Orme art summer challenge 2023. We drew and painted from two seperate pictures. This was the version of a Degas. Each member took a square then it was put back together with each person’s contribution.
Degas painting challenge.
A sketchbook page
Trying to draw part of a Renoir painting yesterday was hard work. I didn’t get the shape exactly right, and trying to use felt pens was hard too as I only had a limited range of colours. I didn’t do a good job of the hand on the woman’s shoulder, the felt pens bled and I really should have used a fine liner pen. But at least I completed a challenge.
Colour room
We visited Etruria Industrial museum today. This was in the colour room in the flint mill. The room had been set up for a bit of play with clay. I tried to make a pinch pot but it wasn’t very good. The cat in the window is a paper cut out, the lady doing the workshop had a witches hat.
The industrial museum is run by volunteers and doesn’t get a lot of funding. It would be good to know it will be secure in the future, but who knows what will happen in then?
Mugs
#bandofsketchers prompt still life…. Still catching up. Still life with mugs, why use one when you still have plenty available. Last night’s horde! Black ink drawing. I just washed them up.
Walking
What is your favorite form of physical exercise?
I haven’t been able to do much walking recently. Injury will do that. I used to love running and cycling, but I got a car and that was my biggest mistake. A sedentary job didn’t help either.
I tried to get into walking with a friend, that happened for a year, then I pulled a calf muscle which caused a lot of pain. For months. After that I started again. Only to hurt myself again! I literally feel like I’ve taken one step forward and two back. But I will try again, it’s cheaper than driving and better for the environment. Don’t get a car unless you have to!
October poppy
We still have yellow Welsh poppies in the garden and it’s almost November!
I don’t think they are that hardy, but it’s a testimony to the exceptional warmth we have been experiencing recently.
It’s edges are darkening, its bright flower reaches up to be pollenated by a bee or hover fly. But they are not awake (or alive?), so perhaps it waits in vain? We need to see nature and our damage of it, look closely at the environment and try and turn back some of the destruction we have wrought. Let’s try and do some small thing to help mother nature.
Autumn woman
Painting from eight years ago, it came up on my Facebook page. I don’t know if I’ve ever posted it here.
Autumn Woman
When the leaves fall
From under leaf litter
You will slowly crawl.
Gleaming colours
Red, gold, green,
Are soft or brittle
A seasonal scene.
Then mists and fruits
Make subtle colours
And Autumn woman
Finds her full power.
Should I let the moss grow
Moss is growing on my car, should I let it grow? Is it doing damage? And yet its beautiful, it looks like a little green forest. Like tiny trees in full leaf. I’m torn between it and cleaning it off. And is it legal? A rolling car should gather no moss?
Summer challenge
Finally completed our Orme art summer challenge. Choose a section of a Renoir and Degas painting and copy it in paint or another medium. The top images are my felt pen attempts today.
Moon shot
How much would you pay to go to the moon?
If money was no object, and the trip was totally safe? I would start saving now, and after 100 years I might have enough money to get to the moon, but not get back.
I would have liked to go when I was younger, but perhaps the 1/6th gravity compared with Earth would make it safer as I get older, if I fall I would be less likely to break my bones.
But if I had enough money I would want to come home. The bleak moonscape, lack of colour, vaccum of space and harsh radiation on the surface would be too much of a risk. I would feel safer if they created a moonbase or converted sub lunar caves into habitable refuges.
I would stand on the moons surface and stare at the blue and white pebble in the starry sky, and dream of home, the greenery I was missing, and feel deeply homesick.
Mallaband-Brown 