Bleach!

Posted on November 10, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Black, Bleach, Brown, Cloth, colour matching?, corduroy, Help, Hubby, Life, Paint, Painting, TrousersLeave a comment

Two photos, bleached and then painted over.

When you are an artist and your hubby decides to try and clean his trousers (with neat bleach!) No! The brown corduroy turned orange in patches. I have no brown dye, I wouldn’t know how to use it?! What to do? I bunged them in the washing machine to get any residual bleach out. Then while they were still wet I mixed up some brown and black acrylic paint. I have painted it on to see if it covered the bleached areas. It’s still a bit orange so I will give it another layer when it’s dry. I don’t want the cloth to become too stiff. At least it means they aren’t being thrown away and the paint should be colour fast!

Doodle, drawing a line

Posted on November 9, 2022 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Abstract, Art, Colours, Contours, Doodle, Drawing, Fun, Life, Lines, Meditation, Pattern, SketchingLeave a comment

Draw round anything with a thin pen and you get an interesting effect. It’s something I do occasionally as a meditation. Trying to keep a little distance from coloured splodges or around lines that I have already drawn or doodled. Somehow the lines remind me of the contours on a map, because they seem to join things together. Mostly I look at the back of my pictures and see if the ink has bled through it. I’ve written about this technique here before. It’s a way of creating something a little more abstract.

November tomatoes

Posted on November 9, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Climate change, Food, Gardening, Growing, November, Plants, Tomatoes, WeatherLeave a comment

On a tomato plant at the back of the yard. Eight tomatoes in November. We have eaten four but we are waiting for the rest to ripen. But it’s NOVEMBER! How on earth have they lasted this long.

Tomorrow the weather forecast is for temperatures of 19°C. That’s about 8°C above normal. The COP 27 Climate change conference just discussed trying to keep temperatures from going above 1.5°C higher than before the industrial revolution. Only a small rise, but enough to cause damage and disaster. So what? Flooding in costal cities across the world, dangerous increases in the ferocity of hurricanes, tornados and typhoons. Melting icecaps and glaciers. We must all try and do something about it.

Cats paws (poem)

Posted on November 9, 2022 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Cat, cheetah, Dreaming, Kitten, Leopard, Lion, Paws, Poem, Poetry, Sleeping, Tuxedo catLeave a comment

His paws are huge

Like a leopard or lion

Stretched out in a tree

Curled up like a kitten

I see him sleeping

Paws twitch, ears alert

Full of purrs

Running like a cheetah

Through a forest

Of dreams…..

Keep calm

Posted on November 9, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Choir, Enjoyment, Fun, Group, Happy, Keep calm, Life, Loud mouth women, Music, Sing, SingingLeave a comment

Nine years ago we had a party at Loud Mouth Women singing group. I can’t remember exactly what it was for but this just came up on my Facebook page. I’m sure we will have sung many songs in different languages. It’s fun to sing, the group doesn’t need you to be able to read music. If you decide to join in we try and help people decide if they sing high, middle or low parts, but people can move around. You don’t have to perform, you can if you want to though, we have a few gigs a year. I didn’t go for a few weeks but I’m so glad to be back! If you have a local choir think of joining?

South America

Posted on November 8, 2022 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, Drawing, native plant, Passion flower, Prompt, Purple, Sketching2 Comments

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was South America, I was looking for something unusual and found out that Passion Flowers are native plants of South America. I have to say I’m amazed how complex they are. This is a twenty minute sketch.

Singing!

Posted on November 8, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Choir, Christmas, Creativity, happiness, Learning, Loud mouth women, Memory, Music, Singing, song3 Comments

I went to sing with Loud Mouth Women tonight. It felt like I’d never been away. Numbers of attendees were down. I think a lot of people have got the cold that is going round. I’m glad I went. We are starting to learn Christmas songs that we will sing at a small performance in a few weeks. Old songs just come back into my head. You don’t know how they go, and then suddenly the music and words pop into your head! We sang a combination song of English, Hindi, French, Hebrew and Latin tonight! It was 2019 when I last sang it but I still sort of remember it. I was listening to a science programme on the radio on the way home and it said that people can still recall the languages they learnt at school even if decades have passed. It’s because those memories are in a stable area of the brain. It was on a show called All In The Mind on BBC radio 4. It might be on BBC Sounds.

Leaves leave…

Posted on November 7, 2022 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, bare trees, Cold, Drawing, Etruria Industrial museum, Memory, Volunteers, WinterLeave a comment

Drawing of Etruria Industrial Museum chimney from late last winter. Soon the leaves will be gone again. The museum will hunker down in the rain or possible snow. The industrial archaeology is more visible when the surrounding trees are stripped bare. Life is a cycle, one day its bitterly cold, the next warm and comfortable. I hope to visit the museum again soon. Its run by volunteers who work hard to keep it going.

Oh for summer

Posted on November 7, 2022November 16, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cornwall, happiness, Life, Memory, Poem, Poetry, Sadness, Summer, Time, Time travelling, WalkingLeave a comment

I want to time travel

Back to Cornwall

Back to happy days

Laughing and crying

With happiness.

Warm sunshine

And late sunsets

Beautiful countryside

Gentle breezes

Walking across fields

Passing cows and horses

Before the sadness.

My smoke alarm went off

Posted on November 7, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Battery, disembodied, Life, no smoke without fire?, smoke alarm, Spider, Time, voice6 Comments

A loud beeping then ‘attention fire’ ‘attention fire’!

First I thought the fridge alarm was going off until the voice started. Then I remembered we had replaced our old smoke alarm because it had started to beep every five minutes even when we changed the battery.

So where was the fire? No sign, not a sniff or sight of smoke. No hot spots, I’d turned off the heater, the lights were mostly out. The kitchen door was shut and I’d only had the kettle on for a cup of decaff coffee.

What could have set it off? I wonder if a spider has moved in? I stayed awake till 7am waiting for it to go off again. No smoke without fire? So tired! Be alarmed, be very alarmed!

Mallaband-Brown

Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown