition cases' on a background of re-used brown enevelopes...

Done is good!

Maybe 'doing is good' is better. I don't know. I'm sitting here pretty shocked that I've made it to the end of November without falling asleep at the wheel, or getting carted off on a stretcher from some meeting, or having a heart attack on a plane. OK OK I'm maybe exagerating a bit, but it's been a long long year, and I've been trying to do too much as usual.

Anyway, a health-imposed break from the mad running around has been an opportunity to get some stuff done, rather than just doing it.

Of course I'm still enjoying a few blogs of a morning and came across this post on gapingvoid, where hugh mcleod is collecting 500 word manifestos. Hallelujah. Making is good. But to avoid never finishing anything, (who me?), done is good.

On the road again

Long trip. Late at night. Torrential rain. Roadworks. And just to cap it all, suicidal French drivers. Time to be afraid. Very afraid. It's the best way to stay alive under these circumstances.

Autumn and still more Strawberries

Yes I know, these aren't strawberries, but when you've seen one you've seen them all, and you saw one last time. But we did just have another few this morning, and very nice they were too. But instead of another photo, here's a shot of the first beech leaves turning taken in the luvverly sunshine.

Global warming?

We picked this in the garden yesterday. October 7th at 750m altitude. It looks good enough to eat. Which is of course what we've done.

A rainy day in Swansea

That's all I have to say about that.

Sunflowers on canvas

I ordered a few sheest of different fabrics for inkjet printing and have been trying them out. Getting the printer to take up the thick sheet is a challenge, but it sort of gets there with a very subtle bit of encouragement. Choosing the print setting is hard because there isn't one for the kind of stuff I'm using, so I'm having to test a few to see what works best.

The idea is to be able to add other media to the sheets, like this first one is canvas, and I'll be adding fabric and acrylic paint to that.

The next experiment is getting the right adhesives ...

On the tarmac again

Off to Swansea this afternoon for a couple of days, back here late Friday and (probably) off to the southeast of England next week. I expect to clock up 14 or 15 hours on the tarmac this week. I'm thinking of getting my own plane. Smaller of course.

Sunflowers and window frames

As some of you will probably know, I've been working on a photography/multi-media project this year. So far the ingredients are sunflowers and window frames. The central idea is about how framing affects what we see, and our choices in that. As I've been looking at framing in its widest sense, I've been wandering off into issues of preservation and decay, aging and the cycle of life. But I think I'm now seeing all that as a different project. Maybe the sunflowers will feature there too, I don't know yet.

Anyway, acquiring and experimenting with the window frames was the first stage, and I think I'm pretty happy with all that. I'm still photographing sunflowers, even though they're looking pretty old and tired now. My current stage is experimenting with different printing techniques and materials for the image, and the paint and other media I'm using too. I've found some A4 sheets that go through my inkjet printer that are made of a whole range of materials: canvass, silk, linen and cotton. And I'll be sending some images to be laboratory printed onto canvass too.

The plan is to be able to show some of this work to the local town councillor for culture and see if I can get a date for an exhibition in the art gallery some time next year.

Fishing and wood

We caught some little fish. Well, they did. I was just enjoying the spectacle and the sunny afternoon alongside the Allier.


And, as I said, the wood's in ...


There's something primieval about a pile of wood and an open fire.