Portrait of my brother

After the snowy trees, I decided I wanted to have another go at painting a portrait.  People are hard to draw and getting a likeness is fiendishly difficult but it can be achieved with practice.

I had in mind a close-up profile photo of my brother taken by his wife on holiday, which I particularly liked.

I decided I would use A5 canvas board again, and started to sketch him out on the board.

As the likeness grew, and I was enjoying the way the graphite was moving around on the canvas board (you can smudge it very easily with your fingers to get shadows and texture), then I made a decision to keep it as a pencil portrait and not to paint over it with acrylic.  Because while it was coming along in pencil, and actually starting to look like my brother, chances are plastering over it with acrylic would ruin it and he'd end up looking like something from a freak show!

So it has remained a pencil drawing, started and finished on 20 May 2013,  and a not too bad one to boot:



And the success of doing this one led me to do the next one...

Winter Trees

The winter of 2009 was a very snowy one and the week before Christmas, it was decided that TLH and I would drive to his native homeland to fetch his parents and bring them back so they could celebrate with us and his sister.

The journey, on a good day in summer, takes between 2.5 and 3 hours each way.  This journey, on 21 December 2009, was a couple of days after heavy snowfall and media reports of cars being abandoned on the approach roads to Basingstoke and, indeed, as we approached one of the big roundabouts outside Basingstoke, the Sky News reporter and satellite van were still there, and abandoned cars lined both sides of the hard shoulder.

We didn't have too much trouble with the roads but it did take us over 7 hours to get to his parents, mostly due to one of the Severn Bridges being closed due to sheet ice falling from the cables, and subsequent enormous traffic jams trying to get over the open one, so we had to go the long way round.

It was a very long journey.  But the upshot was the weather.  It had stopped snowing but it got very foggy in Hampshire and Berkshire (we go across country to get to the M4).  It was incredibly atmospheric, so I spent a great deal of my time taking photos on my iPhone out the window as we were zooming past the scenery.  I remembered I'd got some surprisingly good photos, considering I was in a moving vehicle travelling at about 50mph+ when they were taken, and I decided one of these might be a good subject for my next painting:

See what I mean?  It ended up being a toss-up between this last one, the one with the broken fence and the sun and the one I finally chose:

I love the colours in this photo - the slight green and pink tinge to it all, and the yellow where the sun presumably is.  And the two trees, just standing there.

For some reason I didn't take photos of the process of painting this one but you can be guaranteed it involved scumble glazing with my stencil brushes!  I used an A5 sized canvas board for this one and, if I remember, this was a quick painting, only taking a few hours to do, and it came out really well:



And a close up:



I've now put this in a matt silver frame and it looks great!  I may well go back and do some other paintings from this photo series...

Bluebell Painting

Time for a catch up again.

My last flower painting is one of bluebells, that I started on 8 May so getting on for a month or so ago.

I found a photo on Flickr that I really liked and thought I'd have a go at painting it, especially as it's bluebell season round here just now.  I mean, have a look at these photos I took while running through a bluebell wood just the other day - I had no idea they were there and they sort of ambushed me as I ran round a corner; I just HAD to stop and take some photos!





So, as usual, I taped a piece of A4 sized acrylic paper to the board on my easel, masking-taped off the margins and attached the photo I was to copy above it:



I then decided on a shade of light green to cover the whole surface:



Then, using my trusty stencil brushes, started scumble glazing in the background colours.  I then drew out the shape of the focal point flowers, and painted them in white:



I added more background colours, more blues and pinks, and started painting pale green on the stalk:



Then started working on the flowers themselves:



Until I was happy with them:





Added light and shading, including on the stalk:



And here's the finished painting, with the masking tape removed and edges tidied, taken on 12 May:



I decided I needed a bit of a break from painting flowers for the moment, so looked for something else to paint instead, finally deciding on a photo I took during the snowy winter of, I think, 2009, which I'll show you in my next posting.

Orange Tulip painting

This is my sixth flower painting and is of an almost neon-bright orange tulip - the light is coming from behind the tulip rather than from one side or the other, which is why the colour is so zingy and in your face!

Don't forget you can click on all the pictures to make them bigger.

I started this one on Tuesday 30 April and finished it on Sunday morning 5 May,  less than a week from start to finish.  As always, I printed out the original picture onto A4 paper, then masked off my A4 acrylic paper with masking tape to the size I wanted:



The printout had slightly bluer colours than the one on my computer screen which I preferred, so I decided to make my painting closer to the computer screen one than the printed one, which meant it would be more purple than blue.

