IS THIS THE CRAZIEST TREE YOU HAVE EVER SEEN? taken somewhere in Northumberland not too far from Walkworth, not exactly sure as I got a little lost!

wot you lookin at ?my blog I hope!

ARTS MUTABLE ONTOLOGIES

really just a dauble done to amuse myself without much thought or effort, nice paper though: Sanderson Waterford or sandyford waterman or something like that.a photo with my new camera.

I used to keep art quotes that took my fancy but I think I lost them, This one (ARTS MUTABLE ONTOLOGIES) has stayed in my mind although I can't remember where it came from. I sometimes think the less art says the more has to be said about it, but I could be wrong, still sometimes I wonder about the stuff said or written about art, especially when literal or literary titles are given to abstract work: a big green puddle of paint with a dab of red may be called St Paul after his visit to the barber . Today I was reading some stuff about current exhibitions and one item was about an artist whose representational work I admire but who often does (to me ) very obscure and difficult abstraction: 'he continues to employ the use of light, atmosphere and psycological narrative as a means of engagement' whaaaaat?????? mind: that does sound good; I myself shall continue to employ paint, brushes and various degrees of skill and/or otherwise to depict the fundamental (mental?)human condition as well as paint some very very mediocre pictures.

Just read Eric Clapton's autobiography, 2/3 of it he seems a bit of a prat but then he grows in the end and seems to end up a nice bloke (with a yaght, yot?) was never much of a fan but he has produces some reasonable stuff, he does talk a bit about the spirituality of music and I have always had some difficulty in accepting any art as being intrinsically spiritual, art can easily be as much about self ptomotion and plain ego tripping as anything elevated in spiritual terms, but that's just my opinion, but Ive read a few biographies of artists and they sometimes come across as rather empty people again just my opini-onion and my own 'art' seems fairly chaffish (is that even a word?) to me.

I don't know if it's a good thing or not when within a couple of paragraphs of a new book you have to reach for the dictionary to find out what the author is on about. Thought I had learned a new word: attenuated, then realised I knew it in a different context, usually in court cases, there were attenuating circumstances.

My daughter says that that should be extenuating circumstances and she's doing a degree in English so she must be right. So I have learned a new word:. attenuated; meaning lightened or made fainter. As in: he was feeling attenuated; having eaten fewer cakes than usual. or: he felt attenuated, having skipped breakfast that morning. Only kidding, but as I have said before isn't the englandish langwedge faskinating?

So if it were a court case there were attenuating circumstances in that the accused didn't see the sign: keep off, as it was in fact extremely attenuated by weather and age.

Anyway here are a few watercolours I did yesterday. Love snow scenes, do em every year weather it snows or not. this is Durham from the east I think
st Mary's island again, often featured in the brother blog dave-davetakespictures which I do, easily reached by clikking at the top of this blog, more comments therein required to keep me going.

I don't know if the lighthouse is slightly wonkey, should have drawn it rather than just painted it in.

the word Draw in fact is related to draught its meaning initially being to draw an instrument across the page rather than having the emphasis on depiction, so a draught is air drawn through a gap or hole, or perhaps liquid drawn from a container.

well: this am an example of the elusive but legendary anticrepuscular rays! I had to enhance the photo to make them seeable; first time Ive been conscious of seeing them if you know what I mean, sometimes you might be looking at something but until you know what it is you don't see it!

I knew it was going to be an interesting day when I cut myself shaving with an electric shaver!!!!

went for my customary bike ride , lovely sky (see photo blog later in the week) went down a steep bank there was a kind of mini mudslide at the bottom but it being freezing I thought that mud will be frozen. It wasn't; ended stuck up to my knee in freezing (but not frozen) mud, lost my shoe! had to burrow down to retrieve said shoe and put it back on full of freezing ooze, washing one's hands in freezing seawater is incredibly painful, still got a couple of reasonable shots before camera battery conked out!

later my key broke in the bike lock so had to carry bike home! this morning (that was yesterday) went on rocks at tynemouth and fell in the sea! well my right foot did, coooold!!!!! all in the service of art!

talking of art sometimes when you have looked at paintings or photo's you see the picture in reality, the other morning with mud on and in my shoe I saw this bloke walking his dog against the morning sky and thought it looked quite like an alexander millar picture, although, in the forground was a big pile of dog poo, dirty dog owners! so I call this painting: 'walking the dog' with apologies to the aforementioned artist.

woh!: you got it twice!

give a woman a camera! left a bit she said....only a 600ft drop!- wondered why she asked if I was insured. And what a surprise to find a nudist on top of a mountain! chilly; isn't it I said.

yet more morning photo's check out the other blog to the left just give it a click and you'll be there, davetakes pictures yes he does! many are rubbish but I don't tend to put them here for folk to mock, nothing but not bad ones.

EXTRA LARGE!!!

probably posted the first of these already but if Scrubs can show repeats and still be more funny than most else on tv why can't I do some blog repeats, the other I think I haven't put on, a common but all my own picture of Holy Island, now if that little boat was just a little to the right.

well is there anybody out there? and does it really matter? (I'm having a bit of a negative existential moment- whatever that is!; bit of a: what's the point of painting? and while I'm at it what's the point of anything (could just be the cold germs talking))

Anyway went to town; North Shields that is, Not Newcastle which although many people mean there when they go to town, it is of course a city, North Shields however is a town and thence I went. iT IS THE cHRISTMAS vICTORIAN market thing, there were Morris dancers and I couldn't help thinking is there anything less rock and roll then mORRIS DANCERS? then turning into the shopping precinct Salvation army dudes playing a particularly mournful hymn, there i HAD MY ANSWER.

Not that I have anything against either in fact with today's obsession with being and looking (or being thought to look or be)Cool both groups are in fact kind of rebels, they don't give a monkey's nuts for being cool so there!good on them, although I prefer hymns that are less mournful myself, Charles Wesley there was a man who could write Hymns, also William Cooper and John Newton.

Bought a coat: am I really EXTRA LARGE? I like to think I am about average for a man who likes to eat cakes!

sunrise again

intense or what? winter skies are brilliant! This is just outside of my front door, last year. this is nice!

full of cold this week and can't be bothered with art. Hve bought myself a nice brush and a new box of paints, but cant be bothered to use them so have just been looking at them as if they were a box of chocolates. Couldn't sleep last night so sat up reading about Cirrus cloud formations:fascinating stuff.

Thought the end of Heroes wasn't as good as the one before the penultimate episode but I do like the word penultimate whereas I don't like the word serendipidy so there!..

this is the paintng I did at a demonstration at North Shields art society, I thought althouhgt the occasion went reasonably ok the painitng is pretty rubbish, may try and improve it; watch this space. Just noticed thatdemonstration starts with demon!!!! no wonder it is devilishly difficult.

a painting a day dave armstrong

just to remind readers to the left is a link to my other photograph blog just click to be transported to some pictures.

here's two stages in the latest painting I've done, although I have done or am doing some watercolours which may appear here, although watercolours don't seem to look so good on the blog (perhaps I'm simply crap at watercolour: but don't tell that to my watercolour classes or they may ask for a refund) the a painting a day title is a shameless attempt to attract web surfer's attention as a lot of very good as well as some of modest talent do a painting a day blog and people seem quite taken with it I think I already suggested checking out carol maine's painting a day blog duaine keiner is another very good one; indeed her may have been the progenitor (is that a word and if so what does it mean; nothing rude I hope!) I was influenced in this painting bu Georgia o' Keefe who waas brilliant. look her up on the net if you will you won't be displeased I guarantee, she is one of those artist's everyone likes or admires.

Im currently or perhaps presents although definately not momentarily (don't you hate the mis and overuse of that word- I blame the yanks myself -learn to talk proper englandish I sey!)

in training for Christmas by eating 2 mince pies a day. training is so improtant dontcha think?dontcha!

weLl it's off to work I GO

i have a new photograph blog, no silly talk:just pictures and a bit of description. Click on davetakespictures top left of this blog and hope for the best!

