Saturday 9 August 2008

Venice

Venice was very emotional for various reasons this year, but we found good weather until yesterday's storm and spent most of the very hot days at the beach, reading and drawing (and swimming and sunbathing, of course). I only took my camera out at night, when it was cooler (not much).

In the house I found a trunk of my grandad's paintings, watercolours and oil, but so many, hundreds. Still lifes, portraits, scenes from the opera and cafes. I was hoping to find some of the paper he used, but didn't. He used a very thin paper, I don't think it was particularly good or expensive, but it laid so wonderfully flat, while mine tends to buckle even when I stretch it. I'd love to know how he did that. I didn't bring any of his paintings back with me, but I will next time, and I'll write a little bit more about him. Here he is (the guy standing) in a very surreal picture my mum took in the 1950s.

Sunday 3 August 2008

Kaleidoscopes

I fell in love with kaleidoscopes when I went to Jerome, Arizona, where there's the most amazing kaleidoscope shop. Today I was playing around with images and decided to turn some into kaleidoscopes, and I thought of doing some "kaleidoscope magic", choosing images of things I would like. Here's my Ferrari:











And here is a beautiful mansion in Encinitas, where I would like to live:




Perhaps my subconscious mind picks up on these suggestions and turns my dreams into reality.

I hope it works for you too!