Black and White

This week I took a photo every day that was about making images in black and white. It certainly concentrates the eye, looking for form, pattern and drama. We’re so used to seeing images that rely on colour to tell the story, working in black and white was quite a challenge, looking for subjects where colour would not add anything.

A shaft of sunlight in the stair well made a living theatre shadow-play as visitors walked up and down.
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Fountains in the new Eastside City Park in Birmingham/home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/4e8/31026898/files/2014/12/img_0938.jpg

A watercolour portrait of my uncle I made, inspired by a tiny black and white photo taken in the late 1930s./home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/4e8/31026898/files/2014/12/img_0939.jpg

The sad demise of a dead plane tree thought to have been more than 150 years old, I was lucky to pass by as the last branch was about to be cut. /home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/4e8/31026898/files/2014/12/img_0940.jpg

Jewellery

I have been avoiding doing anything so delicate and precise as making jewellery for 3 months since I broke my wrist but today I made these little earrings. They can be worn open as on the right or closed up as on the left.
It was a struggle but I am glad that I have not lost the ability to be dexterous and patient.

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Night Skies

Experimenting with ways to paint the “Milky Way” in watercolour.
Salt is the best, fine table salt gives small pale marks which could be seen as stars as they have jagged edges. Maldon Sea Salt however is perhaps more suited to large starbursts.
Fenugreek made some interesting alien space ship shapes but smelt awful and fine-ground polenta just made a mess!

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The Minarets ridge from the top of Mammoth Mountain, CA

Whilst I went up the mountain in the cable car, my friends were hiking the trails in the national park below. They camped at Minaret lake and saw the sunrise over the peaks.
The top of Mammoth mountain was windy and dusty with nowhere to sit and paint en plain air, so here’s another studio watercolour.

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