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Double Dominoe to the Rescue in Lockdown

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Double domino to the Rescue in Lockdown.  Mick Burton, continuous line artist.

Leeds is in “lockdown” and Joan and I have been playing cards to help fill in the time.  We would have welcomed other games but I took the Monopoly etc up to my daughter Kate in Glasgow last year.   An old tin from the attic was found which was filled with dominoes.

In our second game with the dominoes, Joan started with double six and I responded with six & five.  Joan had a six and played that.  Very symmetrical !

We checked all the dominoes and found that we had one complete set with black backs and a faint fish pattern, plus one dominoe with a black back and a faint greyhound which was also six & five.

M.C. Hitchen & Sons Ltd, Briggate & Kirkgate, Leeds. Tin full of dominos. Mick Burton, continuous line artist, Leeds.

The tin looked medieval, with pictures of Old King Cole, and around the lid “M.C. HITCHEN & SONS LTD, THE SILK HOUSE OF THE NORTH, BRIGGATE & KIRKGATE, LEEDS.”      ( No postcode ! )      “Always at Your Service”.

M.C. Hitchen & Sons Ltd. Back of tin full of dominos. Mick Burton, continuous line artist, Leeds.

On the back was a blackbird pecking off someone’s nose.

I wondered if the company was still around.

M.C. Hitchen & Sons Ltd. dissolved October 2019.  Mick Burton, continuous line artist, Leeds.

No, it was dissolved last year – only just missed it.  In fact M.C. Hitchen & Sons, Limited was a large department store in Briggate, Leeds until it was taken over in 1952 and became Littlewoods which closed in 2004.

Checking whether we had a complete set of dominos was interesting.  Here is the layout. 

Line up of dominoes to check whether complete. We had one extra. Mick Burton, continuous line artists, Leeds.

Active Life, including Table Tennis, at Armley Leisure Centre Leeds

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Active Life at Armley Leisure Centre, Leeds, leaflet.   Featuring Mick Burton, veteran table tennis player.

Active Life is an exercise programme especially designed for the over 50’s that can include more than one activity in each session.

There are a broad range of activities giving a variety every day of the week. Fitness class, gym session, go for a swim or the multi sport sessions which include Table Tennis, Mini Tennis and Badminton.

Joan has been going to the two hour table tennis sessions for about 5 years, starting as a beginner. The standard varies from beginners, people starting again through to improved players now in the local league.  I go along with Joan, when I can, to support table tennis coach, Sandra Rider who runs the Table Tennis and Mini tennis on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

There are 10 table tennis tables with an attendance of about 30 and two mini tennis courts attended by up to 15.

Some people switch between table tennis and mini tennis.

It is a very social group and Sandra also organises separate events such as annual ten pin bowling and the Xmas lunch.

Sandra has vast experience both as player and coach and still plays at League, County and Internationally as a veteran.  She also has medals at Veteran European and World Championships.

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Sandra Rider, on the right, with her Bronze Medal in the over 60’s Ladies Doubles event at the World Veterans Table Tennis Championships, 2018, held in Las Vagas.  Her doubles partner Shirley Gelder is on the left.

I have played in leagues since I was 16, including mostly full seasons in Leeds Division 1 for 50 years for Victoria Table Tennis Club, until 4 years ago when I moved to Leeds Judean Table Tennis Club.

Joan and myself decided to join Sandra at the Veterans World Championships in Alicante in 2016.  I lost all my group games three straight, although the other player who went into the Over 70’s Consolation with me won it.

Joan led a lady from Brazil in the Over 70’s Singles by 2 games to 1 before losing in the 5th.

Joan Frank playing in the over 70’s doubles with her Japanese partner at the 2016 World Veterans Table Tennis Championships in Alicante, Spain.  Photo Mick Burton, continuous line artist.

People just seem to keep on playing table tennis. 

Last week, I was short of two players for my team’s first Summer League match in Leeds Division 1 against Lawnswood YMCA A team.  I thought I may have to re-arrange the match but was given two lower division players.  Step forward Malcolm Shedlow, age 86, and Dennis Fisher, age 80, who both started playing for Leeds Judean Table Tennis Club in the 1950’s and spent many years in Division 1.  I am only 75 so brought the average age of my team down to 80.

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Leeds Judean table tennis C team in the Leeds Summer League against Lawnswood YMCA A team at the YMCA on 4 June 2019. Dennis Fisher, aged 80, Mick Burton, age 75 and Malcolm Shedlow, age 86.   Photo by Mark Bleakley of Lawnswood YMCA. 

Our opponents were Mark Bleakley, Ankush Vidyarth and Kiran Babra with average age early 40’s.  The result reflected our respective ages!