I used a very diluted acrylic wash to start covering the white paper with a bluey-green in the top third, and purple in the bottom two-thirds:



I then drew out the shape of the flower in pencil:



And painted it white so I could see where it would go:



Then I started working on the background, adding lighter and darker shades of green, blue, purple, violet, yellow and black:





Then when I was happy with the background - which always takes the longest time to do in these kinds of paintings - I repainted the flower white again:



And painted in the stem in a light mint green with white edges, then the flowers of the tulip in shades of apricot, orange, yellow, red and pink:



And this is the final, finished version, after removing the masking tape, touching up any places where the paint got under the tape, and signing it.  I'm very, very pleased with it!

Spring finally springs...

Isn't this weather absolutely bloody marvellous?  You know it can't last, don't you?  I mean, this is Britain we're talking about here.  This'll probably be it now - it'll start raining tomorrow and that'll take us through until the clocks go back.

But it's jolly bloody lovely while it's here.  And how are you all, my lovelies?  I'm doing exceedingly well, actually.  The swifts have arrived for the summer, which always perks me up, and that, combined with the sunshine, means I'm feeling remarkably cheery!

We had a nice family get-together this past Sunday - it was a sort of joint birthday beano to celebrate my 50th that was on 23 April, and my mother's 75th which is today (Happy birthday, mum!!)  Just a small gathering of immediate family with lots of lovely food, and it's always a great joy to me to see my brother and his family, and see how his kids are growing up.  We decided to walk off the humungous lunch by taking the kids to the nearby playground, which wasn't there when Chris (my brother) and I were growing up.  We just had to make do with the field (the 'rec', as we called it), the nearby swimming pool and the very tiny old-fashioned playground nearby that just had swings, a wooden slide (yes, wooden!) and a lethal Witches Hat thing that looked like this but which has now been banned due to health & safety concerns:

But a great deal of money has been spent on it now and it's brilliant.  All that was missing was an outdoor cafe where parents could sit and have a coffee while keeping an eye on their kids.

Even we had a go - this rather dark picture is my brother having climbed to the top of this dodecahedron-shaped climbing wall, being photographed by his eldest daughter:



And today I decided to pop back over to my mother's to take her some flowers for her birthday and also to pick up my brand new shiny incinerator so I can start burning things again (bwahahaha!!), and I got home to notification that my very own Fuggler has been "constructed, restrained and sent on its way" to me!!  You remember I told you about Fugglers?  Back in this post - they're psychotic-looking handmade stuffed 'things', often carrying flick knives or small axes and always sporting alarmingly realistic human teeth, and I think they're genius (wish I'd thought of them...)

What else?  Oh yeah, TLH and I have been doing the 5:2 Fast diet since mid March - this is the diet where you eat normally (more or less) for 5 days a week, then on 2 days you restrict your calorie intake to about a quarter of what you would normally eat, so 500 cals for women, 600 for men.  I've lost about 8lbs and TLH has lost at least 14lbs and more like 20lbs.  It's a very easy diet to do and because you're only restricting your calories for two days a week, it's not much of a hardship because you can still eat what you normally would on the other 5 days.  So we still have curries and fish and chips and bottles of wine and chocolate, just not on 2 days of the week!  The weight comes off slowly (unless you're TLH, that is) at the rate of about 1lb a week and you will fluctuate but the other health benefits you gain from this are almost more important than losing the weight.  You can, of course, do more fasting days per week if you want to lose weight more quickly, but that might be counterproductive in that you'll feel more restricted and 'punished' (if you know what I mean).  You can also watch what you eat a bit more on the days you're not fasting (which is sort of what we've done) and also increase your exercise (which is what TLH has done - he's run a total of 19 miles over the last 3 days!)  Today is one of my fast days (the other is Thursday) and so far all I've had is a boiled egg and a single slice of unbuttered Ryvita with a cup of tea with skimmed milk for breakfast; a cup of low calorie instant hot chocolate over at my mother's (who is also doing the diet and has lost over 10lbs)); and a small pickled gerkhin at about lunchtime.  It's now 2.35pm and I'm feeling a little peckish so will probably have a cup of tea when I've finished this and go and find something else to do.  Dinner tonight will be chicken breasts stuffed with very low fat creme fraiche with lots and lots of herbs (tarragon, chives and mint) which have been baked on a bed of leeks and cabbage.  No fat, no carbs, very low calorie and extremely tasty.  Tomorrow I will be eating as normal.  Then Thursday will start will a breakfast of half a tub of very low fat cottage cheese with 100gm of raspberries - yum!

