Art From Seaweeds

Hi everyone

A few weeks ago, we were on holiday in the beautiful isle of Arran, in Scotland. It was the first time we had visited it, but it will not be the last. One of the amazing things we discovered was that the whole island is Fairtrade, incredible, but very commendable. Arran is on the Gulf Stream, so it's a little warmer than you would expect. As a result palm trees are growing all over the place.

Arran makes a lot of their own goods on the island, beer, malt whiskey, Arran Dunlop cheese, there is a smokehouse producing excellent quality smoked meat and fish and it has a restaurant with a very high reputation, Arran Scotch Tablet is made there, it's only sold on the ferry from the mainland to the island and one or two selected shops on Arran. Scotch tablet is a kind of sweet fudge which has a crunchy texture, for those of you who do not know about it. It is my secret vice, it's a good job it is not sold where I live, I'd be diabetic!  There is a company called Arran Aromatics there too. They make cosmetic creams, shampoos, hand washing liquids etc. One of the nice things about Arran is that the shops all sell each others products, even the ferry uses the Arran Aromatics liquid soap on it ships, and sells Arran produce, as do the cafes and restaurants. I almost forgot to say that most, if not all the products made on Arran have won awards for quality and taste. Even better, everyone we met was warm, friendly and helpful, what a wonderful place.

Anyway, to carry on. Before I went, Colin, from FEET, the ecology organisation I am connected with asked me to photograph as much of the flora and fauna of the place as I could. I was then to blog it on the FEET members site, I took about 600 photos. It took me about 2 weeks to sort them out and I've posted my first blog, it was about the seaweeds I found there.

I looked at the images and decided it would be nice to try and make art from them. this post shows the results. I don't think they need any words to go with them, except the titles, so I shall just add art below.

Harvest 

 Abstract Beach

Eel Grass 

Herring Shoal

Waving

Kelpie Flow

Sea Salad

Sea Lace

Shoreline Garden

Sea Snake

Seafruit

Underwater #2 

Venetian Plus

Wave Rider

Tapestry

Illustration #1 

Moonlit Sea 

Moulded Seaweed

Sea Glass

Sea Lights

And that is it, all twenty images, inspired by the sea and it's organisms. I have my favourites as you would expect, the last image being one of them. I hope some of you have yours.

Until the next time,

Be kind to one another.

Gordon. 

Apology to my viewers.

Hi everyone

I'm very sorry for not having posted in the last 2 months. I was unwell for a short while, then my wife had an operation on her foot. It left her bed-bound for a week or two, when she she could get down stairs, she needed a lot of looking after. I didn't have much time for anything else for several weeks.

I will be posting again as soon as I can.

Just to be going on with here is a photo I took of the wonderful Flying Scotsman steam engine in York, at the National Railway Museum.

The locomotive set two world records for steam traction. It was the first steam locomotive to be officially recorded reaching 100 miles an hour (160.9 km/h) on the 30th of November 1934.

Then in 1989, it set a second world record. This time for the longest non-stop run by a steam locomotive. It travelled 422 miles (679 km) on the 8th of August in 1989, while it was visiting Australia.

The Flying Scotsman

Thanks for being patient
Gordon.

Everyday objects from unusual angles, using macro photography.

Hello.

This post is overdue. My wife had an operation on her foot about two weeks ago. She is not allowed to put any weight on it for about four weeks. She is more or less confined to the bedroom. I have been far too busy nursing her, giving her injections, taking meals to her and all the normal housework to do anything else. I'm trying to fit a little time for my blog in at the moment. (Just so that you know what the delay in my post has been).

Here in the part of Yorkshire I live in, we have more rain, high winds and fog, over the last few months, than I ever remember before. The resultant flooding has done a great deal of wide-spread damage. Because of the terrible weather, I have not been out with my cameras. As an exercise, one day I picked three objects in our house to photograph. My idea was to crate abstract images.

I shall put the images below without comments, other than the titles I gave them. For the first two articles, I'll show the abstract photos, finishing with a photograph of the whole object. It gives you chance to guess what they are. The last one should be obvious to most people.

