Blogging today

Back from Spain/Portugal and with zillions of photos of course. Some are on instagram and here are a few more....

Let's start with Santiago, and I'll put aside Real Life and post more over the next week (promise!). I got a bit obsessed with the horreos (granaries) among which there are many nuances, and they are found in different situations - but I did not photograph EVERY one! Also I'll spare you most of the pix of meals, though they were very important at the time.

The quiet place

The busy place

Cathedral undergoing renovation

Under wraps

Secret stairway - this is one of my favourite photos from the entire trip.
It didn't look like this - the camera has changed the lighting
to the amazing greeny-yallery colour

The first of oh so many pastry shops! Of course we had to
eat oh so many pastries to keep our energy up....

Eating ice cream in the park near the pension, watching the crowds
in the twilight, such an everyday scene, with a fountain out of shot

After walking to Finisterre (Fisterra), we took the bus back to Santiago and had another look around (staying in the luxury of an airbnb - with a kitchen).

I collected pix of drainpipes -

 It was raining -

 ...and, whatever the weather, it's hilly -

 But we managed to find a bakery or two -

It's very tempting to leave off the blogging, rather than resuming after the break, but one motivation for doing the blog in the first place has been to create a record for myself, which now proves useful - and also surprising, when I dip back into the archives at random and come across things I'd completely forgotten. Plus it helps me organise my thinking - as I take photos, I think of how to present them on the blog, and often a story emerges with connections I wouldn't have made otherwise. (That doesn't work the same way on instagram; it has to do with the chore of typing on the phone.)

So I'll continue blogging, and will continue to try to do it daily, bringing a little discipline into my free-floating life!

Drawing Tuesday - British Museum

Ancient Cyprus was the gallery for meeting up.

These statues caught my eye, and I hoped to draw half a dozen of them

 but time permitted only three, in two brownish colours of inktense pencil -

Jo, kept outside the building by a horde of people simultaneously arriving by coaches and needing to pass through the narrow gate of the security bag-check, found some ideal subjects in some builders, who stood still for a long time -

 and, more lively, some young women eating their lunch -

Janet B didn't have the problem of the subject moving - this portrait was done in stone, in ancient Cyprus -

 She rendered the jugs in 6B pencil -

 Janet K captured a variety of painted or sculpted animals -

 Judith found a triple-bodied warrior -

 and a young Roman man -

The variations of colour are from wetting the ink (Rotring cartridge).

Extra-curricular activities

Jo acquired a Thames foreshore permit

Janet B has been making banana bread -

Janet K took her sketchbook to Kew Gardens and looked at different types of foliage, including some that we identified as Metasequoia (dawn redwood) -

The group is meeting without me for the next two weeks and I hope someone will be taking photos!

Heading to the edge of the earth

... to Finisterre, on foot from Santiago de Compostela. Not a long walk, but I may be gone for some time. 

The aim is to post pix on instagram - https://www.instagram.com/margaretcooter/

Woodblock Wednesday - lurid distraction

Meeting at my place for woodblock printing on non-class Wednesdays, Veronica is focusing on printing yet another revision of her lilies, and they look more gorgeous all the time.

 I was a bit distracted by the imminent arrival of my sister and nephew, flying from Vancouver to go walking in northern Spain, but did print a few mountains on pages from a japanese book, including some rather lurid ones -

 Also I found some samples of mounts and tried out a few mountains in them -

 and some interstellar scenarious in others -

Classes resume of 25 September ... I'm looking for a new project ...

Drawing Tuesday - V&A

The ceramics department of the V&A always offers a lot of scope. I had figurines in mind, for some crazy reason, but definitely not this bunch -

 I did quite like this commedia dell'arte family -

 and "woman with a fish"

 but settled on these two...

 and couldn't resist the mythological(?) creature on this bowl -

They all fit on a page, and turned out rather pale...

Carol was bold -

 Joyce found pomegranates -

Sue's choice was a large sculpture by Peter Voulkos, "Standing Form" -

 ... and a teapot with orange peel glaze by Peter Meanley, 1994 (he's been a saltglaze teapot maker for several decades now) -

Najlaa found patterned plates by Patrick Caulfield (1992) and Peter Ting (1997) -

Janet K started with a couple of heads

 ... and moved on to a form by Merete Rasmussen -

 Judith liked the collection of shapes

 ... and the patterning of a huge plate that hangs on the wall -

 Extracurricular activities 

Carol had a vintage railway experience -

Janet K spent a family-filled fortnight at a cabin on a lake in Canada - this is the "shed" in its back yard -