Paintbrushes and Words -

For the past few years I've become addicted to the work of British artist-poet Gary Bunt.

It's hard to describe his huge body of work, however I do know that his paintings bring my homeland to me in ways that take my breath away, often bring tears to my eyes, but more often giggles, or an all out guffaw because of his sense of humor! For an artist to do all this with strokes of a brush, and to do it so often, is just wonderful.

His paintings, simple and true as they may be, cover not only land and seascapes around the United Kingdom, but everyday happenings both inside a typical British house, outside in the ubiquitous vegetable garden, sauntering across the beautiful countryside through the changing seasons, on road trips, picnics, boat rides, even just walking to the village shops.

He adds titles and brief poems which, even if you are not very familiar with British lifestyles, family traditions, country/town life etc., may still hit the nail on the head and immediately you can feel, as well as see, just what Gary was thinking at that moment and depicted with his brush strokes. His people are fantastic, shaped and posed so perfectly in action for each situation in the painting, that they need very little detail to tell the entire story. You fall in love with them as they look over their garden wall or sit out in the middle of a patchwork field.

According to Gary, the 'old man', who has made many appearances on his canvases, is himself. There are many animals in his paintings, especially dogs which, as you may know, are often just as important as people living in those little houses, walking through the rain-splashed lanes, over the hills and dales, and along often desolate beaches on a blustery winter day. Solid mutts, well-behaved as British dogs always seem to be 

Gary's art makes me happy. Makes me smile. Brings back so much of my country/seaside childhood in England.  Thank you Gary.

Here are links: the YouTube documentary is awesome - I watch it often as it showcases not only the story of Gary's life, it brings calming thoughts and beautiful art to mine.

YouTube - Gary Bunt Painter and Poet

Instagram: gary.bunt

www.garybuntart.com

Just a small sample of the amazing stories told in Gary Bunt's paintings.

End of the year that was..............

 

Why are there unwrapped packages and still to be pulled Christmas crackers lurking on December 27th?  People are fighting health issues big time this year.  Sometimes big holidays just don't work out as planned. This time of year the northern hemisphere is rife with respiratory illnesses. Old style colds, beginning of the influenza season, more variants of COVID, and this year, a myriad of nameless upper respiratory viruses knocking us over and flattening us like rows of falling domino tiles!  

Personally I have coughed my way through the past four weeks. Still am. Have run a low grade fever - something I don't recall since childhood - had no appetite, and have lost weight. Getting ready for the holidays was not fun as I was exhausted every waking hour despite sleeping quite well at night.

Next week we have our initial visits with a new to us medical practice. Our Primary Care Physician shocked us in November with news she had decided to retire early. She has cared for us for almost 25 years and closes her practice this week. It's not easy to find a physician who welcomes geriatric patients. At this new practice will will be seen by a physician assistant or nurse practitioner as the actual practice MD is not taking new patients. We'll give it a try in hopes we'll be welcomed and treated kindly.  We're both trying to remain positive about the whole experience. Fortunately the location is a new medical building just a few minutes drive from home.

The weather is dreary today. Thick fog envelopes the now mostly brown and beige garden. The feeders are empty again so birds are few. Squirrels are active and a few days back there was a young deer in the garden.  We have some errands to run later and will buy birdseed and a few more odd and ends.

I'll then be packing away Christmas decor later in the week and readying for a quiet, stay-at-home New Year's Eve, popping the bubbly cork and nibbling on the Christmas leftovers!  Life goes on - may your days be happy and healthy and the coming year be a good one.

It's small things that matter -

I hear the mail carrier laughing at the box at the end of our driveway as she hands Bob the mail. Her name is Vanessa and she is awesome, the best mail carrier we've ever had. She brought me a balloon on my 80th in October, and handed me a beautiful birthday card. Her family came from Trinidad and she grew up in New York City. Not only is she thoughtful in regard to delivering our mail, she is fun to chat with, always has a smile and giggles a lot.

Christmas is about so many things. We try to keep them light and bright. We might be feeling low but we do our best to be the life of the party. Sometimes this is hard. I feel I've lost my way in regard to my blog. You may have noticed how long it's taken me to get back here since my previous post. So much longer than it's ever been in almost 17 years. I haven't shared my Christmas decorations although I did decorate, or told you of the holiday concert which took me back to when my granddaughter sang in that choir. Hearing young voices in a church setting was beautiful and lifted my spirits for a couple of hours. This week I will be in the kitchen baking and making a few of the important holiday snacks and sweets for a small Christmas Eve get together.  

I'm still fighting whatever this latest 'long life' respiratory infection is. All I know is that it's thrown us for a loop since we came home from Arizona at Thanksgiving. . . . . . and Christmas preparations have truly been an effort, especially last week. Bob is doing better whereas I'm still feverish and just keep coughing.

No more for now. Will I be back here in the New Year? I'm planning on it.  

Happy Christmas to each of you, your families and loved ones, and may the coming year be a good one for everyone.