Old diana mini photos I picked up from the shop

These photos have sat there waiting to be developed for the last 1-2 years. Most have worked out OK considering they were taken with a plastic lensed camera with only a fixed viewfinder an minimal settings (zone focus and two apature settings). The first few are using the half frame advance and mask. THe square ones have worked so much better though.

Stuff and nonsense

Life as we know it

So I've just met a man called Eric. On first appearances he is a street hawker. A man selling paintings on the street. 
“Are these for sale?”
“No. I'm just taking art to people. Would you like to see?”
Eric is showing his paintings to people in the street for no other reason than he wants to show people his pictures. 

I guess that's the reason I post pictures on this blog. I had a formal art education (foundation focused on drawing and colour skills, then a three year degree focused on formal painting and art history). I've never shown my work after this period of education and I think this blog is an attempt to connect with an audience of sorts. 
I am planning a film at the moment which will show where I am at the half- way point in my life, or rather cover  some of the things I think about. 
Life is short and death follows us at every turn. I am lucky to be in a place in my life where I have a wealth of memories and experiences, but still have the possibility of more. My grandmother is 96 years old and has been old all my life. New experience is almost unknown to her, yet my grandfather ( other side ) is only just settling in to old age properly. I know which one I'll be. 

Angry skies and reflections

Barbican centre abstracted

Bad business

I have always had a soft spot for local businesses with daft names. Better still, a local business with a daft sign. Near where I live is an Afro-Caribbean funeral parlour which has two pictures on it's frontage. The first shows a horse drawn glass carriage. Normal for a business of this type. The second image is that of a pyramid with the eye of Ra bursting from the top. Less likely to be available in the standard catalogue one would imagine. If anyone does in fact need a pyramid building for a mausoleum I may be able to recommend an architect, but with local land prices I doubt you'd want it. 

Which takes us to chickpizz. Paul Merton mentioned it on tv a couple of years ago as being the worst name for a takeaway since ' The taste of Lewisham.' their sign is an Easter chick standing on a pizza. It's been there for years, but I've yet to meet a soul that will admit having eaten there.  

Easter bank holiday weekend

So this weekend was a long one (4 days off). I've been to see  film as theatre (Bugsy Malone, future cinema at the Troxy), a lovely long walk in the country and hidden gardens and walkways in the Barbican Centre.

Alan Parker's slightly bizarre film of child actors playing gangsters during the escalation of violence during prohibition gets the much needed musical treatment. Add to this live performances and re-enactment of the splurge-gun and pie-fight.

We managed to find one of the creepiest areas of the countryside to go for a walk (Harlington).  A burned out house. Pheasants hanging in the trees (dead). Brooding skies and slippy hills and slopes. Oh and leatherface's house.

Today we went to the barbican centre to look at the conservatory. A room full of tropical plants for local residents. Then onto the highwalk.