Watercolours

Posted on February 14, 2021 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Arteza paints, Black and white cat, indoor boy cat, Life, Metallic, observations, Painting, Sketches, Watercolour, Windsor and Newton WatercoloursLeave a comment

A couple of watercolours I’ve done over the last two days after watching a talk about using them. I wish I had stretched the paper as it curled because of the amount of water I used. The first is called ‘Why don’t cats keep still?’, basically it’s my boy cat washing, but he was constantly moving, the second is ‘lamp’. It’s the view of the back of our living room with a standard lamp and dream catcher with reflections. I used Arteza metallic watercolours and Windsor and Newton Watercolours to paint these sketches.

I’ve noticed winter..

Posted on February 13, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, Cold, easterly, Freezing, seasons, Spring, Spring flowers, Wind, WinterLeave a comment

Walking every day for a couple of weeks seems to have put me back in touch with the seasons. I’ve been frozen for the last few days, the sun has been shining brightly but the wind has been blowing from the East. It actually made it good to wear a mask, it helped keep my face warm. Seeing the sun setting slightly later each day, when it gets past 5pm I really feel like we are heading back to Spring. Seeing a few snowdrops and crocuses about now. Soon it will be the turn of Daffodils. Hooray!

The Croft

Posted on February 13, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, Cold, common land, HS2, Life, Penkhull, Photos, the Croft, Trees, WalkingLeave a comment

Walked across the Croft today, a green lung in our city. Frequented by dog walkers who were out in force today. Its like a patch of common land, open to the public, but the local council wanted to open it up as a housing development. Basically to make money. A lot of people protested but it’s still being discussed as far as I know. It would be sad to lose it.

In some ways it’s like another development, HS2, ancient land and forests and trees being grubbed up for a train line which might knock 30 minutes travel time off the journey between London and Manchester. The tickets are likely to be massively expensive, £250 a time, so only someone on a large salary will be able to afford it. Yet again work to support the prosperous and damage and destroy nature.

Another one…

Posted on February 12, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, big city dreams, Found, Life, Photo, stencil, Text, WordsLeave a comment

My collection of this stencil has increased today. I seem to be seeing it all over the place. I like it, makes me think about the creativity of the city. Yes we should have dreams, maybe small city dreams, little city daydreams, tiny city ambitions? I can think of lots of three word versions of the phrase….

Canal frozen

Posted on February 12, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, Canal, Cauldon canal, Cold, Etruria, Freezing, Frozen, Industrial heritage, Life, Photos, Trent and mersey canal2 Comments

Well not all of it, where the water was running through the locks there was less or no ice, but some sections were solid with ice about an inch thick. This was in Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, by the Etruria Industrial Museum. At least it was sunny and out of the easterly wind.

A thaw is due, but then wet weather too. Oh well at least I’ll be able to save on my heating bills!

Frozen fountain

Posted on February 12, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, biting East wind, Chilled, Five miles, Fountain, Frozen, Ice, icy cold, TiredLeave a comment

When you go for a walk and the local fountain looks like this, you know it’s cold!

It’s taken me four hours since I got in to stop shivering. I’m sitting here with a tee shirt, jumper, thick trousers, a fleece and a dressing gown. My hands are still chilly.

I’ve got a few more photos to post, but only after something hot to eat and drink….

Today’s walk…

Posted on February 12, 2021February 12, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, B'arts, bright day, Cold, Sculpture, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Sunny, Walk, woodenLeave a comment

Took in wooden heads in Stoke that are part of an art project by bArts to bring art to the town centre. There were also banners but sadly the festival that was planned was cancelled because of covid. I wish I knew who the artist was but all I can say is they are interesting and very noticeable on a sparkling sunny day.

Cat

Posted on February 12, 2021February 12, 2021 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged ArtRage app, Autodesk sketcher app, Black and white cat, Cat, Digital drawing, Fun, Life, net curtain, Texture, WindowLeave a comment

I’ve drawn a cat on a window ledge in front of a net curtain, its black and white and drawn with Autodesk Sketcher app and ArtRage app. But when I’ve tried to change the image size wordpress is saying media not found, so this image may not show up on the post… I’m publishing it these what happens…

Eclipsed

Posted on February 12, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Artrage, Design, Digital drawing, Digital sketch, dim, Illustration, Poem, Poetry, Sketch, TimeLeave a comment

A bite out of the sun..

Sunlight dims

But the star is still bright.

Too bright to look at,

So don’t stare,

Keep your eyes

On the car window

On that puddle,

In the shadows

On the wall..

The sun might dim

And dim

Till its eclipsed.

Annular or full

Will it return

Or be gone

For good?

Blinded by the moon,

Colours

Posted on February 11, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Black, Blood, Blue, Colours, Danger, fashion, Fruit, Green, History, Indoor plants, Mourning, Nature, Red, White1 Comment

So colours represent specific emotions? Maybe? But who sets them. Is it a historical thing? Some countries have black as their colour of mourning. But others use white, and who knows what else might be favoured elsewhere. Red is hot, fast, speed, fast cars are often red. But what about red for danger. Traffic lights, live wires and of course blood? But red can be sweet like fruit too.

Green has been found to be calming, and maybe blue too. Linked with the colours of growing plants. Green indoor plants can calm workers. Now green walls of plants are fashionable.

Pink for girls, blue for boys. But a couple of hundred years ago it was the other way round. Perhaps our use of colours to represent emotions is just fashion and fad!

Mallaband-Brown

Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown