The bigger smiling sun face lino block was put away somewhere ‘sensible’, so I haven’t seen it for a long time. This tiny version can have variations in its light rays. A hair dye brush worked well!
Sunshine
Category: Colour
Unravelling (again!)
I was pleased with the knitting progress, until I noticed that I should have stopped a few rows ago to shape the neck part. Glad I had a thinner needle to put in to the row before undoing the stitches. Easy to undo everything back to that row, then the pink stitches can go back onto the 4mm needle to continue
A tour
The exhibition was up for a month, which included a couple of bank holidays. The gallery is in a public library that used to open until 7 p.m on Monday and Friday. Now it closes at 4 p.m as the latest opening hours.
I decided not to have any information next to the pictures. Viewers had time to enjoy the show without distractions. Original prints are signed, with name, date and type. The watercolours are signed, too, reasonably well camouflaged as far as possible. When I’m visiting a gallery I find myself reading the descriptions while not looking at the work properly.
It’s obvious which marks are portraying trees and which ones show swans, isn’t it? It’s also obvious that each picture took a lot of time and effort. I could make a grumpy ‘art gallery bingo’ card; people will always ask if I’m a trained artist and whether I can draw hands.
Exhibition
It’s been forty years since I had a solo exhibition. At this rate I’ll be 103 when the next one starts. Maybe I’ll have finished some more drawings by then.
Venue: Pembroke Dock Library SA72 6DW. Open 10 a.m – 4 p.m on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m – 1 on Thursday; 10 a.m – 12.30 on Saturday. Exhibition is there until the last day of April 2026.
The white poppy has been a symbol of pacifism for decades. The Peace Pledge Union has promoted nonviolent alternatives to violence since 1934.
It’s a family friendly exhibition, with nothing to upset anyone. However, the pictures could be propaganda for a better environment. Viewers so far have been pleased with the light and shadows in the trees. Showing pictures of an ideal world is easier than nagging everyone to plant more trees to keep flooding at bay.
Oval dance
In theory this is an illustration for a novel that has been an ongoing project for decades. They’re practicing for a dance at their midsummer festival. The lady in the purple dress is a character called Amelia Bliss. All of the characters have names that I’ve come across while researching my family history.
In 1871, my great grandfather was lodging with a woman and her daughter. The first transcription I found said that she was Mrs Bliss. Later updates show that she was Mrs Elliss. I was disappointed, but looked for a real Amelia Bliss anyway. The one I found, of about the right age, went on to die aged 25. It’s much easier to find info about people who aren’t my relatives.
My great grandfather was particularly elusive; he was a widower in one 1871 transcription but married in the later version. He’s nowhere to be found in 1861 or 1881, but he was in the merchant navy so could have been anywhere. In 1891 he’s a lodger (or visitor?) at his son’s/ my grandfather’s house. They both worked at the Woolwich Arsenal. His gravestone in Norwich describes him as the beloved son of Isaac and Rebecca Daines, no mention of anyone else.
End of year
I printed a midwinter card but didn’t send many copies out into the world. Here it is with an appliqué tree from a few decades ago. The knitted geese are made of aran yarn, too thick but the thinner yarns weren’t available in the colours I wanted at the time.
Birds of happiness
Picnic
The photograph of the drawing looks different, the camera sees the separate crayon lines in the shadows.
I’m using my teenage self’s methods that anyone would have expected to have improved by now. Good to see it from a different perspective before tidying it up.
Water drop coaster
There was a crochet pattern in a recent Water Aid magazine that arrived in the post. The picture looked like a white christmas tree. I wondered if the water drop would work as a knitted illusion. If I’d used the right size needles it might have looked better.
berry daines 