CREATING ART THE AMATEUR WAY

A while ago I went crazy, it was during the Covid madness and I ended up decorating everything I could lay my hands on, except the cat — and he came pretty close to it.  This was one project that I really went to town on and I love the result, even now.  It's chalk painted, using Annie Sloan paint, and the top  and legs are varnished to protect the surface. I used clear Annie Sloan wax on the sides.  The design was created using protective masking tape.   How it began... 😀  Alfie, my elderly Ragdoll cat, gets everywhere!

Nothing in my home is safe from me decorating it.  I wanted to buy some designer cafetières for my kitchen and could not find a single thing of interest, so I decorated the ones that I have. They are stainless steel with thermal walls so they never get hot to the touch. I used rub-on transfers that pretty much obliterated anything showing behind them. The black and copper cafetiere got painted over with a coat of black chalk-paint first. These are the results. The top one was all stainless steel and two types (patterns) of opaque rub-on transfers applied directly to metal.  It's was a bit tricky around the handle and spout but perfectly doable.  This cafetiere, as you can see was originally black and copper and had become rather scruffy so, as I mentioned, I gave it a coat of black chalk paint and then applied a transfer on top.   They both have lasted years as they were and only recently have started to look a little shabby.  I might just decorate them aga...

In my garden there is a little garden room made of cedar and a lot of UV protective glass.  As I like to surround myself with artwork and quirky work, I created some framed artwork to decorate my garden room walls.  Although nothing inside the room fades, due to the special glass, I didn't want to take any risks with a painting that had taken me a very long time to do.  I bought the frames online and varnished them.  I used MDF backing boards on which to stick the rub-on transfers, painting the boards first with chalk paint, and then I set to work arranging transfers into pictures that pleased me, with a final coat of UV protective varnish (just in case).  Here are some examples.  

I went through a decorating madness phase and when I ran out of furniture and pots to decorate, I decided my grey plastic dustbin was boring and deserved the treatment, so I set to work on it.  I gave it a good clean, of course, then I painted it with several coats of chalk paint.  When that was well and truly dry, I stuck transfers on it and gave it several coats of varnish/lacquer.  That was a few years ago now and it still looks good.  The only problem was that it had to be protected from the elements for quite a long time so I started decorating the dustbin (trash can, garbage can, whatever you call it) the day the men collected the rubbish.   Here it is:

Here are some examples of how you can repair and even repurpose broken pottery. First, a repaired terracotta pot which was broken into several pieces when it accidentally fell over. A thick layer of multipurpose filler was applied, then chalk paint, then transfers and finally a UV protective coating of lacquer/varnish. Waste not, want not. And another terracotta pot, repaired with multipurpose filler, painted with chalk paint, a transfer applied, and finally a protective coating of UV protective lacquer/varnish: Below is a fragile pottery urn that had a hairline crack from top to bottom.  It was only a question of time until it fell in half. Much as I hated to do it, I decided to repurpose and save it although I loved it as it was.  This time I did not use transfers but the multi-purpose filler, then white chalk-paint dabbed a sponge loaded with a dark grey.  To me, it looks a bit like granite now and can be used as a vase to hold artificial flowers. Below is a vase I bou...

I painted this living room, my living room in the Caribbean, a long time ago. It was a project and part of an Interior Design course. These quick paintings were fun to do and all part of learning to paint a design idea quickly. The idea was that we could quickly put our ideas into an image for a customer.   Of course, now that AI has come along allowing us all to create images to easily, Interior Designers must be having an easier time of it.  I had trouble, though, using Grok Imagine to create this below video as the Rastaman kept turning up like a giant. When I told Grok to make a small man, I ended up with a child! This is, after about twenty attempts, the best I could do. Fun though. 

It is many years ago since I lived in Barbados and while there, in my spare time, I studied interior design through Rhodec International in Boston, USA. One of the things we had to learn was to be able to sketch a room quickly. I mean really quickly. This was a quick sketch and painting of my own living room.  It was cool and comfortable and I often changed the loose sofa covers and cushion covers (which I had made) to match my mood. This was my 'ocean' phase. That's supposed to be me studying on the sofa. The watercolour paints used was a small Winsor & Newton professional grade palette.  I found the hardest part of studying interior design, and we had to study a wide range of topics including rock formation, was perspective. It took me a while. The books I have on perspective, and it has been a long time since I looked at them are these: Reekies Architectural Drawing by Tony McCarthy Colour Drawing: Design Drawing Skills and Techniques for Architects, Landscape Archit...

I think Cherry blossom tree and birds was my first attempt on Yupo paper, I call it paper but it is really a washable plastic which can be used over and over again.  While Yupo is difficult to work with, it also can give some amazing results. This was created used that vibrant watercolour brand, Mijello Mission Gold. I wondered what I could make of it using Grok Imagine and here is my best result. 

This was a quick watercolour painting in a journal just for fun a year ago. Sometimes we just want to paint, don't we, without fuss or pressure. I could have made a better job of it but it isn't the worst painting I have ever done.  I think that Grok Imagine has done a far better job of it. 

I certainly wasn't pleased with the way this watercolour painting turned out. It is quite a while since I painted it, in a journal, but her face!  That is supposed to be me, a keen gardener.  I am happy to say that when I used Grok Imagine to transform the painting into a six second video, that she looks a lot prettier. I love the way the video turned out but it took a while. In earlier videos that cat kept pushing up her skirt so I had to adapt my instructions to Imagine, to make it stop. Goodness me! And the state of that watering can! 😂 Criticisms of the painting aside, it does reflect my garden which is a 24/7, 365 days a year, feeding zone for all wildlife.

I created this image on a Compaq computer, pixel by pixel, back in the very early 90s. Never could I have imagined back then the technology that we would experience, and enjoy, what we have at our finger tips now.  Computer drawing pixel by pixel in the early 90s She has had her eyes closed all these decades as if she was sleeping but now, in 2025, Grok Imagine has woken her up. 

Some time ago, in summer 2022, I decided to paint a picture of a metal goose that I have in my garden room.  It's quite large at about 60cm tall, comical, and cheerful, and I found myself wanting to paint something fun so I got out my Schmincke Horadam watercolours and set to work. I've never framed it or wanted to put it on my wall, but maybe one day it will be a nice gift for someone. It's not my best work by any means as I painted it just for the fun of it so I didn't labour over it, but I do like it. It makes me smile.  The goose, the bee, and the butterfly Metal garden ornament, a goose Since I have had access to Grok Imagine, I have become somewhat hooked on it.  It's fascinating, to me, to watch my paintings come to life and although the animations are superior to my work, I do get something out of it. I get, not least of all, inspiration for other paintings.  The copyright of animations from my original work remain mine.  

Three decades ago, in the early 90s, and long before technology because seriously advanced, I created a portrait pixel by pixel of a Rastafarian on my old Microsoft computer. I think it was a Compaq. Seriously, pixel by pixel. It took a while. Today, all these years later, I turned that pixel portrait into a video in all of about 10 minutes.  And here is the video, created using Grok Imagine.

I am trying so hard to get back into painting and instead of just relaxing and splashing about, I keep trying to do something worthy of hanging on a wall which is rather ridiculous seeing as how I am painting in a journal! I'm really pleased with the Strathmore Mixed Media journal; it does take watercolour very well and although the painting is rather overworked, I still think it looks pretty.  The inside cover of the Strathmore journal looked a little bare so, although it is not watercolour quality paper on the inside cover, I decided to try and connect it to the Koi Carp painting. It was more of a doodle than a plan but I think it works, kinda. Imagine paying $1.8 million dollars for a fish.  I wanted to make a Grok Imagine video of the carp painting and it was a little tricky. These are early days for Grok Imagine and some of the conversions to video were a little weird, like two fish morphing into one.  I think this one will do.