Learning to paint

Flowers in acrylic (Feb 2016)

Which medium to use?

Oils

Furry friends in oils

One of the things I wanted to do in my spare time on retiring was to take up painting again. Many years ago my husband bought me a set of oil paints and an easel in an effort to give me something to do that would de-stress me at the end of a working week.

On Friday evenings I set up my easel in the kitchen and spent many happy hours firstly copying a simple picture of two cats from a Christmas card and then copying a postcard of village houses in Provence. 

A village in France in oils

Although I didn't really have any idea of what I was doing with the oil paints as I'd never used oils before, I was very pleased with what I managed to produce but actually found it quite a stressful activity at the time. With family commitments, working full time and doing things that had to be done, there wasn't enough time to devote to painting in order to to finish something quickly. I found it frustrating that a painting seemed to take forever to complete so I packed away my paints and easel in the attic and decided that this was something to come back to later. 

Watercolours

Watercolour scene from a photo 2015

Time passed and I didn't even attempt to paint again whilst I was still working. After I retired I was invited to join a group of retirees at a social art group where a friend of the organiser took us through some of the basics. Although this group only met for five weeks I was inspired to continue on my own afterwards. Having bought watercolour paints and been shown how to stretch paper in the art group, I attempted to copy photographs in watercolour. This wasn't as easy as I expected, even after I took to reading up about techniques in books bought from local charity shops. Although I didn't frame any of these paintings I photographed them and used my IT skills and an app called Pic Collage to frame some of the photos as one of the things I did already know was that framing a picture always improves it. 

Over the years, I have found that as long as I have written instructions with illustrations I can teach myself most things. I wasn't sure about learning to paint though but decided to give it a try and bought a book that included graded tutorials on painting watercolour landscapes.

Watercolour landscape 2015

 I worked through several  of the tutorials, finding that these tutorials really helped me to produce paintings that looked much more like the given examples than the results of my previous attempts at copying photographs. These tutorials were especially helpful in showing me when and where to leave white areas of paper. 

Watercolour landscape 2015

Acrylics

Still life in acrylics 2015

Whilst tidying out the attics ready for redecorating last year, I came across the art materials I had put aside years ago. I was surprised but pleased to find an unopened box of acrylic paints which gave me an excuse to visit our local charity shops once again in search of 'how to paint' books but now looking for anything on painting with acrylics. I really enjoyed the first couple of acrylic tutorials and it felt much more natural to paint with the acrylics, especially as there was no need to leave white areas as these could be painted in later. I was so pleased with the results of completing the second tutorial that I framed it!

A teapot of flowers in acrylics 2015

Not fancying any of the remaining tutorials I decided to try out my new skills on copying a photo of a parrot. I was hoping to be able to make use of the vibrant nature of acrylics to produce a painting that would reflect the bright colours captured in the photo and I think I managed this. 

Parrot in acrylics 2015

It was weeks, actually several months, before I picked up my paints again. Even though I was busy with Christmas and birthdays during this time, it was mainly that I couldn't think of anything to paint. I've realised that I don't have much imagination regarding painting my own pictures. Perhaps this will come as my skills improve. For now I will continue to practise and seek inspiration in books and on the internet. 

Flowers in acrylics 2016

I have a online Pinterest account and have been using it to curate links to tutorials and examples inspirational art work. It's very pleasant to pass half an hour or more just following the suggested links and adding those I find useful to my Painting and Drawing board. 

Last week, whilst searching via Pinterest, I ended up on the Craftsy website and found a free mini class on painting flowers in acrylics. I enrolled, downloaded the videos and the painting here and at the top of the page is what I produced from following the videos on my iPad. I found it really useful to be able to see the tutor demonstrating how to mix and apply the paint as well as which areas to paint in each layer. Being able to replay the videos, when I hadn't understood or followed what was being demonstrated first time, proved to be essential. I will definitely be seeking out more painting and drawing video tutorials on the internet and can recommend this as an excellent way to learn at home.  