The downside is that you do have to be very conscientious about calorie counting, and therefore weighing food, on the two fasting days but a set of electronic kitchen scales helps together with the MyFitnessPal smartphone app.  We've both been very pleased with the results so far - TLH is going to need some new trousers before long because the ones he's got are just not staying up anymore!

And I've finished yet another flower painting, one I'm really very pleased with, but I'll do a separate post about that.

So I hope everything's copacetic in your corner of the planet as well!!

SwiftWatch 2013

Every year I keep an eye out for the first returning swift of the season and today was the day for their return!!

UPDATE - and that was the only swift I saw until this weekend!  I don't know where the others had got to and I was getting a bit concerned, thinking they'd all taken a wrong turning somewhere and had got lost but, no, finally, FINALLY, everybody else arrived yesterday, and I can now hear them all squealing with delight as they meet up with old friends circling high above my house.  Bliss!

Achievement unlocked - half century attained!

 **Warning - gratuitous overuse of the word 'lovely' in the following post.  Apologies in advance**

Yesterday was eventful at Jones Towers.

I turned 50.  I'm not entirely sure how it's happened but I don't seem to have done anything more than just staying alive for the requisite number of years.  And there's been at least one occasion when that might not have happened.  But here I am, made it to 50 years and one day.

I don't feel 50 at all, more like 25.  And, rather gratifyingly, there was more than one Facebook comment yesterday expressing surprise that I'm as old as I am, which was rather lovely and good for the self-esteem.

A friend asked me how it felt to have reached half-a-hundred years old - I told her I wasn't sure yet but the beautiful weather has helped a lot and, frankly, being 50 is better than the alternative.  Sadly I know a few too many people who didn't manage to make it this far, through illness or stupidity, so, on the whole, I'm really quite pleased to just keep buggering on.

It was a quiet birthday - about a year ago I was pondering whether to try and have a 50th birthday party, but then realised (and this isn't a self-pitying whine, I'm just stating a fact) that I don't really have that many friends and most of my relations live a long way away and just wouldn't be able to afford hotel accommodation, etc., so there was no point in having a bash.  Which, actually, I'm okay about, because I would have only stressed about it to an enormous degree and, consequently, not enjoyed it much!

Yesterday was, of course, a work day which meant that The Lovely Husband was out at meetings all day, so I would have to entertain myself.  My mother rang to sing 'happy birthday' down the phone at me, which was lovely - she and my step-dad are off to visit relatives in Holland so I won't be seeing her until the beginning of May when she'll give me the incinerator that she got for my birthday!

Yep, that's right - one of those shiny galvanised metal dustbins with a small chimney on the top.  Absolutely awesome for burning garden prunings in.  The one she bought me for my birthday several years ago (do you detect a theme here?) has now practically rusted into dust and I really couldn't think of anything that I absolutely needed when she asked, apart from a new one of those, so that's what I'm getting!

She did, though, also get me a surprise orchid which she gave to me last week.  I collect orchids as I seem to be able to keep them alive quite successfully by pretty much ignoring them - always useful in a plant, I find.  I'm now restricting myself to only getting unusual colour combinations because I've got white ones and pink ones and pale purpley ones and scented ones, but she found a very pretty pink and green striped one that I found a purple glass orchid jar to put in, and it's now happily with the others on my windowsill:



.

I had a few birthday cards in the post, my very favourite of which came from The Lovely Husband:



And, as I mentioned, lots of lovely birthday wishes from Facebook friends and relations, which made me feel very smiley.

As it's a 'big' birthday, this means a 'big' birthday present from my beloved.  For my last big birthday, 10 years ago now,  I got the most stunning 5-stone diamond ring.  So, for this one, and knowing my love of sparkly bling and that diamonds are always the answer when asked 'what do you want for your birthday?', my fabulous man got me a pair of diamond solitaire stud earrings, totalling 1 carat (i.e., half a carat each).  *screams*  I KNOW!!!!  How utterly, gobsmackingly wonderful is that?

For the last 10 years or so I've been wearing a pair of Diamonique (i.e., good quality cubic zirconia) stud earrings but now I've got the real thing!  Plus this means that when the Zombie Apocalypse arrives and the Petrol Wars cause civilisation to fail, I've now got portable wealth that can come with us when we flee to safety!  Hooray!

