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

Ten years?

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Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

In ten years, I will be riding in a sky car over a largely flooded coastline. Cars will all be electric. I will have sold every single painting and be a few thousand pounds richer. My house (on a hill) will be above the waterline.

Seriously, I don’t have any plans that far ahead in time. I hope to still be clinging on to life for a little longer, I want to see Halleys comet come back in around 2060?

Ten years from now

I will be older

I will be poorer

I won’t be free

Of gas bills

Aliens arrived

In 2029

And fell in love

With chickens

Who mutated

Into dinosaurs

Using ancient DNA

In a mad max type world

I will be

Glad if I’m free…

Abstract horse sketch

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Playing with my sketching app again. This time I found my drawing stylus so I had more control over the lines in it. Although you can see by my writing that it’s not much more under control!

The pens in the app are very varied, here I used a solid flowing line, a texture and a watercolour effect. This could represent a chess piece, the knight. I like the way it’s turned out.

Bench view?

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Flowers in a wreath seen on a bench last year? Was it a memorial to someone who had passed. Remembering a share time together looking at a view…. I wonder.

The bench itself is in good condition, the wood is starting to go green and will need to be replaces one day. I had a bench and the slats rotted. I went out and bought new slats but never found someone to put it back together again. I guess benches and people are similar. If they aren’t looked after they have a tendency to fall apart!

People sketching

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When I was out sketching a few weeks ago there were lots of other people drawing. After I finished I took this photo of my friend drawing the same view I’d done. He was working in charcoal and pencil I remember. The day was overcast with patches of blue sky. The ground is covered in concrete, but the way it is breaking up I think there are probably cobblestones underneath. There is a large area of cobbles around the corner where you enter the Middleport pottery complex. In the backdround you can see a small wooden crane which was used to load and unload barges. Forty years ago my hubby worked at another pottery, he actually used one of these to lift packed pottery ware to load onto a lorry. He said you could lift a big weight easily because of the gearing on it. The one he used was cast iron. It had a band brake and a pawl and ratchet to hold the load in place as it was swung over the lorry.

We are not that far away from the past, history is not that long ago. A lot of the old industry in the area was using old machines and equipment, because they had always done things that way and it probably saved a lot in investment. Even now there are lots of pottery molds to be found in the area. Sadly a lot of them get smashed. Losing our heritage. Do we really want to wipe our history out completely?

Gratitudes

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What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?

Five things that are everyday things?

1. Washing up liquid. Not used to the excess, enough to clean plates and cutlery without polluting the waterways. You can buy ones that are ecologically acceptable. It makes me happy that I can have clean plates.

2. Clean water, to drink, for washing and for bathing. I so lucky to live in a country that mostly has this, although the infrastructure is aging and even here there are some droughts and water shortages.

3. Are Cats everyday objects? I have to say they give me great pleasure and happiness. I’m not saying they are perfect, they can be mad, silly, crafty, cheeky. And they are pretty ubiquitous.

4. Electric light. I wish more people could have this, to be able to see at night without using smoky candles or oil lamps. I hope more communities can get solar power. It’s been shown that school children do better when they can see to do their homework. And maybe more solar power for other necessities.

5. Toilets, it’s a little bit delicate to talk about, but we are again lucky to have them here. They help reduce illnesses and ideally people could be given them. I think you can twin with communities through charity to raise funds to build them in poorer societies. I don’t know the details unfortunately.

Myself

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I was looking for this drawing because there was a prompt on one of the Art groups I’m on that asked people to post #thisisme. I looked and looked for this and could not find it, and yet its on my WordPress media gallery! It was originally drawn for a college project ‘I’. As you can see it includes a self portrait, a canvas and pencil and brush, some poppies, an x-ray, books, an old pottery, a cat and finally the willow pattern on a plate. Each thing means something to me. It was drawn in 2020 so I have changed slightly since then. No bits have dropped off but I’m not as well as I was. Life eh? Gets to us all….

Teary eyed

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I found this on my phone and once again remembered. Those thoughts came back again, sadness, guilt, loss. To lose a sister, it’s not right. When it’s a twin it might be worse. I don’t know. But as our birthday approaches, will I be OK? I somehow feel this should be both of us. I want to get to my next birthday, but the idea seems wrong. I will keep going but I’m not sure I will be happy on that day. And it’s not just me, it’s the rest of the family. I guess we will wait and see…. Sorry to post this but I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind.

Why?

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Some of my icons on my phone are a horrible browny bronze. I wish I could find out how to change them. I’ve looked at themes and I can change the background but not the icons. I’d like to set my own but I have no idea how. Does anyone know how to change the settings? Is it simple or very complicated. Meh, it’s a first world problem! Ignore me.

It’s funny how you can be so attached to your phone that it makes such an impact your life!

Password protected?

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A friend has just posted here and the notes with it say the post is password protected. It says go directly to the post.. But when you click on the post it says ‘you are not authorised to view this post’

So how do I view it. I tried to link to his site but it wouldn’t work. Should I post to another of his posts to tell him? I hope he (I’m assuming it’s a he?) sees this and either changes it or posts how to open it?

Lots of questions. I sometimes see posts that you can read but that you cannot ‘like’ I suppose that is fair enough, except its like ghosting yourself? They won’t know if you would like to appreciate their writing.

So anyway, sorry to witter on, you know what it’s like, you just have to ask sometimes!

Coffee pot collage

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Dragons on coffee pots, well one pot, but I was playing with pattern. It was my parents, part of a wedding present I think. It was left to one of my sisters and I took photos last year as part of my final major project for college. I’m not sure if it’s beautiful or ugly, it’s certainly interesting. When you play with images like this you have to choose a favourite. I will rotate the images four times to see which is the best aesthetically, but I do like this one.