New paintings and regular art updates.
I just looked at the sky from the other side… I mean I watched the film Gravity and it struck me that it looks much the same from above and below? Maybe the clouds are on a different scale, but they are still white and grey, the blue sea mimics the blue of the sky. We are truly a blue and white marble in the deep ocean of black space. We fall up to space, or down to earth, the thin atmosphere is all that protects us against hard radiation and vacuum.
Oh you sweet cat
One belly rub required
To make him happy
But beware the claws
That protect his tummy
From your intrusion
Be careful
Or you may lose your hand!
Just to show you what I was trying to draw today. Dark and forbidding on the outside. Great place to hear classical music concerts on the inside. I think it was built in the 1950’s or 60’s. Part of the Keele University campus.
Ten minute pen sketch, my fellow urban sketcher Rita was concentrating on drawing Keele Chapel, she looked chilly in the cold wind!
There was an open day at the University today but they let the urban Sketchers on the carpark. I sat myself down on a bench by the students union and ruffled by the wind that was gusting through the plaza, I sat and drew the Chapel too while watching gazebos rocked by the wind. A whole display of soaps and moisturisers on one craft stall went flying to the ground, it got gloomier and colder. But then about twenty of us gathered to see each others work! What a brisk and breezy morning.
I’ve been out with Stoke urban Sketchers today. It was a breezy cold morning but I need to get back into urban sketching again, I haven’t been along for months. We were at Keele University in Staffordshire. I decided to draw the Chapel, large, brutal architecture, a bit like a castle without the castelations. If that’s what they are called. I tried drawing using a charcoal set I’d bought. It was a bit disappointing, less charcoal, more grey pencil? I used some conte crayon sticks and a few felt pens to add bits of colour. I finished off drawing tiny lines to indicate the walls were made of black bricks. Eventually I went and got a hot drink. Then I came out again and quickly drew one of the other Sketchers. Finally we had a throw down of everyone’s drawings, I might post a photo later.
I saw this canal boat and just wanted to take a photo of the colours and the perspective lines. You don’t always have to take a photo that shows the entire object. Close ups and distant shots can be good. Macro photos can be very interesting. There are bad photos, but then you can crop them to show a different aspect. Be open to different ideas. Be creative, be comfortable with trying something new.
Grey man,
Carved stone
Oak leaves
And acorns
Sculpted from granite
A Robin
Might peck at you
Ivy entwine you
Algae wrap you in green
Lichen inhabit you
Stone you are
Soil you may become
With age and ice
Weather and water
Till ground into a powder
You are amalgamated
And your stone face
Is incorporated
Transformed and metamorphosised
Into a real tree.
A stag and thistles against a Scottish Saltire. The Penkhull Panto is not having scenery this year except for some smaller A2 panels that I painted a few years ago of various scenes from around the world. I offered to paint something representing Scotland and found various images of Scottish jewellery depicting Stags and Thistles in a semi celtic design. This is my interpretation of the idea. The blue and white of the saltire is a good background to the design. I used two A1 boards glued together for strength (£10) and it is painted in acrylics with some silver metallic pen highlights. I hope they like it.
Growing out and up… A long limb of a tree scrambles to escape the shade of its companions. Thinks, I’m not going to be hidden by all your leaves. Give me light and I will grow into a tree in my own right. I don’t need holding up, I will sway in the wind with the best of them! What’s a bit of tension and torsion to a limb like me? I’m only slightly cracked, that split in my bark will soon heal over, I’m not weeping sap. Oi! Don’t you bring that chainsaw near me! I will survive!
I sat and watched the sky, there was an interesting looking cloud, but it was too bright to see initially because if the low sun. Then after a few minutes the cloud gradually crept over the sun. We needed to rest as we were on our walk around our local hill. Sitting on the bench I could feel a cold breeze ruffling my hair and I pulled my coat a bit closer. Apparently a storm is due tomorrow so the gusts of wind might be the beginning of it.
Mallaband-Brown