Sunday's spotlight - Winter returning

By guest blogger Pete

Winter is scheduled to return this coming week end - in fact the week end that you'll be reading this blog. Autumn in the UK seems to be the shortest of all the seasons. The clocks go back an hour on Sunday and that shortens the days quite rapidly. I know that each day still contains 24 hours but when it starts getting dark an hour earlier in the afternoon, when curtains are drawn, lights switched on and Halloween callers start practising for their big night - well, you reach for your warmer clothes and have a look to see what's on T.V. that evening.


The weather has been good this autumn. By now I am usually fully engaged picking up the dead leaves from our magnolia tree in the garden. Magnolias seem to produce far more leaves than any other tree when their size is also taken into consideration. I think ours' was supposed to grow to a maximum height of 8 foot but someone forgot to tell the tree that. Even though we looped quite a bit off the top a couple of years ago it now stand at about 12 foot, That's a lot of leaves! About ten have fallen so far so there are still a few more to go.


I mentioned in last week's blog that Pam and I had been to Bath. Soon after we arrived we set off in search of a cup of coffee - one of life's little essentials -, which we found in one of the churches in that city. Pam began talking to one of the volunteers there - if you know my wife than that will not surprise you in the least - and during their conversation it was discovered that she was from our home city of Southampton. Now the co-incidence didn't end there. She had also been a pupil at the same school as Pam. Mutual acquaintances were reminisced over and, eventually, the lady volunteer returned to her voluntering. Small world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I've included an update of my latest painting above. Couldn't quite get it finished in time but I'm reasonably satisfied with it. Should sell well - when I'm dead!!!!! Hope you like it. Here's the new one I've just started:


Keep on volunteering - you meet some unexpected folk that way.

Sunday's spotlight - More snow

By guest blogger Pete.

"The snow that cameth last week cometh again this week as well." On Sunday last we were all hoping that we had seen the last of it but by evening if had returned with a vengeance. My mother in law had sayings for most things and she used to reckon that whilst there was the faintest amount of snow left we would get some more to clear it away. She was partly right! The newspapers and the radio were in their respective elements as harbingers of bad tidings and informed us that whereas last week was the worse weather we had had for 18 year this week's was the worse we had had for 20 years. I don't know if such information is supposed to be a comfort -- if it is then it certainly failed dismally. Once again I did without the mediocre hall temperature and conga dancing priest of the past few weeks and painted at home rather than go to the art group.
You were right with your 2nd guess, Florcita. This version of Venice has its origins in Las Vegas. I purposedly refrained from beginning to paint the water until this week. You could get that colour only in Las Vegas and certainly NOT in Venice. I MAY get the painting finished by next week - only reflections, etc, on the water and the gondolas to complete.

The snow painting shown below was completed in 2002. It's taken from the corner of Lincoln Cathedral grounds and just outside one of the old Roman entrances to the city, Eastgate. The folk who live there regard the district as Lincoln's "Nob Hill". I don't live in that area so think they are talking rubbish. I think the age of the house depicted does match its appearance. It's so easy to get weathered plastic beams and a pot of glue these days that you need to examine to be anything like sure. It's obvious that this was one of my earlier watercolour efforts. I was once told to keep earlier efforts so that you could see if I was making progress. Sometimes that maxim is all right but at other times it can be embarrassing!


Have a good week. Perhaps this coming seven days will see the beginning of that heat wave. Who was it that reckoned I was a pessimist?

Sunday's spotlight - Let it snow!

By guest blogger Pete.

"Let it snow!"

Last Sunday I told you about the cold weather we have been SUFFERING (aaaaaahhhhhhhh!) here in the UK. Yesterday we had the heaviest snow fall for 18 years (more aaaahhhhhs). Normally we don't get much snow in the midlands and south of England but we sure made up for it yesterday.

My elder daughter and her family couldn't get to work or school (the boys were absolutely distraught about missing school!!) and they went sledging. The boys built a ramp, which made them airborne. They must take after their father!

People panic here when it snows and yesterday was no exception. For 18 years we've had little or now snow. Because of that we have a good percentage of drivers who have never driven in snow. Some of them seem to have thought that the faster you drive the quicker you get home and out of the snow. There was an additional stop in that order for some - a lift to the local hospital.

When we had the last bad snowfall it was on a Friday. When the forecast came through (more than a little later than usual) thoughtful employers sent their workforces home rather than have them stuck in the office or factory for the weekend. They all poured onto the motorways - some slid, lorries jack-knifed, some crashed and pretty soon the motorways were gridlocked. The gritting lorries were slower than the workers in getting out and so couldn't get onto the motorways. Chaos is a wonderful human invention!

The painting is from a photo I took of my wife, Pam, in our local park, about 2 minutes from where we live. There was a dusting of snow on the ground that day. It's a great place and has a very attractive lake in the middle of it. The dog on Pam's lap is a Bichon and her name was Lucy, We've had quite a few dogs in our time but Lucy was, by far, the biggest character amongst them all.