I've also bought myself a Fuggler.  Yes, that's right, a psychotic, flick-knife wielding 'teddy bear' with fake human teeth.  Because who could resist this face - I know I can't:

Should you decide you can't live without your very own Fuggler, then hurry on over to Mrs McGettrick's Fuggler Emporium on Etsy, and adopt one of your very own!  I first saw the Fugglers on the intertubes about a year ago and they touched my blackened, stoney heart so much that I decided I would order one for my 50th, and so it has come to pass.  I'll show you pictures when he arrives.

Birthdays also mean a good meal out and we decided to try somewhere we've not been before - a rather fancy Italian restaurant in Godalming called La Luna.  We're not massive fans of your usual Italian food - far too much emphasis on tomatoes, pasta and pizza for our liking - but we're aware that there is good Italian food out there, you just have to find it.  And La Luna has the reputation of being a really good restaurant, if a little pricey, but, hey, you don't turn 50 every day!

I'm going to do a Katyboo here and give you a restaurant review!

We were surprised to find the place about three-quarters full, which isn't bad for a Tuesday evening, when we got there for 7.30pm.  Nice interior, dark wood floor and tables, mushroom coloured walls, lighting not too bright.  Proper Italian waiters too.  Only slightly odd touch was that the music being played was Nirvana!  But the menu was fantastic.

This is the sort of proper Italian restaurant where it's naturally expected that you will eat four courses - Antipasti (starters), Primi (pasta), Secondi (main), and Dolci (puds).  Which is exactly what we did as it would've been rude not to.

We had a couple of gin and tonics to start off with.  Then for antipasti I had the Calamari Fritti (squid rings in tempura batter) which came with a little pot of parsley pesto and mayonnaise for dipping.  It was good - the calamari rings, although quite chunky, weren't at all chewy.  TLH had beer battered zucchine with a tomato guazzetto dip - this was long thin pieces of courgette which had been battered and deep fried, with an utterly delicious tomato and basil dipping sauce.  I have to say his dip had more flavour than mine, but as we tend to eat communally and share everything, we each got to enjoy both dishes.

For our Primi course, we ordered small dishes of pasta - I had the orecchiette (ear-shaped!) pasta with pancetta, broccoli, chilli & garlic.  It was ok but the flavours could have been a bit more robust, I think.  Beautifully cooked and the pasta was properly al dente.  TLH had the Neapolitan spaghetti with king prawn, courgette, and basil pesto - his tasted quite basil-y to me, which isn't a bad thing at all, and he said his king prawns were yummy.

For Secondi, I ordered the Pan fried halibut supreme, with capers & Amalfi lemon sauce and steamed samphire but they didn't have halibut that day, it was Turbot instead, which was fine by me.  TLH had the South Downs rump of lamb, minted broad bean & courgette, with Bagna cauda (Piedmontese hot dip sauce).  The lamb was cooked using the sous vide method which involves putting the meat into an airtight vacuum sealed plastic bag and cooking it in a hot water bath for many hours in order to retain as much taste as possible.  It did look amazing - lean and slightly pink in the middle, soft and easy to cut.  The Bagna Cauda sauce was a belter too.  My fish was very nice but, again, I think I somehow managed to order a dish with subtle flavours rather than something a bit more gutsy.  We ordered a side dish of steamed spinach with chilli and garlic (no spuds for us at the moment) which was, frankly, the best spinach I've ever eaten (and we always order it if it's on the menu).

Finally, for the Dolci course, I had 3 scoops of homemade Italian sorbet; one each of lemon, raspberry and pear.  This was utterly orgasmic.  Strong, zingy flavours and the pear sorbet was totally to die for.  TLH had the Madagascan Vanilla Panna Cotta, with rhubarb compote which he also thought was incredibly good.

We were very good and only had one bottle of red to accompany the lot, and didn't bother with coffee because, well, TLH doesn't like Italian coffee very much and I don't tend to drink very much coffee anyway.

We were right royally stuffed and agreed it had been a very good meal indeed, and I expect we'll be back.

Then, to top it all off nicely, I got home to find that The Guardian had liked a photo I'd sent in to them in response to an assignment they'd issued to the general public so much that they wanted to publish it in a picture gallery on the front page of their online edition!  Bloody hell!  The link to the picture gallery is here and my photo is number 9, of a woodland waterfall and a pond.  It's credited to Boudicca23 in the text underneath and Kaz Jones in the bottom right - they're both me!!

And with that, we went to bed, having had no room left for the cake I'd bought earlier in the day (and which we won't now be touching until Thursday as we're both on the 5:2 Fast Diet - and doing very well - and today is a Fast day).

It was a really lovely day!