Day #069 Stone

I am going to give away a secret today. A painting secret. The most closely guarded secrets I have. I have painted a stone today, because .....well... I didn't really feel much like painting today. There I've said it. I have decided to create a stack of stones and each time I don't fancy painting I can add another pebble to the stack. Creating a little Andy Goldsworthy type sculpture. So now you will know when I am a bit 'off form'. Hopefully there is enough room in this niche.

Also, we regularly collect stones and this is a great way to use them, this one is from Sand Bay near Weston Super-mare. It caught our eye as it is nearly a cube. Which makes a good base for a stack of stones.

Day #068 Green Wool

More thread, it gets everywhere!

Day #067 Tassels

I wanted to brighten up the banjo skin, what better way than with tassels?

Day #066 Hour Hand

The final piece of blutac has been used. This is an old hour hand from an old clock, and it turns out the reason I saved it was to paint it for you today! A useful device to direct the eye around the picture as well don't cha think?

Day #065 Chicken Giblets

I have had great fun with all of your suggestions for #requestsunday, a mini competition I held from my sick bed (chair) this week! Some of the suggestions were more achievable than others, I had to choose from: an icicle, a ball bearing, some lace, a tea strainer, salt and pepper pots, morph, a pineapple on a plinth, a horse with hands hanging like a sloth, ear with headphones in, pixie hat, lowly worm, golden spaceship, chicken giblets, and angel, spectacles and a Thorvertones badge.

I chose Michelle Jones's chicken giblets, well, I chose the neck and have hung it from the washing line. Like you do. Sounds much more sinister than I had expected. I chose it because we are having chicken dinner today and painting meat is fun!

More #requestsundays soon!

Day #064 Daffodil

The first flowers of the year, I love it when the daffs start to appear. The promise of spring!

Tomorrow is #requestsunday so, if you would like to suggest a 'thing' to go in the picture let me know before I decide tomorrow afternoon on here, on twitter or Facebook. If I choose your suggestion you win a sketch of that thing.

Day #063 Cactus Spines

A little painting today to reflect the fact that I feel awful, I got spiked by the cactus in the studio twice while I was looking for something to paint. The second time I gave in and painted the spines.

Day #062 Seeds

It appears that someone has left some seeds out for the birds. But look! Mr fox has his eye on it....

In other news I will be taking requests for Sundays element, so if you would like to see your idea included drop me a tweet @DanYoungDaily and use #requestsunday or pop over to my Facebook page (link on the right hand column) and tell me what you would like to see. The winner gets a drawing!

Day #061 Spike

'What the hell is that?' I hear you cry. I Dunno.

When I dug it up out of the garden I thought it was a spearhead from maybe roman times. But now, more realistically, I think it must be a spike for holding down netting or something garden based. Probably from the 50's. Which do you think? Either way it now lives amongst the cacti in the studio.

Day #060 Vase

The 'tree' trunk has been worrying me for a while now, it felt very unstable. Not now! And now there is somewhere to put some daffodils!

Day #059 Hook

Now, this is a blast from the past. A few of you may know I used to work as a window dresser (visual merchandiser in modern parlance) at Cavendish House, AKA House of Fraser in Cheltenham. This hook is the type we used to use to hang all the sale signs and 'what not' from the ceiling. I spent many a 'happy' afternoon going up and down my ladder replacing a 10% sale sign for a 15% sale sign. Sigh. And I would always end up with a few of these in my placket at the end of the day, no use whatsoever, I should give them back.

Day #058 Washer

Last night, half an hour after the DIY shops close, the cold tap in the bathroom decided to let go of its washer. This morning I replaced it, after much banging and swearing. Here it is, I stuck it in the snowball.

Day #057 Red Fox

We went fox tracking today, we have been aware of nighttime visitors to the garden for a while now but haven't been sure if they be canine or feline. Well, it turns out some of them are vulpine! We are a bit concerned for the chickens and we have been trying to work out how they get in and with the aid of the snow we found his entry point...temporary fix is now in place. Last night we think the fox chased a mouse before catching it on the patio and leaving pretty much the way he came, completely ignoring the chickens.

I painted, rather appropriately I think, this little wooden fox perched on yesterday's snowball. I think he has seen something....

Day #056 Snowball

The only thing people have been talking about today, nope not the cheating badman Lance Armstrong, the snow! So, I painted some.

Day #055 Allsort

I think my sweet tooth will be a theme through this years painting, along with dentists. Oh dear. I feel a tower of sweets coming on....

Day #054 Onion

I have being enjoying the still life paintings of Juan Sanchez Cotán. You may have seen them, he used the device of hanging vegetables on string in his paintings, which is also a good way to keep your veg fresh if you don't have a fridge. Which Juan didn't.

Day #053 Sword

I think this is a playmobile sword, it definitely isn't a real one. Just to help you with the scale in relation to the rest of the painting!!

Day #052 Burnt Match

After yesterday painters block I have given myself a little breather today and included a second match. But this one (or is it the same one?) has been used, "what did you light with it, Dan?" I hear you cry. Well, I'm not telling. It does look precarious though doesn't it? Luckily it seems to have gone out. I timed myself tonight, for a bit of fun, and this took 11 minutes and 28.8 seconds to paint, including striking the match and mixing the paint. That's almost like a day off for me, will try and get under ten minutes at some point in the future and set a new PB.

Day #051 Match

Man alive! Painting today was like getting blood out of a stone.... Doesn't happen very often but nothing would work, I tried a postcard on the notice board on the left, then I painted a post it note in the middle, then a piece of material hanging off the tree. Then, just as I was about to set fire to the painting and the studio and start a new career, I thought, "hang on, paint the matchstick!"

Phew.

*I wasn't really going to set fire to the studio, but you get the idea...

Day #050 Orange Thread

It was dye things orange day today which was fun and means there is currently a lot of orange things drying around the house. I spotted this errant thread on our very dark rug, to replicate that zing of colour against the dark wool rug, I have placed it on the bluey turquoise tablecloths to get a good ole colour contrast going on.

Day #049 Rock Cake

One of my specialities, rock cakes. This is an especially good batch and was cooked yesterday. Another wonderful thing about these rock cakes is that they actually taste a little bit better the second day. If they make it.

Day #048 Hippo

I gave over the odious chore (not really!) of choosing today's element to my twitter friends, thanks to @filmcintyre for suggesting a hippo. Here is a sandstone hippo we just happen to have lying around....

Day #047 Popcorn Kernel

I have a case of the toothache today, so I don't really want any popcorn...which is why it is unpopped. I thought I would also add a slightly wider view of the painting, showing some of the bits and bobs I have around and about.

Day #046 Tessellating Lizard

I made a load of these before christmas, on the laser cutter at work, purely research reasons of course. Tessellating is fun. Although one of them doesn't actually tesselate on its own, but I'm sure you understand.

Day #045 Tablecloth

This one is a little like those tablecloth tricks where you pull the table cloth away without disturbing anything on the table. I have done the opposite and laid a cloth underneath the objects without moving a single thing!

Day #044 Stone

There are some things that are hard to resist, you know the obvious ones I'm sure, but stones with a hole in are like jewels to me and I will always collect them. I don't usually keep them hung like this but I might start to.

Day #043 Bamboo Pole

More gardening today which is represented by is bamboo stick stuck into what I can only assume is earth underneath this table top.