already did this posting but in wrong blog! I have another which I intended to put more photos but accidentally put this one on so being unable to work out how to transfer it must rewrite!!!!!
went to Alice Cooper concert last night, support act Motorhead; dire? :haven't been in so much pain since a visit to the dentist! Alice was good, all the classics, although sound wasn't brilliant, perhaps my ears were still knackered from Motorhead. At the interval I went to the big foyer place to stretch my legs and get some refreshment and noticed a few people looking at me, then realised that in my beige woolly jumper I kind of stood out in the crowd of black clad others. I figured if anyone asked I would say I was dyslexic and thought I'd bought a ticket for Val Doonigan. here's me as Alice (Alice?who the heck is Alice?-actually saw a big ad form Roy (Chubby) Brown on the way back from Newcastle today.) Is there anything so well designed to make one look a twit more than a cycling helmet? I ask you. Went out this morning in the rain on my bike to St Mary's Island and got very wet.But felt slightly heroic, although I was tempted to ask some joggers if I was going the right way to the meeting of the total idiot club.
This might possibly be my worst ever painting! then again sad to say I've probably done even worse. What was I thinking (don't paint while hungry?)

now on the aforementioned bike ride something made me think about how in the comics of yore, there wasn't only superman, but supergirl (who developed, naturally, into superwoman), superhorse, superdog, cat and even monkey; I can't rememeber any superbudgie, but my memory isn't what it was (what was it?)

Anyway I was thinking, it is bad enough to get plopped on by a flying pigeon, but if superhorse was flying overhead!!!!!

Listening to Jethro Tull again, Crest of kNAVE, 'she said She was a Dancer' lovely song.

used a new word today, Risible; it's a word writers like and it is more read than heard at least by me. wasn't initially sure of the meaning; risible: the sound of low-fat bacon grilling?; risible: the quality of being overinflated with wind to the point where one threatens to rise from the ground?

no; I did the sensible thing and checked the dikshhinarry: it means laughable.

I can't upload it yet , but do I want the shame?

above is a picture which is an old one. lonng sinse destroyed; it's acrylic , large 3x3ft: Marcus Harvey with egg and sausages, I am especially pleased with the egg and sausages, painted in acrylic on watercolour paper and cut out and stuck on so as to be movable,eg; sausage mouth, egg eye etc.

It's a bit blurred.

Marcus is the infamous painter of the Myra Hindley picture which provoked outrage some years back.

Oh I've managed to upload the risible effort (sideways-I'm in a hurry)((no;I've fixed it now)) and one of a leaf I did last night; gouache on the back on a padded envelope, properly drawn mind you , not used as a stencil. just so you know.

well. I'm off to work if you can call it that.

(Got stung on the adam's apple this morning whilst on m'bike !!!! sinse when did the insect world declare war on me; was it something I said, perhaps about vegetarianism? speaking of which........)

my mind drifted briefly in church today, for some reason I started to think about anthropomorphic stories, if that is the right word for animal tales which really seem to tell human stories, eg Wind in the willows which I much prefer before toad makes an appearence but if I am right in thiinking although it is about a waterrat, a mole and a badger, it is really about human behaviour and characters, then toad tells us that as well as being capable of being saints and devils, people are capable of being clowns too.

Anyway to get to the point I thought no one seems to write stroies from the viewpoint of slugs, do they... moles,(Duncton wood) rabbits (Watership Down) Whales (Whale) etc, but not about slugs, perhaps there is a fundamental sympathy problem.

In a hole lived a slug, not a nasty dry clean dry hole, but a lovely damp, dark smelly hole. It wasn't much but it was home to sluggy. Sluggy was black and of course , slimy. His mname was sluggy as already mentioned. Now one day sluggy had an adventure; he got eaten.

the end.

mmm. not bad but I think the end needs work, also the beginning ... and perhaps the middle...

here is a phot of a nice rainbow from this morning there was actually a double one but I was in a hurry (going to church) and just managed to snap this just before it faded away, coming right down to the beach. Also one of the drawings from Angel, I am afraid he looks like a flasher from this angle.

I went to Souter lighthouse yesterday on my bike and deliberately left my camera at home and took my sketchpad, did 4 drawings so felt quite pleased with myself. Sold a painting throught the week (have I mentioned this?) which always cheers one up briefly.

talking about cheerfulness:

man to another man: 'what are you smiling about?'

other man: 'I've just got a happy feeling'

man: ' don't worry; it will soon wear off.'

other man'?????????'

