A glass star
Made by my man
Held together with love
Fused into one piece
By the heat
Of the sun.
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
Tree baubles
Tree decorations or baubles can come in all shapes and sizes. I have a lot of very old glass ones wrapped up in tissue in the cupboard but given the fact that we have cats I decided to use plastic, knitted, wooden and painted ones this year. Plus a low energy set of led lights so if they bite the cable they won’t get much if a shock.
It’s the day after boxing day today which means TV has reverted to mostly the same cheap programmes plus a few second World War films. Thus seems to happen every year. . It is after all the season of peace?!
Life goes on, leftovers abound….. Next comes new year…..
X
Reds
Something about red cheers me up, going bright red, seeing a red sky, the glowing coals on a fire. The cherry red of a poker?
Red seems to signify heat and health, richness and cheerfulness. Go further along the spectrum and you get to infrared and far infrared. These colours outside of the visible spectrum can still be seen with infrared cameras, where you can then see the heat signature of objects like the heat radiating from windows and hot mugs.
Red is also the colour of life and blood. Of holding your hands up to bright light and seeing the red colour as it shines through your flesh. Red is love and hearts 💕
Lost cat
Cat hidden in dusty shadow. Lost to the World.
You were smart and neat once, now slightly chipped and nicked.
No longer on display, but hidden in a corner .
Spotted paint is scuffed, dots are faded,
But you can’t leave, you are an old friend .
Will you ever see the light of day, no sign of your return to favour.
Fold yourself into the corner, stay stray until you are called back. Home.
Blancmange free
Disaster has struck! I have no blancmange for the trifle. As you can see I have the box in the kitchen cupboard, but when I got a step to reach up and take it down, the box was full of sugar free jelly powder!
I had been shopping yesterday and had looked for some, but there was none to be found. When did blancmange become such a rarety?
I must have thrown the old sachets out when I went through the stuff in the cupboard. I think I noticed they had use by dates of 2016.
My plan now is to mix custard powder with a bit of cocoa. But it won’t be the same and I detest custard in trifles……
But I’m waiting for a call back from my sister. She may be able to save the day.
..
Meanwhile in other kitchen related news, my husband must have been a bit peckish last night and the peice of Stilton and a whole stollen loaf appear to have been eaten.. Only crumbs remaining…. Stollen and Stilton Stolen Shock horror!
Seasons greetings
Christmas day has arrived, our artificial Christmas tree is finally up and decorated and has only been attacked a few times by one of my cats.
I’ve spread her toys around in the hope she will find them more interesting. we could open our presents but I still have a few to wrap. Its almost 2am but I have to wait for my partner to go to bed. Currently he’s watching a compilation programme with old pop songs, from pet shop boys to 10cc and boy George.
I’ve just started making a sherry trifle…blackcurrany jelly with sponge fingers, half a pint of sherry and fresh rasberries. To be topped with strawberry blancmange (some people use custard ..yuk). Then topped with whipped cream……
Waiting for the jelly to set in the fridge. Then I’ll make the blancmange so hopefully its set by the morning.
The drawing was one of my first digital drawings, done around the end of the 80’s?
You can tell how old it is, you can see the pixels!
I know that not everyone is religious or follows a particular faith. I just wanted to wish everyone, whatever your beliefs a better future and a measure of peace.
X
Words are slippery, and fun!
Words slip in and out of my mind like a glossy oil painting. Nothing fixed, sloppily placed percussions of prose.
Perhaps I should be more circumspect and place my piffling thoughts less precariously.
I should be sleeping, but words escape from my partners mouth when he rests and dreams. Maddening me and bringing on a sad insomnia. Now I’m writing but irritatingly he has followed me downstairs. And he continues to witter on about anything, nothing and the chemical formula of cheese.
Go away back to your sleep I whisper but he mutters back “it’s called Christianity ” “let me go” and “we are watching you to see what you do”…… A constant stream of words forced out by deafened ears.
He talks at me, I say I don’t want to speak, what was gentle discourse turns into hard, short and foolish words. No expletives spoken but simple Anglo saxon prose practiced in my mind and almost reaches my mouth.
I tell him to remain downstairs and I retreat to bed. My train of waffling whimsy is lost in exhausted turmoil and slow slumber.
Nightmare?
Wake up, smile at the sun,
that was a dream, move on. 
These few words came to me after speaking to my partner about some particularly bad nightmares he’s been having. He agrees that this is a good thought.
The twelve days of ecology.
Twelve frogs a leaping
Eleven bees a sipping,
Ten cats a jumping,
Nine birds a singing,
Eight fish a feeding,
Seven dogs a panting,
Six deer prancing,
Five gold fish
Four calling herds
Three spring beans
Two collared greens
And a parsnip in a pear tree.!
Happy Merry Christmas everyone x slightly mad I know x
Cat portraits
Painting cats.
I like painting cats from photographs but sometimes they don’t stay still. These are paintings of Casey and Lucy. Both were painted before I got a digital camera and although they were painted from life the cats didn’t stick around to pose!
Casey could get tangled up in anything, he climbed up shelves and sat in the middle of the road waiting for me. I had been given this kite as a Christmas present and he was determined to play with it!
Lucy on the other hand was an old lady of 21 when I painted her. She didn’t do much as she got older but she loved a fuss.
I added the patterns for both of them to make them more interesting. I’m pleased to take commissions for pet portraits if you are interested.
X
