Things are getting blurry
I don’t see so well
Swiftly fading views
Another frustrating change.
Take my glasses off to clean
But polishing doesn’t work
I realised it’s not the lenses
In my specs
It’s the ones in my eyes!
Cataracts
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
An AI filter business
Come up with a crazy business idea.
I’m getting irritated about seeing silly AI spoofs coming up on my social media feed. Most of them are about aliens or apocalyptic situations. Or non scientific ideas wrapped up in fakery to mislead people so my idea ™ (©) for a business would be an app to block them. Just press the button for a small charge and all fake AI and CGI would be removed from your feed, I think it might be an award winning idea.
Tree across the road
The tree across the road a few years ago. Covered in ivy. This was drawn for an old #bandofsketchers prompt. The prompt was ivy.
I haven’t been doing these challenges for a few months. I think I ought to try again. It seems a shame that I stopped but life has been getting me down. Art is a great cure for sadness I think. I’ll try again soon.
Stray cat?
This week has been really cold. Last night it was minus 19 °C in Altnagar in the Northern Highlands of Scotland. I was below zero here.
A couple of cats, a ginger and this black and white cat have started sneaking in. Last night both popped in for food, but this one came and sat down in the living room, all the while being stared at (but seemingly accepted) by my own cats.
I managed to take a photo of this boy cat, and put a post on our local lost and found cats page. I have had people offering to check it’s microchip but it must have gone out in the night.
Anyway at least I’m offering a warm space during this cold weather. I’ll have a chat with my vets on Monday. X
My grandads ship
My grandfather carved this ship from wood, probably in the early 20th century. It had no masts so I put the the bamboo sticks into it when I was young and I was going to try and put sails on it. It has thin strips of cardboard nailed on along the sides. I painted it up because it was so shabby.
This was a watercolour sketch I’d done about 4 years ago and I’m mourning the fact that I could still draw and paint neatly.
A striped tee shirt
Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?
I miss that tee shirt
It was orange and white
I felt like a pirate
Fun to play in.
I was only a child
Wore it forever
But it wore through
Holes in the cotton
But wouldn’t let it go!
Eventually grew out of it
My mom used it to dust!
Fat Cat drawing
A fat cat drawn using an ink roller that I did a few years ago. It came up on my Facebook memories and I really like it. It’s only a small drawing, I can’t remember where it is now? Maybe in a sketchbook upstairs somewhere.
Yin Yang Cats
It’s cool for cats?
Not if you want to stay warm!
Sharing a chair
Which side is yours?
Not much space
To pace about?
So cuddle up
Snuggle down
Purr and sleep.
Longshore drift…
Someone asked a question on Facebook about posts sticking up through a beach in lines.
I have a relative at the coast and had wondered the same thing myself. I asked and found out that they were used to slow something called longshore drift. It’s where over time tides moving along the coast shift sands sideways. Groynes (boards) between the posts held the sand back and stopped the beach being washed away.
The Leopard
My friend sent me this photo (I don’t have an attribution for it). This was a few year’s ago when it was open and the Leopard Hotel was running ghost tours and serving lovely food.
Then one of the owners died and it was taken over by a family member. I don’t know what happened but I think Covid didn’t help. In the end it closed and the owner moved elsewhere. Although the frontage looked OK it needed a tremendous amount of money spending on it as it was partly derelict in the back upper floors.
The hotel stood empty for months, it was bought by an entrepreneur who may have been going to turn it into flats. Unfortunately someone got in and apparently set up a cannabis farm in it (what I heard). Then it simply burnt down. Some of the frontage may remain but the place is boarded up.
I was involved for a while because I painted the murals in the back room, the Arnold Bennett Suite. I never got decent photos in there. I do hope it can be restored.
Mallaband-Brown 