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

In the morning

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In the morning her hair had turned white. She didn’t know why. It had been a normal evening, nothing out of the ordinary. Bed at a reasonable time. Nothing had woken her until her normal waking time at 7am.

And yet, her hair had turned white overnight? It was meant to happen if you were scared or had a shock. Something she never understood as there is no blood supply to hair. It’s dead, it’s colour is created as it grows and as you get older grey or white hair gradually takes over. But overnight? What could have happened?

She had had a shower…… Oh.. …

Peroxide! She had used the wrong shampoo. Her daughter used it normally…. .

Make me paint!

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_20190310_022442 I need to paint. I’ve had a break, partly self enforced because I was busy and tired and lost my way in doing other things like blogging, plus it’s been winter and it’s too cold and dark. I was doing lots of things as hobbies too. But I’m nervous of spending too much of dwindling resources.  I’m scared of putting a toe back into the world of work. I want to be helping people as well as painting.

The cliff edge is looming and I want to take a step back. Writing here is allowing me to explore ideas and thoughts that I have never been able to do before. It’s all very gentle and kind and I’m afraid I’ve found a cosy space that allows my dreams, but perhaps I have to let go and try harder in the real world. I’m saying I’m an experimenting artist so I need to do that….. Give art a chance.

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The steps

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A light from the sky settled gently on to the field at the back of the housing estate. The sound was muted. No one would have heard it if they had been more than 50 metres away.

But on that night Sam had been looking up at the sky from a corner of the field on the local footpath. She had been struck by the beauty of the Milky Way and the clarity of the night on this chilly evening. She had been about to leave when she saw the light from the corner of her eye. A meteor? Too slow. A plane? The flashing lights were not there, just one spotlight. A helicopter? No sound …. She stood still as it landed. The classic ufo shape that she had seen on many old black and white films.

She was surprised at how calm she felt. She didn’t know whether to move toward the object or run away. Finally she noticed a yellow ramp with steps lowering down to the ground.

Why not be the first? Why not make contact? She walked slowly up the slope of the field and came to the base of the steps……

Gallop

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Gallop, race, run, jump.

The horse runs free.

Soar over hedges and fences,

Fly across the hills.

White horse of chalk

Black horse of earth.

Where are your wings?

You fly so high.

Graceful and beautiful

Full of energy

Vibrant with power.

Fleeing from capture

Running from man

Escape to the hills

Straight as an arrow

Sharp as a beam of light,

Disappear into night._20190310_232053

Then the horse becomes the unicorn…

Mad March weather

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One minute it’s snowing, the next it’s cloudy, then it’s sunny and then we have a massive hailstorm. The hail has melted already because the sun has come out again.

That’s the thing about British weather, it rarely stays the same. In some places like Yorkshire or the Lake District you can buy postcards with mottos on them saying things like if you can see the hills now you won’t be able to in ten minutes because it will be raining or words to that effect..

I was going for a walk this afternoon but its blustery and cold. Perhaps if it improves in an hour or so I will go out. March winds seem to be in evidence today, it’s very gusty. In April we should have showers. Then summer arrives, in the past that’s when we used to get lots more gentle rain. Nowadays with global warming it seems we will get very hot weather or big thunderstorms, weather is never boring here, on some days you get all four seasons at once! 

Illness

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Two years ago I ended up in hospital and had to go on intravenous antibiotics. I was so miserable I decided to get my partner to bring a sketch book in so I could at least draw the view.

The room I was in was on one of the top floors, so unless I got close to the window all I could see was a few rooftops then sky. I took a few photos of the drawings on my phone while I was there for a few days.

My most miserable memory was the food. Tasteless stuff, pap, soft with no flavour. How patients are supposed to get better when the food is so awful … I think it must have cost pence to make. I remember enjoying the sandwiches, they were the only tasty thing in there.

Apart from that everyone was good and kind. But I was pleased to escape. Unfortunately when the ambulance took me home there was no one there to let me in! Luckily my partner turned up so I managed to avoid being carted back to the hospital! Happily we don’t normally have to pay for treatment in this country. Long may it remain so.

Dreaming how many?

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How many faces are in a crowd?

Do they look at me?

They are so solemn, so quiet, so still.

They could be real, they could be ghosts,

Conjured from the past.

The fist thump, bump of my heart

As I see your eyes, glinting

Back at me,

Deep in my dream, hundreds

Turn to thousands.

Heads multiply like cells

Mitosis and myosis?

I don’t know if you are real

Imagined

Ectoplasm

Ethereal

But you scare me.

Black and white

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I only have a couple of drawing apps on my phone because they take up too much memory. This app is quite good, it’s called sketcher. There are a lot of textures you can use, plus pens. I only draw using fingers although I have got a stylus somewhere. The image is not very clear but I used leaf shapes, a chalk pen, a crackle pattern and stars. I’d like to make it more accurate and realistic but it will have to do. I kept to a monochrome so that the texture becomes more important. I guess I could put it through different filters to see how that would affect it.

Meanwhile it’s one am in the morning and there is quite lively talk and shouting going on across the road at the local pub. Once that quietens down I will try and get some sleep.

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Trees

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Driving home this afternoon. I was a passenger for a change do I had the chance to take a closer look at the verges.. And I was horrified at what I saw. Every foot of every yard of every mile had plastic litter strewn along it. Plastic bottles, tins, paper, wrapping, rubbish, mess. Oh what are we doing to the world?? Then I noticed I could see further than I could in the past. Then I realised tens, perhaps hundreds of trees have been chopped down. There are piles of wood chips where they have been felled and some trunks are still lying there.

I couldn’t take photos but I wish people could have seen it. How much has it cost to do? What habitat has been lost? Why is it more important to fell trees than pick up the mess of litter?

There are signs saying the road will be closed for several days for road work’s  Perhaps the trees had to go because of that? In which case I hope they replace the trees with saplings. I will wait and see.