Category: Intermittent Updates

Conte chalk drawing

Vintage Ford Prefect Drawing

I made this drawing of what was left an old Ford Prefect, which had been abandoned on a disused railway line outside the village where I used to live many moons ago! I was a “wet behind the ears” first year student at Glasgow School of Art at the time and I made the drawing in response to the annual First Year Drawing competition which was run over the Christmas and new Year holiday period that year. The title that we were asked to illustrate was “Inside/Outside” – an intriguingly open ended subject title which gave lots of scope for choice. I went out for a walk one day, came upon this old hulk rotting away quietly and thought, “Wow! that would make a great drawing!” I remember it well because it was the middle of winter and it took me three very cold mornings to finish the drawing! I pulled the battered bonnet of the car and the seat springs out and re-arranged them to make it more obvious that the inside was actually outside!

It turned out to be worth turning my fingers to ice each day, because along with several other first year students, my drawing was nominated as a winner – the prize was a three-day trip to go round the London Galleries with one of the 1st year tutors! And a memorable experience it was too because we visited the Constable exhibition which was held at the Tate Gallery in early 1976. I was bowled over by the sheer scale and number of Constable’s work and longed to be able to paint with the same skill and panache. (If only it had worked out like that!)

Prints of this work are available via

 Redbubble or FineArtAmerica

The Evolution of Website Design and Hosting

Transferring my old website from it’s previous incarnation to this one has caused me to marvel at the amazing improvements there have been in web design methods over the last few years.

For those interested in the evolution of website design and hosting etc., my old website (www.jossyjohnson.free-online.co.uk), which at the time of writing still exists on the ancient Free-Online hosting package that I signed up for in the early days of the internet, was originally FREE as the name suggests. pagemillWebsite design was done offline using a website design programme such as Pagemill and then the whole thing was copied to the host directory using FTP. Now we have a variety of online content management systems available which are much more flexible.

 

However, as we all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch and the “price” I paid for my “free” website was the strange website name of jossyjohnson appended to the “free-online” hosting address. I remember trying out various permutations of my name before being forced to plump for the abstruse moniker “jossyjohnson” because all the more sensible names were already taken. Free-Online is now owned by Plusnet and as is the norm these days, I now pay for the privilege of having them host my website.

Once all the transfer work is complete, I’ll set up an automatic redirect link to this site and hopefully gain a little leverage from the fact that due to the old website having been in existence for many years, it has the coveted page 1 ranking on Google searches (Do a search for Jo Johnson watercolours and it should be one of the first results returned). However, the length of time a website is up is now only one criteria for the search engine algorithms – hence my fresh start, with the intention of updating regularly with fresh and original images and content.

Cut the grass? “Haven’t forgotten darling!” (I’d better go!)

jossyjohnson search engine result

This is the search engine result I’m aiming for with this new site – number one!

 

Suilven from Lochinver

The new website

Well folks, this is the start of my new website. Over the next few weeks (months?!!) I hope to transfer my old website to this one.

As a full time teacher over the last few years, I’ve had less time for artistic and other pursuits than I would have liked. However as I have now officially retired I can devote more time for painting. I have yet to establish a settled routine for my newly acquired “retired” status. God willing, as I settle into a regular routine, my painting skills will begin to improve and this website will attract increasing interest from art lovers!