Roses

Posted on October 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Autumn, Black spot, Covid, Flowers, Fungi, Life, Sad, seasons, Spring, Thinking, Winter, World, YearLeave a comment

The roses have faded and are gone. Only memories stay with you. Perfume, thorns.

The autumn and fungi are here, rosehips are swelling, elderberries feed the birds. Clouds are gathering, nights are earlier, mornings later. Time for spooky evenings, pumpkins and spiders. Black cats and rats. Mists descend, people try and raise their spirits with bonfires and fireworks, lighting up the sky with flashes and whizzes. Now few entertainments will be allowed. Life continues, but a grey boredom faces us. Keep away, keep away, keep away, the bird Sings. Out of the darkness people laugh, hide, drink, get up to high jinks. Fools for a day or the season. As the year creeps on festivals are cancelled, subscriptions to TV channels you never watched before increase. Firms named after rain forests cash in. Work continues but strangely. And snacks to comfort us are eaten. Winter arrives in cold airs and frosts, the seasons turn. Will spring and rose buds ever return or will black spot spoil the days?

Storm warning

Posted on October 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bay of biscay, Rain, Red sky, Sea, Sky, Storm warning, Waiting for the rain, Weather, WindLeave a comment

Storm warning. There is a storm in the bay of biscay heading our way. Expect a red sky in the morning and a swirl of rain edging up the country. Some flooding and fallen trees expected. Nice, just when I was hoping for late summer sun! The wind will blow and we shall have? Storms! I had such plans a seaside trip, gentle tides, a sea view, seagulls wheeling. But maybe next week it will be better….

It’s your life too

Posted on October 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Caring, Covid19, Keep well, Life, Lockdown, Mask, Poem, Poetry, Stay safe, Thinking, TimeLeave a comment

I will wear it for you,

to keep you safe,

for old friends,

and new.

I will try and be safe,

wash my hands,

even wash my shopping.

I will keep my distance,

not hug,

not shake your hand.

I will cough into my elbow,

tap feet,

not touch.

I love you dearly,

I want all to be well,

all shall be well?

Are you well?

Keep safe.

I made a gif!

Posted on October 2, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art by CMB, Design, Ezgif, Gif, I managed it!, My art, Random, Sketches, Wow4 Comments

Never done this before, didn’t know I could upload to WordPress. Will probably have to delete loads of files to accommodate this!

Horse sketch

Posted on October 2, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage oils, Blogging, Design, Doodle, Fun, Horse, Metallic brushes8 Comments

Chatting with someone earlier reminded me how I like to doodle horses. I will draw them from photos, but I also enjoy playing about digitally. This was drawn in ArtRage oils free app. It has a slider to change brush sizes and how metallic they look and different brushes including a dry ink, endless oils, and a couple of others. I’m quite pleased with the outcome.

Hubby’s drawings

Posted on October 2, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Apedale, Art, Cottage, Creativity, Drawing, Hubby, Lake district, Life, Mountains, Picture, Train2 Comments

It’s great to see his drawings, he doesn’t draw very often and definitely has his own style. He bought himself a drawing kit with a drawing board, (a piece of card) some different harnesses of pencils, an eraser and a pencil sharpener. The pictures were his own ideas, the mountainous one is from the cover of a book about the lake district, and the train drawing is taken from a picture on the cover of a leaflet from the Apedale railway. I hope he does more. I’m going to buy him a sketch pad.

If anyone wants to watch some drawing techniques go over to my friend Martha Kennedy’s WordPress pages. Sorry I don’t have a link, I will try and find one. She has done some drawing tutorials over on YouTube.

Jenni Murray watercolour

Posted on October 2, 2020 Posted in Fine Art, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, BBC, BBC radio 4, Cartridge paper, Jenni Murray, Painting, Portrait, Tricia Youkevich photo, Watercolour, Watercolour sketch, Woman's HourLeave a comment

Jenni Murray, who has presented BBC Radio 4’s long running Woman’s Hour for the last Thirty three years, retired from the show yesterday.

This painting is based on a photo by Tricia Yourkevich in the Guardian newspaper today. The painting is approximately the same size as the photo.

I hope Jenni Murray doesn’t mind me painting her. I have followed Woman’s Hour for years and have always found her to be an intelligent, warm and humourous host.

I also hope Tricia Youkevich doesn’t mind me using her photo, If she wants me to take this post down I will as I would if Jenni Murray objects.

I don’t do many watercolours and this is a quick sketch on on white cartridge paper in a small A4 sketchbook.

Attempt at a bit of Picasso

Posted on October 1, 2020October 1, 2020 Posted in Fine Art, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Almost right, Art, Autumn challenge, Hand eye coordination, Life, Orme Art group, Permanent markers, Picasso in felt pensLeave a comment

With felt pens and a bit of watercolour. I can’t get the purple right, I had a purple felt pen but it’s too dark. So I tried some silver on it and when that didn’t work. I might add some brown to the blacks… With brown paint. This is part of a painting by Picasso that the Orme Group of artists are taking a section of for our autumn challenge…

Mostly finished….. But so many wrong bits!

Orange

Posted on October 1, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, Challenge, Colours, Drawing, Life, Orange, Permanent markers, Prompt, Shading, Sketching2 Comments

Today’s prompt for band of sketchers was the colour orange. I gathered a group of things together and used permanent markers to draw it in. I tried to colour the areas without drawing it out first.

Orange is a peculiar colour, some people identify reds as orange, and orange as yellow. Everyone has different eyesight and abilities to differentiate colours. I imagine someone with colour-blindness would just see muddy browns?

Corridor

Posted on October 1, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Covid 19, Eleanora street, Life, Spode, Stoke-on-Trent, Stoke-upon-Trent, TimeLeave a comment

Welcome to Spode studios. I have to admit I have not been in since the March lockdown. My reasons? Covid19, fear of catching it or passing it on if I do catch it.

The corridors are usually quiet, but you don’t know who’s there. I should call in, but now I’ve started an online course my available time has reduced. I need to make a timetable. To work out when I should go in. I have good intentions, but as they say about them, the road to hell is paved with them. I guess I’m really a bit down and still recovering from my tonsillitis. Yuk.

Mallaband-Brown

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