Eyes

Posted on January 10, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Eyes, Glasses, Learning, Life, long sighted, pane of glass, short sighted, view through glasses1 Comment

I was just talking about drawing glasses and how eyes look behind them and decided to do a sketchy diagram. I am drawing with my finger so the pictures are a bit wobbly….

When you draw the eye behind the glasses, always look to see if the face and eye look bigger or smaller. You can tell if they are long sighted (bigger) or short sighted (smaller). It makes it more realistic if you notice this sort of thing. If the eyes are the same as normal it means the glass is flat in the lens, not curved!

There is a film staring James Stewart called flight of the phoenix. One of the characters wears glasses. But the lenses are flat and the light glints off them like window panes!

Reflected in water

Posted on January 9, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blue sky, Bowls, cacti, Indoor plants, Kitchen, Life, Light, Photo, Sink, Sunlight, washing up bowl3 Comments

Morning, and I see the sky reflected in my washing up bowl. Two bowls gleam in the sunlight, and Christmas cacti stream downwards towards the bowl. Their flowers are still in bud, some have already flowered. You see how things are not as light as we imagine them. More mid tones than bright ones, only real highlights are on the bowls. Indoor plants help me stay happy….

Old hands

Posted on January 9, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cycling, Fun, growing old, Happy, Life, Memories, tandem, Time, Together, Wrinkles3 Comments

Old hands hold tight, remember smooth skin when we first met. Remember missing you when you went away. Riding a motor scooter forty miles to go home for the summer, and you cycled after me.

Smelling blossom when we walked home to the student flats. A stolen kiss. Our history, together. The cats we’ve owned, the cycle rides. Buying a tandem, selling a tandem because the chain kept falling off.

Camping at minus 7 near Clitheroe. Snowy nights. Two pairs of trousers and three jumpers under canvas. Bike trailers and cycle clubs.

Life keeps going. Work, houses, learning. We keep together, stay together.

Wooden

Posted on January 9, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #30daysketchbookchallenge, Art, Carpenter, day 9, grandad, metallic watercolours, Pencil, Sketching, Watercolour sketch1 Comment

Wooden puzzle box my grandfather made, he was a carpenter. I think I get my artistic abilities from him. It only opens one way. Watercolour and pencil on cartridge paper. It is a bit dark but I hope you can see it OK. Day 9, #30daysketchbookchallenge.

Snow above Saltaire

Posted on January 9, 2021January 9, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Church, Cold, Hills, Landscape, Life, Moors, Photo, Saltaire, Winter, YorkshireLeave a comment

Yellow Church spire

In the valley

River runs below

Snow above on the hills

Yorkshire view

Deep country

Saltaire splendour.

Photo courtesy of my friend Tim Hargreaves.

Shadow

Posted on January 9, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blue, Bowls, fawn, files, Indoor plants, Morning, Photo, Sci fi, shadow, SunlightLeave a comment

I saw this as a little dalek (it’s an alien from Dr Who) which is a BBC sci-fi series that started in the 1960’s. Its actually a washing up bottle with the cap up! It’s going to ‘exterminate’ grease and food waste. The windowsill is covered with indoor house plants, I like the curves of the bowls and their fawn colour against the blue of the tiles.

Trees are lungs

Posted on January 9, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Ancient trees, Carbon Dioxide, Fires, Forest fires, global warming, Life, Oxygen, Plants, TreesLeave a comment

We breathe in breathe out…. Carbon Dioxide. But trees and plants breathe out oxygen after taking in carbon dioxide. Why? Because they photosynthesise. They turn gas and water into food and grow. Oxygen is a biproduct.

Looking at a tree in winter you can almost see the bronchial tubes of lungs, the alveoli would be the leaves in summer.

That’s why we need to plant trees not cut them down. In the Amazon and other rainforest millions have been cut down. All over the world trees and plants are burning, either at the hands of humans or through fires caused by global warming.

We must change this. We must care. Even my government is cutting down woods and forests for stupid fast railways and roads.

Not in my name is the phrase isn’t it?

Life and everything

Posted on January 8, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged aeons, Glow, Life, middle age, Photo, Sunset, Thinking, Time, View, YouthLeave a comment

Sunset comes to us all. Life is a temporary blip between aeons of nothingness. Celebrate it while you can. When dawn rose life was difficult, you have to learn, to grow. I feel that real life doesn’t start until you reach adulthood or at least when you have to take on adult responsibilities. Then the middle of your life is taken up with nine to five, working for someone, or for yourself. Trying to survive. Finally, if you are lucky you get to retire, or retrain. At least have the hope of doing something you want to do. Keep at it if you can, find a way through to some amount of happiness. Then, rest.

Fern

Posted on January 8, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Fern, Gardening, Photo, Plant, Poem, Poetry, seen on walk, Stone, stone wall2 Comments

Small neat leaves

Spores underneath

Found on a wall

Old stone

Leaves like scales

On an aligators belly

Strong and tough

You survive

Winter

Copying Bonnard

Posted on January 8, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Bonnard, Collaboration, numbered squares, Orme Art group, Painter, Painting, winter challenge9 Comments

Orme art groups winter challenge was to take a numbered square from this Bonnard painting and try and copy it. Then when they are done by group members they are pieced back together as a final collaboration of the group.

I did one using felt pens and permanent markers. This one is done in watercolours. I’m not completely convinced by my painting but I’m not going to do any more to it. X

Mallaband-Brown

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