New paintings and regular art updates.
I don’t remember taking this photo. I think it might be from a free photo library. It’s in my media files. Anyway I just want to start planting up my pots with lovely flowers like this. Ideally I’d like a friend to be here to keep an eye on me and perhaps help with heavier pots. I love creating a colourful garden in the yard for the summer. Fingers crossed I can still do it.
From 2017. Quite eccentric ideas for cards and Stoke-on-Trent that I was playing with. We are known as the potteries because that’s what is mainly manufactured here. I had a bit of a play with scale. Sorry they are not good photos. My odd humour.
Sketch of the Leopard Hotel in Burslem that was destroyed by fire in 2022. I just found this on my phone. I’d done several murals in the back room and was devastated when this happened. The pub was empty and it had been broken into. The wiring was tampered with.
There are some ideas to rebuild part of it using the historic frontage to keep it’s architectural authenticity. I hope it happens. #bandofsketchers drawing in felt pens.
I was sitting in the library and looked out the window. I noticed the trees were still bare. Then I saw the shape of the canopy over the front door. It suddenly looked like a rabbits head. The letter Y at the end of library looks like a rabbits ears. I thought back to making shadow puppets on the wall, it’s so strange, a bit of Pareidolia?
Lighting detail on the ceiling of Hanley Library, Stoke-on-Trent. I love the design. We were singing “this little light of mine” at a monthly choir practice and it really chimed that the image went so well with the music. It’s as if the sun is encouraging people to read and to use the library to enjoy all sorts of experiences.
During one choir performance we all had to get out a kazoo and play along with the song we had been playing. I’ve had it in my bag ever since and when I fished out my sketchbook today I found it again so I seranadedvthevart group with tunes like the starwars theme, Dr Doolittle, the Bare necessites and a few others. I had everyone in stitches.
By the way I looked up the spelling of kazoo. AI SAID:
The correct spelling of the musical instrument is “kazoo“. The word refers to a simple, handheld musical instrument that produces a buzzing sound when the player hums into it, according to Dictionary.com.
I’ve joined a small writing group in my home town and we are being given prompts to write about. I’ll write up another one later but here’s a poem I did on the spur of the moment when I misheard the prompt Loss as Gloss:
Gloss over your loss
Hide it behind your mind
Don’t let it take hold
Your thoughts must not fold
Into a melancholy way
So be quiet and say
My life will be OK?
If I can find my way.
What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?
Are these everyday things? They are to me…
Art Groups I go to regularly. Being creative keeps my mind calm. When I’m painting or drawing I can put other feelings behind me. An art education improves creativity.
Having clean water to drink and use for washing. I realise many places don’t have the luxury of clean water. Even here there is a problem with some water companies, but at least it is clean and delivered by pipes to almost every dwelling.
Media, again the luxury aspect. TV, radio, Internet. We mainly have all these in the UK although some are more hit and miss in more rural areas where mountains and hills can block transmissions. We possibly take it for granted.
Our health service. Free at the point of use. Yes it is overworked and underfunded. But you don’t have to pay unless you go private and no one goes bankrupt paying exorbitant fees. I hope it survives all the problems going on in the country.
Finally Education. We are lucky that most pupils stay on till senior school and beyond to college and degree level. The pandemic had a detrimental effect on attendance and some children are being home schooled. I think that’s a mistake but as long as they get a good widespread education then hopefully they will be OK.
So this post is a bit random but all these things mean a lot to me. Art is my main one though.
Darkness is needed for astronomy. We used to drive out at night to try and see meteor showers or comets, or stand in the garden under the shadow of the hedge and try and see Jupiter and it’s moons (we used a telescope) and even Saturn and it’s rings. We saw both planets. Once we drove under clouded skies to chase a massive meteor shower of up to 100 meteors an hour. But we never got out from under the layer of thin low cloud even though we drove at least 40 miles.
On another occasion we went out and drove into a wood so we could see a beautiful greenish comet. That was amazing.
Finally we recently saw the aurora borealis. An amazing thing to see in the UK.
Another digital drawing done with the Artrage app a few years ago. I think this was possibly done using a stylus, not as a finger painting. Why purple? I like the colour. It seems to include blues and reds within it, so that it can be cold or warm. If I could change anything on this I would probably erase the short stubby legs and just have it swimming with a reflection underneath it instead. Somehow it looks like it’s standing on ice…
Mallaband-Brown