A bank holiday in October

Posted on November 6, 2023November 6, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Autumn bank holiday, bank holidays, British summer time, Celebrate, Colour, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2111, life leaves, Spring, Summer, WinterLeave a comment

Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate.

The UK has bank holidays in winter, spring and summer, but nothing in Autumn. We have Rememberence day and Guy Fawkes night in November. But some people don’t get many days off in the year, so why not?

The government would no doubt object to this day off, because it would reduce productivity. But if they had their way we would be on fifty or sixty hour weeks. Elon Musk said this week that all jobs would be taken over by AI or robots, so why not start working towards it now? We could have Autumn cards, buy jigsaw puzzles of gorgeous trees, or squirrels and their nut collections. Hazelnut or Cob nut cakes? Conker fights, displays of autumn flowering crocuses. I would also keep British Summer time so that the evenings stayed lighter and it would cost less in power usage!

More BCB ceramics

Posted on November 5, 2023November 5, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, British ceramic biennial, Ceramic, Clay, Fun, Hay, Minton tiles, Tiles, Wild flowersLeave a comment

One of the things to do at the British Ceramic biennial was to have fun making clay tiles that will grow in a wildflower meadow next spring. We made unfired tiles made to look a bit like Minton floor tiles. The clays were chosen to be different acidities so that they suited wild flower seeds. The clay was mixed with hay and pushed into moulds, then we had to make holes and push the seeds into them. Finally we pressed a shape into the top of the tile and fill the resultant spaces with different coloured slips.

Artrage

Posted on November 5, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, ArtRage app, Artrage oils, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2110, Drawing, Photodirector, Sketchbook, Sketching, Websites4 Comments

What are your favorite websites?

My favourite websites are art ones. A lot of them don’t have much in the way of tools. Often the drawing is already there and you just use a fill tool. They are boring. But I found a free app called Artrage oils which I used for several years till I got a new phone. Then I upgraded to Artrage which has a lot more tools, sketchbook app which has different tools and a few other ones that are good for editing, like photodirector. I now use them all in combination. It’s fun!

Leaf collage

Posted on November 5, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged animal? Pareidolia, Autumn, Collage, Leaves, Pavement, Photos, Symmetry6 Comments

When you make a collage of a photo you never know what you are going to get. This one seems to have animal faces at the centre, but it’s only fallen leaves on pavement. The effect of seeing things that are made up like this, or animals in clouds, faces in buildings, is called Pareidolia.

British Ceramic Biennial

Posted on November 5, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, BCB, British ceramic biennial, Ceramics, final day, Fine Art, Life, Pottery, remarkableLeave a comment

Today was the last day of the biennial exhibition. We only managed to get to the one venue at All Saints church on Leek Road Stoke-on-Trent. The pottery and ceramics on display were remarkable. From abstract to classical, but all with a modern twist. I wish I’d managed to get round the other venues, but I didn’t feel up to it. Anyway I bumped into a couple of friends. I will probably post a few more photos later.

Blue

Posted on November 4, 2023November 5, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, ArtRage app, Blue, Digital drawing, Drawing, Face, female, Sketching4 Comments

To the #bandofsketchers prompt blue. A blue made up face using Artrage app. Its not very exciting, I wasn’t sure what to do. Anyway it’s good to start catching up with the prompts, digital drawing,

Experimenting

Posted on November 4, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Changes, Experiment, Memory, Photo, Photodirector, sprinkles, Time, Tools, Tree2 Comments

I added the sprinkles onto this photo of a tree, as if all the leaves were falling off at once. I can’t remember how I did it, but I think I used photodirector. The image is from about four years ago, and the app has changed since then, so some of the different tools have changed and I’m not sure I could do this again. X

Low pressure

Posted on November 4, 2023 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Barometer, Bonfire night, Britain, Fireworks, Guy Fawkes, Low pressure, Parliament, UK, Weather4 Comments

Just looked at my Barometer, it’s dropped to 957 millibars which is the lowest I’ve ever seen it. The pointer has dropped all the way down to “stormy”. And yet fireworks are going off all around us. It will be bonfire night, or Guy Fawkes night in the UK tomorrow. (Remember remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot). This was in the reign of James 1st when Guy Fawkes and fellow plotters tried to blow up the houses of Parliament by getting gunpowder into it’s cellars. The British people celebrated the failure of the plot by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes and letting off fireworks.

So the weather isn’t good for it tonight. I doubt there will be many bonfires because of all the rain we have been having. But the fireworks are crackling and banging all over the place, and it’s not even the 5th yet!

Cat asleep

Posted on November 4, 2023 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Asleep, Black and white cat, Cat, Claws, footstool, ousted, Photo, Settee, Tuxedo cat2 Comments

He’s on the edge of the settee and looks like he might slide off! Fast asleep, taking up all the space. I’d like to sit there but I’ve been ousted from the space by this cat! I went to make a coffee and he snuck up. I have a seat on an armchair. And as if on cue, my girl cat just came up and tried to sharpen her claws on my leg. She’s taken over my footstool. Cats rule in this house!

Leaves

Posted on November 4, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Asleep, Autumn, Cold, Colours, Dying, frosty, Leaves, Memory, Poem, Poetry, Time2 Comments

Dying, falling, asleep

Red, green, brown

Gold and yellow

Pallid light breaks

Over crisping leaves.

Frosty, foggy, cold,

Mist and mizzel.

Wet rain drips

From sullen trees.

Mallaband-Brown

Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown