You lie on the bed, quite sweet
But you take up half the space
And though you look so neat
I still can’t find a place
To put my feet!
On our bed
Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown
I'm an artist based at the Spode factory site in Stoke on Trent. I paint, draw and create digital art. Contact me at mallabandbrown@aol.com
Foxy
Six years ago I was painting tiny little matchbox sized pictures. I don’t make much money off them, but I guess a few more people can have examples of my art. I love nature, so some of the subjects are foxes and owls, fish, and other animals. I must do some more. I have a couple of craft fairs/exhibitions this weekend, I need to get my act together and paint, but looking after my hubby is time consuming.
Sometimes
Do you trust your instincts?
I’m rather wary of instincts, I have been known to trust people even when it has not been earned. Or distrust people who turned out to be the nicest and kindest people that I’d ever met before. But it’s not a regular problem, mostly my instincts aren’t too bad. And sometimes I know instinctively what’s going to happen. I don’t claim to have premonitions, but maybe I observe more subconsciously than I realise. So when something happens I feel vindicated.
But there was the one very odd incident. I dreamt of meeting old friends I hadn’t seen for years in the middle of a thunderstorm. Then a few days later we were cycling out to our friends when we met them and our old friends cycling the other way. That was strange enough, but the clouds were building up and the thunderstorm arrived! We had to take cover in a bus shelter. My dream actually came true! So maybe my instincts should be trusted. X
Fushias in November
We might get a cold snap in the next few days. At the moment though they are clinging on. Inside our house, I’ve just had to torn the heating off. We had a radiator mended in the week and now it’s pumping out warmth. I’m sitting here in a tee shirt and thinking I might turn it back off at the valve…
Let’s see what happens when the weather cools. If it gets frosty, if it snows. Then I won’t just be wearing a fushia pink tee shirt, and the flowers outside might be gone.
Cat painting with gold leaf
This popped up on my Facebook memories today. My little cat, simple painting, but with gold leaf. I used it a few times because my friend had given me a book of gold leaf. I know I found it hard to manipulate. I did enjoy using it though.
May blossom
What’s your favorite month of the year? Why?
My favourite month is May, when blossom opens on trees, the sky turns a beautiful cerulean blue, and suddenly bees and insects wake up. Then I watch the blossom unfurl, tight buds become satin skirts and whirl outwards. Scent fills the air. Beware storms, thundering through the sky, their gusty winds can strip the flowers before they are pollenated, or frosts can burn their delicate petals. Their safety ensures a good crop of cherries or pears. Apples too can sink or swim depending on the weather.
May brings beauty in other forms, buds and leaves follow the blossom, the leaves stretch as water floods into their veins, brilliant greens or pinky mauves fill in the gaps between the twigs. Warm sun is absorbed as the leaves feed on the light. Photosynthesis is a miracle of nature. Clean air circulates, breezes stir, hedgerows grow and light up with May blossom.
Yes May is my favourite month, the warmth of the sun starts to return, days are longer, brilliant and lovely, if we are lucky we can enjoy the seasonal spectacle.
Pagoda? pattern
I saw this window in the Japanese restaurant near us. I decided to collage it to see how it would look in a duplicate form. I tried rotating it but I think this is the best version of it. I like the flatness of it, the misty feel, as if you had come across this structure on a foggy night. Perhaps reflected in a still river. I love playing with images.
Look who’s on the bed
A night visitor, all prowl worn out, purring gently, wants love. Left me no room while I was out. Now do I move him or let him stay? Gentle purring makes that decision easy.
Outside into the countryside
What is your favorite place to go in your city?
My city stands on its own, not really part of a conurbation. It is between Birmingham and Manchester and there are small satellite towns dotted around it.
When I first came to live here, what always struck me, was how close the countryside is. South and East are Staffordshire farmland, West is Shropshires rolling hills and also Cheshire with it’s flat plain and salt mines, North East is Derbyshire with the pennines hilly beginnings and also the Staffordshire moorlands with old industrial buildings hidden in its valleys.
The area is crisscrossed by canals, rivers, train tracks and roads. Alton Towers is a few miles to the North east, further north is the old silk mill towns of Leek and closer to Manchester is Macclesfield.
The Trent and Mersey canal runs through the mile long Harecastle tunnel at Kidsgrove, where the water runs orange (from old iron mine workings?).
There are forests, fields, caves, lakes, walking and cycling routes. Bakewell is reasonably close, home of the Bakewell tart (pastry with raspberry jam and an almond paste topping?). Also famous for food is Market Drayton to our west. I think they make Gingerbread there.
There are National trust properties like Little Moreton Hall and Biddulph Grange. Big garden centres and antique centres. Not forgetting the gem that is the Dorothy Clive garden.
The city is not without its merits, Gladstone and Moorcroft, Middleport and Emma Bridgwater potteries and the potteries museum and art gallery all tell the history of the city.
But I like to get away from the hustle and bustle into quiet surroundings. Not forgetting the coast which is about 80 miles away in Wales.
Stoke on Trent is full of industrial heritage, a lot of it needs rescuing. But I love the place.
BCB piece
Another from my photos of the BCB, British ceramic biennial that was held in Stoke on Trent a few weeks ago.
Some pieces were more beautiful than others, some seemed to have more significance. Some like this seem playful. A piece that has been twiddled and twisted, creating a root like structure but with almost a trumpet bell on the end of it.
Simply placed on a surface in front if a window, the object casts interesting shadows.
I don’t know what I think of it, but it was worth documenting.
Mallaband-Brown 