All white now

When Col said that he was going to take me painting, I was expecting a nice little jaunt in to the peak district with my easel, instead I've spent the last week putting the undercoat on to the shiny new plaster at the Brinsley wreck.  There's still a lot to do, we still only have an outside tap and a double socket spurred off from the electric meter, but its definately moving forward - in the last month we've moved from bare brick to plaster to white walls.  I've not achieved the white walled minimalism of a gallery space, well not unless you can convince yourself that the wobbley wooden shelving that is stacked with kettle, builders tea, and dirty mugs, is modern art, but maybe if I called it an installation and gave it the title "Eleven am"......

The book "From Condoms to Pompoms" is moving on - more later.....

Derbyshire Open Art Competition, Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

Col and I have just been up to the opening night of the 30th Derbyshire Open Art Competition. My piece "Alone" had been accepted, and although I hadn't been awarded a prize, I was keen to go along to the award ceremony, keen to see my picture displayed there, and keen to see the other pieces that it sat alongside.
The standard of the work was exceptionally high, and the pieces were vary varied too. The only criteria was that they had to have a Derbyshire theme, but apart from that they could be anything; sculpture, textile, oil, water colour, mixed media etc. I'm a mixed media and collage artist at heart so I really loved seeing the different ways that people had expressed themselves, one of my favourite pieces was a series of maps, with footprints over the top.
Col admired the art, but typically also admired the frames, and gave me a gentle nudge when the awards speech made reference to the importance of good framing (he frames all of my pieces for me) - then even more typically, as we got in the car he turned to me and said "wow, did you see that ceiling and all of the covings, it was really impressive?" when I gave him a look of disbelief, he continued with "and I quite liked the way that they created that pattern in the carpet."
Hmmm, see what I have to put up with?

Puppy Love

Ah - have just been to see my friends pups - 5 little terriers who are only 6 weeks old, their mummy has a good running pedigree, already house trained, and they're small enough to sneak out in my pocket!

Cows, what are they good for.

So much for a nice quite run in the countryside.
I'd just started off when I narrowly avoided getting stung by a wasp, and at first i thought this was a good omen for my run, as last year I went through a stage of colliding with wasps and coming out worst!
Next I had to dodge about 15 trials bikers who were sharing the same path as me, so in a bid to get out of their way I decided to go cross country and run along some of the muddy fields.  Bad move.  I don't seem to have a lot of luck with animals when I'm out running, I love animals, but they don't seem to love me; dogs bite me, ones even knocked me over before, horses have charged at me (that's happened 3 times now) and cows have stampeded towards me, but luckily Cols always been around to make me feel safe, and to drag me out of the way, and under hedges, as I have a tendency to freeze and stay rooted to the spot.  This time I was on my own, and as I approached a field that was full of cows (it never normally is) I decided that it would be safest for everybody if I stopped running and walked.  The cows by and large seemed more scared of me than I was of them and bolted into the second field, which would have been helpful, if that wasn't where I was heading too.  As I crossed the second field I was relieved to see that most of them skitted out of my path and headed up field.  Yes, most of them.  A bull decided that it wasn't afraid of me and started walking  very purposefully in my direction, that was just the signal they needed for all of them to rush over at the same second, I've never seen cows move so quickly, although to be honest I've never moved so quickly either, thankfully I was right next to the style, and I jumped over, and then just shook and shook. 
People generally tend to laugh when you say that you scared of cows, but I've had a few really scary incidents now, and they seem to be being reported in the media with a greater frequency.  Last week there was an article in the Guardian by a farmer who had been trapped under a cow and thought he was going to die, thankfully he's alright now, but he wondered if the increase of incidents was to do with the changing cow's diets. I think the biggest worry for me is that potentially aggressive cows are put in big fields which are public rights of way, if there is a problem, you can be stuck in the middle of a very big field with no means of escape, and I don't want to be Moo-dy or cow-ardly but I don't think a cows hoof print is quite as lucky as a horseshoe. 

Alone in Derbyshire

I've just received some really good news today.  I've had a piece of my work accepted for the Derbyshire Open Art Competition.  I was really scared about submitting anything, its the first time i have, and the competition from other artists was really really tough  to be honest, i felt really intimidated submitting my work.
I was allowed to submit 2 pieces, knowing that only 1 would be accepted, and so I submitted "The well walked path" which is a silver birch landscape, which I've posted on the blog earlier this month, and a more conceptual piece "Alone" which is inspired by an old peeling allotment door. 
Well, "Alone" has been accepted; with 99 other pieces it has been whittled down from over 370 other entries, so just maybe for once, I'll start believing in myself....... then and again!

The exhibition runs from 29 June to 31 August at the Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, and there really are some lovely pieces there.

The Edale Fell Run

After arrving and signing in for the Edale fell Run at the Edale Show, I went and sat in the van and watched the clouds going by.  The clouds were quick to hide the bright sunshine, and then the rain started.  I was thinking that this was going to be similar to the Castleton Fell race that I did last week, but it did actually decide to stop raining.  I walked up to the start and listened to the race briefing.  We were set off by the junior fell race winner, who did an excellent job of shouting 3,2,1 ....Goooooo, and we did.  The start is a straight up climb winding its way upto the top of Grindsbrook.  I am learning if people are walking at the same speed that you're running, then you should be walking too, and so for the majority of this hill, I was walking.  I think I read somewhere that it was 1300 ft, and if it is, I felt every foot of it, it was hard.  Once on to the top, you follow the edge round to the left to the top of Jacobs Ladder, and there on in its a complete downhill back to Edale, while all the time remembering an earlier warning from one of the competitors.  He'd told me to concentrate all the way, even at the grassy bank at the bottom, as thats where he'd put his foot in a sheep pat, slipped over, and broke his wrist, the last time he'd done it, 8 years ago.  From there on its to the road for a short run to the railway bridge and then a left turn into the showground which was starting to fill up.  All in all a great run, even if I hadn't realised what I'd let myself in for.
Colin

Save Brinsley's Green Spaces

Last night we went to a meeting organised by SABRHE (Save Brinsleys Heritage and Environment).  Broxtowe Council are wanting to build a whole load of houses in the village, which will mean building on green spaces.  I don't know why the Government are pushing ahead with this, even if their forecasts for the amount of new houses that are needed in the future are right (and most of their forecasts are not) there's plenty of brownfield land to build on, and there are plenty of affordable houses in the East Midlands that are for sale that aren't being bought. Yet, for some reason the majority of people want to live in new souless boxes with handkerchief sized gardens and cardboard walls - or even better a flat (sorry appartment).  There's a real danger that houses are starting to be seen as disposable items and the need to build them surpasses the need for green and pleasant land. Its not about being a NIMBY, its about realising how much we need our green surroundings, for our wildlife and for us; even the government promote the benefits of it for our health and well being and for promoting physical activity -
 I find it ironic that the plan is announced in the same week that Danny Boyle announces his vision for the Olympics Opening Ceremenony - showcasing Britians countryside.....
Anyway rant over, and a big thanks to SABRHE for all of their hard work, lets hope we show the planners just how important this is to us, failing that, I might be having to sleep in a tree!