Kate Scanlan
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katescanlan.bsky.social
Kate Scanlan
@katescanlan.bsky.social
610 followers 500 following 130 posts
Coffee, Museums, Tai Chi, Violinist, Archaeology, Art & Cats
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Reposted by Kate Scanlan
raggamog.bsky.social
Today's theme for #FolkyFriday is 'gifts'. There is an old tale of the wren bringing fire to mankind. In its quest to get the flame, it became scorched by the sun. All the other birds gave the wren the gift of a feather as thanks, apart from the owl who refused.
Art my own.
#Folklore #Birds #MHHSBD
December 5, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
alisonfisk.bsky.social
The Lewis Chessmen

These 12th-century chess pieces are packed with personality, and have such charmingly expressive eyes! ♟️ 👀

From a large gaming hoard discovered on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, in 1831.

📷 by me

#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
My photo collage shows a selection of bishop and warder chess pieces finely carved from creamish-coloured walrus ivory, dated c. 1150-1200 AD. Found in a large gaming hoard on the Isle of Lewis. On display at the British Museum. Photo top left: Two bishops and a warder. All standing. The bishops wear long garments, mitres, and hold a crozier with both hands. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment and a conical helmet with neck and ear-pieces. He’s armed with a sword and kite-shaped shield inscribed with a lozenge shaped cross. Photo top right: A so-called ‘berserker’ warder chess piece. Standing, wearing a long garment and hood, armed with sword and a shield decorated with an interlaced saltire. The warder has large, wide-open eyes, and large upper teeth which bite the top of the shield. Height 8.2 cm. Photo bottom left: A standing warder and two seated bishops, one of which is partly obscured by the warder. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment and conical helmet with neck and ear-pieces, is armed with sword and shield. The seated bishops wear long garments, mitres, and each holds a crozier and book. Photo bottom right: A warder and a bishop, both standing. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment, and conical helmet with neck, ear-pieces and ornamented head-band. He is armed with a sword in right hand and kite-shaped shield in left hand. The bishop wears a long garment with cloak, and mitre, and holds a crozier in his left hand and a book in his right hand.
December 5, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
orkneylibrary.bsky.social
'The perfect brand collaboration doesn't exist.'

Agatha Christie/Mr Men:
2 Mr Men books themed on Agatha Christie books. Mr Poirot in Mischief on the Nile and Little Miss Marple in Muddle at the Vicarage
December 5, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
george-station-cat.bsky.social
Good morning & welcome to Whiskers Wednesday

If you wait until you feel ‘better’ to start living, you might be waiting forever
Go live your life
Do it sad
Do it anxious
Do it uncertain
Healing doesn’t always come before the experience.
Sometimes the experience is what heals you
December 3, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
glastomichelle.bsky.social
Bird of Peace. Photo taken this morning from St Michael's Tower on Glastonbury Tor at sunrise.
December 3, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
denisewong.bsky.social
Gentoo penguin with chick,
Watercolour painting.

#Penguin #GentooPenguin #Birds #BirdsArt #Art #Watercolour #WatercolourArt #Painting #BirdsWallArt #ArtPrints #BirdsGiftIdea
November 27, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
denisewong.bsky.social
Puffin with Sand Eels,
Watercolour painting.

#Puffin #Sandeels #AtlanticPuffin #Birds #BirdsArt #Art #Watercolour #WatercolourArt #Painting #BirdsWallArt #ArtPrints #BirdsGiftIdea
November 27, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
Textile artist Nancy Nicholson, cat & bird embroidery #WomensArt
Pictorial textile artwork featuring a cat's head with a bird perched on top
November 27, 2025 at 4:36 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
strategywoman.bsky.social
I wanted to show this yesterday,
but the attack happened.

A charming piece of art:
🇺🇦 Mykhailo Lishchyner
Street Violinist, 1990.
November 25, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
george-station-cat.bsky.social
Good morning & welcome to Whiskers Wednesday

Kindness is free.
Go on and sprinkle that stuff everywhere.
A smile, a gentle word, a tiny moment of patience , it all adds up to something bigger than we realise.

Be kind
November 26, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
'Wren in Winter' by Sarah Bays, UK printmaker who is inspired by the nature she encounters on her rural walks #ReframingWomenPrintmakers
Print featuring a small bird with sharp beak and erect tail feathers perched in a bush facing left, the bush has no leaves but has red berries
November 23, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
venetiajane.bsky.social
Frosty or snowy mornings transform seed heads into crisp winter sculptures. John Clare conveys that sharp countryside cold in his poem Winter: “The small wind whispers through the leafless hedge, most sharp and chill, where the light snowy flakes rest on each twig.” #WinterPoetry
Snow-covered hogweed seed heads stand against a pale winter sky. Each umbel carries rounded caps of fresh snow on fine radiating stems, creating a delicate, sculptural look. Soft blurred light in the background adds a gentle winter atmosphere.
November 20, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
Tapestry created by women of the Otomi people of central Altiplano (Mexican Plateau) region of Mexico #womensart
Colourful embroidery piece with depictions of plants. animals and people against a white background
November 17, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
'Capitalism also depends on domestic labour' by See Red Womens Workshop, feminist silk-screen poster collective, UK (1970s-90s) #womensart #Monday
Poster with brown and white artwork featuring an assembly line of people coming out of and returning to a factory, while out the workers are fed and cared for by women
November 17, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Something lovely to start the week! 🐙🏺❤️

Ancient clay pots with octopus decoration, made by artisans from Bronze Age Crete some 3,500 years ago!

