New paintings and regular art updates.
I’m having fun digitally altering that old painting. It’s given me an idea of what I might do to it. One thing about digital manipulation is that you get a regular pattern across the whole piece. It looks much more modern. I may do thus in reality.
I don’t remember painting this but it must be several years old. I don’t know what I was thinking when I did it. I certainly wouldn’t do this now! It’s too blousy, but it’s got my characteristic patterns. Anyway it was discovered when someone was having a clear out of stuff so perhaps they were not that impressed either. I’m not sure if it’s on canvas or board and it could be when I was still painting in oils. I will have to see. I’d call it a sketch not fine art…..
Waiting… Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt. Digital finger painting in Artrage app of an owl waiting for prey. . Ready to fly and pounce on a mouse! I decided to do something other than a felt pen drawing. Done while watching Jim and Nancy Moir programme about Owls on Sky Arts TV. ‘Painting Birds with Jim and Nancy Moir’.
Soon there should be butterflies and moths flying round the buddlea bushes in the garden. But they, and other insects, have plummeted in numbers over the last few decades. Whether this is due to changes in climate, where their food stuffs emerge earlier than they used to and are not available to them. Or because their food plants are removed or not replaced. Or because insecticides like nicotinamides are being used when they are linked with insect deaths? Why don’t we see sense and try and limit increases in Carbon dioxide? Reduce insecticide use and stop being so destructive.
The bible says man shall have dominion over the animals and plants of the world. I wish that read responsibility for their care? We are the guardians of the Earth. We outnumber everything else and our behaviour is appalling in so many things. We should learn to support the Earth more.
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
I’m not a doctor, but I always think in situations you should ‘first do no harm’. That is something I try and live by. Even when I’m tempted to do something. That said I am no saint. I get angry like anyone else. But you have to try not to get to upset. I wouldn’t hurt anyone, hit anyone, although as I’ve got older I do swear at, or about people. Thankfully that can’t physically harm, although mentally it might hit home?
One of the problems, still, with social media, is the lack of nuance. What is written is in black and white… There are no grey areas unless you create them in your words. For a long time on one particular site a person was being very antagonistic towards me, everything I said seemed wrong to them. We lived in different countries with different traditions and we couldn’t seem to agree on what was the best way to cooperate… I thought I must find a way so I found an important symbol in that country and did a complicated and detailed drawing of it and offered it as an olive branch. Luckily it worked and things became much more harmonious afterwards, we even became friends.
I guess all I can say is try and be diplomatic if you can. You should still tell the truth, but in a constructive way, and try and do no harm. I think hurting someone can only come back and bite you!
You shout out!
I jump..
I stalled
And you panicked
You minds sharp thorns
Sees danger round
Every corner….
Flight not fight
Means fright!
Stay calm
Breathe in
Breathe out
Anxious time
For both
So relax
If you can..
I decided to play with my latest doodle, I used a sketching app to add the facial details, then photodirector to smooth out the rough edges. I do like to experiment with analogue and digital images.
The top left tulip and bottom right are both the same type, but the top left one has developed and the colour is coming out. The other still has a green tinge. The top left is a different, more rounded type, but there is a yellow throat to it. Finally the bottom left was a larger pale pink flower. I’m loving the way they are developing.
Doodling on cartridge paper which was a nice surface to draw on. I’m using a different sketchbook and got some new glittery felt pens. Unfortunately the sparkle is not very strong. I then added black liner pen and some gold pen. I almost added a face to this, but left it as finished. However if I can add it digitally as a background I might have a go at drawing over it in a digital app……
What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?
Of all the places I’ve stayed on holiday, Devon is my favourite.
We used to visit a friend from college who had moved back there. He lived on the outskirts of a city and was happy to put us up as houseguests of him and his family.
We had many pleasant times there. We tied our bicycles on the roof of the car and cycled around the countryside on the bikes. The Devon hills almost made me give up, they were so undulating and steep. Cycling up and down the hills and banks, out to beautiful secluded beaches and bays. Devon banks (hedges and walls) made the roads sheltered and narrow. You had to take care not to run into cars coming along in the other direction.
We visited several times over the years. Exploring far and wide. Sometimes we stayed in caravans and watched massive thunderstorms and lightning hitting the Cornish Coast across the bay.
We used the city as a jumping off point. Visiting abbeys and steam trains. We bought Mead made with honey, and I spent time exploring caves in the south west. (the furthest south in England I think). I have memories of sunshine and sunburn. Falling off my bike coming down a steep hill too quickly. Sunny, happy memories.
Mallaband-Brown