#1293 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Colour, The BoxLeave a comment
I like the idea of art that knocks you off your feet. Gillian Ayres

Early September is my time to catch up with Summer exhibitions. This year notably because heatwaves made me less inclined to do anything much. I very much like to be knocked off my feet by art.

Gillian Ayres is an artist whose work  explodes colour. Colour is absolutely my favourite thing about both art and life.

Due to a climbing frame injury, I had a three year old ,with a limp ,as my gallery escort.  She loved the sensation of huge canvases of bright colours.

We paint the essence of something. I don’t know how to be very clear about it in words. I suppose that is why I paint. Gillian Ayres

Me too, my work is more representational but the essence is always important and I have to be very careful not to be too wordy or literal in my thinking and vision for an image.

Visiting an exhibition with a three year old is like doing so after a couple of glasses of Fizz or some other perception enhancer. There is both giddiness and instant joy. The colours and scale of the works we looked at were both monumental and vivid.

Wise nana-ing limits actual art appreciation to about an hour. Another hour is spent creating our own mistress pieces in the hands-on gallery.

Then lunch in a nearby student cafe with more colour and texture than the ubercool sophisticated gallery cafe.

The gallery gift shop allowed a small person to see herself reflected in colour.

Drenched and submerged in all things colour my delightful guest asked to go back to the gallery. Music to an arty Nana’s ears.

This time she chose which exhibition to visit. She couldn’t have chosen better. I met an old favourite painting by George Shaw.

Meanwhile she studiously listened to the artist describing his work.

And together we chose the work we would most like to steal from the gallery.

I find the idea of theft from an art gallery is the most wonderful creative  thought process. When I used to work in an art gallery I used it as a conversation starter not only with children but also with grumpy old curmudgeons , who were being mean spirited about the art they were viewing. To be honest I use it on myself when art or anything visual is not to my taste. A little crime fantasy focuses the mind on positivity I find.

What did we do after all this colour drenching?

We pottered off to an allotment and found yet more colour. Just enough to fill a small hand.

#1292 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, weather1 Comment

What’s something you do completely differently from how you were raised?

It has been welcome to have a fabulous British summer, but also slightly discombobulating. Normally I approach September with great optimism that we will get lovely sunny days in September whilst making all the normal September adjustments to shortening days, darker mornings and more bedding.

As a cold water swimmer I look forward to September being the warmest water temperatures in our small bay but we have had warmish water for two months already.

So I suppose what I am saying is that normally I view September as a compensatory month. Put in place to make up, when needed ,for a typical mixed weather summer. This year no compensation is required.

Late September is when I choose to take my holidays, some guaranteed sunshine before the cooler grip of autumn has me layering up and thinking of stews.

September has always seemed to me to be a month to be especially optimistic. For someone who was raised to be annoptomistic person that is a very comforting month to be in.

What is completely different this year is that I am utterly satiated by good weather vibes. We have lived through the warmest British summer since records began 200 years ago. I don’t need to be especially optimistic about September. Nothing was cancelled in Summer 2026 because the weather was inclement.

September can be whatever it wants to be. Its own changeable self with absolutely no responsibility to make up, in any way, for June, July or August.

For the first time I can actually acknowledge that September is the first month of Autumn.

#1291 theoldmortuary

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Procrastination, SerendipityLeave a comment
Saint, Good Witch, Goddess

I absolutely knew I was procrastinating while writing yesterday’s blog.

#1290 theoldmortuary ponders

I was avoiding the reality of my Washing machine having broken down at the worst possible moment.

Over the weekend a neighbours cat had found it’s way through the window of our bathroom and he had marked his territory in the only way non-neutered Tom Cats consider effective, and had blessed a bathmat with an enormous pool of his pungent urine. It had been marinated in the broken washing machine overnight.

Knowing I was procrastinating and pondering procrastination turned out to be an artistic journey.

Having an interest in the absurdities of Christian and Celtic Saints and their claims to fame and good works I googled

‘Is there a saint for procrastination?’

A negative result turned into a new little project . There is no deity, saint or witch with any responsibility for procrastination. There is however a male Saint who acts against procrastination. Saint Expeditus.

©wikipedia

And just like that I felt the urge to find  a wonder woman called Procrasta. To give a name and a face to something I can be awfully good at at times. I had an unused water colour woman from an old project.

Procrasta a Goddess.

I am currently working on a Celtic Witch project so thought I would have a little fun with my image while avoiding the bathmat. My apologies to Saint Expeditus.

I popped Procrasta into a photo editing App and asked for her to be romantic . Saintly even.

Saint Procrasta

And finally I gave her a contemporary switch up in much the same way that I am doing with my Celtic witches.

The Good Witch Procrasta

Today I am not procrastinating . I am in that infernal loop of waiting in for a Washing Machine engineer between 8 a.m and 1pm. 

Hoping that my new Saint, Mr Expiditus has had a word in an engineers ear.

P.S  St Expeditus was not available today, instead he sent St Jude. The engineer was delayed until the afternoon and my washing machine was deemed to be a lost cause.

#1290 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Procrastination, Serendipity1 Comment
1st September 2025

Months are not like weeks. Months do not have a gap of a couple of days for recovery between one ending and another beginning. Hard on the heels of yesterday’s farewell to August, I am obliged to write a welcome to September. With no Monthend days in between.

#1289 theoldmortuary ponders.

For me there is a stark difference, entirely of my own making. In August I forgive myself for laziness because it is August. In September the drum beats a different and more urgent tune. Procrasta the Saint, Good Witch or Goddess of putting things off, lolls about in August encouraging and rewarding languorous behaviour. I believe she lives off warm figs in August.

Procrasta

In September she causes more positive trouble,by finding things of greater interest,but less importance that take up time before the real job can get done.

So with no gap between August and September I must respond to her change in character and get on with one or two things. Because sometimes even writing a blog is actually a procrastination. She is a deviously interesting character and although I only named her today, I fear I have been in her thrall for some time.

So much better to blame a mythical creature than accepting an innate character flaw

Warm Figs

#1289 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Bobbing, BreakfastLeave a comment

Farewell August, you have been particularly fine this year.  August is never one of my favourite months, nor is it one I actively dislike. It is the bringer of shorter days and unpredictable weather. I will never be a fan of shorter days, but after a summer of heatwaves from May onwards, the unpredictable nature of August has been delightful. Two days running we have been dodging really heavy rainfall . Which is pretty normal for late August. Usually it is a little dispiriting, but compared to the baking days of most of our summer, the rain felt like a welcome and quirky distraction.

Breakfast, blog and dog spot

During August and the heatwaves, Lola and I have developed an early morning routine of walking to the seafront most mornings. The timing being the difference in our routine rather than the destination. Late August’s slightly cooler weather brought a new changed routine. The timing was less heat specific but I would take breakfast with us and we would settle in one of the alcoves overlooking the sea.

Lola, in camouflaged comfort, waiting while I have a swim, write a blog or just take in the views before we both tuck into breakfast before heading for home.

Going forward I wonder if we might stick to this rather lovely breakfast, blog and solo bob habit.

Thank you August.

#1288 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

Rain is a bit of a tradition for the August (Summer) Bank Holiday.  This nearly always galvanises us to get outdoor jobs done beforehand, which is why the yard got a lot of attention on Friday before the giddiness of the Full Moony swim.

Saturday did not disappoint, weatherwise. The morning dog walk was a complete wash out, even my brilliant orange raincoat failed to save the day and a complete change of clothes was required. The day was not a washout however. Many of the full Moony Bobbers put their clothes on and swapped shore for moor. Driving to Princetown, home of the infamous Dartmoor Prison. Crossing the bleakly beautiful moorland. The location of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles. No howling last night just lovely tunes at the Dartmoor Outdoor Festival.

