Blue

Posted on June 17, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blue, Lapis Lazuli, Life, Oil paint, Painting, Sea, Sky, Titian, UltramarineLeave a comment

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I just watched a programme on TV about colours, one of which was blue. They showed the rock, Lapis Lazuli, which can only be found in a small number of places in the world including Afghanistan and California.

Lapis Lazuli was used as a paint pigment in paintings by artists like Titian. The rock is ground down to fine powder and then mixed with oil and wax to make oil paint. The resulting colour is called ultramarine and is a superb blue used in things like the blue paint in the robes of the virgin Mary in Titian’s paintings.

So how did Lapis Lazuli become blue? Sulphur rich rock, which was a pale grey brown was heated up 30 or 40 kilometres below the Earth’s surface. The intense heat and pressure apparently compresses the mineral and makes three atoms of Sulphur line up in each molecule. It is this geometry in the molecules that causes it to reflect pure blue light. (Sulphur is usually found in nature in a yellow, red, orange, brown or black form – the Volcanic moon of Jupiter, Io, is coloured by Sulphur).

Blue sky

Blue Sea.

Blue life.

Blue me

River

Posted on June 16, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cliff hanger, Creative writing, Environment, Life, Short story, tension, Very short storyLeave a comment

Standing on the bridge looking over into the turbulent waters of the stream. She did not realise that in a few hours the water would be flowing above it. Mud and rocks were being washed down from the local hills, trees had slipped down the hillsides, branches had been broken from their boughs by a storm.

She walked along the waters edge, seeing the beauty of the land, green and verdant. She heard the rumble of thunder but it sounded hushed and far away. She walked down stream into a narrow valley, the birds were singing loudly, the sound echoing from the rocks.

She felt a gust of wind and realised the storm was getting closer. She hurried along the path, the road was half a mile away….

Now the wind and rain were rushing past her, each minute the squall grew stronger. She heard a rumbling sound and turned to look. A wall of black mud, tree trunks, churned towards her. She started to run and climb up the steep sides of the valley. Would she reach high ground in time?

Night out at Keele

Posted on June 16, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Choir, Classical music, Evening concert, Keele Bach choir, Keele University, Music, Night out, Parking problems, SingingLeave a comment

Keele University not Keele in Germany!

There is a choir called Keele Bach choir who do regular concerts of music by Bach and other composers each month or so.

We arrived on time but struggled to find a parking space. There are lots of spaces for approved permit holders only. Plus ones for electric vehicles, spaces for thirty minutes only and of course disabled spaces (which I would never park in) in the end we parked in a permit holders space, only to find out they are not policed after 5pm!

To the Chapel where the concerts are held. Lovely music, wonderful singers and beautiful organ laying. I didn’t get the titles of the short peices because we didn’t have time to get a programme, only getting there a minute before the performance. But there was an Ave Maria and then later an Ave Maria Stella.

During the interval I tried drawing the asymmetric windows in the Chapel above where the choir were singing.

When we came out the clouds were looming again. Pink edges to the clouds did seem to signify a slightly better day.

Cafe sketch

Posted on June 15, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Cafe scene, Design, Doodle, Drawing, Life, Pen and ink, Pink cake stands, Small sketch, Supermarket, Urban sketchingLeave a comment

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Drawn while waiting for a friend, the cake stands are bright pink and full of sugary delights that I avoided. I had strawberries and cream and a fruit smoothie which was made of smooshed frozen berries and very cold! This was a 20 minute drawing so didn’t go for any details. The woman walked along to the till as I was drawing so fitted her in at that end. Since urban sketchers last weekend I’m doing more of this kind of thing.

Cat doodle

Posted on June 15, 2019 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Blue, Cat, Cat drawing, Contours, Design, Heavy paper, pet cat, Shading, Windsor and Newton sketchbook, YellowLeave a comment

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I’m trying to do at least one drawing a day, this is actually the second picture I did but I’m posting it because it’s slightly different. Firstly I used a blue glitter brush pen to draw one of my cats. Then for slight shading I used a plain yellow brush pen. When it was dry I decided to use a 0.6 tip fine line black pen to draw in darker areas. I then drew lines over the darker areas and decided to do the lighter ones too. Finally after adding the lines in the background I drew a line round the edges of the blue and yellow areas and picked out any patches of white that had been missed with the blue ink at the start of the process. I didn’t take any work in progress photos. The drawing is in a Windsor and Newton sketch pad, heavy weight wire-o, A6 size. 50 sheets 170gsm /80lb.

