I have moved my blog...

I have moved my blog to here following a series of (mainly) small but increasingly aggravating problems with Blogger. I hope you'll follow me and update any links etc. Thanks a lot.

Hospital not going so well

We thought this would be a quick "in and out" hospital trip for Mum. Unfortunately things have not gone that well. Her kidneys are not playing the game and her blood pressure is so low she gets dizzy all the time. At 84, the risk of a nasty fall is high. That said, she fell last week and bounced no problem ;-)
To add to her woes,the hospital food has upset her gall bladder - something we have had under control with diet alone for 2 or 3 years now. Bummer!
So, although she is not as sick as she has been in the past, she's nonetheless quite sick; and of course older than last time she got really ill. So we watch and wait...

Mum's in hospital again

But I think this is only the second time this winter, so we're doing well really. She had an infection, we got antibiotics, they didn't work, so the infection kept on in a low-grade way. Mum's diabetic, cardiac and renal patient, and it has put her heart and kidneys under considerable pressure.
On Wednesday she had a fall so I made a doctor's appointment for Thursday. Because her heart is so fragile they try to keep her pulse rate around 60. When they took it, it was 135. No wonder she felt sick. Her blood pressure was also very low, and her kidney function had deteriorated considerably.
So, the doctor called the ambulance and my husband turned up and took her away. Nothing like having an ambulance officer for a son-in-law when you have chronic, and sometimes acute, health problems!
Last night I went up after work and she was feeling a bit better. I had a chat with her nurse who said her vitals are better but there's a way to go yet. So she'll be there all weekend at the very least. Our wee dog clearly thinks I've misplaced Grandma and is not impressed. Oh dear :-(

So inspiring

The view out to sea at the moment is so inspiring that I can feel a wee series coming on. This weekend I can going to spend some time playing with thumbnail sketches, thinking about colour and texture and composition and ... you get the idea!

Next year one of the exhibitions I have coming up requires landscape oriented canvases no less than 60cm wide. So, I'm thinking very narrow and very long; perhaps just capturing the waves in action in a fairly abstract way.

Isn't it lovely?

This started as a photo of water cascading over the sea walls in Mana Bay, taken by local Gwen Broughton. Magic!

Detour #2

This is the other painting I completed yesterday. I can tell you the sky today does not look that good; it's uniform gray, wet and miserable...

This one is 10x10" on gallery wrap canvas and is for sale on my Etsy site.

Detour #1

I've been exploring the Patea landscape in a fairly abstract way again. Our local landscape never fails to bring my joy. There are two new paintings in this on-going series, and I have called this one "Detour #1" because in order to see the cliffs I have to take a considerable detour on the way home from work.

This has lots of solid gritty texture, and layers of dry-brushed paint for real atmospheric depth. 4x8" in acrylics on gallery-wrap canvas. For sale on Etsy.