A bit creepy

I apologise in advance if you are a fan of Isabella and the pot of basil. If you just enjoy the painting as it is please stop reading. If you want to know the sinister aspect then stay with me. 

Isabella, or the Pot of Basil (1818) is a narrative poem by John Keats adapted from a story in Boccaccio's Decameron (IV, 5). It tells the tale of a young woman whose family intend to marry her to "some high noble and his olive trees", but who falls for Lorenzo, one of her brothers' employees. When the brothers learn of this they murder Lorenzo and bury his body. His ghost informs Isabella in a dream. She exhumes the body and buries the head in a pot of basil which she tends obsessively, while pining away.

Creepy? Poignant? Touching?

Wonga!

How much would you pay for this? Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions? It doesn't matter really because it probably isn't for sale.

I was reading a new book yesterday and it pointed out something that should be obvious. Paintings, whatever the era were created to be sold. In the Industrial revolution there was a lot of money floating about for luxuries, like paintings. 

Then came environmentalism as explorers returned with examples of rare species. I'm not cynical but guess what started to sell and that we have many of from the era? Yep landscapes and animals. We can stick as many meanings as we like on art but it is still a commodity and at least they are honest about it. Are we having our money sucked out of us by modern art because that is what is trendy rather than it having a meaning? Or am I devil's advocate?

Too lazy

I'm too tired to sleep and feeling a little artistic, yet devil may care. I'm not going to splutter about light sources in the work of Vermeer. I thought I'd post some pictures. 

I don't bloody know!

I've just made an ultramarine wash with the intention of creating a surreal space scene, but I don't feel very surreal now! I suppose I could put in some tropica fish, but I can't draw reefs, any suggestions would be gratefully received. Here's my really interesting wash;

The colour isn't bad but..

I thought the art itself would be the most difficult, but I'm beginning to wonder whether finding something suitable to draw is more difficult!

Painting

Well that's the first painting finished and sent to Artist magazine because I think it will highlight the performance of the theory I suggestedm using computers in mixed media art. The weather has made me think of other things, like the countryside management course I did. So a note of caution:

Don't use a chainsaw without training or you might rip your face of. There's a specific danger called .kickback. If the chain tip hits something it throws the saw backwards into your face. I'll not be descriptive about the injuries,

Those who work with dangeous machinery check it for yourself, even if the person before you was meant to service it. I borrowed a chainsaw and climbing rope. I was told the saw had just been seviced, well it must have been a basket head that did it. They didn't tighten the side bolts and I failed to check them. They came our and bar flew through the woods, whilem fortunately the chain embeded itself in the tree. The rope was also not serviced correctly. It was a new rope, but it hadn't been soaked, so about 30ft up it lost grip and I fell fifteen feet with my back over a branch. I was okay- I was lucky!

I've seen all manner of stupidity. If you have to have a chainsaw and can't go on a course, ok ok please at least read the manual and get the gear!

I was going somewhere with this story. Oh yeah a council worker was sitting on a branch sawing. He was sawing the branch he was sitting on and ended up clattering to the ground. He sued the council on the grounds that he'd never been trained and he won.!!!

Strange day

It always takes me a good while to get used to this darkness in the winter, always finding it s little strange. This little picture represents my day

There are all kinds of images in there to keep you entertained. Maybe I'll stick my ugly mug through the software as that would be marginally less scary than my real picturee

Is stupidity a bad thing?

Some would say not. Stupidity is not only bonding, it's also essential to progress. Stupid people are, by definition, those with less sense and ability to reason. But their irrationality and illogicality may be the very qualities that make them more imaginative and creative. The ability to look at the world differently, to think outside the box, is crucial to innovation. Even brainboxes acknowledge this. Albert Einstein said: 'I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.' And another egghead, Ludwig Wittgenstein, observed: 'If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.' The kind of stupidity celebrated in this collection is
Jarski, Rosemarie (2008-12-05). Dim Wit: The Funniest, Stupidest Things Ever Said (Kindle Locations 291-296). Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition.