Update on new plastic artwork.

The weather was a bit better today so I did my walk in the morning. Mind you it took me twice as long due to all the people and dogs I stopped to chat to.

I've been getting on with the new art project, it's coming together nicely. All of the plastic embellishments are finished, it's just a matter of stitching them onto the backing, then framing it. I've made a video of the job so far, I'll make another one when it's finished.



Must get on, Toodle pip.  ilona

More pictures from Ferens Gallery.

You'll need your sunglasses on for this one, lots of bright colours. This is a painting, quite a large painting. I'm not a big fan of abstract, but when there has been many hours of work put into it, and such detail, I have to be impressed. From a distance it looks like it's been done on a computer.

But look closely and every shape has been drawn with a pencil and coloured in with paint. Flippin amazing.

A wall hanging in wet felting. Lots of texture.

This exhibit is a little odd, but quite intriguing. Each stick has a hand attached to it, and is waving a lacy white scarf. I think the message here is perhaps something to do with surrender.

Back to colour. Residents of Hull will recognize some of the iconic buildings,this picture is crammed full of details of the city and surrounding area.

A close up, look how neatly it is painted.

More wet felting.

And look at this stunning picture. Isn't it fabulous.

Look closely and it's pieces of painted paper stuck down to make a collage.

Pieces of paper torn from magazines make up this landscape.

Three very large pictures.

Now look closely, the design is made up of painted dots of various sizes, and stripes. So very skillful.

You can click on a picture and it will come bigger as a slide show. It's a very good exhibition and is on until the middle of April at Ferens Art Gallery in Hull.  ilona

Open Exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery.

I had a day out in Hull today, I wanted to see the Open Exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery, before it closes next month. You may remember I entered three pictures in this last year but didn't get accepted. I didn't  apply this year. 

It was rip roaring windy today, and the bus battled it's way over the Humber Bridge. It was rattling and knocking, and there was a massive bang which appeared to come from the back end. It sounded just like a tyre blowing. That happened to me once when I was driving a coach over the Thelwall Viaduct in the third lane of the M6, at 70mph. Luckily it was a back tyre, not a front one. Today it wasn't a tyre, I don't know what caused the bang. 

I see they have modified the bus route slightly since I last traveled on the 350 from Scunthorpe. There is a new shorter cut into the Paragon Bus Station, entering it from the back instead of getting stuck in traffic going round the front of the railway station. Same coming out, much better. 

I took quite a few pictures of the artworks. Mostly I was interested in the textile pictures, but some of the paintings were also stunning. I'll divide them up into separate posts, too many to put them all together. 

This is a quilt, about the size of a toddlers cot. Very small pieces, with hand stitching embellishments. A lot of metalic threads were used. 

The green cords are couched on with very small neat stitches.

I bet you can't guess what this picture is made with. They look like small tiles, until you get closer.

Feathers, cut into tiny squares and stuck on with glue.

These are long pieces of calico, strips torn off a larger piece, and stretched out between two pieces of wood at each end and secured to the wall.

On closer inspection they have small pictures painted on and stitched over with free motions machine stitching. The odd thing is all the threads have been left loose to hang down. I couldn't leave my work like that, I would have to tidy up and trim them.

How to turn an ironing board into an artwork. Paint a body with a colourful costume on a piece of board and screw it on.

A small painting with lots of texture, on a piece of broken pallet board.

Couldn't quite work this out. It looks like layered papier mache with plaster added to it, to give it thickness and strength, then painted and glazed.

A woven wall hanging. I like the wavy lines.

I didn't buy a brochure for £2.50 so I can't give you any artists names or prices. I did see a lot of little red dots however, so quite a lot have sold.

I'll put some more pics on tomorrow.  ilona

A super bargain offer.

I've just posted this on a forum, so to save time and effort of writing a blog post today, I will copy and paste it here.

I have in my possession a 'No Licence Needed confirmation', from TV Licensing.co.uk. They thank me for telling them that I don't need a TV licence, and this claim will last until February 2021. They very kindly tell me that I won't receive any more letters from them until just before this expires. 


I am able to offer a copy of this letter with your own details, name, address, superimposed at the top of the letter, and on the certificate at the bottom. You can then present your own confirmation to the TV licensing people when they come knocking at your door. Show them this exemption and they will go away. 


As this service will incur great expense to me, scanning, copy and pasting, printing and photocopying, I must ask for recompense. However, I have a 'mates rates' exclusively for my reader friends on the blog. Please dispatch to me at your earliest convenience in a plain brown envelope, the sum of £75, sorry cash only, used notes, with your details to be entered onto the confirmation. Hurry in case your current TV licence is about to expire, and I will endeavour to send your confirmation back by return post.  


I think you will agree that this offer is much more preferable to the current system of robbing you of £150 for a TV licence. Don't delay, do it today.

ilona

Happy Birthday

So, the World Wide Web is thirty years old today. Happy Birthday, but is it really something to celebrate, or is the internet the biggest evil of our century?

There's no doubt that it has made life more interesting, the way we now have a whole library at our disposal in our own homes. A few clicks and we can find out about anything we like. We can study subjects to further our education, there are distance learning courses, and we can learn new skills from videos posted by people who have all ready worked out how to do something. We can join communities of like minded people, always someone to talk to on forums so nobody needs to feel isolated and alone.

The internet has given me a hobby, an outlet for my creative juices, which helps keep my brain ticking over. Putting words together to make some kind of sense is an extension of me being creative with my hands. I need to run the two skills side by side to enrich my life. My head is never silent.

Then there's the dark side of the WWW. Where there are gains to be had, there are also evils to contend with. I remember when I was younger, before I had a computer, my world was a very much smaller place. I didn't take much notice of anything happening further afield, apart from the big news stories which hit the headlines in the newspapers or on the TV screen.

Now there is too much information available to me and I have to be more selective with my reading matter. Yes, my brain has expanded at an alarming rate over the last few years, as I've become more aware of what is happening in other parts of the world. Now I find myself peddling backwards, skim reading anything which will not directly enhance my life. I'm pulling in the drawbridge, blotting things out that I don't need to know about. 

A bit dramatic I know. We can't get away from world crime on our little island, the internet is the bridge which brings it here. If something cannot be done to curb the easy access that criminals have to peddle their evil anywhere they like, crime will grow and grow. Crime has a free passage through the internet.  Maybe a time will come where we have to kill it off.    ilona