chelsfield
SWF Writers
Posts: 700
Joined: Mar 28, 2012 3:07:24 GMT -8
|
Post by chelsfield on Jun 26, 2018 23:13:58 GMT -8
Duh! Just clicked with me who 'unclegarf' is. Funny, my mother used to date a guy named Garf...
|
|
|
Post by unclegarf on Jun 27, 2018 0:36:32 GMT -8
It wasn't me, honest. I've been called Garf, or uncle garf since my late teens which was nearly half a century ago. I'm determined to finish this damn painting in the next couple of days so I can give due time to the new book. Mostly with the painting it is all the fiddly bits of the mayoral chain and pendant and I usually paint big not small. Not unlike my writing. I see the big story but don't always add enough minutia to the characters. It all comes down to making the effort.
|
|
Ria Stone
SWF Writers
Posts: 1,055
Joined: Oct 30, 2013 14:12:26 GMT -8
|
Post by Ria Stone on Jun 28, 2018 18:08:50 GMT -8
Y'know, it really doesn't matter what we do, writing, painting or cooking up a storm. Creativity is like a seasoning we sprinkle over the day. It turns an average day into something we can take a great deal of satisfaction out of. When we turn off the laptop after finishing a promising chapter or step back from the canvas and say, "yeah, I did that" or mop up the plate from the best dish ever with that last piece of crusty bread, belch and say, "Man. That hit the spot" A day I don't do something creative because life gets in the way is a none-day. Few and far between for me, thank goodness. Get busy, people. Sprinkle that creativity over your day. unclegarf, so true, thank you. When I make a recipe and it turns out well, I can almost feel what it is like to be a real cook, not there yet :-)
|
|
chelsfield
SWF Writers
Posts: 700
Joined: Mar 28, 2012 3:07:24 GMT -8
|
Post by chelsfield on Jun 28, 2018 23:09:02 GMT -8
I feel like a real cook when I can throw some ingredients together without a recipe, and it tastes good. Doesn't happen often, so I am still reliant on recipes which I often screw up...
|
|
|
Post by unclegarf on Jun 29, 2018 1:21:44 GMT -8
when we screw up is when we learn
|
|
|
Post by unclegarf on Jun 30, 2018 23:14:29 GMT -8
Allow me to introduce Alderman Ben Bilboe, local mayor 1947 and was grandfather of old friend of mine. Ben knew Tolkien which was how Bilboe Baggins came to be. Joined army for first world war aged 14, deserted, got away with it because he was underage.
|
|
|
Post by djmills on Jul 1, 2018 12:32:45 GMT -8
Links? Or are you inserting the image later? :-) And congratulations on finishing the painting.
|
|
|
Post by unclegarf on Jul 1, 2018 13:40:59 GMT -8
Y'Know, I tried to put a picture in but damned if I know the magic words or maybe I'm using the wrong wand but it ain't workin' for me. tried the attachment thingy but that ignored me. Tried cut and paste and made a sticky mess of my loptap with the glue. Searched all my pockets and back of the sofa for a URL but nothin'. Could it just be me? Nah!
|
|
|
Post by unclegarf on Jul 12, 2018 6:40:45 GMT -8
Progressing through new book with the corrections and should make more progress now the world cup is coming to a close. Better luck next time England! Already new ideas for book 2 are forming so it looks like being another creative year. Our little art group put up a varied set of paintings in what is quite a small gallery. My pal who requested the portrait of his grandfather who was, allegedly, the inspiration for Bilboe Baggins, is according to the jungle drums, due back from his motorbike ride to Bulgaria and he has no idea the picture is on public display. Could be interesting when he finds out where the portrait is. I also heard he had some kind of difference of opinion with some gun toting policeman. The details no doubt will be suitably embellished for his friends amusement. Had a look at how to put pix on here via photo-somethin' or other. Life is too short for all that stuff.
|
|
|
Post by unclegarf on Jul 19, 2018 9:36:01 GMT -8
Had an interesting phone call from the mayors office regarding portrait of the mayor. Have been invited to the mayors office next month to show the painting. Should be interesting. Because of my loptap meltdown, recently, losing old email addresses and quick links to sites like this one, had trouble getting back onto D2D. Pains me to say this, but I could be ending up publishing next book with smash! I know. Bonkers. To be fair, I still have a bunch of mostly freebies with smash which net me about 30 + reads per week so I never really went away. Such is life I guess. Up to the last third of rewriting new book, I still do painting projects in between. Now on a copy of the promotional painting of "The picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. Think big mad zombie-like images. Mentioned the Wilde book to my art group and they hadn't a clue. Gotta wonder, hey? Folk can't remember Wilde, I got no chance. I still see next to no input from folk supposedly involved with this site. Wassup? Writers with nothing to say?
