Photos of the week

You know that polite question, "What have you been up to lately?" ... it's meant to keep the conversation going but it stops me in my tracks every time. Maybe my fallback answer is "Lots of pleasant and interesting things - interesting to me, at least" - no, that's a bit snarky. Better to deflect it with a generic "well, I've seen a few exhibitions - what have you seen recently?"

Fortunately my phone camera is cooperating again - I use it as a notebook...

Monday (29 April) - Mary Quant show at V&A (till 16 Feb 2020) - who knew there would be dolls? 

 followed by a walk through Kensington and lots of wisteria

to Japan House for a talk relating to the Living Colours exhibition (till 19 May)

Tuesday 30 April - After drawing at the RAF museum, home to some peaceful afternoon sunshine -

and a walk over the hill to see the grandbaby, with another look at the tree peonies on Mountview Road -

and the surprise find of a cheval mirror left "on the wall" - it had to come home with me, I've been wanting a different view of my feet, not to mention it's great for faux-ironing of linen shirts (spray the crumpled bits with water, tug into smoothness, leave to dry) -

Wednesday 1 May - after the woodblock printing class, I wandered down Kennington Road (the A23), an area new to me -

Library!

Thursday 2 May - Hampstead Heath and Kenwood, with the azaleas and the magical Handkerchief Tree -

 its fallen firework blossoms -

 and views over the city, as the clouds moved in ...

Another chance to spend time with the grandbaby and her parents (tall parents, long baby!) -

before going to the British Library for a talk on the new Writing exhibition (till 27 August) -

taking the long way home from the tube station, past the tower going up up up...

and trying on recent purchases from charity shops, including this skirt, which I bought for the banana fabric rather than to wear -

Friday 3 May - "going for coffee" locally turned into lunch -

After which, it was "over the hill" again. The baby doesn't much care for Tummy Time but she does like looking at high-contrast things -

In the evening, a great talk at the BL about alphabet books - and yes, I couldn't resist his book about the alphabet, which is divided into chapters arranged in alphabetic order -

Saturday 4 May - an early(ish) excursion to Waitrose for a few groceries and a chance to sit with the "free" coffee and read the "free" newspaper - nice to run into an old friend and chat

Morning light on Crouch Hill

Later, back "over the hill" for a bit of gardening

Sunday 5 May - quick trip to the RA to see The Renaissance Nude (till 2 June)

The Temptation of St Anthony, c1520 (attrib to Jan Wellens de Cock)

which included a sparsely-arrowed (and "notably sensual") St Sebastian -

by Bronzino, c1533

Elsewhere in the building, a small exhibition of works on paper by Mali Morris (till 4 August), through which I find yet more ideas for woodblock printing -

 Walking towards home through Regent's Park, with chestnuts in full bloom -

 and some lovely motorbikes parked up on Camden Parkway -

And today, as the invasion of ants continues, I tried to disrupt their trails by masking them with the chemical scents of proprietary cleaners, but it seems cider vinegar is the weapon of choice -

Ready for wiping down

Ready for everyday living

How to keep them away?  Keep ALL traces for food cleaned up.....

Clean your kitchen after each meal. Ants usually only enter your home if there’s a food source there. Unfortunately, even a small amount of food can draw ants. You need to keep all traces of food cleaned up to keep the ants away.^[18]

• Don’t allow dirty dishes to sit in the sink. Wash them daily or after every meal, for best results.
• Spray down and wipe counters using soapy water, an all-purpose cleaner, or a solution of 1 part apple cider vinegar and 1 part water.
• Sweep and mop the kitchen daily to remove crumbs that could attract ants.
• If your family eats in other areas of your home, you should sweep or vacuum those areas daily.

So it's true that ants are an indicator of imperfect housework!

When photos go wrong

Studio Saturday

One of the spurs to action on the home-studio-clearup front - if mere MESS wasn't enough! - was coming this book of photos of people's carefully untidy (or not) workspaces. It depressed me no end, and is headed for the charity shop.

 I set the time for 15 minutes

and with a bit of redistribution of boxes into cupboards, rather than sorting their contents, some clear space appeared -

"Figure out what you need."

1. space to work
2. work to do

Hedges of London N8

Only just noticed this bit of topiary, even though it's on one of the roads I walk along frequently on the way to "my other garden" -

This time of year - before the wretched privet blooms - the walk over the hill passes a variety of blooming hedges -

Choysia

Lilac

Clematis (by night)

Poetry Thursday - Celia Celia by Adrian Mitchell

Celia Celia

When I am sad and weary
When I think all hope has gone
When I walk along High Holborn
I think of you with nothing on

- Adrian Mitchell


Adrian Mitchell (1932-2008)was "a Hampstead-dwelling atheist and pacificist", according to The Telegraph's obituary. Celia Celia is his most famous love poem, and often quoted - it was written for his second wife, who he met in the 1960s.

Perhaps his best known poem is To Whom It May Concern, about the Vietnam War, which was first read in Trafalgar Square in 1964.

Looking east along High Holborn in 1955 (via)

Woodblock Wednesday - old blocks with new colours

This term I'm revisiting the blocks carved and printed in the two-day course in July 2017. The source was my drawing of a textile design by Eileen Hunter in the V&A -

reworked into a four-colour print -

This time round, printing started with the background block, trying to get the colour even

and using dark and light greys

For the first layer of overprinting is yellow ochre, and the first print "somehow" got turned around...

The others were better -

Light and dark, when wet -

and a close-up of the mid-tone backgrounds when dry -

Drying makes the ochre lighter, brighter. The plan is to use burnt sienna for the next layer and burnt umber for the top layer, then to print the colours in the reverse order.

At home, I tied up the blocks a bit

and printed some more, using Payne's grey rather than mixing my own grey. The first printing didn't start well -

As the block got used and I got bolder with the amount of paint, things improved -

Interestingly, diluting the paint considerably hardly affected the darkness of the print ... until it got very diluted indeed.

The first print with burnt umber (top) was a mess, I was in a hurry.  Slowing down, being more careful, made a big difference! -

On reflection I realised that it might have been better to print the same block as used for the ochre in class. Will try that next time.