Double Rainbow

Finchley Rd on a wet day, the UK weather cannot make its mind up. However even when the rain threatens there is beauty to be found, double rainbow appearing in the sky, a fantastic sight and genuinely stopped people in their tracks. ENJOY

Having a Gander- Regents Park April

Fantastic sunny spell this week in London town, sitting in a stuffy office doesn't do anyone any good, so as soon as work was over everyone flocked to the parks and green spaces dotted around London to catch the dying rays. These Canada geese were having a whale of a time with this new influx of people and their food.

 

TRASHED- environmental documentary trailer with Jeremy Irons

EcoBuild at ExCeL centre

EcoBuild is a 4 day exhibition at the ExCeL centre, one of London's hottest venues for massive conference events. and it sure was massive! There were hundreds of stands with a host of businesses promoting their products and a load of fascinating discussions in various arenas around the venue.

One of the striking features was a preview of a new film 'TRASHED' to be released later this year about our waste and its current effect on the environment and our health. It is fascinating yet hideous and Jeremy Irons as the protagonist lends his suitably grave tones to the voiceover. (If I can find a preview clip i'll post it here).

Apart from this I heard and took part in some great discussions on a sustainable future and the various meanings and interpretations of sustainable/Eco/green building and technology. I also took a good look at the straw bale house under construction and here are a few dodgy shots I took of it.

Spring time in town 2013

The crocuses are coming out and boy do they look smashing, you can find these all over the place once you get your eye in. However for some superb examples like these head to Abbey Wood, South East London. There is a ruined monastery, Lenses Abbey, and the most fantastic hidden gem of a park.

Mono-printing

trying out mono-prints and also mounting of those prints

Ink and Bleach experimental

Painting/doodling with combinations of bright inks, watercolours, pen and bleach. Mainly based on scenes from around Durham.

Badger head

cardboard and papier-mache badger head, inspired by art from End Of The Road festival, painted in acrylics.

Butterfly sculpture

experimental sculpture.

Bulbs and Moths

oil paintings using just a spatula to paint with.

STaMp BuNTinG

seemed to have spent a lot of time sewing recently, simple bunting with tape and brilliant stamp material.

CD paint splash art

inspired by doing this at fetes and shows as child, but also made famous by giant versions made by Damien Hurst. experimental piece with old CD's (may make into clock).

equipment used:

electric drill
vice (to hold drill)
sloppy acrylic paint
paper plates
thats pretty much it

here's the process and result

                       much splashback

part of the messy series

red deer stag, richmond park

snipe

kitchen art

possibly a bit twee but wanted to try some easy on the eye stuff

(fish with guns?! no its just a spoon)

it must be Colonal Mustard in the kitchen with.. knife/spoon/rolling pin

fish 4 u

spooning leads to..

Four candles

minimalist style sketches

Lindisfarne

Finchdale priory

Record Revamp

I have undertaken the task of trying to up-cycle some old records from the attic into other items such as bowls and such. I know some people think defacing records by melting them down is an act of great inhumanity against music. I myself own a record player and enjoy the delights of some great un-synthetic/little adulterated tunes. But some of the crap records in our attic.. well suffice to say i feel no shame in remodelling them into items other than those they were originally designed for.

Hence this week i attempted to make a bowl from a record. numerous youtube videos show you how, I combined the instructions from a few and used mostly common sense. The result was a method mainly consisting of, step 1. put it in the oven. step 2. take it out of the oven. step 3. enjoy your revamped record.

If you want to try this i suggest watching a few of the vids on youtube so you really can't mess up. I did take some photos along the way though so here they are.

 First find some terrible music

 Then put in the oven over a bowl with a weight over the centre

 and voila, a rather crinkled record bowl

Here i added a paper slip of my own illustrations although i have not decided if i like this effect or not

BLOOMIN BRILLIANT

the allotment is looking at its best with bright foxgloves out in their full glory. Some lovely marigolds planted by charlie are just peeping out and the gem lettuces are looking well... like gems. As we are sadly leaving Durham so soon, we have harvested some of our veg a little prematurely for an allotment feast. That means the potatoes are grubbed up for a delicious accompaniment to the radishes and spinach. We also have a fantastic garlic crop, on the small side but very flavoursome!

some protective measures have also had to be put in place for some of the veg, this includes small pots of beer to catch slugs and snails as well the ingenious use of holy to ward off would be attackers from the peas (a solution demonstrated by Sally).

animals around and about

i have come across these fellows in the last few days, they were very friendly.

Radish & Buttercup

the allotment is looking fantastic. the wet april followed by the latest hot spell has greened everything up and the radishes have grown quickly and are ready to eat. the wild spaces between the well tended beds are teeming with buttercups, foxgloves and bluebells. the garlic is growing strong and some careful investigation showed me they have grown some lovely big garlic bulbs. i weeded among the potatoes and around the garlic today, it is so nice to be out in the sun and in the allotment.