Illustrations

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on watercolour paper, Acrylics, Art, Illustrations, Kidsgrove, Leek, StaffordshireLeave a comment

One thing I really enjoyed doing a while ago were illustrations for a leaflet for the canal and rivers Trust. I’ve probably already mentioned. My friend provided the images to work from and I painted with Acrylics on watercolour paper. I did that to get the depth of colours without having to paint thin layers and I could paint over any mistakes I made.

I was really pleased with the results. I only remembered them because they popped up on my Facebook memories. I wonder what else will appear there?

The top picture was an amalgamation of the two harecastle tunnels at Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, a work in progress. And the second was a mill at Leek in Staffordshire.

Another window

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Life, shadow, Silhouette, Spode, Sunlight, Window, WinterLeave a comment

Another inspiration. I may do a painting of this. The fresh colours of a winter sky against the dark silhouette of the room.

A low sun makes for startling shadows and highlights. Sometimes overwhelming brilliance can burn out even the darkest tones.

I should try and take more pictures!

Work in progress… Painting Jupiter is hard!

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Juno probe, Jupiter, Jupiter pole, Painting, Spode site, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trent, Work in progress2 Comments

I’ve been doing some more work on this painting. I want to get it finished this week. It’s a painting of one of the poles of Jupiter. In the photo it has a bluish tinge but I’m trying to make it bluer as the exhibition title is “an Exhibition of Blue” on in Spode exhibition space at Acava Studios, Spode Site, Eleanor Street, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent. From 2nd February 2019.

Where did she go?

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Bugs, Computer illiterate, Humour, Internet, Life, Poem, Poetry, WordPressLeave a comment

I’m having some work done to this page and somethings gone a bit wonky :

I don’t understand URL

What did you say?

I don’t understand HTML

Oh go away!

I don’t get hash tags #

I don’t know at’s @

I don’t know coding…

Oh hell!

Eyes

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blue, Digital drawings, Eyes, Humour, Poem, PoetryLeave a comment

Here’s looking at you kid,

The eyes seemed to say,

Like a surreal spider

With multiple eyes.

Don’t fear me

I seem to hear them

You will understand

one day.

I smell a surprise

Sniffed out I see

By my old eyes

And a new view.

Tiny paintings

Posted on January 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Bewildered, mini art, Tiny paintingsLeave a comment

I’m going to do some more tiny paintings soon, once I finally finish the painting of Jupiter that I’m doing for an Exhibition of Blue that is on at Spode artists studios exhibition space from 2nd February.

I like doing really small paintings, it’s a challenge to get enough details.

At the moment I’m having a few problems with WordPress. My fault. I tried to change something and I’ve ended up not being able to use the main pages but am trying to publish this locally…. I’ve even managed to add categories and tags…

We live and learn….

Still life

Posted on January 22, 2019January 22, 2019 Posted in Uncategorized3 Comments

What is a still life? The classical image is fruit or flowers. Perhaps a book on a table. That kind of carefully laid out and placed, classical and simple, sometimes with fish or fowl included.

Then of course you can have quirky things in it. I’m thinking of doing some with a plastic dinosaur. It’s about lighting and shapes. Making a pleasing or even a discordant image.

Basically it’s up to the artists ideas and feelings, you don’t have to be limited. You can be as experimental as you like.

Bit of a makeover

Posted on January 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blog, Blogging, Change, Changes, Computer, Design, Facebook, Fun, Instagram, Learning, Life, Painting, Reflections, Social media, Twitter2 Comments

Things are changing on planet Mallaband-Brown so you might notice a few tweaks here and there thanks to my friend Mike from @staffsdesign.

I wanted to update my social media and make it easier for people to follow me. Being an artist has made me a lot happier and nows the time to try and make it work.

I didn’t realise amalgamating all my Web pages and sites would be so complicated and I’m so pleased to have had someone to sort everything out.

This is also a test to see whether it posts to my new Facebook page.

You should be able to follow me on the Internet at @mallabandbrown !

Egyptian strawberries

Posted on January 21, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Life, Politics, Reflections, Strawberries3 Comments

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I don’t want to bother you with politics. But (and there always is one), my country is about to go through Brexit, which is, British exit from the European Union.

We are lucky here, we can get food from around the world, we can afford to buy it, unlike some places that have been exploited and kept down. But for how long?

If we want strawberries from Egypt or other countries we don’t currently struggle to get them. There are pan European trade agreements which allow their movement across the continent. But without them things might find it more difficult. Perhaps they could sail through the Mediterranean around the bay of biscay and up the Channel… By which time they may not be as fresh and that’s without any storms. Or they could come by airfreight but there may be more checks at Borders..

I know its not happened yet but I wish we could see the results of this strange decision and how it will affect us.

Wacom bamboo tablet

Posted on January 21, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Design, Digital art, Digital drawing, Photoshop, Quantel paintbox, Wacom tabletLeave a comment

These are a set of drawings I found in my memories section on Facebook.

They were some of the first drawings I did on my Wacom Bamboo Tablet. I was drawing in photoshop.

I was trying different filters and tones (I only know because it was on captions underneath). This shows my enjoyment of morphing drawings. I like experimenting.

I was watching a programme about an Australian artist last night. (I can’t remember his name). He was recognised as one of their foremost abstract artists. At the end of his life he embraced digital art and there is a short section of film of him working with a technician who was using a quantel paintbox. This was the predecessor of photoshop. As I watched it I remembered using the same thing at a radiography conference. I was utterly amazed that it existed (this was in the early 1990’s.) I was enthralled by what you could draw. I guess that’s why I’m still drawing digitally now.