New paintings and regular art updates.
View of trees and local playing fields up our hill. It was four years ago. I took a photo during the winter and the trees looked skeletal. I put this through photodirector a couple of times to get the textured look. It almost looks like looking through a wet windscreen, where the lines are blurred and smeared. I think I might paint it.
Silver birch trees are much whiter than they used to be when I was a child. They still have dark marks on their trunks, like upward facing arrows. But the dirty grey bark of polluted air in the past decades has seemingly reduced. But particulates still float in the air, and carbon dioxide is increasing, so maybe the trees will get bigger as they absorb the gas?
This beautiful example is starting to lose it’s leaves. Shown against the white and blue of showery sky.
#bandofsketchers prompt for Thursday was Cutter. I hope this is a cutter? In April I did a tall masted ship drawing on the theme Voyage. A friend saw it and wants a painting of it. This is my work in progress that I thought fits the prompt cutter…acrylic on canvas.
What historical event fascinates you the most?
It’s hard to believe it’s been eight years since the New Horizons space craft flew by the now minor planet Pluto and it’s moon Charon.
The rest of the solar system had already been explored over the previous decades by other probes sent out by NASA including Voyagers 1 and 2 which had undertaken a grand tour of the systems gas and ice giant planets. These are now over 18 light hours away.
When New Horizons arrived at Pluto on 14 July 2015 it found a tiny world with a heart shaped feature on its surface. The predominant colours are reds, whites and dark greys. The surface is mottled and pock marked in some places, and smooth in others. The photos of the encounter are spectacular and can be seen online. The Wikipedia page about New Horizons is very informative. I don’t propose to reiterate all the information here.
I chose this mission because it happened in my lifetime. I could have chosen other missions or historical events, but I wanted to chose something that represented the farthest influence or encounter that humanity has ever made. Hopefully we will continue to find out more about our solar system, our galaxy and the universe in the future.
The second, and most difficult, painting collaboration by Orme Art Group from this summers challenge.
It’s, amazing to have so many techniques and styles pulled together in this final image. Some parts line up better than others but it really shows the tenacity of the group with all the complicated figures and colourful background we tried to copy. I hope Renoir would not have been too disappointed!
Hundreds of miles of the South of England have been badly affected by Storm Ciaran (pronounced kiaron).
Rooves have been torn off, trees uprooted, a branch like a spear pierced the roof of a mobile home and punctured the bed the occupant had just vacated. A woman woke in the storm and grabbed her baby from it’s cot just as the windows blew in. 107 thousand homes had their power cut off. Many have had it restored but 20 thousand are still without electricity.
The channel islands have suspended ferry crossings and their airports are closed. There was a red weather warning indicating danger to life and property.
Meanwhile Northern France was also badly hit by the storm. I think there were wind speeds over 110 miles an hour. We are lucky to be far north of this weather event.
A photo from 3 years ago morphed a bit more by using incollage and Instagram. I chose the circular template in WordPress to finish it off. It could be a blue glazed ceramic plate. Autumnal in feel but also frosty. I also used the AI style effect in photodirector to get the textured patterning.
What’s something you believe everyone should know.
A look at the Earth from space, the North American continent is fully visible, but the South American continent follows the curve of the Earth around to the other side. Also note the left side is darker as the Earth rotates into darkness.
Question. If Earth was flat where are the other continents hiding? Why isn’t the whole planet in full sunshine? Why is the shadow the Earth casts on the moon always round? (which gives us the moons phases). If Earth was flat the shadow would sometimes be a line. Why is every planet a sphere but not Earth?
Occam’s razor says that usually the simplest explanation is the truth.
From Wikipedia :
In philosophy, Occam’s razor (also spelled Ockham’s razor or Ocham’s razor; Latin: novacula Occami) is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements. It is also known as the principle of parsimony or the law of parsimony (Latin: lex parsimoniae). Attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th-century English philosopher and theologian, it is frequently cited as Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, which translates as “Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity”,[1][2] although Occam never used these exact words. Popularly, the principle is sometimes inaccurately[3] paraphrased as “The simplest explanation is usually the best one.”[4]
Another #bandofsketchers catch up. Prompt was Halloween/Día de Los Muertos. I don’t know much about the day of the dead so I drew a cartoonish Dracula instead. Artrage app.
Another #bandofsketchers prompt. Not a brilliant effort! I tried to draw disconnected bits of chain, without looking at bits of chain. The chain links are not uniform in size and the outline is too thick.
I could write a poem.
My brain is disconnected
From anything elected
If its political
I’m often critical
Of policies they’ve selected!
Mallaband-Brown