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

Setting moon….

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From my (short) perspective, he moon was already set, but my hubby, who is a lot taller could still see it. So I held my phone up high, took it off auto onto manual, so it wasn’t overexposed, and took a few snaps. This was the best of the bunch.

Moon set. You can tell the sun is north west of it because of the sunlight light reflected on the moons surface.

Some bright stars in the sky tonight. Mercury and Venus have already set. One bright star overhead but can’t identify it. I had a quick look at what’s visible in tonight’s sky, but I think most of the other planets are rising in the morning.

X

Day 37. #uskstoke

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Today’s theme was doorway, this is inside the summerhouse looking out into the very green and bushy garden. Unipen black ink pen, size 0.2 because I found it and the other ones are running out. The garden smells lovely, but lots of things in pots are drying out, so they are wilting a bit. We need to get the hose out. Another beautiful sunny day. A few clouds.

Tomorrow is the last day of this challenge. I’m hoping people will come up with new ideas. It would be good to have a few days off. As I’ve been posting the challenges it would be good tobe led by someone else’s perspective.

See you later.

Frustrated with email

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I have my PC, it’s been upgraded to Windows 10. I have spent HOURS and HOURS trying to get my email to work on it.

It’s a good job my hairs grown. I’m ready to tear it out! I have got to get it done, and of course with covid 19 it’s hard to get hold of expertise to sort it out.

Why is it so hard? I want to sync my phone to my PC so I can simply read my email and access a website I need to use.

Look, I’m not that old, but I don’t understand windows 10, I only had it installed because I had to. I don’t want to have to learn exerything new each time I upgrade. Call me a stick in the mud, I AM!

Today’s #uskstoke, day 36.

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Day 36. Today’s challenge was to draw a reflection or mirrored image. This is a 6b pencil drawing, selfie in a spoon. It’s been a while since I drew hands, I think I may have made the thumb too big. Interesting how my head appears upside down, because the inner surface of the spoon is concave. Turn it round and on the back the image is the right way up because its convex.

The image on the back of your eye is upside down. The only reason why you see things the right way up is because your brain compensates for it!

X

Noise nuisance

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I just read a post on Facebook about a friend who’s neighbours THREE streets away are constantly playing loud music with a strong base beat. I suggested this and remembered a time a long time ago when I had similar problems…

“Can you reply by sitting outside his house in your car with your speakers on full blast playing Mozart?”

“When our old neighbours years ago used to play loud pop music I would wait till it went off late at night then play Mahler or Brahms through the wall at them, full blast…. Talk about passive aggressive. In the end it was so bad it kept the neighbour on the other side awake and she was eight months pregnant. I finally snapped and took my personal alarm, pulled the pin out of it and put my hand through the neighbours letterbox. (it was a terraced house). No one came to the door, so I went to the other neighbour and explained what I’d done. I was just coming out of there and my student neighbours started to come out to catch a taxi to the city centre. I stopped them and asked if they were at the local polytechnic. When they said yes, I asked if that meant they were intelligent. Because wasn’t it obvious that the noise they were making was disturbing their neighbours? They said it hadn’t mattered in the halls of residence, so I politely pointed out this was the ‘real’ world. A bit later the police arrived. I explained what I’d done and they decided to take no action!

X

70’s toys

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Clackers.. Two balls on a string you waved up and down, with a little ring in the middle. They were meant to bounce off each other top and bottom. Many a broken finger….

Made of hard plastic, some luminous green, other colours too. I remember them being quite heavy. The cord holding them together was made of nylon. The string was tied round the ring at the halfway point. You moved your arm up and down fast, the balls would be sent flying and bounce at the top and bottom of their arc, making the characteristic ‘clacking’ noise. Hence the name.

As with other toys from the 70’s I doubt they would have been approved by health and safety now!

My friends book…

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Image by N. F. Mirza from her book.

I don’t do reviews…

But (you know one was coming). I just sat down to read ” Swinging Sanity” a book of poetry by my friend N. F. Mirza, who I know as ‘stoneronarollercoaster’ at WordPress.

I’ve known her for a while and found out she was a writer and now a published poet. Her book is a small volume. But it’s full to bursting with poetry full of emotion. As she moves through life, using it to discover her mental health and wellbeing.

The poems are forceful, I’m no poetry critic, but I found them easy to read. Some of them touched raw nerves, and you can see her heart torn open in many of them. I particularly liked Ocean and I become one.

ISBN 9798618202992.

Whale

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One of the animals I regret never having seen are Whales. I know they are endangered but I hope as life resumes that they will be left alone. I have the same feeling about Tigers and Elephants. But there are many creatures that most people have never seen that also are endangered. It doesn’t matter whether its the smallest or largest animal, each have their place in the Web of nature.

As lockdown is reduced, humans are going out and dumping fast food rubbish from their cars. Do they even care? It makes me really angry that eople have no consideration for the environment.

Anyway, rant over. Stay safe.

X

In happier times

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I haven’t been to my studio for months , I’m keeping away from people as much as I can. That said, it was lovely to come across this photo. I was at tge studio at Spode. It must have been cold because I was wearing a hat. I don’t know where the jumper went to…..

It is clear I was happy in the photo, something had made me chuckle. Someday things will get better. Some of the paintings have been sold, but I can’t do craft fairs or exhibitions at the moment so I haven’t been replacing them. Maybe I will have a go again soon. I have got a course that I’m taking which starts in June. Hopefully that will get me going again.

Usk day 35, digital close up

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Day 35 and the challenge was to draw a close up. Someone drew a necklace so I decided to draw one of my rings. The green tub is meant to be a plastic pencil sharpener. It was quite reflective and you could see the ring mirrored in it. I actually drew both objects on top of the tablet, so the light was shining up . Its a different method to what I normally do, but I want to try and get some skill back doing this kind of thing.