Valentine Flowers

Although my mum regularly buys herself cut flowers, I rarely do. So, unless I have ones I can bring in from the garden, I generally only have vases of flowers on display when I receive them as presents from family for my birthday and Mother's Day or occasionally from friends when they come to stay with us. This year, on Valentine's Day, I was most surprised and delighted to find that my husband had bought me 12 red roses. I think that, although he has bought me flowers in the past, this might be the first time in the 47 years we have been together he has bought me a dozen red roses. He did slightly spoil this romantic gesture, though, by proceeding to tell me just how cheap they had been at the well known supermarket where he had been buying bread and milk. So cheap that he couldn't walk past and not pick up a bunch! He then went on to remark on how cheaply a Valentine card and flowers can now be bought and that no-one nowadays really has an excuse for not buying a card and flowers for their loved one.  

This made me wonder at the time:

1. Are more flowers now given as presents for Valentine's Day than in the past? If so, is this mainly because cheap flowers can now be picked up along with the regular weekly shopping? 

2. How much florists have been affected by flowers being readily and cheaply available in supermarkets? 
3. Where are all the flowers grown and why a dozen red roses can be bought so cheaply at this time of year? 

Having watched a TV programme this week on how the Chinese New Year is celebrated in China and Hong Kong in which it featured a section on how millions of red roses were grown and auctioned in the run up to their celebrations, I can now make a guess at answering my third question. Somewhere there must have been huge poly-tunnels full of red roses growing in readiness for Valentine's Day. I doubt that this was in the UK though. But I could be wrong!  

  
  

January Flowers

Poppies

Poppies:Wave

In  November 2015 I went with a friend to see the Poppies: Wave exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. This is one of two poppy sculptures, the other being Weeping Window, by artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper that have been created to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War I and are currently being brought to audiences around the country. Originally these sculptures were part of the extremely popular installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London in 2014. As we hadn't made it to London to see the initial installation we were keen to view Wave whilst it was in South Yorkshire and so went during the first week of the exhibition. Thankfully we didn't try to go during the first weekend, which was so popular that cars were queued back to the M1 motorway! Even on the day we went there were huge numbers of visitors whose main purpose in being there was to see the poppies close to in person.

Poppies:Wave Nov 2015

Poppies:Wave Nov 2015 

Along with almost every other visitor to Wave we took photos as a record of our visit. As usual I took photos on my phone, which did an excellent job and I was very pleased with the results. There were several people taking photos on expensive looking cameras and I remember telling my friend that I would like to buy a good camera and learn more about taking better digital photographs but not until I had managed to digitise and organise all our photos sitting in albums in my study. As I am only about half way through this project I was not expecting to be in possession of a sophisticated digital camera any time in the near future but I had not realised then that my husband was already planning on buying me one as a present for Christmas! 

Wave after the flood Jan 2016

At the beginning of January, I realised that the exhibition of poppies at the sculpture park was due to finish and I decided it would be a shame to miss the opportunity of returning to allow my husband to experience it and also to take photos of the poppies on my new camera. So we took our new car for a spin and drove up the motorway. Parking wasn't a problem this time but the mud was! We hadn't realised it but the park had been flooded in the previous week's storms and most of the paths were very muddy. As we were only wearing ordinary shoes, not boots, we chose to make use of the park's Poppy Bus that took us down to near the sculpture. This proved to be a good choice, not only in avoiding most of the mud but also because the driver was extremely helpful and very knowledgeable. He told us about the flood and how the farmer's newly manured fields had been washed down into the park and over the paths! He also told us that over a thousand of the 5000+ poppies had been washed away during the floods. We weren't, therefore sure what we would find when we arrived at the bridge. 

Wave after the flood Jan 2016

Again there were many people viewing the poppies but I did wonder how many of them realised what had happened and that about a fifth of the poppies had been swept away. The sculpture was still impressive but it can clearly been seen in the photo that it was missing all the poppies that had actually been sited in the river itself. Still well worthwhile visiting, though, and I hope that the sculpture get as good a reception in its future venues as it is brought to audiences across the country until 2018 as part of the 14-18 NOW programme. 

Garden flowers

Sweet pea flowering in January

January's weather here has been very unseasonal this year. Apart from waking up to a dusting of snow one morning, the winter so far has been much milder, if wetter, than usual. This seems to have confused many of the plants. Plants in my garden that the frost usually kills off are still going strong and some have even flowered recently. 

