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

Shocked

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The one on the left is me, the one on the right is the FaceApp thing that is doing the rounds. It’s an android Google app and it uses AI to seamlessly alter your photos. I had a look at me if I was male, older, younger, but I didn’t like them. They were interesting but they didn’t feel true. The only one I kept was the picture on the right hand side (feminine), not sure how that makes me feel. I’m a bit more warty and moley than the world thinks I should be? Ultimately we are all wearing a cover if flesh, but it’s what’s in our minds that counts…

What my hubby bought!

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A train ground signal! Why? It cost £60, he got £5 off. Again Why? He’s going to hang it up in a tree and put a light behind it… Railway memorabilia from the 1960’s…He did have a garden railway but the track got covered by plants.

Men are strange, but I guess women are too. Some go out and spend lots on makeup or shoes. I think I’m just weird. I’ve never been that bothered…

I don’t know what will happen to his train signal. I guess eventually it will rust. But it’s made him happy… Ah well…. At least he’s not into football!

What to do on the Solstice

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I can remember seeing the sun set and then come out again from behind the Cloud hill, near Congleton, Cheshire.

I could not remember where we were but according to ITV.com there is a place to stand to see it….

‘The solar event which happens just once each year will be visible in the Midlands tonight.

The double sunset takes places during the the summer solstice and can be seen from various locations around North Staffordshire.

According to the Oxford Journals the double sunset can be seen from the churchyard of St Edward the Confessor in Leek. The alignment of a local hill means that the Sun is occulted close to sunset around the time of the summer solstice. This phenomenon was described in 1686 by Dr Robert Plot. Calculations show the phenomenon will be visible for another 500 years.
  • How does it happen?
The apparent double sunset is due to the rotation of the Earth. As the sun sinks behind The Cloud the planet continues to rotate, allowing the sun to become briefly visible again.’

Apologies for the length of the quote, but it explains what I mean clearly.

Please note I’ve now been advised: due to earth movement and buildings it can no longer be seen in St Edwards churchyard but can be viewed from Lowe hill near Leek. My Dad is Doug Pickford who has written books about local legends (info from a friend)

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My own flowers

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Last year, painting of morning glory flowers and some poppies. I haven’t grown much from seeds this year. We do have some lettuce plants, but they have probably been drowned by the amount of torrential rain we’ve been having over the past few days. Some places have had a months rain in a day! That compared with six weeks of sunshine in April and May. As usual our weather is topsy-turvy. Basically because of where the United Kingdom is positioned. We get weather from every direction, the Atlantic, the Arctic, Siberia, even dust dragged up from the Sahara. We are a weather magnet!

I want to go and get some seeds and see if I can grow some nasturtiums for late summer bedding, and the butterfly caterpillars love them. They are a nice, spicy, bitter and peppery orange flavour when added to salads and cold soups.

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Poppies near Argenteuil.

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Monets’ painting of a poppy field is such a ubiquitous image, but beautiful nonetheless. The figures at the top of the hill are the same couple at the bottom of the hill, though I doubt that he painted so quickly that he managed to paint the rest of the picture by the time they had walked down the hill.

The trees in the background and the house set at the back of the field frame a beautiful summers day. It always seems so calm and peaceful when I look at it. I feel joyful and relaxed, thinking of glimpsing a view like that in Devon or Yorkshire. I know many wildflower meadows have gone, but maybe we will restore more of them in the future so people can enjoy walking through them again.

Drawings

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17.4.20, after I had drawn for thirty days with Stoke Urban Sketchers, and I guess at that stage I thought we wouldn’t be in lockdown for long. Our government, and in particular our prime minister was giving out optimistic press conferences saying that we should be able to get over it pretty lightly. I think he even said it was like some sort of flu? Of course things didn’t go that well for us, and now over 42 thousand people have died from covid 19 in the UK. Its almost like the government thought we would be immune with our “stiff upper lips” and “gung-ho” mentality. Clearly they were wrong.

So here we are. How many more drawings will I do before it’s safe to go out properly and not just dash to the shops to get essentials. Who knows when that will be?

War of the worlds film

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Going from something I love, to something I hate.

I hate this film, starring Tom Cruise. I admit its very good. But it’s so bleak. It’s a horror road movie, everyone running, panicking, and getting killed.

When I first watched it years ago I was mesmerised by the special effects. But now, it’s on during a pandemic, and I can see how people react to a tiny virus. How would they react to something larger and malevolent.

I don’t want to give too many details as people may not have watched it. But I guess I’ve pretty much explained what happens… Guy meets monster, guy runs away from monster, monster finds guy…. Guy escapes….

There was a version on BBC TV a few months ago. It was more directly based on the original book by H. G. Wells. Set in Victorian times, it was still chilling.

So I really want cheerful films, but hubby vetoed me.

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Strawberries and cream

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First of the season, fresh strawberries and extra thick cream (saves having to whip it). Added a tiny bit of sweetener on to the strawberries. I have one that doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste.

When I was young we used to go and pick our own strawberries. You would spend ages in a field searching under leaves to find the berries. Often they were padded underneath the plants with straw to keep the berries from trailing on the ground. I think that’s where they got their name? Summer days when most of the strawberries missed the punnet and fell into our mouths instead. When music by the beatles played out of little transistor radios.

And when we got home? Strawberries with either single cream and white sugar. Or if we hadn’t got cream in, evapourated milk… Heaven…

 

My mona

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I drew this at sketchfu about eight years ago. It is simply drawn with vasious circular brushes. Different sizes, a palette of colours, different opacity and transparency and an eraser.

I was looking at a post on Facebook by portrait artists. They thought digital art was just taking a picture in Photoshop and using filters to make it look like a drawing. I don’t think they understood the hours it takes to do something like this. It’s not brilliant, but it was difficult.

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My nose….?

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My hubby just said (I misheard) can you look up my nose. What he actually asked was could I look up minnows.

Why? He bought a few for the pond and he wanted to know how big they get as they are only about two centimeters.

It’s amazing what you can find on line. I looked u Chinese minnows. They can grow to four centimeters long. They are bread to have some bright colours and they live on insect larvae and fish food for ponds. As we have midge or gnat larvae growing in the pond I hope they will be happy. They are living with a few goldfish and some ramshorns snails. They seem happy.