Thunder

Posted on June 14, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blank verse, Environment, Lightening, Poem, Poetry, Short poem, Thunder, WeatherLeave a comment

Thunder unravels the sky

Lightning flashes coruscate over the ruins

The world spirals around you.

Forcing the trees to bend down to your power.

Thors hammer beats the ground.

Another flash, a bough falls.

Stones crash and crump

Thudding down onto the ground.

Your hands conduct a symphony of gestures.

One more flash, then you are gone.

Holiday sketches.

Posted on June 14, 2019June 14, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Chalets, Drawing, Fun, Life, Lodge, Scribbles, Sketching, Trees, Urban sketchingLeave a comment

Some sketches from our short break. Including two doodles when it was to wet and dark and the TV was on the blink. My hubby reading, a sketch inside the cabin, a drawing of Fountains Abbey in the rain, the view out of the window, and finally trees which I coloured in.

Sketching keeps me occupied and gives me something to do when I want to be artistic.

It doesn’t cost much to draw, you can use a biro and the back of an envelope. You have to try and stay dry but it’s good to get out and about.

Green door

Posted on June 14, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Creative writing, Door, Fantasy, Fountains Abbey, Green, Imagined, Sci fi, Short story, Very short story, YorkshireLeave a comment

I keep missing write photo prompts where you write a piece about a photo.

This was taken at a grand house near Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire. I’m sorry I can’t remember the name of the building. What is important is that they rent out rooms for holiday let’s there.

Rachel ran down the stairs from her room and rushed out of the green door. It had happened again, the light had played a trick on her and she had seen a shadowy figure in the dust motes that danced in the beam of sunlight shining through the stained glass windows. She had decided to see if anyone was playing tricks with a mirror outside? How else could the image have been projected into her room?

But no one was there, not even the friendly female attendant who usually sat in the kiosk by the gate, selling tickets to tourists to visit the Abbey which stood in ruins only a quarter of a mile away.

She stepped back through the mossy green door. But not into the present. A stench of rotting flesh overwhelmed her. Figures scurried about carrying boxes, flowers, rushes for the lamps. She had gone back in time. A woman, who looked like a maid, shouted at her to move. He’s here, the King has arrived. Get on with your work. Fearful and panicking Rachel stepped backwards and fell, tripping off the step.

The kiosk lady stood over her. You OK dear? She asked…..

Out of touch

Posted on June 13, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Driving, Environment, Life, Lodge, Motorways, Rain, Travel, Weather, Wet, Wood, Yorkshire2 Comments

We have just come back from a very wet Yorkshire. We stayed in a lodge in the woods. It was very nice, but damp.

There is a lake at the place where we stayed and we saw ducks and geese with youngsters walking through the woodlands. The only shame is that they are going to cut down some of the trees so people can get WiFi. I’d rather go without it and keep the trees.

We drove out to Fountains Abbey and I tried to draw it but the rain was coming down and the ink pen ran. However we had some very nice food in an Italian restaurant by the side of the River Wharfe.

Now I think I need an early night. I will try and catch up with WordPress over the next couple of days.

Ignoring the satnav

Posted on June 11, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Driving, Gin and tonic, Humour, Life, Motorways, Satnav, School, Short break, Travel, WordPress4 Comments

Sitting at our destination slightly tired after a long drive. Got a g&t as no more driving today.

I decided to use my phones satnav. But the options were all motorway driving and I wanted to avoid part of that as I know the motorway is having a lot of work done on it. However the sat nav didn’t know that and kept saying, “in a quarter of a mile turn left” each time I drove past a junction, turn left, turn left. In the end I joined up with the motorway. Then I had an argument with my hubby about the route, he wanted to go our usual way but it took me away from the city centre. We went a different way, just getting stuck in roadworks a few times.

So I’m sitting here after about 90 miles in three hours… Slow but safe x

Mallaband-Brown

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