Heraklion Archaeological Museum 📷 by me

#Archaeology
My photo collage shows four pottery vessels, all a creamy yellow in colour, with black painted decoration depicting underwater sea-life featuring lively stylised octopuses with writhing tentacles (arms), All on display at Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete. Top L - Minoan pithoid storage jar decorated in the “Marine Style” with wide-eyes octopus, argonauts, rocks, and coral. Rounded top tapering down to a narrower base. Short cyclindrical neck flaring out at the mouth with black wavy decoration reminiscent of waves. Loop handles attached to the shoulders of the body. Height 55 cm. From Zakros. 1500-1450 BC Top R - Minoan flask with a rounded body, short cyclindrical neck which flares at the rim, and two small curved handles attached between the top of the spout and the shoulders of the body. Decorated in “Marine Style” which depicts an almost cartoon-like octopus with wide eyes and sucker-lined tentacles which writhe around the vase. Other decorative sea-motifs include sea urchins, seaweed and rocks. Height 27cm. From Palaikastro, 1500-1450 BC Bottom L - alabastron, broad at the base, swelling outwards into a fuller belly before narrowing near the top with a very short cyclindrical neck and a wider flat rimmed mouth. Decorated in “Marine Style” with a wide-eyed octopus among rocks. From Knossos Little Palace, 1450-1370 BC Bottom R - krater with rounded body narrowing at the bottom towards the foot. Wide flaring mouth and rim with black painted wavy decoration, and two sturdy handles attached on each side between the top of the mouth and shoulders of the vessel. Decorated with a central very stylised wide-eyed octopus whose tentacles loop up and down around the body of the pot, 1370-1300 BC
November 17, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
'Three black cats' by Maud Lewis (1903-1970), Canadian folk artist #WomensArt #FridayFeeling
Painting of three sitting black cats facing forwards in a row, one larger than the others, created in a naive or simple child-like style, the sits sit in a green garden with tulip flowers and under branches full of blossom
November 14, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
alisonfisk.bsky.social
From Bronze Age Wales, the spectacular Mold Cape! 🤩

An incredible ancient feat of sheet-goldworking, beaten from a single gold ingot some 3,600 years ago!

The extraordinary embossed decoration is said to mimic strings of beads.

📷 by me

#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
My photo shows the ‘Mold Cape’ on an upright metal stand inside a British Museum display case. It is a Bronze Age object made of thin hammered gold. The sheet gold is curved and looks like a stiff, rounded poncho. The surface is densely decorated with rows of repeating patterns made of circular bosses and lozenges, which run horizontally around the cape. These are thought to imitate strings of beads. The gold is a deep, warm colour which shines in the display lighting. Cracks and repaired sections are visible. The Mold Cape would be worn over the chest and shoulders. Arm movement would be restricted due to the rigidity of the gold. This amazing artefact was discovered in 1833 by workmen digging for stone in a burial mound at Bryn yr Ellyllon, (Hill of the Goblins) near Mold in Flintshire.
November 14, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
lizaadamczewski.bsky.social
Poppies for Remembrance. Day
Poppies growing in the long grass
November 11, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
curatorkate.bsky.social
The vibrancy of autumn colours this year is incredible! 😍😀
November 9, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
guywrites.bsky.social
They shall not grow old
As we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning,
We will remember Them. 🙏

#Remembrance #veteran #RemembranceSunday
November 9, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
emmaelie.bsky.social
Rachel Newling

Australian Flowers:
Blue Waterlily

linocut on handmade
Japanese paper
layered fans of blue petals with yellow gold centers on deep green upright stems, dynamic black and white background
November 4, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
Artist Helen Ahpornsiri creates intricate collage artworks created with real pressed flowers and leaves. #WomensArt #Autumn #Fall
Collage artwork created with leaves and petals to form an image of a heron facing left against a white background
November 6, 2025 at 5:18 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
rspb.bsky.social
Tonight, the Woodcock Moon rises. 🌕

Folklore whispers of Woodcocks awaiting this moonlit night to cross the seas & arrive in huge numbers on our shores.

It was believed tiny Goldcrests journeyed with them, riding on their backs!

It will be our second Supermoon of the year.
A striking silhouette of a Woodcock in flight is captured against a glowing full moon, casting an ethereal backdrop. The bird's rounded wings and long, pointed bill are distinct, creating a dramatic profile as it glides through the night. Delicate, dark pine tree branches frame the scene, evoking an almost mystical atmosphere. Woodcock silhouette has been superimposed onto photograph of a full moon.
November 5, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Roman glass cups with colourful enamel decoration of animals from the Roman arena. AD 200s.

Found in richly-furnished graves in Denmark. National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. 📷 by me

#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
My photo collage shows four images of Roman-era clear-glass cups painted with colourful enamel decoration depicting animals from the Roman Arena. Known as ‘circus cups’, fourteen of which have been found in richly-furnished ‘princely’ graves in Denmark. Dated AD 200s. The top two images show two sides of the same cup. Top left: a brown lion with shaggy mane, its front and rear legs outstretched as if running at full speed. Top right: a green spotted leopard. Out of shot, a blue goat is being hunted down by the lion and the leopard. Bottom left: fragmentary glass cup decorated with a light brown lion with shaggy mane. Nose and lips outlined in black. Bottom right: image of a gladiator with green leggings and blue shield, and in front of him a large brown bear.
October 31, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Kate Scanlan
trahias.bsky.social
Alan Parry (British Artist, born 1940)
"Butterflies and Alliums", 2016.
Acrylic on Canvas, 89 × 61 cm.
Private Collection.
#art #painting #painters #BlueSkyArt
October 30, 2025 at 1:23 PM