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What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

geefull said:
@gennepher - loved yesterday's pastel with that wonderful light path across the sea, even more so today's :joyful: Thank you, I also enjoyed looking up the work of John Blockley and that of (I believe), his daughter Ann, both use edges and colour in a way I wish I could emulate (I'm not very good at positive/negative space yet and I'm quite tentative with colour). John Blockley seems to reveal the 'hard' bones of the landscape and Ann the 'soft' cover.

Art catch up - as I did before, to try to broaden my practice skills I've made some 'emulative' paintings, copying artists I admire as a learning tool, so there are a couple of these below.
no 1 - this is a shot at a painting by Charles Ash an American painter, he is able to convey so much with his use of colour and white space.
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no 2 - this is inspired by a Dutch artist called Frieda Rouffa, I'm not too impressed by the top of my sky but I'm quite happy with how the water turned out :)
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Thank you @geefull
It is always interesting to see other artists work. John Blockley satisfied my needs for awhile in the 1990's. There are bits of his paintings I like now which is solitary cottages and the colours he uses. I need to look a little more into Ann Blockley.

I looked up both your artists you were using for inspiration. I liked Charles Ash, but there is no way I could leave that white space in a watercolour painting. For some reason it doesn't appeal to me. However you have made nice use of that white space in your top painting.

I like very much your bottom half of the second painting. I looked at it last night but I was so tired my brain could only see the water as a 3D landscape, so I went to bed. This morning, I cannot find in the water what I saw in it last night. The water is very effective, really good. Personally I like the bottom two thirds of the painting as a complete very good painting.
 
gennepher said:
Your bucket of rain did the trick @dunelm
The heavens have opened and ditching their cargo of rain in my back garden.
Thank you Thank you Thank you

The air is fresher, cooler, and much nicer to breathe.

I am going in my garden to sit in it (no I am not crazy, I will be sitting under my thatched swing).

You have no idea how invigorating this rain is to me. I have not seen any rain for 3 months now.

I just want to go out there and feel the rain on my skin...

I will play catch up in this thread later..
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Glad to have been of service. I shall now empty the rain dance bucket for the next, hopefully, satisfied customer.
 
Muddy Cyclist said:
@gennepher another great Pastel, on first impressions I wasn't sure about the sea colour but looking again there is a lot of detail and it works very well.

@geefull these are very good much better than my effort at copying. You have relaxed into a nice free stile copying is really helping you progress, excellent.

My copying so far failed, I keep resorting back to my old ways. I am still not liking the paper but will persevere. I have started the Stepping Stones in Sherbrooke Valley but not fifnshed, another busy day, Mountain bike 3.5 hours, VET visit took ages with the virus system they have in place, visit to MIL care home to sit in garden with MIL, worked very well, felt very safe and Mrs MC was so pleased to have visited after so long. So unfinished Watercolour A4 size, paper I don't like, lots still to do and reverting back to my stile even after making every effort to change :banghead: will finish tomorrow.

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Thank you @Muddy Cyclist
Yes the sea colour is dark, but I am trying to experiment and not play safe.

Your painting looks promising unfinished. So I look forward to seeing how it progresses.
 
Krystyna23040 said:
You are really brave - lopping off your hair. It sounds as though it was successful though.
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I think I have got away with it, with the aid of a couple of hair slides either side to adjust the length @Krystyna23040
Otherwise it would most probably have been, lop off a bit more the long side. Then oops the other side needs a bit more off, and so on....
 
Morning all from a decidedly chilly and damp Northeast, the forecasters actually got it right! Doomy is off on one his jaunty runs at the moment he's decided that no matter what I do he's throwing 5's one minute, then deciding to be mischievous and throw a 28.9 at me! Shocked isn't in it, nothing has changed, training consistently now even have a cross trainer thingy in the shed and Bs's are still fluctuating wildly. Ah well never mind, nose back to the grindstone to get it back in its box. My wife has decided the Government hasn't got a clue what its doing regarding the "Shielding" malarkey and is staying in for a few more weeks until a grown up comes up with some proper science about it's relaxations. Hope everyone is safe and well and achieving everything they have planned.

Take care and stay safe
 
Last night had few oven chips with my salmon. Tested before 5.1 and 2 hours after 4.1. Was really pleased with that, especially as the main activities for the day had been shopping and watering. No cauliflower or celeriac in either shop so was thinking might be eating oven chips more often than once a month.
Wonder if the lower BG levels prompted liver to make more?....or is this side effect of stomach bug i seem to have picked up yesterday. How? Copious use of alcohol gel during and after shopping trip. Seems very strange to me.
 
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SlimLizzy said:
Last night had some oven chips with my salmon, not many, Tested before 5.1 and 2 hours after 4.1. Was really pleased with that, especially as the main activities for the day had been shopping and watering.
Wonder if the lower BG levels prompted liver to make more?....or is this side effect of stomach bug i seem to have picked up yesterday. How? Copious use of alcohol gel during and after shopping trip. Seems very strange to me.
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Glad the shopping trip seems to have gone well @SlimLizzy

I have been off my food since I went shopping last Friday. Just felt a bit queasy. I ate very little yesterday, just eggs first thing, and nothing else. Just had a few small cubes of cheese this morning. I doubt I will eat anything else today.