“Vortex” by David Kilpatrick. Single Continuous Line and Alternate Overdraw colouring.

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“Vortex” by David Kilpatrick, artist from Atherton, Australia.   Single Continuous Line using the Alternate Overdraw method to allocate colours.   March 2017.   Mick Burton blog.

I have been exchanging ideas with David Kilpatrick recently and he has agreed to let me put some of his pictures in my blog.  “Vortex” stands out to me, as I have been a fan of Vorticism for many years.  He has used Alternate Overdraw to allocate colours in sequence and it has worked well.

David’s design gives the impression of a sheet of plastic, coloured green on one side and red on the other, and each twist showing the other side.  With overlaps you get darker greens or darker reds.  Four internal areas let the background shine through.  The whole thing is very natural, including David’s own style of patchy colour radiating outwards.

Next is David’s “Knight’s Tour” which he is still working on.

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“Knights Tour” by David Kilpatrick, artist from Atherton, Australia.   Single Continuous Line based upon moves of a knight and using Alternate Overdraw to allocate colour sequence.   April 2017.  Mick Burton blog.

I did a Single Continuous Line “Knight’s Moves on a Chessboard” in 1973 (see Gallery 1965-74) with the intention of colouring it, but never tackled it properly.  One of the problems was the number of fiddly small areas.  It led to my “Knight’s Tour Fragments” instead (see my previous post on 16.2.2017).

But now we have GIMP!  David said that he used this to move the lines about on his “Knight’s Tour”.  I googled GIMP and it means “GNU Image Manipulation Program”.  Some areas are still fairly small but he has produced a vibrant structure.

David says that these are trial colours (I presume from GIMP) and he intends to work out an improved scale of colours in his own style.

However, the colours shown already demonstrate the natural balance inherent in the Alternate Overdraw colour allocation.  The composition suggests to me an island with yellow “beaches” as well as reds within opposite “volcanic” zones.

There is a choice regarding background, which would naturally be the same colour as the light blue internal areas and result in a surrounding “sea”, or it could be left white as shown above.

I look forward to seeing the final version, which I am sure will be another splendid example of Vorticism.

Another picture that caught my eye was his “The Pram” which is based on a magic rectangle.

“The Pram” by artist David Kilpatrick, from Atherton, Australia.   Based on a Magic Rectangle. 2015.    Mick Burton blog.

This pram picture has lots of line ends in it and makes me want to attempt one myself using a Continuous Line animal.  Such a design would make you want to connect up so many loose ends.  My Spherical pictures already do this to an extent, as I take a line out of the picture at one side and bring it back in at the corresponding opposite side.

I think that David chose the positions of the displaced squares in a sort of random way.  Maybe I would want to be confident that I could move them around, in the way you could on the movable squares game of my childhood, and get back to the actual original picture.

You can see much more of the art of David Kilpatrick on

https://www.redbubble.com/people/fnqkid

Leeds Olympic Lion, a new single continuous line painting by Mick Burton.

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Leeds Olympic Lion. Mick Burton

Leeds Olympic Lion, coloured in many shades of red, white and blue to commemorate all the Leeds based athletes and swimmers who brought back medals from the Rio Olympics, 2016.  Mick Burton single continuous line drawing with colour sequence.

I did a demonstration at Farsley Art Group on 12 July 2016 and the continuous line drawing I used as an example was the basis for the above painting. The Group showed a lot of interest and produced many fine attempts at continuous line during my workshop. The club kindly featured me on their website, showing some of my drawings as well as work by members.  I gave them a free hand to put their own stamp on their continuous lines so we had some great variations.

Joan, my partner, watched many swimming and diving events on the TV during the Olympics broadcasts.  She worked at the Leeds International Pool and the new John Charles Centre, in various swimming organising roles, before she retired in 2012 and was delighted with the results of the Leeds members of the Great Britain team and their coaches.

As the athletes all had the red, white and blue lion on their track suits I felt I had to colour my Lion in a range of similar colours and call it the Leeds Olympic Lion.  The painting will be exhibited in the Stainbeck Arts Club Annual Exhibition on Saturday 3 September 2016.  The exhibition is part of the Chapel Allerton Arts Festival taking place in north Leeds this week.Stainbeck Arts Club Poster

Joan’s daughter, Helen Frank, represented Great Britain in the 100 metres breast stroke in the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and was one of five swimmers from Leeds.  Adrian Moorhouse won a swimming gold medal, in the 100 metres breastroke, in 1988.  A gold by a British swimmer was not achieved again by a  British swimmer until 2016.

Leeds Olympic Swimmers at Seoul 1988

Helen brought back a commemorative plate from Seoul, which is part of Joan’s collection of Olympic Plates.

Seoul 1988 Olympics plate