New paintings and regular art updates.
Orange is sharp, orange is zesty, bright like the sun, full of sweetness.
Orange is clay, terracotta, rusty. Iron oxidized, turned into ochre.
Orange is fire, hot lava pouring, burning with heat, spitting out rocks.
Orange a mixture of red and of yellow, painting the sky in a deep sunset glow.
Orange is warmth and spice in food, saffron in rice, turmeric too.
Let Orange be free, paint with it, see –
It’s colour reminds me to be happy…
Thus us the old Colliery building I was drawing on Saturday. It’s amazing that it is still standing, it reminds me of an old cathedral or castle…..a ruin of the future, which until a few decades ago supplied fuel for our homes and power stations.
Hopefully it will reopen as a museum to the hard work and skills of its former workers.
the old Colliery buildings
It’s been too hectic to post much over the last couple of days, I was getting ready for out makers market at Spode. …I only sold a couple of things, ah well there is always next time.
But yesterday morning I went out with Stoke Urban sketchers to draw the old colliery buildings at Chatterly and Whitfield enterprise zone. A former colliery closed in the 1980’s, I remember visiting when there was a mining museum there. You could walk through some of the old mine workings and he a feeling of what it was like to work underground.
Sadly the museum closed down due to lack of visitors, but I have heard that volunteers are trying to bring something back to the site.
We were outside the perimeter fence, somewhere on the path in the nature reserve that now surrounds the site.
The buildings are very big, there are many stories to them, with arches and windows in the side of the buildings. Huge winding wheels look miniscule where they sit at the top of the building, and guard rails are placed on either side if them. The main building is starting to get covered in foliage, eventually it could end up looking like an ancient relic or monument.
Metal frames and wheels also dotted the horizon, I did a pen drawing, a couple of pencil sketches, and a pastel and ink picture.
Being surrounded by other skilled artists really encouraged me to try and capture the architecture of the landscape. Drawing in a group can help your confidence. Even my partner had a go!
I finished my nebula paint in tonight and I had this black canvas, so I have started a painting of Earth.
I remember seeing the Apollo 11 landing on TV. I was only young and Dad got us up out if bed to see it. Grainy pictures showed Armstrong stepping down the ladder.
I think that inspired my love of science and space. Then seeing the photo of Earth rising above the moon fascinated me. The old TV programmes did not show Earth properly, sci fi had Earth without clouds, just blue oceans and brown land.. Seeing the reality, especially the photo showing the African continent was so special.
So anyway. I like planets, I have painted Jupiter a couple of times and this is the second time I have painted Earth. It is amazing to see the colours and clouds. I wish I was young enough to go into space to see the reality.
Here is the painting again…almost finished…I may add more detail to the clouds, painted under electric light so need to see it in the daytime. .
My dear friend who runs a forge called Sculpted Steel.
Late last year I asked my friend if she could make me a cat for my garden. She took on the commission and I drew a quick sketch of what I wanted.
That was a few months ago. There have been a few hiccups and ups and downs, but I finally collected “Escher” today.
He is finely made. The details are brilliant. He even has green eyes! My friend took on board my request that the whiskers were to be curled roundcat the ends to stop anyone poking themselves in the eye. It has been finished off with green car paint.
Escher is now in a quiet part of the garden. He might even frighten off the neighbours cat, at least can’t pounce on the birds!
I saw Adam from Hulton Art pottery today, which is based at the Spode pottery site. I bought a wall mounted bracket (which is still wrapped in bubble wrap) but along with it he gave me a terracotta tile of what looks like a cheeky little devil..
I can’t help liking his wide smile, the twinkle in his eyes, his spikey, possibly flaming coat, (the tile, not Adam!).
I asked if it was OK to paint this little guy, because he made me chuckle with laughter. It looks like something mediaeval that could have been a gargoyle on an old building. Adam told me it was made in about 1997, soon after he had completed his training in pottery, so it seems really special. I feel privileged to have something that has age and character. This cheeky little devil is probably going to find a home on a window ledge somewhere.
I feel like he is related to the green men I have been painting over the last few years. Maybe they all have a feeling of spirit of the Earth in them. An old hidden life that we have lost as the world becomes ever more urban around us. I like the idea of faeries and little people getting up to mischief.
I remember one if my favourite paintings when I was a teenager was Richard Dadds’ the Faeiry Fellers masterstroke. He was put into a mental asylum because of ‘madness’ but I don’t know his history apart from that. Dadds’ painting has amazing tiny details. If you can try looking it up on the net.
Anyway I might post a follow up picture of the little devil if I ever finish it.
X
Just spent two hours going from a blank canvas to this. I’m trying to paint Planetary nebula NGC 2044. May have got the number wrong?
Anyway I saw the canvas last week and decided to have a go at something. I was going to paint the moon but decided on something a bit more colourful….hmm there I go again!
Anyway, astronomers out there will see its not accurate, but its bloody difficult to hold a book in one hand and the canvas in the other…not doing my back any good. Its now 2am. I have an appointment at 9.30am, I dont know why I’m still up? Well yes I do, my artists block is well and truly broken. I have finished 8 tiny paintings today and started this!
I sort of explode sometimes with art.. can’t help it. I am so full of ideas sometimes…..but…bed…ok..bed..hmmm…coffee? No..bed…
Night all!
This is the finished painting. Sorry about the lighting!
Green is the colour of air and growth, oxygen and life.
Without Green we have no breath. Our lungs are starved of 21 percent.
Photosynthesis brings life, gas, food, and clean water. Blue needs Green to make turquoise pools and seas.
The leaves of trees that clean pollution, algae that feed the oceans. Green is life, on hills and valleys, boughs that leap up to the sky.
Green if lost is death to Earth. Green men, green women, green children, without green we are gone. Without it we cannot exist. Hold green tight and keep it safe. or desert will replace us all.
I think this is a bit jumbled up. I dont know whether to use blank verse. I am a bit out if my depth but I want to try. X
Drawing this made the white of my screen appear orange when I had finished it.
Orange is Blues contrasting colour, but Blue can be warm or cold, but you don’t often hear of Cold Orange unless it is juice out of the fridge… anyway here us another Mad, Bad, poem….
I am BLUE, you too? Are you blue with cold?
Are your lips blue? and are you feeling old?
SKY is blue, cerulean too, depending on the view.
SEA itself can be quite blue with turquoise or greenish hue.
Notes fall up and then crawl down, JAZz can be real blue. a complicated time for you…life can reallymake you BLUE
Blue BIRDS sing, make notes ring,
Blue of a cloudless sky,
we wish, all the summer through.
Red is bold!
Red blood, red heart
Red lips, red nose,
Red wine, red hat,
Red berries, red shoes…
I saw you smile, your mouth so neat,
Red cherries dripped their liquor sweet.
Red is the colour of anger and heat,
Red hot poker, flower, meat.
Red is gaudy, little red hood,
Red for strawberries, red for bud.
Red for roses, red says stop,
Red for danger, red for what?
I dont know what else to write, I can think of names for red, like carmine and crimson, vermilion and scarlet, close to red are mauve and magenta. I found it difficult to write something that makes much sense I’m afraid. But at least I tried. ..
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