Cromer crab festival

My cousin Catherine Metcalf from Cromer, contacted me months ago asking me to paint a crab for Cromer crab festival which starts on Friday the 21st May. I told her I was off to India for a month, so she would have to deliver it while I was away. I arrive home to find a giant lobster in my garden that is far to big to fit through the front door. So I spent weeks and weeks deciding what on earth to paint on it and came up with so many ideas I could fill a book with them and had my friend Emma round to help workshop ideas. After my artist friend Kate Green pointed out it will take a long time to paint so best enjoy doing it. So in the end after deciding that all these art projects always have a theme which I have to work to and this project is voluntary. I would just paint with out any thought in mind and see where it takes me. Like a walk on the beach with out a care in the world.

This is stage two, stage one was two layers of expensive undercoat. Which was the last of my bread and butter money. Now I am down to old house paints mixed with some acrylic paints.

I was going to try and get someone to give me gazebo of giant tent for my 40th birthday so I could paint it inside the tent, but thought that is a big ask. I have been waiting and waiting for a good string of nice days to paint it and then they came, but then I could see a black cloud on the horizon and then began to take the pegs off the washing line and peg up the plastic cover that the lobster came in and any plastic bag that I could get my hands on. It all looked like a scene from a slum but looked like it could keep the water off my lobster. Then the next day I went in to the garden to find there was a swimming pool dangling like a big bubble over the lobster and about to burst. So I got a large stick to hold it up in the middle.

I tried to go out and paint the last few days but I have been in a bit of shock to find out one of my artist friends had died in a freak accident. So difficult to make happy art when under the weather. Sunshine please come out, so I can paint my Lobster.

The Lobsters will be on display around Cromer and you can follow a trail to find them. Then they will be auctioned off for charity.

Protest against Uranium mining!

Were not on the planet for long and why should we mess it up while we are here. Uranium mining is happening in Australia and just like war nobody wants it, apart from two people who started it. For thousands of years the Australians have past down through word of mouth not to dig up Uranium and then the Europeans come along and don't listen and dig it up. As seen in the this video link the uranium is taken by public transport on the train to several locations. It will also be taken by boat to the rest of the world. No one on the planet wants a passing train of uranium.

There are alternatives to Uranium and there is a electric company doing something about it called ecotricty. If you have any great alternative ways of creating electric that you might have thought of while doing daily chores, don't hold them back. Tell ecotricty who are investing in these ideas.

Green Gas!

Ecotricity have done it again and are about to build a green gas machine. Made from organic vegetable waste. The UK wastes tons of food every year and this is a great way of reducing landfill. I know how much waste can come out of a vegetarian cafe as I worked in one and composted the waste for a year to make soil for my garden, which was 6 bins a day. This was just peelings from vegetables.

St.Patricks day painting

St.Patrick at the supermarket checkout. A series of 11 paintings, I have painted of St.Patrick doing everyday things in Ireland, that were shown at the Menier Gallery in London last year. Happy St.Patrick day.

Bundi

A post box in Bundi. Unfortunately I did not find any postcards to send, but imagine the photos of Bundi I have taken are the cards I posted to you I put in this post box.

I like this postbox because it shows there is trust in the community. The postbox's in the UK are built like a castle to stop people stealing the mail.

Pre-T-shirt this is a cotton shop and the lady is putting them in a machine. The air was so filled with cotton fluff the photo barely came out. Just to put a depressing point about the clothing industry, nearly all people who make clothes die of cancer from the tiny particles that float in the air, even in the sewing houses and also the coloured dyes used for printing. When I was screening printing at art college the teacher use to bleach are hands so the dye would not give us cancer. So next time you buy a piece of clothes find one with natural dyes and natural fibres. There is some great new natural fibre fabrics made out of bamboo, which do not need pesticides in the growing process.

The puppet Queen at the palace. The palace is filled with stone carvings and paintings.

Boy waiting with his mother at the ironing shop.

View of Bundi from the roof top at the palace. The houses are painted blue to keep away mosquitoes.

Monkey at the tombs. This was taken dangerously close.

Tombs made of marble carved with beautiful pictures.

The Queen inside her Palace.

Gutters at the side of buildings that everything gets thrown into. One would hope that one day they would start composting or feed vegetable waste straight to the cows and goats.

Entrance gates to the palace.

Paintings on walls of the streets in Bundi.

Music shop for the brass bands that play at the weddings.

Tailor doing his ironing.

The entrance to the tailor shop.

Shop in front of music shop.

Shrine at the police station, police station is painted pink not much use for police in this town because everyone is happy.

Two happy children playing outside a shop.

Two more happy children. There is a smelly men's toilet in the background.

Standing on a roof top looking down.

Washing from the roof top.

The peeping-through window.

Stall holders cart.

This cow must belong to this house as its horns are painted the same green.

Clothes shop at the entrance to the palace wall. I bought a little outfit that might fit a puppet.

Mr Kippling's house the author of Jungle book. His house looks out over a large lake.

Elephant painting.

Monkey business.

The milkman and the brass band getting ready to play.

Vegetable stall holders sit on their stalls.

Painting in the hotel which was jam packed full of paintings.

Peeping girl through window.

Cow saying Hello.

Silver maker shop.

Topa village and people

Me dancing to traditional music at the village gathering. Photo taken by Anand from the roof top.

Cooker made by the women in the village.

Roast chickpeas made by the village chief as a snack before our dinner.

Bread in ball shapes being cooked on the open fire, dried out cow dung is used for fire fuel. The bread is then put in the ashes and cooked more. When cooked, ashes are wiped off and it is broken up and oil is put all over the bread, before its served. Yummy!

Giant pan that was especially bought for our arrival. This has a special sweet in it that is eaten before the meal.

Girl taking her goats for a walk.

Children playing near wheat crop.

Flicking marbles.

Children's hands.

Cow dung which is used for everything, fertilizer, fuel and building houses. It is collected up with straw every morning and made into this shape.

Topa village people and Bundi India

A taxi passing on the road to the Topa tribe.

The front of the amazing taxi, which looked like a large insect.

Child in the Topa village with a wheat crop.

Cows disrupting a good game of marbles.

Girl collecting water from the pump. This was early in the morning I was have a wander around and this family invited me into there home.

Children of the Topa tribe. The children liked me because I seem to be good at Mime and so it was easy to communicate. They followed me all over the village and wanted to see every photo I had taken. Very happy and smart kids with lots of freedom to run around the countryside.

This is me taking over the role as tribe chief. His turban was very colourful and light on the head to wear.

My New Indian wife who danced with me the night before at the music evening under the stars.

Bundi village the wife was very shy.

Chickpeas one or two peas to a pod. I ate them raw and fed the village goats. One goat caught me unaware and pulled at my chickpea plant. I thought I was being mugged.