Penny Otto

Mental photographs are when I memorise something to be dawn or painted later, maybe days afterwards. This technique is especially useful when travelling. Here are some examples.

A continental breakfast somewhere in Italy. My husband and I almost got used to having cakes for breakfast!

Chełmno in Poland is a fascinating place near Gdańsk (Danzig in German) where we relaxed after visiting that big vital city.

“Breakfast in Poland”. Arnold, my European husband and I were driven around Poland by his sister and her husband. We were there to see where Arnold and his sister Melitta were born, in Bydgoszcz. A city in northern Poland.

“Travel in Poland” with storks!

Back in Italy, this is “Campo dei Fiori Rome”.

On the shores of the long white cloud, in life drawing class we often drew one another as we worked. The poses were not held so we learned to work fast. They were always fun and we improved with practice as we learned to ‘take photographs’ mentally.

“Rod’s Place” (the partner of my artist friend Marion) is actually Ambury Farm Park. I gather he grew up nearby. There was a howling wind when myself, Marion and Rod were trying to sketch. We worked from a shelter where naturally other people gravitated to huddle.  One of the onlookers surprised me because she did seem to understand what I was trying to capture! Not so much a literal description of the scene but the atmosphere.