Artistic Interpretation

One of the delightful aspects of the Olympus EM-1, is the variety of art filters that are built in to use.

There are some good filters that I use all the time, like the sepia one, and others that I have hardly ever used.

This photo of the Lakeside Arts Centre has been taken using the 'watercolour' filter. And as the name implies, the photo is meant to look like it was painted.

I'm not sure whether it works or not. But it's something different for a late sunny afternoon.

A Relaxing Time

The annual Light Night festival took place tonight in Nottingham city centre.

I was hopeful that it would be an improvement on last years. There was certainly a lot going on, and it was better than the last one, but for some reason, I didn't find a lot of it exciting.

And also for some unexplained reason, a lot of my shots are in black & white. I have no idea why. Maybe its something to do with the mood I was in.

I began my exploration in the Old Market Square, then walked up to the castle. Being free entry, there was a ginormous queue of people waiting to go in. I thought I couldn't be bothered waiting. so had a stroll down to the Brewhouse Yard area.

On the way back I popped into a gallery for local artists to display their work. I noticed that there were about four artists sketching or painting an oldish man that was posing on a sofa. To add a bit of surrealism, a bowler hat had been suspended near his head.

Not being able to draw or paint, I took his portrait instead.

The Sloan Ranger

Gail and I had a dabble today at learning how to paint furniture using Annie Sloan's chalk paint.

A local home furnishing shop called Heidi's was running a three hour workshop on the techniques needed to give new life to old furniture using different paints and brushes, waxes and even a hair dryer to make tired tables, sad seats and boring bookcases more exciting.

It was quite a fun session with Phil the trainer. Besides Gail & I, there were three other ladies in the 'class' and we all seemed to enjoy the experience and knowledge gained.

We were each given a piece of wood and asked to choose a colour. I chose a blue colour and slapped on the colour on a third of the wood. Next Phil gave us all small bowl of white paint which we applied to the middle third. He then gave us a hair dryer and we ran it over the wet paint for around five minutes or so. This made the paint crack.
We then had to choose another colour. So I went for red, as some of the colours seemed to have a French connection, so subconsciously I appeared to have painted the Tricolour.

We then got to use the wax, and rubbing on the dark wax certainly highlighted the cracks and lines in the paint. I also used some sandpaper to give my work of art a bit of distressing to give it an aged look.

On the whole I had a good time, and Gail is now planning to paint all our furniture and anything else that's lying about. Watch out Oscar & Marmalade, as that might include you!

On The Town

I saw this picture in the window of a local charity shop and thought that I quite like it. I have no idea who it is by, but like the simplicity of the narrative. A guy having a drink with a woman in a bar. Is he a private detective, or has he just arrived, as he still has his hat and coat on?

I decided not to buy it, as we don't really have any suitable wall space to hang it, so I just took a photo of it instead. A shame that the yellow, no parking line is reflected in the glass.

You Ought To See The Size Of The Chips!

On my way home from work, I cycle along part of the canal near Castle Boulevard and pass this mural every time. I've tried to take a photo of it before, but as it is so big, it didn't come out the way that I wanted.

So I decided to cycle along the other side of the water and see if it would work any better. And yes, I do believe it does.

I don't know who originally painted it, but it has been there for quite a while now. I can't remember when it first appeared though, or when I first noticed it.The paint is starting to fade a little now, so it could do with a touch-up or two.

Quite a few people, including youngsters like sitting along there with their fishing rods, in the hope that they'll catch something. Especially now with the light nights. They are a little annoying sometimes, when they spread all their stuff out on the pathway, and I have to try and dodge it, like I was some kind of stunt rider.