Sketchbook in Thoresby Park.

 

 

 Sketching trees in Thoresby Park.

all text and artwork copyright ian gordon craig

 

Writing

 

I think I may have completed the second part of my intended novel, after much pausing and thinking over recent weeks. I like working in long hand at the start. Editing follows, firstly as I type, then many subsequent times as I read it.

I still have no idea about the title, and there are some place names I need to sort out. Every time I make a name up I discover on Google it's a real place. Also, in spite of blue skies today, I am so cold that motivation is hard.

 All text and photos copyright ian gordon craig.

Scuffed knee and taxes.

 Spent today, and yesterday, editing. The 5th and 6th chapters have been difficult, putting events in the correct order, making sure characters assumed ages are in line with events. I think I’ve solved it all now, and should be able to complete the 6th tomorrow. That will mean the second part of the book is done, the first being completed some time ago.

Yesterday also saw me falling over on the pavement outside, both knees grazed and bruised. TCP & ice pack applied. My jeans seemed not to have suffered at all. Is age finally catching up on me? Me and my stiff fingers, in a room which always seems cold? It’s been a long time coming. But my reflexes are still good, according to an emergency stop I made as a young deer jumped out in front of my car in Budby.

Elsewhere in the news, the Taxman says I owe him £550 pounds. It seems he had underestimated the Interest I was getting on my savings account.

 

 all text and artwork copyright ian gordon craig

Eyesight and simosas.

 Caught the bus into the city this morning. Free pass after 9.30. This is a very rare event nowadays. I don’t drink anymore, so if I fancy a daytime coffee alone I’d rather take the car and drive in the opposite direction to an outside venue. Not that it’s warm enough to even contemplate that at present. I’ve never known the skies so overcast and grey, and the days so cold for so long as it has been these past weeks.

Today’s trip was just for the annual eye test. All continues to be well in that respect. I don’t think I’ve had a prescription change in some years. So I thought a Waitrose snack on veggie simosas and sushi was in order.

 all text and artwork copyright ian gordon craig

 

Activity Wall.

 

 

My "activity wall". Last October I returned to my intended novel with a little more organisation in mind. I have six chapters almost finished. That would represent the first and second sections of the book. (The 1940s & 1950s). As each chapter is presented as a series of events, rather than a simple story line with start and end points, it has been a little tricky including all the parts I want included, in the correct order. I keep getting stuck on chapters 5 and 6. Or perhaps it’s the space between them that’s in need of more content.

It would be fair to say I have been going ’round in circles over this, to the extent that my "activity wall" would best be named "inactivity".

 All text and photographs copyright ian gordon craig.

Out with the old, in with the new.

It is one year since the publication of my first book, “46 Contemporary Poems in Various Styles”.

It’s been a year of sketchbooks, keeping my Twitter / X page active, as a place to promote my book and my art. One might say it’s been a year of promotions. But it’s also been a year, at least the last few months, of starting my second book. And this I have done.

All text and photographs copyright ian gordon craig.

 

a chance poetic encounter.

 Today I made a trip into town to place copies of my book inside those venues I once frequented, and wherein some of the inspiration came from. The trip resulted in an encounter which left a lasting impression.

I don’t give money to the homeless, but I always buy them a sandwich & drink lunch if I see them outside the store I get my groceries from. The guy I came across today was situated nowhere near a food store. So, in high spirits, I asked him if he read poetry, and gave him a copy of my book.

It transpired that not only does he read poetry, he writes it as well, and commenced to recite two for me. They were incredible! So there were, exchanging poems on the pavement. Good times.

I encouraged him to self-publish. But I don’t know how the homeless could access that facility.

All text copyright ian gordon craig.

 

Hari Krishna.

 Strolling around town today, with no particular intention. A young Hari Krishna guy asked me for a donation. I have no cash on me, not that I would have donated anyway, but offered a verse of the song instead. So, there I was, middle of a busy central city side-walk, singing a verse of “Hari Krishna, Hari Hari”. (You know the tune). His face lit up.

 All text copyright ian gordon craig.

My first book's reception.

 

I personally regard my first book as the most important thing I’ve ever created. In my own opinion, my artworks aren’t always as successful in achieving what I was trying to say. I like to think that those persons I especially wanted to read it, did so. Little else matters. Certainly not any hopes of commercial enterprise.

The reception was positive, albeit at the same time rather silent in some quarters close to home. If you actually knew me in the real world, between 2006 and 2020, you would have totally “got” it. Feedback from those who have “known” me via the internet in more recent times, has been positive. Those who had formed opinions of me over many, many years, may have found it harder to assimilate and comment upon. I understand that. C’est la vie.

I am now intending on a second book, either 46 short stories or (more likely), the novel I’ve been toying with for years. Art is now taking a back seat called sketchbook, rather than canvas and exhibitions.

TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK ON AMAZON.


All text & artwork copyright ian gordon craig.

 

Published.

One might think that having done all the writing & editing work, then the Kindle Create and upload stage would be easy. No.  However, all is done now. I am published: "46 Contemporary Poems in Various Styles".

My original idea was to include 47 poems, the family's lucky number, but I rejected one piece. Reading one’s words on Kindle, as opposed to all the weeks of reading through them on my laptop, is a little odd at first. Seeing them through the "lens" of a Kindle screen, as indeed the audience will, takes a bit of getting used to. But by bedtime, I got over that.

All art and text copyright ian gordon craig.

 

Writing through October.

 I have spent the past couple of months preparing for self-publishing an eBook of my poems.

