Richard Baker

Hi Pam, although it's a long time ago I remember I was larking about with the hat! It belonged to one of the two French girls whose flat it was. We kept in touch with them for a long time afterwards. I have some nice kodachrome slides of us all on Southsea beach. I'll look for them.

Me sketching in a Southsea garden early '70s.

Murdoch's Times newspapers have become just scandal sheets and should be ignored. I expect Rachel Reeves starts the day with the Financial Times instead.

Thank you! Ely is a wonderful place and we visit regularly by train (a short trip). Here's a photo to remind you how beautiful it is:

Otherwise known as encre de Chine it's an ink made from carbon and is very permanent. Waterproof when it has shellac added. Sometimes acrylic instead but I call that Indian ink too just to indicate that it won't fade. Used with a dip pen.

Thank you Fran for suggesting that but I can't really take on sending work overseas. I very much appreciate your comment though.

Watercolour drawing of Coe Fen in Cambridge, high summer with lots of wild flowers. A lovely place to sit (mind the cow pats though!)

This is Coe Fen in Cambridge, a watercolour drawing from 1998. The tower in the middle distance is the Pitt Building and the other tower is the United Reform Church. This was done on the spot with watercolour and Indian ink.
#art #watercolour #Indianink #Cambridge

Thank you Cliff! I'm afraid I don't do commissions anymore. I just make a few sales each year via a local art society and (rarely) to people who drop by in person.

Framing a watercolour a couple of years ago. I'm not sure if this one was in an exhibition but it's on my wall now and looking quite nice.
#art #watercolour #autumnfruitsandflowers

Judge rules Trump defrauded banks, insurers as he built his real estate empire A judge has ruled that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House.

It's not going to be built is it. Trump is a life-long real estate scammer: overprice, underdeliver. www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

They did his whole body looking for evidence of a soul. So they told him the results were negative and he went away happy.

Thank you for putting this in perspective. Trump just wants a false peace deal at any price so he can claim he's ended another war to add to the other ones he didn't end.

This oil portrait was rolled up in a tube kept in a shed so I got it out along with another one same size. Probably best if I put it on a stretcher (40" X 28"). I haven't got much storage space but I can stash it somewhere (not in the shed!) Oh, this is the other one:
#art #oilpainting #portrait

Sorry "else" is a typo.

Pastel of flowers in a Honiton jug with a pineapple. The flowers are freesia, pinks, anenome and something else I don't remember

Pastel of flowers (Iris, sweet william?) with persimmon fruit and a Buddha figurine.

A couple of pastels from my archive of artwork photos. I think these have both gone elsewhere else ages ago.
#softpastel #pastel #stilllife #flowers

When he goes can these all be reversed by Congress on the grounds that he's ... (well, not room enough to list the reasons)

I was thinking that. Been swamped by them for at least a month. The most recent was from Shamazon timed at 1:50 am today.

New polling data shows Tories could be left with just 14 SEATS at next election If this doesn't set a few alarm bells ringing, nothing will. The Tories could end up coming to the next Parliament in a minibus...

I don't think we can concern ourselves too much as she is projected to get 14 seats at the next election. Personally I think Reform will sink leaving seats divided between Green, Labour and Lib Dems. There's a long time to go. www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/tor...

I stuck with a dumb phone for years after everyone else abandoned them. Then I got an android pixel 4a which was great (in comparison). Now I have a 7a and will keep it as long as possible. Although Google is evil I'll put up with that because thousands of shared family pics are on G/photos.

Thank you! I very much appreciate your comments.

I think an easy alternative for me is to keep my Flick profile updated and use that. I've pasted in most of the information that's on my old website: www.flickr.com/people/baker...

Flickr is a safe way of viewing a lot of my paintings in albums. Some life drawings are moderated so Flickr doesn't show those unless you sign up for an account. I have copied information on there from my website for people who can't open my web page. www.flickr.com/people/baker...

Hi Andrew, my old website is a simple one in html. While it doesn't contain interactive features or collect any information about users I'm afraid it is what it is for now. A few 100 people open it each week. As an alternative I have updated my Flickr profile www.flickr.com/people/baker...

A garden pastel

A pastel worked in my garden showing an old driftwood sculpture, a little plastic dragon on the right, some ferns and a branch of the much-painted crabapple tree. This wild patch changes every year and is always a good subject for a painting
#art #pastel #garden

Perhaps the Felon will give him a cover-all pardon but he probably doesn't even know who Kill-them-all Kegsbreath is today.

‘The White House at Chelsea‘, Thomas Girtin, 1800 | Tate

Thank you! Creating form with the white of the paper is very important so I try to do that. Not always successfully as I often have to use gouache. I noticed when standing in front of this favourite by Girtin that it has a splodge of white body colour for the house!
www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks...

We'll just go back to a feudal society bartering things we make by hand and carrying out services in the real world. Robots will be smashed up and technocrats will beg for our help (after the big collapse!)

Yes, I was whispering "please don't come any closer!"

The tech zillionnaires who want everyone to use a machine to think seem to me to be the most boorish, least creative, least likable, least creative people on earth. Of course THEY want a machine to seem creative because it's not possible for them otherwise. It's going to crash bigly!

His photographic plates were passed on to his younger partner John Burke who had a longer life and career than Baker (but he did scratch out Baker's name and substitute his own on several of the plates). Lives tended to be short because of cholera and alcohol.