I happened to be on StumbleUpon when I stumbled upon 25 Of The Most Creative Sculptures And Statues From Around The World.
It got me to thinking about the Willow Man (Serena de la Hey), the wicker statue seen from the M5 Motorway as it passes through Somerset, and the Angel of the North (Antony Gormley), near the A1 motorway Gateshead, up t’North.
The first seven photographs are depictions of just a sample of the brilliant, thought provoking and funny sculptures in the collection.
We were going to go fishing, but that was when it was still sunny; of course, it rained, and it was far too windy for fishing anyway (the cast out would have blown back into our faces).
“What would you like to do instead?” I asked our friend Roland.
“What do you suggest?” he replied.
“Well, we could all stay at home and play games,” I began.
His face dropped.
“Or we could watch Calamity Jane on the television…”
Roland pulled a face like King Kong.
“Or Chris and I could carry on with our work as per usual and you could watch something to your taste on the television…”
“I don’t really want watch television,” he said, pulling another face.
“I have work to do anyway,” said Chris.
“Why don’t I paint your portrait in a day?” I suggested, “But it might not be very good because it normally takes me weeks – I expect it will have to be very loose or impressionistic.”
So that’s what we did. Roland sat very patiently (most of the time) while I spent six hours painting to my heart’s content, and this is the result…
“Where would you like to go fishing?” I asked.
“Wherever there are fish,” answered Roland, our friend from Australia.
In truth, we hadn’t had much luck on either of the times we had gone fishing down on the breakwater here at Dawlish (though we did have an excellent view of our house).
“How about Babbacombe?” I suggested pointing to an oil painting on one of my studio walls.
Roland’s hopes were raised by the sight of the five fisher-folk depicted in the painting and off we went to the more promising-looking location; in any case, it was a trip to another beautiful piece of coastline not too far from home.
We had not long set ourselves up in a goodish spot on the breakwater (the best spots at the very end had been taken already by a couple and a lone fisherman) when the couple approached me.
“Weren’t you in a boat in Teignmouth last weekend?” the blonde asked.
“Oh, yes, the ferry boat to Shaldon,” I said (it wasn’t hard to remember because it was the only boat I had been on over the weekend, or for a while, actually).
Then I remembered the couple opposite us on the ferry.
“You wore a yellow tee-shirt,” I said to the man before turning to the lady, “and you were sitting very close next to him, and I took a photograph because you both looked so “in love”.
We chatted like old friends for quite some time, by the end of which it felt like we were friends. These photographs are for Andrea and Graham who were down on holiday from Leicester last week…
(That was when I caught the small pollack that had to be thrown back in and I took the first batch of photographs of people “jumping for joy”.)
I was particularly happy as we drove back from shopping at Newton Abbot this afternoon, not simply because it was a hot sunny day, or because everything looked so picturesque under the sun and the sky of blue and white, although it has to be said that these things put a smile on everybody’s face; but no, the main reason for my jubilance was because my mum had just bought me two fishing rods and tackle. Well, they weren’t solely for my use (I can use only one at a time) but it was my desire to get them as I intend to go fishing. A good friend is coming over from Australia and he loves fishing, and I’m hoping that Chris will develop a liking for the sport (or pastime, in my case because when I go fishing I don’t usually get much sport). I already have a fishing rod but, truthfully, it cost only £7 and I have my suspicions that it’s a children’s rod because it’s quite short and reedy. Our new rods cost £15.99 and are much bigger so I have higher hopes for some sport.
So that’s mainly why I was happy, plus the fact that, when I asked Chris if we could drive off the busy road to the lookout point in order to look at the river and take a few photographs on my mobile, after a little grumble, and against his better judgement (because we would “never get back onto the main road again”) he actually turned off and we spent a lovely twenty minutes or so enjoying the view. Chris even offered me a piggy back off the wall that I was standing on, though I preferred to take a gigantic step down (luckily I can nearly do the splits) with him to steady me.
We made it back onto the busy main road alright but the traffic made our progress home quite slow, but even that couldn’t spoil my happiness; on the contrary, it was quite handy for my purposes….
“What are you taking photo’s of?” asked my mother as she could see me holding my mobile up, and to the sides, this way and that, and she could hear me clicking away.
“The clouds,” I answered.
“Clouds?”
“Yes, you know how you can see faces and animals in the shapes of the clouds? Well, one day I’m going to produce a book with illustrations of faces in the clouds and it will be called ‘Head in the Clouds’ – I’m collecting heads.”
“No-one could say that you aren’t an unusual girl,” said my mum dryly.
She may have meant it as a compliment; I certainly took it that way – I was so happy!
Here are some shots of the river and the heads in the clouds, just to show I’m not mad.
For those of you who have been following the development of my canal painting – it is finished. Now for a bit of a change from boats I’m working on an oil painting of a Berber Bride from the Atlas Mountains. I haven’t painted a portrait for ages – it seems like light relief after all those masts!
