The weather here is very wet and windy so I’m concentrating on doing some painting. I decided to paint a zebra yesterday. I sketched it out last night but didn’t start on it properly till today. I’ve extended the muzzle and made its mane black and white. It seems to be shaded with brown dust. Possibly it has been having a dust bath. I hope to finish it and my owl painting today. It’s also taking my mind off a toothache I have after eating a cashew nut.
Category: Uncategorized
Moths
Everyone draws butterflies but I decided to try and draw a moth. This is based on an Angle shades moth. I haven’t got it right, but I tried.
Moth
Goth
Ghost
Host
Holt
Hole
Holy
Holey
Whole
Whale
Hale
Tale
Male
Mole
Mote
Moth
Mouth
Mother
Motheaten
Keeping warm
My cats on their cat tree. Keeping warm. The weather is a lot colder now than it was last week. I gave up and put the central heating on. We were out in the rain earlier and I got soaked. We are having hefty April showers. The sky turns dark grey and then hail and rain pour down. The temperature is about 10 centigrade lower than it was a week ago… Typical British weather.
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Cherry Blossom
Has anyone got a pot of glue? This was the result of heavy rain and strong winds over the last couple of days.
They had looked like this before the weather got involved. 
The beautiful pink blossom is from ornamental cherry trees I think. In the meantime the blossom on my cherry trees in the garden is equally bashed. I hope the insects like bees and hover flies have been able to pollinate them and they have set fruit.
Happy Spring!
Sunset
One red bar of cloud
reflected in the canal,
Blue grey and pale peach
silhouette leaves and trees
mobile mast and cables.
Industrial Stoke,
Etruria on Trent
Old canal
Built by James Brindley
You are serene
No longer busy with horse and butty boats.
Tranquil sunset
Blazing sky.
Etruria Artists
Etruria Artists logo by Robert Cochrane.
Etruria Artists is on tonight. Starting an hour early at 6pm. If you want to come and have a go at painting, drawing or pottery come to the warehouse by lock 40 (summit lock ) of the trent and mersey canal.
Most art materials are provided or you can bring your own.
I’ve had some good times there creating art. It is an old building though and we do close over the winter as it’s only heated when we are in the building so the water has to be turned off in case it freezes and bursts the pipes. I’ve also helped people with advice for using different paints like Acrylics, Watercolours and Gouache…. I’m not trained as an art teacher but I do have some knowledge.
Mango juice
Another challenge drawing from about 10 years ago. I think this was Mango juice over ice looking at the colour of the liquid. I never tasted Mango juice until my thirties I think. And a real Mango? Probably in my forties. They were just not sold in local shops. Its the same with figs, I never realised how delicious they are. The world has changed in my lifetime. Probably better for the majority of the North and West of the World. Not so much the southern continents. I wish life was fairer where everyone could taste Mango juice.
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My friends easter cats
These two were kittens born to my female cat just over two years ago. They seem fascinated by her easter egg decorations. I love seeing pictures of them, they look so like their mother. My friends photo of them shows what characters they are. Into mischief., looking at possibilities.
Their mother is very vocal, she is miaowing at me now. I’d better get her some cat biscuits.
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Trout pout
Eyes, looking up from below
Bubbles, trickling from the waters depths,
A fishes mouth and gill’s
Scales with a metallic sheen
Jenny lurks below.
Hidden in the weeds
Pike like teeth behind those lips
Clawed hands stir the water
Webbed between fingers and toes.
Bubbles reflected in her eyes.
She sees the feet of a child,
Dabbling on the waters edge,
One grab and down it goes.
Jenny Greenteeth has struck again.
Panda drawing
Another sketchfu challenge drawing I did so many years ago. Pandas have been in decline for years. They are limited by the food they eat (bamboo) and their habitat is disappearing like many places where the pressure of agriculture outweighs the needs of animals.
Panda jaws are very strong to chew bamboo which is why they have a fixed characteristic “smile”.
They are iconic animals and the World wide fund for nature uses a stylised panda as its symbol.
There are breeding programmes but nothing can compare to an animal in the wild, not cooped up in a zoo. Unfortunately poaching is a prolem as with other animals like gorillas.
I loved drawing this. Some challenges were a bit irksome but this was fun.