|
|
|
Post by ChrisLAdams on Jul 19, 2018 10:52:06 GMT -8
Had an interesting phone call from the mayors office regarding portrait of the mayor. Have been invited to the mayors office next month to show the painting. Should be interesting. Because of my loptap meltdown, recently, losing old email addresses and quick links to sites like this one, had trouble getting back onto D2D. Pains me to say this, but I could be ending up publishing next book with smash! I know. Bonkers. To be fair, I still have a bunch of mostly freebies with smash which net me about 30 + reads per week so I never really went away. Such is life I guess. Up to the last third of rewriting new book, I still do painting projects in between. Now on a copy of the promotional painting of "The picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. Think big mad zombie-like images. Mentioned the Wilde book to my art group and they hadn't a clue. Gotta wonder, hey? Folk can't remember Wilde, I got no chance. I still see next to no input from folk supposedly involved with this site. Wassup? Writers with nothing to say? I'd like to see this dang picture of the mayor! You got an Imagur account? If not, email a photo of his honorableness to me, I'll host it and post the pic for you. Like you, I'm deep in a writing project and scarcely have time to breath. My map I painted for Gilbert Stack has him wanting another one, which I'll start in September when things slow down. I have a ton of stuff I want to paint, but must finish this Mars rewrite as they are going to move soon on the first volume, and I have to have the second ready to go. Still trying to finish my second volume of my Tales of the Tomahawk series. It seems the stars are misaligned for the poor novel. Each time I pick it up, some big project comes along and sucks the time away like a temporal vamp with an attitude and a healthy appetite. Such is life. I recently composed a step by step of my painting I did for the map. Here it is, for grins and giggles. By the way, the seance scene on the show Penny Dreadful is downright creepy - the show features Dorian Gray as a regular character, as I recall. Haven't read Wilde's novel, but I do know the one you're referring to.
|
|
|
Post by unclegarf on Jul 20, 2018 5:08:41 GMT -8
Thanks, Chris. P M me with email please. It won't be a great photo of the picture but will give a good idea of what it looks like.
|
|
|
Post by djmills on Jul 20, 2018 14:45:40 GMT -8
Yeah for Smashwords, unclegarf You might be surprised at the added benefits, eg. when a customer purchases a book in a series, the page displays the rest of the series. I live in hope of someone seeing the whole series when they buy the first in series, and buy the lot. :-) Looking forward to seeing your oil painting when Chris puts the photo here. As for a quiet time here, at the moment it is very quiet on all forums I visit. Dean Wesley Smith calls it the "Time of Great Forgetting" or something like that. I think it is summer in the northern hemisphere so everyone is outside tanning, playing sports, etc, whereas Winter in southern hemisphere so I am busy splitting wood, burning wood and moaning about the cold. :-)
|
|
|
Post by ChrisLAdams on Jul 21, 2018 18:35:19 GMT -8
Benjamin Bilboe of Bilston (1900-1951) pictured above, leading local figure of the Unemployed Workers Movement, Mayor for Bilston 1947. Born into an Ironbridge family that travelled the fairs, Ben Bilboe settled in Bilston and became a leader of the Unemployed Workers Movement of the 1930s. He objected to the payment of poverty wages that were well below the trade union rates. These workings became known as ‘Poverty Bonk’. In 1933 he gave an inflammatory speech outside the police station in Mount Pleasant and was arrested, spending polling day in the police cells, from where he was duly elected to the New Town ward. Bilboe proved a militant councillor urging better housing and social services as well as championing the cause of rural workers. During the war Ben joined the forces, but was invalided out to become the Civil Defence Officer at Bridgnorth. After the war he returned to Bilston where he became mayor in 1947 and an alderman of both Bilston UDC and Staffordshire County Council. He remained totally committed to the poor and considered his Council work a full-time job and scraped a subsistence where he could. In 1951 he died suddenly at the age of 49 and his funeral was well attended, such was the respect he had achieved in the town. Bilboe Road in Bilston was named after the firebrand socialist About the painting. Bob Johnson, friend of mine for many years and grandson of Benjamin Bilboe asked me to paint a picture of Benjamin. I like a challenge but this was a tough one with so little photographic imagary to work on. A very poor, small, overpainted photo Bob gave me to work from was of little help. I was fortunate to have been invited to see the present day robes in the civic centre and took a few photos as the design has changed little over the years. The chain of office today is different to the Bilston chains and the large gold and enamel pendant can be seen in the display cabinet in the craft centre in this building. The background of this portrait was discussed by Bob and I with several alternatives suggested. Finally, I came up with what to me is a symbolic cloud style which to me represents both the fiery character of Benjamin and also the likely bellowing smoke from various industries of the area at that time. A further interesting footnote is that Mayor Bilboe was the possible inspiration for J R R Tolkien's Bilboe Baggins in The Hobbit. In a strange way, I felt I had become to know and admire Benjamin and I hope he would have approved of this portrait and perhaps in some modest way it helps preserve the memory of very interesting man. Gary Weston.
|
|
|
Post by unclegarf on Jul 21, 2018 23:19:28 GMT -8
Thanks, Chris. I hope folk like it and find it interesting. It is a large oil on canvas. I'll be taking the painting to the mayor's offices next month. What will become of it after that I have no idea. My painting of Dorian Gray is coming along (think Zombie) and the idea of combining painting with a literary theme is compelling. Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz next?
|
|