Shop local!

Having seen this bowl in the window of Louis Farouk while walking along Blackstock Road the previous evening, I went back to bring it home, taking a couple of friends with me -

The painted creature is an Egyptian cow, not a horse as the tail led me to believe!

We went on to Ink@84 and noted some books to add to our ever-growing heap/list of "must read" volumes -

 ... and spotted some lovely cards -

 Then to Mountgrove Road for Alterier

 I bought a tiny thing and it was wrapped so beautifully that instead of keeping it for myself, I'll send it overseas as a birthday present -

 The shop includes a workshop downstairs with some interesting garments. If you happen to need a zipper, there's a rainbow of them available -

Shopping done, I succumbed to taking the bus to my next meeting, sitting upstairs. It stopped for the traffic light in this perfect place and I couldn't get my camera out fast enough - or rather, I managed to get it out in time to snap the view (how confusing the language can be!)

Walking back in the warmth of the afternoon, a little rest was needed, on the pretext of making a little drawing -

I'd recently seen #walktosee on Instagram, which is about catching the things we see daily as we walk around - hmm, that's what I do, but I don't often stop to draw them ("just start somewhere") but now I will, a bit more often. My mantra for this is the one I use for housework: "you can do anything for 15 minutes".

Also of local note on the shopping front is the relocation of my favourite greengrocer to a spacious shop near the crowded old premises -

 There are 18 different kinds of tomatoes (some are now in my "gnu" bowl) -

 all sorts of peppers and chilis -

 big bunches of herbs, not wrapped in plastic -

 and interesting things such as smoked garlic and "solo garlic" -

Many kinds of apples etc etc etc too.

Across the street is a nice little coffee shop (it sells my fave sourdough bread), and a useful cash point.

When I moved to this area all those years ago, it was very very different - sweatshops and other small businesses, small Caribbean and Asian grocery stores, only a few restaurants (no pizzeria!) ... and we had a library that has since been closed and a block of flats built in its place.

Walking round the 'hood

Fonthill Road "fashion district"

More Fonthill Fashion

Finsbury Park's skyscraper being built - maybe in two years
we'll be able to access the tube station without having to walk under
the railway bridges, in the dripping semi-dark, past the rough sleepers
and the buskers - today it was bagpipes!

 On a happier note - a section of one of the local "organic shops" - I'm utterly bedazzled by the choice in each category of fruits and veg, especially the tomatoes (not shown this time) -

 They have various types of lentils, as you'd expect -

 Another range of lentils gives Turkish names too -

This isn't the organic shop that stocks 8 (eight) kinds of tahini ... I forgot to check how many kinds of tahini this one has...

Painting, and...

Final week of the very short "Painting: surface and gesture" course. I brought along the week's output of footballers (on various fabric surfaces) and painted two more during the class, at the end of which we had a quick show'n'tell.

The instructional bit at the start was about finishing a painting - Matthew had some tips:

1. Look at it in a mirror

2. To make corrections, use thin layers of titanium white; blur edges

3. Working quickly can help; so can putting it away for a while

4. Should the final layer be matte or glossy....

A tip for watercolours - as they will be framed under glass, look at them under glass when deciding if they're finished.

And some principles:

1. Leave some problems in it

2. Look at tonal relationships

3. Stop yourself from "just tinkering"

4. "When you stat undoing (wiping off) what you have just painted, you're probably finished

The quick tour round the room showed lots of interesting work -

I did put out one of the life studies - painted with
a twig - along with the footballers

Looking at the figurative studies again at home, these are the ones I'm least unhappy with -

Two include twig drawing ... so any faults are solely those of the twig!. Mr. 5-o'clock-shadow sums up, in his sorry ineptitude, how I feel about "faces", and as for the yellow nude, she's not what I had in mind but the grey areas kinda pull it together.

The stripes are "for relaxation".

Instead of rushing home to continue with footballers, I walked up hill and down dale, taking a wrong turning just short of the Holloway Road that took me near to Rolls 'n' Rems, and a chance to get some white felt for backing the footballers piece. (Even though some was on order online.) 

While paying, I saw something lovely lying on a corner of the counter - a box?

No, it was the cover of a book, still wrapped in cellophane ...

which its new owner was pleased to show me, even pausing in leafing quickly through to let me take a photo -

He has quite a few books, about 4000 he reckons, and this one was a bit of an extravagance... but how beautiful, what a treasure! I'm very tempted to search it out online...

This is the kind of surprise that can happen in a local shop. 

When I got home, the online felt had arrived - and was thinner and ultrawhite; I much prefer the personally purchased fabric. 

"Just looking"

After yesterday's dispiriting trip into town to (maybe) get a book, today's trip into town was unexpected and fun. Tagging along as Tom and Gemma tracked down a few purchase possibilities.

In and out of the shops we went, me with just a camera in hand. Lots of lovely things to see... but nothing I wanted to take home.

At Liberty's -

The fabric department

Old furniture and things that look best in groups

Jolly wooden bowls

Jolly pots

 ... and a series of "faces everywhere" - mostly ceramic -

 At Selfridges  ...

Artwork by Hugo McCloud - the polythene sacks have been used by waste pickers in the Philippines;
the installation "plays on the concepts of waste, value, sculpture and ... the sublime beauty of boxing"

Appealing stonewear made by Danish company Broste

 Then on to Anthropologie -

Staplers, yes, but not pleasant to use...

The bag to have "on hand" when you're expecting trouble....

Living greenery and sleek staircase

Hoping this video will work - it's a case of puzzling asymmetry, or is it symmetry? -

Shoes, shoes...

Old shoes, new shoes

Been shoppin' - shoe shopping. The old ones are supremely comfortable, but showing signs of almost-constant wear ... not that they'll be discarded just yet. The new ones - well, don't we all love new shoes?

Which leads to thoughts of ridiculous shoes, artistic shoes, and uncomfortable shoes.

Ridiculous shoes - see more here

Strange "shoes" = art??  (via)

As for uncomfortable shoes, the ones that simply don't fit your feet, that are a bit too small or tight ... you could try to break them in (some tips are here and here and here, and elswhere) - for instance, to stretch them, put a bag of water inside the shoe and then put it in the freezer; the water will expand and hopefully so will the shoe. Another possibility is to blow-dry a pair of (thick) socks for two minutes, then put them and the shoes on and walk around the house for half an hour - the heat will soften the leather, allowing it to stretch a bit.

And then there are these -

Jika-tabi (via)

Split-toe shoes tend to look rather satanic, but might be useful for bunions, keeping the toes spread. A bunion (hallux vagus) is a deformity of the big toe joint; they run in families and are thought to be linked to wearing ill-fitting footwear. If you have a bunion, you'll know how quickly the new shoes can be deformed, never mind the effect of tightness or rubbing on the toe itself.

To end, a little more unwearable fun -

(via)

(via)

(via, where you can see flamingo shoes, and others)