New paintings and regular art updates.
Today’s #uskstoke challenge, day 18, keys.
Drew round the keys with a fibre tip ink pen. I then coloured in the different keys and fobs and the magazine and DIY instructions for my wire fairy. Finally I added some thick black felt pen to the instructions and around the keys.
The keys do look a bit chunky, but overall I think it’s OK?
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Waterfall at the Dorothy Clive Garden.
This was taken about this time last year. We had driven out to visit the beautiful garden on the border of Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire.
The garden is in a steep slope with colourful flower borders filling the air with scents of summer. But before the summer show I am drawn to the quarry garden at the top of the site. This is filled with flowering rhododendrons, under planted with spring flowers such as bluebells. At its centre is a little dell where a waterfall cascades down into a tranquil pool. You can follow paths up to the top of the waterfall where you will find a full sized bronze stag sculpture looking out magestically over the quarry garden.
Other pleasures include a magnolia walk at the back of the garden, this is behind the quarry at the top of the slope. Here you can see the surrounding countryside.
There is another dry garden, with a laburnum walk arching over the path.
When lockdown ends I think this will be one of the first places I visit.
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I drew this at sketchfu probably about ten years ago. I’d drawn the orange and green pattern first, and then added the gecko afterwards. I love the idea of camouflage. I can’t remember if I made the lizard up or if I used an image of one from somewhere. If I did I would have modified the colours.
One problem with sketchfu was the way the colour laid down on the screen. Different drawing apps work differently. With sketchfu what happened was that if you did not have the pens on full opacity you got a slightly fuzzy effect. Imagine if you had an old felt pen. The colour is fading and the nib is a bit frayed. That’s what the effect of the pens on the digital app was like.
I hope you like my dinky little gecko.
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Bovisand Bay, painted from life several years ago. Acrylic on canvas. This is what I remember…
The beach at Bovisand.
Warm sand beneath my feet.
Gritty rock, specks sparkle in the sun.
Water laps my feet.
Feet sink into soft sand…
Cove enclosed by cliffs.
Blue sky and tiny clouds.
Close growing plants are sheltered.
Back of the bay, a valley nestles in the hills.
A golden grass snake basks in the heat.
I remember.
I remember the thunder storm.
Lightening strikes in dark night.
Watching flashes over the sea.
Awesome beauty.
Remembered.
This image was something I did last year. We had some pure white tulips in the garden.
This year we have had less tulips. I think because our squirrel has taken to digging them up in the winter. We are going past the tulip season now. Instead we have Spanish and English bluebells, aqualegia starting to flower and wild garlic and lesser celandine adding splashes of colour to the garden.
Today we were pulling out hunks of ivy from the ground and from trees where its thick stems have scrambled up. We will fill our recycling bin completely over a couple of days. I was also pulling more pieces of Russian vine out of the trees at the front of the garden, it’s amazing how quickly it grows.
Tired and achy. But it’s good exercise.
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I’ve run out of steam a bit, so today’s sketch (day 17), is of the artists materials I’m using. Nibb bright coloured permanent markers.
I’ve drawn them with coloured pencils behind them and on my sketchbook. I could have added more of a background but it’s hard sometimes to be inspired. I might go out in the garden later and try and come up with something more interesting.
My energy levels are really down (I feel like my battery is flat) went to bed early last night and slept in. I still feel shattered. Ah well its all part of life.
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What do you do when someone asks you to share something on social media and you disagree?
So you message back to say you cannot share it, the idea is wrong, it’s based on fake news. You attempt to say no politely, and point out reasons why you can’t agree.
The person messages back and after some patronising thoughts, swears at you.
You come back with more information from a reliable source. Another abusive reply.
I’ve known this person for several years. I have never been spoken to in that way by the person before. My thoughts are they must strongly believe what they are saying. They must care or they wouldn’t share. But what they are asking me to pass on makes no sense. After another exchange where they were rude and patronising again…
I blocked them.
Day 16, USK S-O-T sketching challenge is a self portrait of me wearing my favourite top, covered in red and black owls. It’s funny and quirky.
A few people are still keeping to the challenge, and some say they will catch up later. Some of the subjects are a bit odd, but it’s fun.
I was watching the artist Maggie Hambling on a programme called ‘Grayson Perry’s art club’. It’s a weekly programme on channel four encouraging people to do art while we are in lockdown. Maggie Hambling said draw something every day, and Grayson Perry reiterated that. I think they are right. The drawings I’m doing are my diary of my life at the moment.
Other celebrities were either drawing or making sculpture. Grayson and his wife created ceramic images based on their cat Kevin. Both created wonderful, abstract, exciting sculptures.
After seeing it I decided I shall continue….
Picsart was an app I really liked. I’d used it for a while and you could alter pictures and draw over the top of them if I remember . Now however there are more patterns that you can superimpose over your original art, but it doesn’t seem as interesting.
As you can see from these images I like to mess about with the effects available. On these I used effects to change the colour and hue, distortions, outlining edges and embossing.
This is the original that I drew at ArtRage.
I was trying to get a mosaic effect.
Anyway more later on. Its after 3am!
Here are the permanent pens I’m using for my sketches.
I just thought I’d post a picture because I liked the bright colours. I’ve actually got another challenge I’ve been given to post black and white photos for seven days, so I could alter this…
Of course you can use your photo editor to change the hue… 
Or create a negative image…. 
So what am I saying? If you have a smart phone, it’s fun to play with your phones photo software. You might be surprised what you can create.
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