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

Yellow bowl

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , Leave a comment

IMG_20180913_002534_835

This is a quick, half hour painting, of a yellow bowl I have. This is a little acrylic on canvas, from my memory. I’ve had this bowl for years. I just wanted to paint something simple after all the work I did on the previous painting. I may work on the shadows. I want to try and he the elipse of the bowl top right, but its after midnight now and I haven’t been very well so I think I will give myself a rest.

I’m glad I tried painting in these lovely primary colours. They pretty much are an accurate representation of the bowl.

Orchid

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , Leave a comment

IMG_20180912_143253

Orchid I see you flying,                                                                         Up through Sun and space                                                                     growing tall and twisting,                                                                     bricks and tiles supporting. ..

I don’t know why I like making these pictures from ordinary photos. I feel like they are alien views of life. If you had faceted eyes you may see things like this. In fact human and animal eyes project an image upside down on your retina. The brain has to turn it the right way up. The same thing happens with a telescope, the image you look at is upside down, but how many people look through a telescope?

The orchid is new, its in our kitchen, but the cat knocked it off the cupboard and although I have put it back in its container its looking a bit poorly. I think its too cold.. I’ve got some new orchid medium so I’m going to re pot it.

X

Its Wednesday. ..

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , 2 Comments

I think this is finished now, although I might change the blues…. added cat for scale 😀.

I’m go I to start doing some more paintings as I want some new work for an exhibition I’m in this weekend at Etruria Industrial museum.

My green man/woman pictures are built around the idea of tiles which were made in Stoke-on-Trent at factories like Mintons.

I also want to do some small paintings based on classic cars because the exhibition is at the same time as a classic car rally and a static steam engine event. That’s this weekend at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent.

X

What day would I go back to?

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , Leave a comment

All the days in our lives,

Stretch out at first, then shrink,

Behind us, gone.

No rewind button for life,

No voicemail recording our every word.

Gone, long ago,  barely remembered. ..

What day would I go back to?

To hear parents voices again, and tell them

How much I loved them?

Or the first day at school, tell myself not to be so shy?

Trying to make perfume from rose petals as a child

Or older, wiser, learning to drive.

Time travel is a one way street, into the future.

If I could go back I would be pleased to meet you again.

Maybe visit a few less railways,

And see the sea a few more times.

Go back to holidays in Devon.

If I could go back I would say,

Don’t take that awful job,

Stay safe and well.

Don’t waste your life for a pay packet,

Let’s live and love.

 

Abstract cats

Posted on Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

These are works in progress, a Ginger autumn cat and a Catfish, I’m doing quite flat designs on black canvases. The catfish painting looks better in the second photo but I think the Ginger autumn cat isn’t quite right yet.

Yesterday I bought metallic colours that really glint in the light, I think my problem is photographing them as they are a bit over exposed in places. I may add additional colours as the Orange is not as subtle as I would like.

Talking about cats and painting, keeping my cats from drinking my paint water is a challenge. I will try and remember to empty it tonight!

Anyway these are going into my exhibition / art sale at the weekend, so I had better get on with them.

X

Kitty cats

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , Leave a comment

IMG_20180907_021239_536

Kitty little, kitty life,

Kitty food, kitty moods,

Cat paws, cat whiskers,

Cat nose, cat eyes.

Moggie purrs, Moggie snores,

Moggie paws, moggie ears,

Feline mind, feline fine,

Feline playing, feline leaps

Felix chase, Felix eat,

Felix fly, Felix fur…

Cats at home, cats in the garden,

cats up trees, cats chase toys.

Beautiful, soft, fluffy and fierce,

Cats are my friends for life….

Grey man

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , Leave a comment

IMG_20180910_003116_866

Actually green man, but I decided to see what he would look like in black and white.

I took the photograph at Salts Mill in Saltaire, Yorkshire, about 4 years ago.

Green men are found all around the country, representing the spirit of the fertile world?  I guess so. This one was a design on a large gardinere in the Salts Mill complex. I think he is probably a Victorian design. There us something quite disconcerting about green leaves growing out of his mouth. It reminds me of when a was a child, when I was told if I ate apple pips an apple tree would grow inside me!

We also visited a green man shop in Pickering, in the north Yorkshire moors a few years before, and came home with a tiny green man and a plaque of a lady surrounded in sea shells and seaweed. I’m not sure exactly where it was, I think it was near the railway station, in the centre of the town, it may have closed by now.

I like painting green men and women, there is a succulent power in them, green and verdant.

 

Chameleon

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , Leave a comment

PicsArt_1536530343123

Oh Chameleon,

How do I draw you?

You are Camouflaged in camouflage !

You hide in plain site

Like an octopus hides itself

Or a wobbigong shark,

Or a squid…..

Oh Chameleon

Your tongue is so long,

Like a limpet catching prey,

As long as a woodpeckers tongue

wrapped round its brain?

Or an anteaters snout?

I don’t know,

Because I can’t see you,

Hide in plain sight

Out of sight.

That’s your trick

Sneaky……

Sticks and string

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , 2 Comments

PicsArt_1536513467722

We went to Archery today and I had a go with a longbow for the first time.

I didn’t take any photos  (I wasn’t that good ) but it felt completely different to the bows we have been using .

Let me explain. We have been using recurve bows. They have a central riser with a cut out in one side so that the arrow flies straight. Then you have two limbs that attach top and bottom which curve back away from the riser. You have to use a stringer to pull the limbs back so you can attach the string. The bows are made of metal and carbon fiber, the arrows are metal or carbon fibre.

I have been using junior bows with either 14 or 16 pounds of pressure on them, that means it only takes a light pressure to pull the sting back sufficiently to shoot the arrows. I’ve hit a few golds but its hard to work out your aim and I have been using sites to try and aim.

So today one if the other archery members had brought along his longbow “a couple I sticks and a string” and that’s basically what it is. No sights, a rubber band round the shaft of the bow if you want to help you aim. The bow is one long peice of wood, usually English Yew which is naturally laminated and springy. No “window” or bend in the wood, so your arrows have to go round the bow,  you have to aim off to get them on target. You also have to make sure that the arrow is the right way round, with the cock feather towards you so the other two don’t catch on the bow. The arrows are wooden with metal tips, and feathers cut down to shape for flights. You have to wear a glove so the arrow which rests on the top of your hand does not leave splinters in you as the arrow is shot. The other change was that the bow was 35 pounds of pressure, more than twice what I have been pulling! It was hard work, my shots were all around the target and I didn’t hit a gold no matter how I tried. I couldn’t hit the middle of the boss  (target). But I really took to it and want to have another try.