Last year I grew sweet peas for the first time in years. They did reasonably well but I wasn't impressed by the amount of flowers they produced in the summer. I was impressed, though,  when I went out in the garden to find one of them flowering in January! The geraniums (actually pelargoniums) are still flowering too and I couldn't believe my eyes when I noticed that the lavender had a flower too. I'd been really surprised when the strawberries behind it had had flowers and fruit in November but I have never seen a flower on our ancient lavender bush in January in all the years we have lived in this house. 

Pelargoniums in flower Jan 2016

Lavender flower Jan 2016

Celebrations!

Well it has been a very busy few weeks since my last post. Christmas has come and gone and I don't seem to have yet got into the habit of posting regularly but perhaps that will come. 

Not only does December provide an opportunity for a big family get together but our celebrations continue into early January with our wedding anniversary, followed quite quickly by both mums' birthdays. 

Christmas

Last year, our Boxing Day party was spoilt by the arrival of a heavy fall of snow that came much earlier than expected. The journey home with elderly mums in the car was one of the most difficult and worrying of my life and I hate to think what would have happened if it hadn't been for the kind young men that were out on the roads helping push us along when we got stuck in the atrocious conditions.  This year's party at my daughter and son-in-law's was such a contrast.  The weather was much milder and it was so lovely that 4 generations of our family were there to celebrate together again. Our grandchildren have been so fortunate to have grown up knowing not only their grandparents but several great grandparents too. This is very different to my experience of growing up with only one granddad who died when I was 11. Luckily I was able to "adopt" three of my husband's grandparents, who lived well into their eighties. Thinking back, it is amazing to realise that we have been celebrating Christmas as a 4 generation family for 44 years and that in 1994 we only just missed out on there being one with 5 generations.  

January

As has become the habit in recent years, we celebrated New Year's Eve quietly at home. As usual the celebratory fireworks on the TV were fantastic and, living in a city, there were also plenty to see out of our lounge window. I didn't take any photos this year but perhaps next year I might but only if I've learnt how to manipulate the settings on my new camera to take good photos in lowlight conditions by then.   

We celebrated our wedding anniversary over a meal with friends and then again, the next evening, over another meal, with some of the family. 

Having a wedding anniversary at the beginning of January can be a little inconvenient, particularly with regards to buying anniversary cards. Its often impossible to find anything suitable in the shops just before Christmas and its not always easy to fit in card shopping just afterwards. My solution this year was to make my own, though doing this without my husband noticing was a little challenging at times. I was very pleased with the resulting card which was so much better than anything I had seen in the shops. It also meant that I sorted out the colour printer, which now prints perfectly! 

Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Sheffield Blitz

1940s' Christmas Treats

Saturday 12th was the 75th Anniversary of the first day of the Sheffield Blitz in which many Sheffielders lost their lives. Along with many others, we braved the rain to attend Sheffield Cathedral's commemoration event, Blitz Christmas.

War time memorabilia

Although we arrived looking like drowned rats, we soon dried off and began to learn more about what war time Christmas was like for ordinary people living in Sheffield in 1940. 

Thankfully no-one in my family nor my husband's was killed during the bombing of Sheffield, but at least one family friend was not so lucky. At 11.44pm on 12th December 1940, the Marples Hotel in the centre of Sheffield took a direct hit from a 500kg bomb and an estimate of 70 people sheltering there lost their lives, including my grandmother's best friend.   

Air Raid Patrol (ARP) Wardens' Equipment

For those of us born after the war, it is difficult to imagine what it was to like to live through the war years so commemorative events such as this one at Sheffield Cathedral are important in helping us to gain a little understanding of what people had to endure and how they coped. 

Would you leave your dog behind?

I didn't realise until reading the label on this dog that when going in to an air raid shelter people were expected by the government not to take their dogs with them.  

Rest station for those losing their homes

Many of the displays were put together by UKHomefront, a non profit Living History group, http://www.ukhomefront.co.uk/ who travel the country entertaining and education about life during World war 2 by portraying working class people during this time. 