Curiously for an outdoor festival we were inside the solidly granite  bar of the Plume of Feathers at Princetown, to hear our fellow bobber Helen sing with her friend Steve. Two hours of great music, great chat, always a given when bobbers gather and an unexpected life lesson.

A local Residential Home had brought 5 very senior residents to enjoy the music. One in particular was like a lightbulb all evening. Lit up by music and the atmosphere. It was obvious that in her mind she was twirling on the dancefloor, maybe even that actual dancefloor at the end of the second world war. When Princetown was a much more lively place

During World War II, Princetown served as a remote staging area for Allied troops preparing for the D-Day landings and briefly used its railway line to transport prisoners to Dartmoor Prison. American and Allied forces used the high, isolated Dartmoor landscape around Princetown and Rundlestone Corner for tactical training away from enemy observation. The historic prison facility accommodated troops and preparations leading up to the Normandy invasions.The Princetown Railway saw a temporary resurgence in transporting prisoners to the local prison as road and alternate rail links handled heavy wartime traffic.

Imagine those heady post war months in a remote village swollen with British and American Service personnel, dismantling and disengaging a huge and temporary Military establishment.

Her absolutely obvious pleasure made for a lovely vicarious moment.

Lola on the dancefloor.

#1287 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Bobbing, Serendipity, Yardening1 Comment
Full Moony bobbers under a Sturgeon moon.

Share a hobby you’ve picked up recently — what got you into it?

Not just me and not just the Bobbers. A little moment of skinny dipping in Firestone Bay under a full moon.

Although with full disclosure I had to paint the Sturgeon moon and add it to the image afterwards, because the sky was densely greige with clouds.

The three swimming bays were alive last night with the happy chatter of swimmers who had discarded swimwear, and their allies who swam alongside wearing textiles.

A Full Moonie is all about swimming at night under the full moon even if the moon fails to turn up.

What got us into it?

Just one bobbers 60th Birthday Bucket List, earlier in the year.

Who  knows if we will keep it up through the winter. Nothing is impossible with the Bobbers but I suspect nudity might be very brief in the winter months ,no matter how hardy we believe we are.

The swim was silkily warm and thoroughly enjoyable. As ever the after-bob chatter was free flowing and wildly multi-faceted.

@theoldmortuary had spent the day working in the yard. Just a small amount of painting left to do before winter. But having painted the moon for the bobbers it would be a waste not to see it over a nearly finished yard.

If only our still green tomatoes could be so easily faked.

Five heatwaves and not a single red tomato yet.

But with a multi-purpose Sturgeon Moon even a ripe tomato is possible.

Following on from yesterday’s blog ⬇️

#1286 theoldmortuary ponders.

Artistic Interpretation and Artificial Intelligence. A.I two ways.

#1286 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, pondering1 Comment
Photograph of an original watercolour of a Mackerel. Artistic Interpretation.

What’s the weirdest coincidence you’ve ever experienced?

No weird coincidences to report. Some strange ones and some lovely ones throughout life but I can’t think of a weird one.

But my pondering head has been pondering the good and bad of witches and wizards recently and how witches are seen as malign and worrisome creatures and wizards  as benign and benevolent, in general.

Language shapes my unscholarly thinking. When a witch bucks the accepted trend she is labeled as a ‘good ‘or ‘white’ witch. When a wizard goes rogue he is considered ‘ wicked’

But it seems to me the default is female witch=bad, male wizard= good.

While creating art I use sketching, painting, collage photography etc to produce an image. Artistic Interpretation if you want a definition. I also use digital manipulation and computer generated imagery. Artificial Intelligence

A.I and A.I

For many years in the production of Medical Images I used skill and radiation or ultrasound. Technology and computers vastly improved what could be discovered and diagnosed during my career. There is a definition very frequently,but only recently commonly used for such innovation. Artificial Intelligence.

A.I.

Now that’s a weird coincidence.

I suspect that A.I is the witch when it is Artificial Intelligence and A.I is a wizard when thinking about Artistic Intelligence.

