photobooth

this icon popped up on the screen and it turns out it takes pics of oneself, so did a few for fun.

Aaargh - Pomegranate Seeds - Great to Eat - Vile to Paint

God, the seeds are even worse! They don't look like something you could eat - more like shiny little plastic things. Perhaps I should have picked one and propped up a large magnifying glass in front of it and done it properly. Don't know whether I am too blind or lazy to concentrate enough - I think I shall abandon this kind of macro thing. Well, I can't always be brilliant, can I?

My painting corner is becoming very mucky. I think I will have to attempt to fold up the sofa in the spare room, put lots of rubbish away clear it out a bit and use it as a studio. I may possibly have mentioned this before - put it down to the onset of Alzheimer's. I would really like to do it but don't think I can at the moment with my knee being awkward. It would be good to do it soon, especially as I am hosting an SE1 dinner in June, so a nice empty room upstairs would be good.

Halved Pomegranate

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This was a nightmare. Basically, I just got fed up with doing it. May try one or two of the seeds next.

Saturday Painting Again

Took my new mac down to E & C for alteration but the place was closed, despite the owner having told me they were open on Saturday. Annoying as it was heavy to carry there and back. Had coffee and a croissant and bought some milk before returning later for lunch at Lye Torng. Knee really bad, but I found a trendy little wide elastic belt that Julian had given me last year to support the other knee, and wound it around twice. It still hurt like hell, but felt supported at least.

Bought a pomegranate and painted it whole today. Tomorrow I may cut it in half and paint the halves. Was reading something by Baselitz saying he had been determined when he started only to paint ugly things. Funnily, I was thinking of painting fruit first fresh, then rotting in several stages. May still do this. Bananas would be ideal. I may do some spotty ones next, then some blackened rotting ones. We shall see. Some of my paintings are also 'sinking' a bit so may prime them a bit more.

Good Lunch, Bad Knee and Possibly Worse Painting

Two new people: Steve and Sidi, to lunch club today. Plum came and then Jo turned up so five altogether. We had a good lunch and discussed the dinner party club and I showed the snaps from this. Lye Torng next week, after which we will venture back into the Borough area no doubt. We must find some new places to try.

I purchased four more canvases today. Unfortunately my right knee has decided to be awkward, in a similar way to my left knee last year. This time I have no idea what has caused it, but I have to say I can hardly walk - the joint is very wobbly - agony if the leg straightens, and the tendons at the back hurt like hell. It is a bloody nuisance. In fact I omitted to buy more milk at the supermarket as I could walk no further after the effort of getting to Rockingham Street for lunch, and staggered home to rest the leg. Last year the hospital put it down to 'wear and tear' so I shall not bother to consult them again. I am lying on the left side in bed hoping to rest it a bit, but if it does recover I know it will take ages, like last time. I am even getting a taxi home from work, as well as to work, but needs must.

Found a red onion in the house which I painted today. I am not entirely unhappy with it, but daylight will no doubt reveal the awful truth. We shall see.

Dorothy rang for a long chat earlier this evening - all about work, and his proposal. I hope it is accepted and goes ahead, though it will definitely be rather stressful. At least he will be gainfully employed - a good thing in these times.

Kiwi Time

Painted a kiwi cut in half last night. Very difficult. Oh well, I keep trying. I had to install some new Firefox thing last night which seems to have adversely affected my ability to find any snaps - 'pictures' just shows a small random selection now so I need to know the roll title, which fortunately I did. What a pain. Lunch club at Sorriso today, so I shall pick up some more canvases while I am at E & C. I am becoming drowned in finished paintings, which I shall store in bags under the sofa first, then under my dining table etc etc.

Finished Peppers and Small World

Hmmm. Finished peppers on blue ground. They are definitely a bit dubious.

Extraordinary - Lisa at work was talking to me about the painting she bought and it seems that I was at college with the artist, whose husband is Lisa's husband's oldest friend from when they were both at Toynbee Hall many years ago. She is a Polish artist called Elizabeth, who always had very smart openings with lots of rich people buying stuff. She is a very flamboyant, fun kind of person, but was not a close friend. She is overseas for six months of the year these days, so I haven't seen her for quite a while.

Evon, David (until he left for St. Martins) and Kate were my closest friends at college and Margot my Irish friend was my favourite artist there.

Lisa said that my class must have been an interesting lot. We were certainly quite varied: there was a very senior retired social worker; Christine, who had done masses of very different things such as breeding Rottweilers, clothes designing, house underpinning, racing car driving and engineering; there was a former architect; a scientist; Gaitskell's daughter; an ex BBC arts programme person; and masses of others. It was an interesting class - most people had had quite a lot of different life experiences.

Compared with my fairly organised foundation course at Kingston, my college was rather a mess - the course kept changing - we had enrolled for a degree in Art, Design and Visual Communication, which split up after the first year into, design, graphics, photography, jewellery design and Fine Art. It was a part time degree - I am not absolutely sure that it didn't change yet again. There was no room to work or store things and the place was chaotic. Still, we survived five years of all this and many went on to MA courses afterwards.