I am really pleased that I now know of a home for an old brown suitcase and a couple of the old style woollen blankets that have been in the family for many years and that we have been very reluctant to throw out even though they haven't been used since I was a child. It is so good to know that they can be made use of and I am looking forward to passing them onto this group in the New Year. 

First outing with my new camera

Strawberries in October - a first for my garden

Well it's been a busy couple of weeks but, in between household chores, clearing out the loft space and scanning photos of our 1991 camping holiday, I have found some time to begin to get to grips with my new camera. 

Until today my experiments have been confined to taking photos in the house and garden, most of which have already been discarded. There is so much more freedom to experiment with a digital camera than with the old film cameras. Not only did my first Brownie camera take a mere 8 photos to a roll of film, but it would be ages before the film was processed and the results seen. Even when cameras took 24 or 36 photos per roll it was far too costly to "waste" many if any shots on experimentation. Now I can take as many photos as I like and just throw away any I do not want to keep. 

A wise owl watching over Ruskin Park

Today I took my camera to a local park. This was a new experience for me, to go somewhere for the purpose of taking photos rather than just using photography as a way of providing a record of something that was already happening such as a holiday, a meal with friends or Christmas with the family. 

Even though its only a few minutes away and I pass it regularly, it felt really strange to be going to a park on my own just to take photos, I am used to visiting such places with family or friends. Although no one was around I was surprised how awkward I felt going into a playground to take photos of the animal statues that are there. If my younger grandchildren had been with me I wouldn't have given it second thought and would have quite happily taken numerous photos of them and of any of the objects in the surrounding vicinity. 

No one told me that there is a gate!

Why can't I come in too? 

I was also amazed at how vulnerable I felt walking around on my own with a fairly expensive camera on a strap around my neck, even in the middle of the afternoon. I doubt that I will be doing much night time photography! 

Starting a blog - why now and not before?

Since retiring I have been thinking about writing a blog but until now have done anything about it. This is for several reasons, one of which is down to how busy I have been since retiring. I know that most of my retired friends and colleagues say that they can't understand how they ever fitted in work and I must admit that this is something I have wondered and said too. How did I manage to work full time for so many years alongside being a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, and daughter-in-law and still have time for hobbies and a social life? But of course I didn't! Or at least I did when I was younger and fitter but not as I got older, work became more pressurised and family commitments changed. Hobbies fell by the wayside and my social life shrank. On retiring, I promised myself to catch up with old friends and to take up again hobbies I used to enjoy plus pursue new ones and so this how I have spent many pleasant hours over the last two years.

The main reason, though, for not starting a blog is that I didn't know what to blog about. I'm still not sure exactly what I intend for this blog but I have been spurred into action by being given an early Christmas present - a new all singing, all dancing digital camera.

Whitely Bay 1963

One of the things I began straight after I retired was scanning and digitising all the old photographs from our many albums. So many memories and I am only up to 1990! This week, I found an album in our loft which contains photos that I took on my first ever camera at the age of 10 during a school trip to Whitely Bay and Newcastle. One of the my photos won first prize in the school's photo competition. Not that there were many entrants as very few of my classmates owned or had access to a camera!

Boat on the River Tyne 1963

I still have my first camera along with several others I have owned since, each one having more facilities and able to do more than the last. But in recent years I have just been using my phone to take photos and whilst these photos are of a quality at least equal to my previous digital cameras, I really would like to take even better photos. I would love my photos to be as good as many I see posted on a daily basis in the Facebook groups I belong to. Considering how many photos I have left to scan, reason suggested that I concentrate on this task before attempting to further develop my digital photography skills. But my husband thought otherwise! 

Bridge over the Tyne 1963

So I now have a new digital camera, given to me this week so that by Christmas I will know how to work it! Having already spent hours reading the instruction book, accessing and following help information on the web in order to get this camera up and running and able to upload photos directly to the Cloud, I suddenly realised how many new things I have learnt and discovered since retiring. It occurred to me then that perhaps I had found something I could blog about on a regular basis. Lets's see!  


I once had to blog about my work on an on-line course so I am not completely new to using Blogger but that was three years ago. So my first job is to re-learn how to use the software!