Also weird.

Digital Photograph of the same painting, tidied up, using art and photography programmes on a computer,
ready for prints to be made. Artificial Intelligence

The original painting looks much better in real life. Artistic Interpretation.

The prints will be as good as technology allows. Artificial Intelligence.

A.I a weird coincidence.

#1285 theoldmortuary  ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, fashion, MusicLeave a comment
@theoldmortuary immersed in the art of Yayoi Kusama

It has been quite the week, the deaths were announced of two internationally influential women. First Dolly then Yayoi Kusama.

A different realm will be awash with Polka dots and Rhinestones.

I have never been to Dollywood but I most certainly would have dressed the part. Beneath my normal day to day exterior is a woman who loves sequins, rhinestones and lurex.

Polka dots are a little easier to bring into mainstream life.

Both of my regularly used swimsuits feature Polka Dots.

And I was hiding in plain sight at an immersive Yayoi Kusama exhibition in a Marimekko dress.

EBay or extravagance fuel my passion for these eclectic loves. Thankfully EBay is the richer source as semi-retirement and a more environmental attitude to fashion all but excludes extravagance.

Where did this all start?

My mum was a Charity and later an N.H.S. manager in the Sexual Health world. She was also a very adept seamstress. She made costumes for what became known as the  Braintree Musical Society ( prev Operatic and Musical) and later for my Dancing School.

The floors of our home were scattered with glorious fabrics a few times a year as costumes were required or altered for shows. My Sindy Doll and Trolls had  extensive small wardrobes of the most glorious of garments.

Rhinestone Jacket, Lurex Shirt, Sequin Skirt. Quietly hanging in my wardrobe waiting for their moment to shine.

Of the two women I would say Yayoi had the more comfortable sartorial choice. Polka dots can be a pattern on any fabric. Twinkle, as chosen by Dolly is a texture thing.

Polka Dots do not chafe. Twinkle on anyone’s anatomy tends to chafe a bit, or a lot.

So long and farewell to two brilliant women. You leave the world better embellished than it would have been without you.

#1284 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Books2 Comments

Which fictional world would be the most fun to vacation in?

In my case the fictional world would be double fictionalised. Kenneth Grahame wrote The Wind in the Willows set on the Thames near his home in Pangbourne. Every time I read this book I imagined the action taking place in the countryside I was familiar with, the borders of Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

At age 8 that was my lived  experience. The countryside of John Constable. The Thames as I knew it was a wide and softly muddy estuary  washing into the North Sea near Southend.

In my head Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad mucked about in a river that looked a lot like the Rover Stour, which was close to home.

When I was older and more familiar with the Cotswolds version of the Thames I imagined that Wind in the Willows might be better suited to that location. I only usually visited the Cotswolds in the summer, which is the only season I ever think about when Wind in the Willows crosses my mind.

The double fictional location of the Cotswolds.My choice tacked on erroneously to Kenneth Grahame’s  book,  would most certainly be a fun and fabulous place to vacation/holiday in. It is always summer in my mind but not actually in the book.

The landscape of the Cotswolds would seem very familiar to Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad. Shepherds Huts and Gipsy Caravans dot the landscape, as do very expensive car salesrooms. For me good bookshops and coffee places hide out  in small towns and villages. So do very upmarket garden centres, a particular holiday weakness of mine. I know that Toad would regularly shop at Daylesford or the Burford Garden Centre. Ratty and Mole would express caution at some of the prices.Badger would roll his eyes. They would be helpful shopping companions for me too in such places.

The original 1908 illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard and my  2019 photograph will give you a clue as to why I shifted my own fictional location for these stories to the Cotswolds.

1908 illustrations
Daylesford Garden Centre and Farm Shop May 2019

So, my apologies to Pangbourne. Perhaps I should visit for some authenticity.

P.S in researching this blog I realise my  60 year old paperback is no longer capable of the page turning required for research. Time to get a new copy.

This pink Porsche was also parked near the vintage vehicle on the same day.