From Australia

This arrived in the post this morning.

A card and two fridge magnets from an old friend. She lives in Australia and these are her lovely art works. I love them and it’s so kind of her to send them. Goodness knows how long it takes to post something all that way.

I know the sun is probably set on the other side of the world, and they are in mid summer. Their new years day will be later (no earlier! Oops) than ours by about twelve hours. Hope she has a good new year x

Memories of a painting

Old painting I did a long time ago. It was painted in the living room of our old house. The floor was collapsing into the cellar and was held up by a large steel bar with two scaffolding poles holding each end. The cellar was also wet, it used to drip condensation onto the floor. I remember the wiring was bad. The flex to the lights was twisted and cloth covered. If you touched it bits would drop off. If I wanted to change a light bulb I used to put insulation tape around the wire. The bathroom was an old coal shed that had been knocked through. Our neighbour complained about a bulge on our wall so the dangerous buildings inspector came out. The bulge was OK it had been built like that. But we had to move because he warned our landlord that the property was not safe. We bought the painting with us to the new house.

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Bauble paintings

One of my bauble paintings that I did a few years ago. I did quite a few of them and they were only two inches by three. I was trying to paint old fashioned glass baubles. You don’t get them much these days. Sometimes they had a curved hollow in them with a reflective surface so they glittered in the light of fairy lights. It was a memory from forty or fifty years ago. Old fashioned and nice…..

Acrylic on canvas, with ribbon on the back so they can be hung on a Christmas tree.

Found old paints

Found these paints in the back of a drawer. About thirty years old!

They are Rowney Oils and Windsor and Newton Watercolours and a box of various paints, chalks, and coloured pencil. Goodness knows why they got put away. I haven’t checked the oils, they may have dried out, but the watercolours and chalks and pencils should be fine. I think I could call this a win!

Jupiter swirls

Painting I did of the gaseous swirls of one of Jupiter’s polar regions. The photos were taken by NASAs Juno probe. I was amazed at the colours and patterns on that fantastic world and had to have a go..

It’s a large acrylic on canvas. I think I painted it two years ago and it was included in an exhibition called ‘blue’ at Spode Studios, Eleanora Street, Stoke-upon-Trent, which is one of the six towns that make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent.

lobster painting

A blue lobster I painted earlier in the year ( I used a stock image off Google to work from) I’ve now got to paint a purple crab to accompany it! I find it quite difficult holding my phone as I cant always print images off. It’s also interesting that I have reverted back to my old signature, I had started signing things “Mallaband-Brown” simply because my name is so long its not always easy to fit my full name on. Also it is meant to be my brand (my blog is called mallaband-Brown too). There are so many things I should be doing to improve the look of what I post. For instance this image is twisted slightly, so the edges of the canvas do not line up with the edges of the picture… I guess I should pay more attention, but my brain is more involved in the actual painting than being neat!

Time to draw or paint square 6.

I’m doing a collaboration with the Orme art group. I have already done square 2, not very well, but I’ve also volunteered to do square 6 too. Today I went out and got some new permanent markers and some gel pens, so I will try and come up with a copy of the image. It’s a painting by Bonnard, but I can’t remember the title.

We have already done copies of a Picasso, a Monet, and a Matisse if I remember rightly. Fingers crossed 🤞

an old painting

unfortunatley I only have this small file of a painting I did at college over forty years ago. It was a painting of a fellow student called Ann. I was really pleased with it and only parted with it because a friend really wanted it, I also gave my ‘friend’ a few other paintings for Christmas and birthdays. I found out later my ‘friend’ and her husband burnt them on a bonfire because he did not like them. Suffice to say I am no longer friends with her. I cant tell you how upset I was when I found out….

Oil on canvas about 1981?

Winter blossom

This popped up on my Facebook memories from a couple of years ago. Winter blossom shows a face in profile hidden in the twisted branches. The idea of the tree is based on a tree across the road from us that actually blossoms in December. It’s just coming into flower now. But clearly my idea is a bit more abstract and surreal. I did the painting and it sold at an Orme Art exhibition in the November, where my friend had fallen in love with it.

Foxy painting

This was a tiny painting I did three years ago soon after I got my studio at Spode. I paint small pictures so that if people don’t have wall space for anything large they could still have something, and not expensive. This was about 1″ by 2″, it was sold at a craft fair (remember the heady days when people could go out and cram into a place full of lovely crafts and art?). Maybe, one day, I can do a few more.