Artwork and writings of a pareidolist
Cambridge Drawing Society Membership
With their Spring 2023 Exhibition, the Cambridge Drawing Society elected me as a new member. Said to be one the oldest of its kind in the UK, the society was founded in 1882. I love their motto – Nulla dies sine linea – which translates from the Latin to “Draw a line every day”. In…
An April Fool
Here’s one of my flash stories published by the lovely people at Visual Verse: If you fancy some quick instinctual writing exercises, Visual Verse is a wonderful place to look for intriguing writing prompts. Have you tried this yet? Let us know in the comments, if so, so that we can have a look at…
Dream Wally
Dream Wally is my pareidolia drawing of Wally’s world, which shows what he was eating and, perhaps, dreaming about during his southern shores adventure. Wally-the-Walrus, probably of Svalbard, made a heart-warming 2021 tour of coastline, well south of his arctic home, before heading back up north. One day, when he was hanging out off the…
Dried Mushroom and Lentil Soup (inspired by a Ruthenian Mushroom Soup recipe)
This sugar-free, oil-free, vegetarian (also vegan) recipe was invented by Donna McLuskie on 27 Feb 22, lunchtime, using foodstuffs in the larder on the day. Rinse 2 cups dried mushrooms. I used oyster, shitake, porcini and boletus mix. Soak for about one hour in hot water. Then remove shrooms and chop them to bitesize and…
On the Science of Pareidolia
In their 2017 publication called Characterizing the response to face pareidolia in human category-selective visual cortex, scientists Susan G Wardle, Kiley Seymour & Jessica Taubert aimed to study how human brains process face perception. They used this series of images for their study and described them thus: “We collected 56 photographs of naturally…
Smoothing
Some sounds evoke a happy place, don’t they? Perhaps a particular noise reminds us of joyful springtime, a lazy summer day or a cosy moment during winter? I painted Smoothing to capture the mesmerising sound of pebbles on Shakespeare Beach in Dover. As I stood there watching at the shoreline, each swash of incoming sea…
Hot Stuff
Here is an unusual memento of the 2021 volcanic eruption that first showed itself in Geldingadalir in Iceland. This limited-edition collaboration print features a photograph taken by Ægir Thor of Lífsbjörg ICE-SAR team, alongside a pareidolia drawing by Donna McLuskie of http://www.hiddencreaturesart.com. Pareidolia drawings show faces and hidden creatures perceived by the artist in unusual…
For The Love Of Trees in the news
Here’s another collaboration print awaiting collection : ) Our limited edition collaboration prints are available here and can be purchased with postage worldwide or with free collection from Cambridge: https://hiddencreaturesart.com/cambridge-collaboration-prints-shop/ This week I’m in the news. Our local paper, Cambridge Independent, has published an article, which I’m happy to see confirms that I’m still blonde…
What Is A Bear?
There’s a bear in my latest drawing and I’m calling him Ísólfur for reasons probably only Icelanders and, moreover, only some Icelanders will know about.I’m still looking into this myself but, anyway, here’s Ísólfur. Isn’t it interesting how few features are needed to describe a bear? This reminds me of a scene in one of…
Spotlight on Cloudscape
Cloudscape is my first collaboration print. Positioning the photograph used as inspiration alongside my drawing provides a much deeper insight into pareidolia and also makes the artwork more interactive. Do you perceive what I do or do you see it differently? During the 2021 Cambridge Science Festival (affiliated with MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts), the festival…
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Hi Quincy, Thanks so much and I don’t know what happened to your original comment but I’d love to see…
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Hmm it seems like your blog ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum…
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Hidden Creatures Art 
Hi Boyd, I’m going to find out what has been eating comments and, hopefully, locate your original comment, which I’d…