I think the earliest piece comes from the late-80s, but all the rest certainly from 2007 – 2020. However, everything chosen has been re-edited and improved. A lot of my writing used to be basic, stream of conscious stuff that I put on Blogger or sometimes even set to music. Those original posts provided just a starting point to now edit, embellish, or indeed mix together to make new works.

Today, after reading various self-publishing guide lines, I reached that point where all are now “ready to go”.

All text & Photographs copyright ian gordon craig.

September sketchbook.

Top to bottom: Clootie tree, Newstead Abbey grounds, Oak Apples, Silver Birch.
 

 I enjoy my sketchbook, and still have no plans at all to ever return to painting. Also, it keeps my Twitter page active, which might be useful to publicize my intended poetry book.

All artwork and photography copyright ian g craig.

46 poems.

 I set myself a target and a deadline, and I made it.

47 poems was the idea. (The number 47 has a family history). I had a lot of writing to sift through, much of it was intended for song lyrics, or basic "stream of conscious" pieces from old blogs. It all needed a lot of editing and re-writing. It became 46 poems. (One was rather too vitriolic).

Break now to do some sketching for a while before getting my head around e-book self publishing.

All text & images copyright ian gordon craig.

Losing the magic

 

I remember the exact moment when my childhood toy soldiers and self-made shoe-box Dodge City would no longer play for me. The magic had gone. Who would guess that such moments, when the magic disappears, would reoccur throughout life?

all artwork & text copyright ian gordon craig

A little more stable.

 I seem to do so little at present, that it’s difficult to post any kind of meaningful update.

I had my 2nd Astra Zeneca vaccination, after the shingles had cleared, very lucky to have had only a mild case. My general health and state of mind has improved of late. Looking back a few months, I think I was in quite a “dark” place without realising it. So many things changed all at once: I remember happily sitting in the sun outside the Harley Gallery, Summer 2019, having been exhibited and sold there, after which a veritable tsunami of distressing events swept in, culminating with this covid epidemic.

Ironically, it was getting ill with shingles, which seems to have helped sort me out. With nothing much to do but rest, I kept repeating to myself: “Stop thinking about anything right now. Just rest. Get better, and then decide what it is you WANT to do”. More significantly, what things do I NOT want to do any more. That’s when peace of mind started to settle in. Long may it last.

Never dwell on the fact that things will never be the same again. Ask yourself, “How much of it would you even want it to be?”

All text copyright ian gordon craig.

Shingles.

 

I am on Aciclovir anti-virals. Had to delay my 2nd Covid jab. Government's own Yellow Pages site suggests Shingles side effect from vax. If so, no-one will ever accept the responsibility.

All text, pros, poetry & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

Early evening catch-up.

 It’s that time of the year, at that time of the evening, when the seasons could as well be slipping away from winter as moving into it. Walking back from the garage shop I see vapour trails once again in the evening sky, which have been absent during the lockdowns. I kind of missed them, and the familiarity of the patterns they leave as they descend to far away Midlands Airport.

I’m not sure when the current lockdown ends. I think quite soon. Even so, I doubt that will change my life all that much from what it has recently become, with its pandemic concerns. Last year, what with all the duties associated with Power of Attorney and Probate, my nose was pressed to the computer screen and its endless paperwork. I think it was stress and exhaustion which brought on the night sweats and palpitations. Now the paperchase has ended, the sweats and palpitations seem to be over. Moving on…

All text copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

Ring out the old.

 The lockdown feels like it lasted the whole of 2020, although I think it was short of that. I really have no idea. Nor do I have specific memories of anything which broke the monotony as each blank day followed the one before.

The past two or three months before Christmas were defined by endless sheets of official paperwork spreading across the lounge carpet nearest the computer and the phone, as I ploughed my way through the obstacles lining the route from Power of Attorney to funeral arrangements to Probate. That will be my abiding memory of 2020. I now move on.

I have spent recent lockdown time reorganising my artworks as they appear on the internet, even going so far as to link them with the places they depict to their location on Google maps. Looking at those maps, I was shocked at the changes which have taken place in just the last five years, but mostly at how the pandemic itself has caused several to be listed as “closed permanently”. I shall miss the Big Fish. There have also been personal closures of a different kind, and look now for changes yet to come.


All text, pros, poetry & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

M-m-m-My Corona part 18. Epilogue.

 

Tonight’s sunset reminded me of the first oil painting I did, albeit that one was actually meant to be a sunrise. But the low sun and silhouetted purple clouds? Exactly the same.

Lots of things at present are invoking memories of the past. I think I’m really tired. And when I get tired, rather than resting, I start finding things to occupy my thoughts. Not that I’ve been short of things to do. The sequence of responsibilities from Power of Attorney, to managing care home costs, to organising a funeral, to applying for Probate in order to then execute a Last Will and Testament, all against the current backdrop of lockdowns and restricted movements, took their toll.

I have been attempting to write something from a personal perspective about this pandemic year, but to no avail. What is there to say about a life style of government-imposed rules, restrictions and lockdowns, interrupted by little other than trips to the grocery store?

I shall endeavour to rest my brain over the Christmas season.

 All text, pros, photos & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

 

R. I. P. Shelley

 Just heard the sad news via Facebook. Quite a shock, even after all these years. One always assumes the people one was close to in the past, and had meaningful relationships with, are still out there somewhere, happy and healthy. Sometimes it's not so. She passed away September 2020. I don't know the cause, but the date corresponds to the covid epidemic. I hope there was no pain.

Shelley Burton was an important person to me during the 1980’s, even though we were never destined to be together for life. During the two and a half years in which we were happily “an item”, she was both muse and motivator. The reason I exhibited quite well in the Nottingham Opens during the 1980’s, and indeed almost made it on to the wall in a Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, was down to her.

 All text, pros, poetry & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.