Angels and puppets

Once on a holiday to Paris, a city where I am convinced angels live around the Sacre Coeur, I was strolling up the steep slopes of Montmartre when I happened upon a young man with a puppet. The puppet was playing a puppet guitar along to some music on a music machine, and for no apparent reason other than being in the presence of angels in one of my favourite places, I was overcome by emotion and burst into tears. Needless to say reminders of this strangely sentimental moment have been thick and fast over the years; much hilarity was had in Vietnam where whole market stalls of puppets were shielded from my eyes in case of emotional turmoil...

So did the myth of the puppets of Montmartre come to be in my head, and long have a sought to illustrate the trickster puppets and their attempts to bring to shame the virtuous angels in their eerie in the Sacre Coeur.

Right now I am distracted from this only by my continued interest in the Boatman; I had a particularly fertile Haiku writing session while being paid to do something else today; the first is for a picture called The Boatman's lament:

Old brine support me!

Eyes and teeth below the foam

Are watching; watching -

the second is the same boatman, becalmed and losing his mind and fight for life when he believes he sees an angel come to save him:

Gentle betrayal-

Oars slide as I confront

My hallucination

The painting would see the boats oar slipping below the surface as the poor boatman reaches beseechingly for his vision.

Besides this, I also had a fabulous conversation about donkeys and the possibility of employing them as beasts of burden to ferry shoppers loads home; little hitching posts out the front of the supermarket... Great way to use up leftover fruit and veg, and even the possibility of methane power from the waste! 'Can I get a donkey to till four please?' It must be feasible.

Sold one of the prints of my paintings, which I have framed in hand potato printed frames; hopefully the first of many so I can reinvest and start the ball rolling properly; with fingers crossed I must away to dream of angels, sailors and swans.