FELT LIKE A PROPER ARTIST YESTERDAY, went out with my sketchbook and folding chair and drew the Angel of the North in situ. It's quite challenging in terms of proportion and perspective. Also took a few photos here is one I fiddled with. Having some trouble uploading pictures, but not this one for some reason!

It is easy to become rutted in working from photos and letting drawing from life become a distant memory.

its funny how being up before the sun makes me feel almost virtuous, whereas of course it isn't not unless I'm doing something virtuous like saying my prayers or washing last night's dishes or cleaning the cat's box.

Nevertheless It felt good to be out and about on my bike this morning, Just south of my house; a beautiful arrangement of planet and two stars, then along the riverside and then to Whitley Bay in time to see the sun break through the clouds over the sea.



I think I've been putting too many photo's on the blog, so here are some drawings and paintings,





One of a series of Holy Islands I'm busy on; a watercolour of a butterfly cutout, ( painted to look cut out rather than actually cut out you understand (trompe l'eoile or something- can never spell or pronounce it; it means a picture to fool the eye(I think))

a drawing of some boxes with perspective errors, and a still life of bottles done this tuesday evening.


Not necessarily in that order and the still life a little wonky.

I leaned a new phrase yesterday: anticrepuscular rays. These will be our only defense if Mars Attacks!

well I found my zoom! turns out I'd switched it inadvertently off. HERE are a couple of photos to keep things ticking over, a fine sky from a while back lovely clouds, and some light reflected on the river tyne, canny dramatic.
On a more personal note I must stop cycling with my mouth open, 2 flies in one ride! wouldn't so bad if they tasted nice.





Now for some reason in one of my classes the conversation seemed to briefly turn to the question what is the point of art, and this is a question I occasionally reflect upon myself. Of course one could be very serious and consider whether anything has a point because if there is no point or purpose in the whole show so to speak then there can be no point or purpose in a small element of the whole show such as a few people making art.

mmmmmm. To take another line of thought I read a quote by Oscar Wilde to the effect of; 'art is useless: like a rose' Did he mean that just as we accept the beauty and smell of a rose as making it unquestionably worth existing, or did he mean that the point of art is to be something other than practical and what's the word???? utilitarian, ie art exists in the space beyond or above usefulness?

Anyway to take it off at a tangent we know of course that roses are far from 'useless' since their purpose is to attract insects which when they have visited leave with pollen which pollinate other roses and hence lead to propagation. Does art then attract people and does good art ensure that when people come away they leave carrying something about their persons akin to pollen?? I know that soemetimes I come away from a gallery or exhibitlion feeling very disappointed that I didn't 'get anything' from it, some(not all) contemporary art can seem to me quite empty, but so can some traditional art. Perhaps mine seems empty to some others. mmmmmmmmm well that's enough pondering for now, I'm listening to Jethro Tull again.

here's a few more pictures, my camera seems to have lost zoom but still got a few nice pictures at the weekend. Lovely sun. and water too!
the drawing is a bit blurry due to photographing by dim light.

I don't know if it's just 'cause I'm
noticing them but there seem to be a lot more crows around, come the evening and the chimneys and rooftops around where I live are practically colonised by them. I remember being told that unlike rooks, crows are solitary creatures: not the ones around here. Anyway; here is a crow on the rocks at the river across from the Groyne in South Shields which I think is an interesting building especially with sun on or mist about it. The phot with sun on the water is for Tania because she likes the sun sparkling on water(don't we all?)


the top photo cost me a tumble in a tangle of weeds as I tried to find a new view of the familiar tyne landscape. I think it was worth it.

yet another photo of st Mary's Island taken this week , a little slanty I think Also some alto cumulus (I think) in the evening by the Norham road overpass bridge thingy.

here also is the painting I painted on tuesday, it needs something in the bottom I think.

this photo was taken in the Quarry, Whitley bay I think its nice.

If anyone wants to paint it be my guesssst.

no wonder I couldn't see any difference, it was the same photo.

Here are the two stages but unfortunately the light is different so the difference in painting isn't so clear, the one on the right is the most recent image; the softened shading is most obvious on the right but I've added a little more subtle blue to the underside of both flowers., I'm not sure that the cooler green is better.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm??????????? back to the easel??????