As if the present "credit crunch " - UK speak for the global economic situation - wasn't bad enough we've now got unofficial strikes going on in the UK. The pickets must have frozen to the spot yesterday. I didn't want to venture forth to my art group so I stayed at painted in the warmth of our home. I didn't facing sitting for 2 hours in a temperature at its best described as moderate - plus face the prospect of the conga dancing priest and his people setting off the alarm (see last Sunday's blog). As I painted I decided that the gondoliers in the image were deciding whether or not to strike. The bosses had decided that their employees had knees that were too nobbly for their delicate customers and so everyone must wear long trousers! Some of them decided that they wanted to go on wearing short and didn't want to be dictated to. Thus a strike was forthcoming.

Thanks Hamish and Florcita for your comments. Yes, you can see gondolas in the sketch but the setting isn't Venice. Get away from Italy and where else would you find a Venice? Thanks also, Florcita, for the info on "Baby, it's cold outside". I thought it was a duet but couldn't remember that it was sung by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

Have a good week. Perhaps we'll have the hottest week for 18 years. Then, perhaps not........"

Sunday's spotlight -

By guest blogger Pete.

For some years now I have been a member of the Lincoln branch of U3A. For the uninitiated amongst our readers, "U3A" is the rather pretentious title of "University of the 3rd Age". Basically it is an organisation for those whose years have advanced more than a little.

Amongst the groups that I belong to is the Art Class. In actual fact "class" is rather misleading because we don't have, nor do we want, a tutor. I'm not saying that we don't need one but that we don't want one. Instead some twenty of us meet together once a week to do painting. Most tutors will want their pupils to be doing the same topic because this makes their job easier. However we twenty member of the Art GROUP are all awkward wrinklies and want to do our own thing rather than a common project. Within the group we help each other whether advanced or beginner and as a result we have struck up good relationships with each other.

My forte - another pretentious word but it does make me appear to have been educated when I use it - is detail. I just love detail. I've been told that I should take a photo rather than do a painting because my paintings tend to resemble photos in their detail. This criticism doesn't worry me. At my age I think I'll paint what I want to paint and how I want to paint it. I attended a Local Education Authority Art Class in the early days of my retirement and the tutor there demanded that we produce a complete picture within 90 minutes. It drove me mad. I only completed the course because I had paid in advance AND the coffee after the class was rather good.


Last week at my U3A art group I started a new painting and I thought it might be interesting for you (and fun for me) if I showed you the incomplete work and then, from time to time, showed you the various other stages right up to completion - that is if it reaches completion. My wife says that I'm a pessimist but Oscar Wilde reckoned that a pessimist is a realistic optimist. I think I'm a realistic optimist.

Any idea where the painting is set? Enter your guesses in the comments section......

Sunday's spotlight - Wisdom does not come with age

We have a guest blogger today - and with a bit more persuasion, I'm hoping this will become his weekly slot............... His name is Pete - he is my Dad!

You would suppose that wisdom, to some extent at least, comes with age. I can claim the age but the fact that I sit here to "write" a blog post for "Inside the Artisan" would suggest that my age has left me without wisdom. Let me explain.

I read Ruth's blog regularly - not that I am particularly interest in jewellery but mainly because she is my daughter - and the other day I rather rashly suggested to her that she get some guest bloggers to appear and scatter on her pages more wise words about crafting in order the keep the intestest of you, her readers. Within about 3 hours I had an e mail red hot from its dash half way across the world from sunny California to frosty Lincolnshire, U.K..

That e mail suggested that I be her next "guest blogger"! So you see what I mean about "wisdom does not always come with age". That being the case I cannot guarantee that more "wise words" will appear from this guest blogger. I've never written a blog before - that will give you confidence to go on reading - so what does it feel like to be the first folk to read these ramblings?

All of our family enjoy crafting of various sorts ( you may have seen my eldest daughter's Christmas card post)....and my own interests circulate around illuminated lettering, pastel portraits, watercolours and, my special weakness, photography. I am a "photoshop" fanatic so if you know anything about photography yourself than you will know the extent of my addiction.

My painting began many years ago in the late 1960s but work (and Ruth!) took up so much of my time that I abandoned it after just a few years. Since my retirement, however, I have returned to it with varied success and not a little enjoyment. I prefer to paint pictures in which I can imagine some story and so lose myself not only in the painting but also in other aspects. The city of Lincoln is really two cities divided by a steep hill, known as "Steep Hill". Believe me it really is STEEP. I walked down it the other day but I haven't walked up it for some time. Come to think of it, Ruth has never walked up Steep Hill. Every time I visit her and John they give Pam and I a medical examination by taking us on some steep climb to see how long it takes us to pant. The last test was down and up Grand Canyon (well, not all the way!) and, boy, did we puff. I think Ruth began to wonder if we would ever reach the top.

But I wander from the painting. It is set at the half way stage UP Steep Hill. The old gent is sweating and not really enjoying the climb. It's so hot that he has had to take his jacket off and stand impatiently outside the tea rooms, hoping to go in for a rest and a drink. You may have gathered that most English men and women have a weakness for tea! This particular tea room sells the most expensive tea in the U.K.. (I'll let you into a little secret - uphill Lincoln is a tourist trap. Downhill Lincoln is much more friendly but doesn't offer a Cathedral to visit). His wife is not to be rushed and has a quick rest whilst she looks again at the local tourist information leaflet she picked up earlier that day. She's sure that further up the hill will be much better and why not try this cafe near the Cathedral? I haven't found out yet but what do you think she has in that big black bag she's carrying? Pass on any ideas to Ruth.

Well, history has been made and my first blog is completed. I hope you didn't find it too boring."