New paintings and regular art updates.
#bandofsketchers prompt today is box.. I drew a couple of boxes. The slatted one at the back is one I keep art equipment in, the other one with the Christmas decorations on top contained the Teddy bear and other presents from my sister. I didn’t realise it had this nice lid until I took the things out of the box. Metallic felt pens and black ink fine line pen.
It was just me and my hubby together for Christmas, but that means no pressure to get all the trimmings done! I haven’t made a trifle yet, I will probably do so for New year’s day. We had a £3.80 chicken for our Christmas Dinner (a medium turkey crown in sainsburys was £27.90!) We had a few beers and I made pigs in blankets to go with the chicken. I also roasted all the veg including the sprouts. There are plenty of left overs for sandwiches today and I don’t have to think about turning a turkey into a stew and a curry later in the week. The one thing I miss though was having a party with my sister, but I’d rather make sure we are all safe.
A sprout tree, that’s what my hubby bought for Christmas Dinner. I wasn’t sure how to cut the sprouts off this knobbly stick. I don’t have sharp knives so they are hard to cut off. When I tried the springiness in the branch they were on I suddenly had a sprout popping up the air! It flew up and landed on the floor, rolled sideways, and ended up under the fridge freezer. Cue some scrabbling with a spoon to get it back out! It happened again with the next one so I realised I needed to hold the sprout with one hand and cut it off with the other. I didn’t want to use the whole sprout tree today, ten ot twelve sprouts are enough, but the branch was too long. I could not cut it in half so hubby snapped it across his knee after I’d tried to cut through it.
I part cooked them in the microwave and now I’m toasting them with out Christmas chicken (the turkeys for sale were four times more expensive).
I was keeping my hand in drawing even though it was Christmas day. Funny what you find to draw. I was doing the cooking so I could have drawn the food, but I was not doing the main meal till later on Christmas day night (If that makes sense).
It meant I could either draw or watch TV. But you can only watch so much TV. If it wasn’t so cold and wet and windy I might have been going out for a walk. But there’s always tomorrow. My hands are always restless and ready to draw, sometimes are better than others but you can’t beat drawing and sketching.
So what to draw? I was given this owl keyring as an extra Christmas present, I might just use it as a decoration though, its got coloured stones glued to a gold coloured body and I think they would soon detach if I carried it around. I have a mobile hanging in a window and I might try and attach it onto that? Next question is should I colour it in? I quite like the simplicity of black and white, so for now thats how its staying. I might work on it in photoshop. Not decided yet. anyway I’m posting this at 5.30am after yet another sleepless night. Aches and pains and whirling thoughts. I know I should not be looking at screens, but its either this or watching TV news…
One of my first digital drawings. I think I used a paintshop program. The angel was drawn in bright colours. With blue and purple wings. She places a star in the shape of a snowflake on top of a Christmas tree. I think when I created this I was just learning to draw with a mouse and gaining control of it. It was challenging but fun.
Seasons greetings to all my friends. X
He’s a lone Teddy bear looking for a home. Green jumper with shamrocks on it, sitting forlornly on the chair. What’s he doing here? Don’t worry about him, he’s actually a present to me! I think he will be happy here. He has Ireland on his jumper so he’s come across the sea. He came in a box, shut in a small place, but now he’s released, free to roam about the house. I think he will sit with my other two bears, upstairs in our bedroom. I don’t know if he will have adventures but he can gossip with his fellow bears up there!
Dawn is a coming
The sleigh is halfway
On its route around
The world.
Up and down continents
North and South
From East to west
He flies.
Pulled by reindeer
Under radar
Over phone lines.
Past startled cats.
Waking birds too
For an early
Dawn chorus.
Santa’s sleigh
Is on its way!
As the last few minutes to midnight tick down I wish I was at a midnight service for Christmas. There isn’t one this year, and it makes me sad not to be able to go. It’s the carols that really get to me. I think Hark the Herald Angels sing is my favourite. I remember being in the school choir. I wasn’t very good, I think they used me for volume!
Stay safe this festive week, and kee well. No doubt I will add to this blog tomorrow… I don’t think it will be very exciting though!
Just tried adjusting the colours on this leaf, then decided to write a poem.
Saturated leaf
Bright and breezy
Fell from a tree
Really was easy
Just one blow
A puff of wind
Made the leaf
Fall, descend.
Before the mud
Washed the colours away
Gave it some highlights
Using filters to play.
A Clarice Cliff pottery pattern that I painted as a mural in the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke on Trent. The design is called umbrellas. It’s one I would love to own.
Nostalgia is that warm feeling you get when you see or remember old or ancient images or things. I haven’t looked up the actual definition. But things like this, or even old TV shows like The original series of Star Trek, give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I know somehow I’m safe, like I have gone back in time, as a memory or a thing I learned about in the past.
I get the same thing with the James Stewart film It’s a wonderful life. I think nostalgia and being nostalgic must be good and calming for the mind. The equivalent of a mental sigh.
Mallaband-Brown