Off we go then...

Interlocked

Geoslip

V for Victory

Print Run

Folding

Now to show you what the object is.

It is an Altered Book that one of Anne's friends 

(Hi Linda) made for Anne's 60th. birthday.

The second object:

Another World

Air Horns

Roses

Holes in Space

 Starscape

 Vent

Inverse Tubes

Volcanoes

A photo of the whole object follows...

It is a small nutmeg grater.

It's about as long as your thumb.

Here is the final subject in this post...

 #1

 #2

#3

#4

It is, of course, a birds feather. As you can see, in close-up, it

provides a nice selection of abstract images,. I think they are worthy of enlarging for wall mounting, or exhibition.

I'd like to think that some of the readers of this blog may get inspiration from this post and go hunting for things in your home, shed or garden to photograph. Have fun.

Be nice to each other.

Gordon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR for 2016.

Hello everyone, and especially those from around the world.

I'm aware that some of my reader/viewers are from Islamic countries, so I wish you all the best for the following year.

This post is simply a Christmas card. Normal service will be resumed on this blog, once I have recovered from the festive season.

Below is a little card for you all. The photo was taken in York, (which is the capital of Yorkshire, for overseas readers). I took it in Coppergate, a couple of weeks ago, when my wife Anne and I were there for the Christmas Early music festival. Roughly speaking, Early Music could be thought of as Mediaeval music.

Some of you may remember that a few years ago ago, I played in a Mediaeval Music ensemble, for over two years. That was before I went back to being a solo, touring musician, singer, storyteller

Oh yes, we had a wonderful time when we were there, we always do. There is also a summer Early Music festival in York, which we go to.

Merry Christmas and a 

Happy New year.

Gordon.

Art from Insects Photography.

Hello everyone

This last month has been so full of things going on for me, some good and sadly some bad, including my wife Anne, breaking a bone in her foot. I felt I was struggling to keep my head above water sometimes. Still, I'm an old campaigner and a fighter, so here I am again.

One of the good things is that Anne and I have finished putting up all our Christmas decorations. We usually start about the 1st of November. We have a three floor house and decorate each room and both staircases, in a more-or-less Victorian style, in keeping with the age of the house. It takes a long time. I love Christmas.

On with the blog post anyway. Some weeks ago, my friend Darren suggested that I should be able create art from the photos of moths and other insects, which I take for the Freshwater Environmental Ecology Trust, Cromwell Bottom Local Nature Reserve and UK Flora and Fauna blogs, (see the blog links here). By the way, the FEET blog is a members only one, so there is no link for it. Darren had been looking back over my blog, at the Post Industrial Art photos of mine. A fer years years ago, I showed him my Urban Explorations shots. It was at Darren's suggestion that I changed the Urban Exploration photos into something a little less sad. The abandoned industrial photos reminded him of how much industry our country has lost, due to stupid, misguided actions on the part of our government. No sooner said than done, I came up with a range of suitable images. So now, again due to a prompt from Darren, (hi Darren) here is the Insect Art, for want of a better description.

If any reader/viewer here comes up with a better term, I'd love you to suggest it to me. Just put a comment in the comments section of the blog.

Below are the images I've so far created, 18 in all. I'm quite pleased with the way some of them have turned out. I do have visions of creating some more later.

Hippie Butterfly

1967

Blue Spot Ladybird

Butterfly Graffiti

Arabic Mosaic Tiles

Clouded Border Moth

Ghost

Camouflage

 Doodle Bug

Glass Snail

Hover Squad

Ladybird Circle Dance

B Movie Poster

 Moth in Amber

Twenty Plume

Oriental Silk

Psychedelic Moth

Summer Days

Well, I hope you enjoyed those, for the record, Oriental Silk was completed last night.

Don't forget, if anyone has a good idea for a name for this type of art, please leave it in the comments section. I will credit the person who's name I choose as the one I like best, unless they say they don't wish their name to be mentioned.

Be kind to each other.

Gordon