Broken watches are better by Harriett Alice Richardson

So yes, he was like why wear a watch that doesnt move, I was like bcos twice a day ill be exactly in time, but if your watch is even just a second fast or slow then your not in time at all ever. At least id be in time, even if it is only twice. He asked how id know when im in time, i thought about this for a while, i dont have an answer yet, i told him id get back to him with an answer xx

Art bit One of my fav artists is Linnea Strid, I dont know if you know her work, looks like photos, i nearly died when i first seen it. I try to do something similar with stuff like this, but with colour instead of detail, as i cant do detail and just do paint blobs lol. If you look really close at photos sometimes theres green bits at edges. Its kind of weird. But sometimes I add that to my paintings to make it look super real. Nothing like Linneas work, but i think the green edge thing works sometimes. Im curious what other people do when they want super accurate. Heres wha I do - I print off the photo, mark off my piece of wood the same size as the photo, put an acetate sheet with a grid on it over the photo, and mark the same grid on the piece of wood. Then it like a weird game of chess lol, with grid numbers and stuff, copying over lines. I do this because im not very good at perspective, so this gets my lines in the right place. After this I focus a lot on colour. I spend most of my time on colour. Sometimes hours for tiny bits of painting lol. I think if the colour is good it can make up for bad other stuff. I have the photo im working from also on my phone and sometimes adjust the contrast to make it brighter or deeper or whatever as i like bold colours for stuff like this, then i zoom in, then match the paint to the colour on the phone, like, hold the end of the brush right next to the phone screen. I think this is why some of this kind of stuff is bright and bold. But im rubbish at straight lines lol. I paint over the pencil and the straight lines just go all wrong haha. I see everything wrong with paintings once i finish them. I dont know if anyone else does. With this one the 6 is pointing too much to the 1 instead of the 12, and most of the dashes between the numbers (i mean the dashes for number 1, number 3 etc) dont match up if you were to draw across them with a ruler. The bottom strap is also turned too much to the left. But again i think the colouring makes up for the stuff im rubbish at. xx

Wonderful painting Harriet, great stuff.

I'm not keen on photorealistic, detailed paintings Harriet. I just think..why not take a photograph? I do like your bold watch painting, the colours and strong shapes are wonderful :)

I agree Louise, thats why I make the less important bits have almost no detail, I think it makes the important bits even more realistic :) xx I think with Linnea Strids art its really impressive but then you think ok whats the story behing making it in the first place, or at least I do lol. Id rather see something by someone who isnt very good at art but has something to say, idk maybe this is wrong or something I only paint something if I have a story behind it, I dont see the point of painting something if it doesnt mean anything, I think this is why I struggle with the thought of going to art school :)) xx

A lovely sheen on the metal, the watch face looks like mother of pearl to me Harriet, lovely painting.

Very nicely painted.

Great!