Thursday 21 February 2013

Life Drawing using oil pastel

In today’s Life Drawing class I used lots of oil - oil pastels, oil bar and sunflower oil. Its a bit messy but I like the result. Think I’ll have a go with oils again.

Sunday 17 February 2013

Gifford Woods

Harvey and I went to Gifford woods on Saturday and we saw some real signs of spring


 
There were also some signs of a sneaky artist around the place.
 
 
 


Wednesday 13 February 2013

Prestonpans Tapestry

I took a look at the Prestonpans tapestry a couple of months ago. It has some great craftsmanship in it and it tells an interesting tale about the Jacobite  rebellion. The tapestry is huge, it went around the walls of St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral  in Edinburgh. The tapestry follows the route taken by Bonnie Prince Charlie from Glenfinnan in 1745. Each part of the tapestry was made in the area that the army passed through, which    means there are many different styles of embroidery  used in the telling of the tale. I particularly enjoyed looking at the East  Lothian section. The battle of Prestonpans is feature prominently and a  quirky bit of history about the battle is that the unfolding carnage was watched by a group of people from the tower just outside Longniddry, which still exists today. Here are a few photos of the tapestry.








Tuesday 12 February 2013

A bridge to nowhere

I do believe there is an exhibition at the Bleachingfield community centre, Dunbar with the same subject.



Monday 11 February 2013

In the swim



Swimming is the answer at the moment. The question is a bit more  difficult to get at, but following a bout of norovirus, broken ribs and a DVT just over a week ago, I've decided that life is worth living. Tried out the ribs and the leg with a bit of gentle swimming three days ago. Upped it a bit yesterday and today I did 35 lengths in bunches of five. That's seven sets by my reckoning. The ribs are still sore, but not so much that I need to stop and the leg and breathing are working fine. The best thing is that I feel great after the exercise. Thirty five lengths was a warm up not so long ago, but just now it is fine. I've got a theory about the DVT... it may be bollocks but no one else has come up with an explanation. Okay, so due to the broken ribs and because I have been sitting around a lot, being an art student, I haven't done very much exercise. Just taking Harvey for walks, going up three flights of stairs now and again and that's it. Usually I am pretty active and the blood is rushing around my system, but it hasn't been doing that for about ten weeks or so. Now my resting heart rate is 48, so my blood gets pumped around the old bod at quite a leisurely rate. Usually this all changes when I start running swimming or cycling, but as I say, that hasn't been happening, so the blood has just been ambling around. My lay man's understanding of a blood clot is that the same sort of process is happening in the vein that happens when you cut your skin. The body creates a scab or a clot with some clever little binding thingys. So with the blood moving slowly through the veins some of it attaches to the wall and the binding thingys get going. A clot forms and gets bigger by this process of binding and eventually blocks the vein. Bits detach from the clot and travel up the vein to the heart and lungs and sometimes the brain... which isn't good news. Now I know there are many factors which can cause clots - the pill,  HRT, sitting in a plane, hereditary factors and the 'I haven't got a clue' answer, so who's to know. The interesting thing is that when I got my first DVT in 2007, I hadn't been active for quite a few weeks due to... yes - an injury. In both cases I had been sitting for about 2 -3 hours , driving and writing an essay.(even art students have to write them.) But I had moved around a bit and it seemed unlikely  to me that these were the only causes.
From now on, in between taking rat poison and getting blood tests, I'm going to be getting some nice, regular exercise.

Sunday 10 February 2013

Harvey surfing


Out and about with Harvey

It's good having a dog to take on walks, especially one that likes to go out in the countryside and have fun on the beach. This weekend we had a dander along the River Tyne and took in the stubble field. Today we were at Tyninghame beach with the waves high up on the shore. Its great to get up close with the elements.


















Sunday 3 February 2013

Butterdean woods - East Lothian

Harvey and I went for a walk in Butterdean woods today. As usual, all he needed was his ball to run after. I needed a good pair of wellies, which are kept in the car for times like these.







This looks perfect for some young people that I know.




We had the woods to ourselves and some of the paths had no mud at all.




Pretty soon we came across a nice old tree with lots of moss growing on it




Harvey decided to try a spot of tree climbing. Sometimes I'm sure he thinks he's a cat!








Harvey didn't get too far off the ground, so we decided to say hello to the Pixies and then went home for a cup of tea and a dog biscuit.