What I am wondering is, something along the lines of because we are not mixing with others anywhere near as much as we did before lockdown, are we now more vulnerable to any bugs and viruses flying around because we are not getting our daily dose of bugs which our bodies generally deal with?

I might be talking nonsense here. I simply don’t know.
 
Good National Bin day Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen and all who overslept like me this Morening 7:30 am, this late start has thrown my day into the shredder.

A 4.7 this morning, whoops if I take any insulin I shall be straight into hypo mode, hence no insulin. This evenings reading will be interesting.

Well folks today I am scheduled a beard trim, I keep tripping over the beard and also it gets caught in my shoe laces, oh to be hairless.
Have a great afternoon.
 
Back from a wet and chilly visit to Dorothy Clive Gardens, well worth the visit, only us and two other couples there, excellent. Lunch in VW camper and back home. Pictures of Mrs MC dressed for winter, I was/am still in my shorts, it's summer but Mrs MC put heating on stun when back home...:oops:

IMG_3277.JPG
 
Muddy Cyclist said:
Back from a wet and chilly visit to Dorothy Clive Gardens, well worth the visit, only us and two other couples there, excellent. Lunch in VW camper and back home. Pictures of Mrs MC dressed for winter, I was/am still in my shorts, it's summer but Mrs MC put heating on stun when back home...:oops:

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So.pleased you had a lovely visit to the Dorothy Clive Gardens - even with the wet and chilly weather. Very sensible of Mrs MC to dress warmly.

The gardens look absolutely stunning. Good that the plants were still flowering.
 
Muddy Cyclist said:
Back from a wet and chilly visit to Dorothy Clive Gardens, well worth the visit, only us and two other couples there, excellent. Lunch in VW camper and back home. Pictures of Mrs MC dressed for winter, I was/am still in my shorts, it's summer but Mrs MC put heating on stun when back home...:oops:

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That looks stunning.
A brilliant day @Muddy Cyclist

I am so pleased you enjoyed yourselves.
 
As it is raining, no soft pastels done outside today.

So a digital piece of artwork.

I drew the first layer with FingerPro
Then I moved that layer to Bitpoem app, where I added the words using text saying (something I said on an earlier message todayon this thread) which say "rain has negative ions and lifts my mood"
Then I moved that layer to Jigsaw where I put a jigsaw pattern on it.
Then I moved it somewhere else where I darkened bits of the page.
Then I moved that layer into Ink where I abstracted it very slightly.
Then I moved that layer into Lens where I added the white shining light
Then I moved that layer into Reflections app, so half of it is a reflection.
Then I used Silhouette to add the silhouettes
And finally in Snapseed for frame and name.

It crashed a few times going through different apps (compatibility issues or too large file?) but I always save every step of the way.

So, here we are...

68B33B8E-CD7A-44EE-9749-A9CEC8EAD4FD.jpeg

An added bit.
The first layer was concentric circles I drew to reflect the rain outside.
This digital painting was to reflect me and my moods and the day which was rain; the words were about negative ions raising my previous downcast mood; the jigsaw was partial, because we don't have all the pieces for this COVID-19; I darkened to highlight bits; I abstracted it a tiny bit because the individual components were a bit too clear for my liking, I needed to muddy the waters a bit; I needed the shining light of hope; half of this picture is a reflection because reflections change, but it may also be the rippling effect of change; then the rest was silhouettes to make my point, but I will keep that mystery to myself.

I never explain my digital paintings, so this is an exception, but they do reflect me at the point of time I do them.
gennepher
 
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Thanks you @Krystyna23040 and @gennepher for comments about Dorothy Clive Gardens Visit, pleased we ignored the weather and went. I took lots of pictures of flowers and Mrs MC is quiet in her study drawing and painting them. Me well I have been trying to save the picture I started yesterday, failed, but I will post it to show I finished. I am going to put aside this Canson Rough Paper, it and I do not get on. I am also giving up with trying to change my stile as that also seem s to be defeating me. A big rethink needed so lots of sketching and doodling tonight for some new ideas.

So A4 watercolour on Canson Rough Paper, about 2 hours.

IMG_3280.JPG

Just realised I have another Canson Rough sheet already with a wash laid down, so I will do another Stepping Stone Painting but try a more dramatic angle, then away with the Canson as it's driving me nuts.
 
gennepher said:
never explain my digital paintings, so this is an exception, but they do reflect me at the point of time I do them
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That is what art should be about, I really enjoyed this Digital Art, loved the water effect you created and it's depth to the bright light.

I have to say seeing the eyes and nose of faces and the curly lines in the water, your haircut came to mind. :)
 
Muddy Cyclist said:
That is what art should be about, I really enjoyed this Digital Art, loved the water effect you created and it's depth to the bright light.

I have to say seeing the eyes and nose of faces and the curly lines in the water, your haircut came to mind. :)
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The eyes and nose were a totally accidental effect of the reflection app. I didn't see them until after I had posted this painting @Muddy Cyclist (but it is something I have deliberately done in the past!).

When you said "seeing the eyes and nose of faces and the curly lines in the water, your haircut came to mind." that was funny :) But relevant in that the pic is about the last 24 hours so to speak. You just know a bit of the backstory of my 24 hours because I post on here.
 
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