well it has been a while since I last fell off my bike. Did it spectacularly yesterday morning, went out before sunrise not so difficult this time of the year but fell foul of a frozen stream on a particularly steep bank and went properly over the handlebars landing on my finger, it hurt a lot. Fortunately not my drawing hand.

it snowed. nice. Newcastle quayside by night; nice too.

Jupiter Venus and a crescent moon. Jupiter is above Venus and very dim- not having ever gone to school.

read up about the comon cold this weekend having had one it seems the virus cannot live outside the body unless coated in mucus so if you get a cold you have most likely injested someone else's mucus coated virus; nice! not.

n

a few pics: the moon, I was pleased with this one. a seagull from this frosty morning

and a spider web with remains of breakfast

a bit of a pastel of a scene on the way to hexham. a bird in a speedboat.

and last; but by no means least, the moon.

and a very short story.

he occasionally had that feeling that he was hiding from someone, it made him think a little of the story at the start of the bible, when Adam hid from God, in some bushes, But what or who was he hiding from?, was someone in pursuit, or was it worse; that no one was even looking?

now I am here I can't remember what I was going to say~! so I shall upload a few recent photos one from Hexham where I went to put some paintigns into an exhibition to start saturday Haslem's of Hallgate it is called with some very good artists so I feel humble and unexpectedly privileged.

one from this morning at Tynemouth just caught the sunrising and I think a kestrel from Tyenmouth this morning too.

Im sure I used to be wittier than this......................then again I haven't fallen over for at least a week

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war in heaven?

as I left the lakes the weather changes where I had been some of my favourite effects bright sun strong clouds, giving the effect of sunbeams searching the valleys and turning the mountains into shapes of light. this is a great cloud squatting over a mountain like some great creature

I really like the extra effects of light on the lens in this one. stops it being too cliched-the solitary tree with looming cloud and light .

I went up a mountain and then fell over

two people who did not at least in my sight fall over.

a very rubbish painting, now dead.

YESTERDAY i WENT TO THE lakes and up a mountain, when I reached the top I fell over, fortunately not over the mountain just over, stepped on a stone which tipped quite effectively and I fell over did a kind of clumsy roll into very wet turf so a soft wet landing.

It reminded me a little of a painting by Michael Andrews called the man who suddenly fell over in fact that painting didn't mean as much to me til I fell over then suddenly it had more resonance as artists are prone to say.http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=514&searchid=8910 this should give you a look

here is a painting at an early stage which I have since painted over as it was rubbish.

nothing as depressing as painting a rubbish painting, actually there are thousand more depressing things but where would we be without a little hyperbole (whatever that is)?

a few photos , well two isn't a few; its two, but the Dome at Whitley BAy is having a face lift and at present it is crowned with scaffolding and looks interesting. this one is actually a reflection but you probably knew that already.
while this is a rare sketch rare because for every sketch these days I probably take about 200-300 photographs. It is Hexham and I am attempting to paint it but am fairly dissatisfied so far.

here is another one of the Dome. Nice thing about this time of year: good skies.

blue water

well for better or for worse I changed the sky and water from orange to blue, where it began if I remember correctly. It is a bit tamer and I'm not too happy with it but there you go , can't win them all.

one good thing about summer being past is the beginning of very nice morning skies without getting up early!
these are pigeons!

I've got a bit confused about which is which and what is what regarding these orange pictures,

this is in fact the latest I was tempted this moring to repaint with a blue sky which is where it started but I shall wait and see. It looks a bit cliched at the moment.

I've been working on the Orange skied (sky-ed?)Newcastle scene not sure if I ''m flogging dead horse but it is challenging trying to make it look well. more worth while. Adtually it looks the same perhaps this is a repeat!!

the other one I have changed a bit but it is still unresolved in several areas that is to say several areas look a bit rubbish to me.

Went to an opening of an exhibition in Newcastle last night probably against my better judgement I rarely enjoy openings, I almost always go alone and almost always nobody talks to me1 sad or what billy no mates.

In the event wasn't wrong nobody spoke to me, the art was good, challenging, but why invite people then ignore them flipping heck these artists! a law unto themselves.

anyway: why worry?

here are some very nice photos of great pink clouds form yesterday evening, nearly made me late for a class but worth it. I seem to have put one on twice.

sad manikin

here is another in the short series of paintings based on Newcastle bridges, a view I see when on my bike and rounding the last bend. It had a boring blue sky so I brightened it up, not everyone likes the orange but I do. Not quite sure about the reflections- I need to practice. I saw this mainikin standing there looking depressed or perhaps he's in the naughty corner.
while here is a manikin looking art a painting held by its own shadow! surreal or what?

I haven't put much new on recently; partly because I am lazy, partly because I seem to have run out of wit, completely witless I am. and partly because of the paucity of comments, flipping heck !am I talking to myself here?

anyfway here am a new painting one of a series of Newcastle bridge paintings, this one from a another angle from the High Level Bridge newly opened to pedestrians and people peddling like myself. I have actually titivated it a bit since this photo, I didn't like the top bits the Sage and Millennium Bridge were interfering with the composition and with the main bridge, too many curves, I also simplified the water too busy.

below: Shelob has her lunch- it is autumn the time big spiders appear in our garden, apparently people have been finding large and reportedly deadly spiders in bunches of bananas, Brazilian Wandering spiders, to be specific, deadly apparently although when I read a bit on them only a very small proportion of bitten folk need anti venom (perhaps the majority are too dead to need it!, not really it seems these deadly things aren't usually all that deadly but I would still not want to get bitten myself)
here is another version of st Mary's island a little less tidy it is easy to make the scene too picturesque, although of course it is picturesque but reality needs a bit more messing with I think.

here's another version of the Tyne bridges, purple can be a bit dodgy in my opinion but I thought I'd give it a go, rather enjoying working a short series it takes the what should I paint? out of the equation and focuses on some degree of development or at least variation.

Photos from a short break in Redcar.

a couple of quick watercolours of st Mary's Island, I haven't done much in the way of watercolour for a while so I am quite pleased with these, not very adventurous, but not bad. although pink one is atrociously poorly photographed, must (might?) rectify that when I can be botherererererered.

yellow tyne bridge

here's another version of the tyne bridge last time used a lot of blue this time I thought I'd try it with no blue actually a tiny bit found its way in but not that you'd notice. some more photos of NewcastLe

who made me?

I see that professor Dawkins is being given more time to do a bit of christian bashing on telly, here's a link to another scientist who is a christian, a bit more measured than Prof Dawkins, whatever you believe there is a lot of intelligent discussion out there but of course in my opinion (for what that's worth) television producers are often more interested in controversy than truth.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-433628/Do-stop-behaving-God-Professor-Dawkins.html

no art (Im on holiday) might look out a photo though just as a reward for your bothering to look

spider web

its not often in fact almost never that I feel inspired to write a poem but the other day looking at spiderwebs bedewed ( if that is a word spellchecker says no its not), I was inspired

mist and dew have revealed

the secret presence of a hundred spiders

does the fear and loathing of arachnophobia briefly give way

to appreciation of God's silversmiths?