New paintings and regular art updates.
I’ve collected some seeds from seed heads, including poppies and nasturtiums and marigolds. I need to store them in a cool dry place and I think they will be OK in a kitchen drawer. I need to remember that are there, if not they will be wasted, also when to plant them, I guess I will Google that, or look on the back of seed packets when we go to a garden center.
Starting a painting of a beach and the sea from above. It’s going to show the surf and the pebbles and sand. I want it to be gentle, a meditation, no words, no footsteps in the sand, just the quiet lapping of water as the waves roll in and out. A peaceful memory as a painting for a friend.
Loud mouth women singing at a local supermarket today, we sang on the car park then inside the foyer of the store. After a long hiatus of performance it was great to be out singing with my friends again. Some of the ladies are a little camera shy so I have blurred their photos. We had a lovely time, and it was good to get applause and smiles from customers.
One of my cats sleeps on the armchair arms between me and my hubby. He’s there now curled up. Snoring and purring. He’s a big strong cat, and he knows what he wants and where he wants to sleep. In a while he will be sitting by his cat food bowl (not rattling it, just staring at me, eyes half closed), then when he’s ready he will explore the garden and come in again later when we have gone to bed. Sometimes he sleeps half way up the stairs, then we have to watch out incase we step on him, you can see the problem, thank goodness he has a white patch on his back!
Matchbox sized dinosaur. A stegosaurus. I hope the lady who asked for it likes it. A bit fiddly because holding a mini canvas whilst trying to paint and having your arm shake made for a few smudges and bits to repaint. But I’m proud I can still do things like this…. I called it Stegi.. X
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was ‘date’ I was going to draw an old mechanical calendar (one that you turn round to change the date) but I can’t find it. So then I decided to sketch a log, cut in half, to represent tree rings (dendrochronology) you can count the rings to find out the age of the tree and as the widths of the rings change with the weather you can also work out the years it was growing.
Industrial,
Smoke belched high in the sky
Soot fell on childrens faces.
Clogged lungs
Cotton fell like dirty snow
From grey clouds
Skudding on a raw east wind.
Blast furnaces glowed
Brightening sullen grey clouds
Into false, rosy sunsets
Men walked, doubled over
In the black and dusty mines
Water dripped hot and dirty
Down bent necks
whilst picks and shovels
Hewed at the coal.
Then suddenly
Worlds changed
Smoke and smog was banned
Cholera and typhoid alleviated.
Government and Unions United for once.
Health for all, insuring life.
Workers deserving clean air and water.
Post industrial, jobs went
To other places, other lands
Workers not so lucky
Breathing a centurys old air
Forced to work for a pittance
One people taking the place of another
Supporting our modern, post industrial life
And money travels upwards
Into more billionaires pockets
On post industrial beaches….
Earth is clean for those that can pay.
I managed to sell about six mini paintings, a medium sized one and a little jigsaw at our Orme Art Group Exhibition today. A small profit when you take into the cost of producing them. I also made a small sale at Middleport at the Arts and Minds Gallery. I just wish this was more of a regular thing. At the moment my business is really just a nice hobby. X
What have I got to paint…..
It’s a tiny matchbox sized canvas. I painted a pink rabbit for a lady’s grand-daughter while I was at our annual exhibition today. Since I managed that I then was commissioned to paint a dinosaur for her grand-son. Help! I managed the rabbit, after all they are quite like cats with a longer, deeper snout. But there was no WiFi in the hall so I had to say I would do this one at home. I will have to Google what they look like, in the meantime I sketched it out to remind me to do it!
I was thinking about when I used to cycle several years ago. I used to be able to ride for miles. Unfortunately I was knocked off my bike and sustained a head injury. When I recovered I carried on cycling, but I did not know the brazing on the front of the bike had been damaged. I was cycling up a hill when the headset and down tube seperated. The front wheel bent forward and the forks collapsed!
I decided to have the bike repaired as I only have short legs, I’d tried getting a new bike, but it wasn’t the right size or shape of frame. Unfortunately the bike shop I took my bike to was a little disorganised. They lost the frame for a year. I didn’t have a bike, so I took driving lessons. By the time I got the bike back I had a job that I had to commute to, so I used the bike less and less. I eventually gave up. I keep thinking I will try and get on my bike again, but my hips and back are too stiff…. Life, sometimes it really gets you down.
Mallaband-Brown