New post

Two new posts on
http://maryadam.com/an-occasional-blog/

Unblocked

My apologies that the new blog in the previous post was inadvertently blocked. It's now unblocked.

New blog

After a long time away from blogging I've started a new blog. It's called "An occasional blog" because I won't be posting often. The first post is called "Everything is different now". It's here.

Things for sale

If you are in Trinidad & Tobago check out this site for items for sale at giveaway prices -- furniture, appliances, and some small things including a child's car seat and a playpen not yet listed on the site.

Small office fridge

Artist's drawing table

30" gas stove

Rattan patio chairs (set) 

Storage cupboard

See http://forsaletrinidad.weebly.com for more info, or email me at folio12@gmail.com.

The Barcarolle

90 Days

I've started another blog on my website at http://www.maryadam.com/90-days/. It's called "90 days" and it's a sort of countdown. The plan is to post something there every day or most days for the next ninety days as a record (actually, 90 days from October 17, 2015).

Open Studio

My studio is open to visitors for the whole of September, details here. Hope to see you there.

Dickens on solitary confinement

In American Notes, 1842, by Charles Dickens, full text available in Project Gutenberg,
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/675

"I believe that very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and agony which this dreadful punishment, prolonged for years, inflicts upon the sufferers; and in guessing at it myself, and in reasoning from what I have seen written upon their faces, and what to my certain knowledge they feel within, I am only the more convinced that there is a depth of terrible endurance in which none but the sufferers themselves can fathom, and which no man has a right to inflict upon his fellow creature. I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body; and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh; because its wounds are not upon the surface, and it extorts few cries that human ears can hear; therefore the more I denounce it, as a secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay."

From http://solitarywatch.com/2010/02/27/charles-dickens-on-solitary-confinement-immense-torture-and-agony/

One-minute gesture drawing

Back in 2011 I made a short video about gesture drawing and uploaded it to YouTube. I had done it on a Mac and soon afterwards my Mac was stolen. A little while after that I realized the video needed editing but was unable to make the edits in Windows XP, so I withdrew it from YouTube until I could fix it. Only now, four years later, have I finally been able to edit it with MovieMaker in Windows 7. The edits were mainly cuts, and I added a few bits of explanatory text. So here it is belatedly. Hope someone gets something useful from it!

Painting in the Savannah

 

A watercolour of the Savannah from the east side near the St Ann’s roundabout, dated 1977 © Mary Adam

I’ve painted in the Savannah since the 1970s. Some readers would be too young to remember how it was then, with two-way traffic which was a lot slower than it is now. There were frequent massive traffic jams in the afternoons when school was out. In those days it was easier to park near enough to pack up quickly and reach the car before the rain came down.

I always preferred working on the east side, something about the light, but that hasn’t been possible for many years now unless one walks a long distance loaded down with gear and is prepared for everything to be soaked in the event of a downpour.

It would be nice if the Ministry would allow artists to drive their cars onto the Savannah, perhaps with special passes and restricted to certain days and times. I often wanted to do that but never did. 

There is so much to enjoy in the Savannah and so much to inspire the artist: the fresh air and the open space; the football, the cricket and the rugby that are played there regularly; the trees for their shade and their flowering in season – Poui, Immortelle, and Queen of Flowers among others. And then you have kite-flying, coconut vendors, the Pitch Walk and joggers.

Until recently I usually went on my own. Passers-by would sometimes pause to watch. They might ask a polite question, or say how much they themselves always wanted to draw and paint, and move on. Nobody ever bothered me. I haven’t been there for a long while though – in fact, come to think of it, since the parking area opposite Frederick Street was blocked off with a barrier. That’s where I used to park. I tend to avoid parking on the road with the high-speed traffic whooshing by. The barrier at the entrance to the Savannah is therefore a deterrent – to me, and to how many others like me? No doubt it was placed there for a reason and deterring artists is an unintended consequence. But it may be something that can be addressed and rectified. Perhaps the ASTT can petition the Ministry on behalf of artists?
 
(This was first published in the ASTT Newsletter, September 2014)