Childhood memory

Posted on April 3, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Age, Childhood, Climbing, fearless, Fun, Memories, ropes, School, swing, Tag, Wall barsLeave a comment

I used to climb up the sides of an old slide like this not the steps to get to the top. These was tarmac underneath that I could have fallen down onto, but I didn’t. Goodness knows why I did it. I also used to hang upside down from the top bar of the swings. I would climb up via the three legs holding up one end and then climb over. I don’t know why I stopped, maybe I was told it was not a thing girls did!

At the end of term at school we used to play pirates in the gym. They would pull the wall bars out and lock them in place and there were three or four ropes hanging down from the ceiling. The challenge of pirates was to play three dimensional tag. I would climb up the bars or a rope and if anyone tried to get me I would reach over and climb onto the next rope! I often was the last person standing (or hanging!)

Photo courtesy of a friend, hope that’s OK?

Sunset

Posted on April 3, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, Colourful, Drawing, Felt pens, Holiday, Life, Sketching, sunpillar, SunsetLeave a comment

Sunset was Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt. As we arrived at our holiday destination one summer I was amazed to see what appeared to be a tall beam of sunshine above the setting sun. I found out later that it was a sun pillar. I think its a phenomenon where sunlight reflects off ice crystals in the sky? A bit like sun dogs. Can’t find the photo to work off so tried to remember it…

A hard definition…

Posted on April 2, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged aspects, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1894, different, difficult question, Mind, Thinking, Thought, unique4 Comments

Which aspects do you think makes a person unique?

What flame or glimmer of character makes a person unique? I guess everyone has their own foibles, that could be size or shape, colour or religion or none of the above. If identical twins can have their own thoughts and ideas then everyone has the ability to be unique if they are allowed to be.

Most of all I think it is in the mind that the unique aspect lies, nature versus nurture is the phrase that people use, but life is chaotic, it twists and turns, there may really be a multiverse out there where every step in one direction or another changes the outcome of a person’s life, but some of it has to be down to how they think and react? How else can you explain the diametrically opposite results that can occur in families, or how sometimes similarities between non related people happen? All I can say is its good to be unique!

Sketch set

Posted on April 2, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Drawing, Life, pad Thai, Portraits, red curry, Sawadee Thai taste, Sketching, Stoke, Thai foodLeave a comment

Went for a meal out at Sawadee Thai taste in Stoke tonight. While we were there I decided to sketch us. I had to imagine my self portrait, and they are all a bit scruffy as I just drew on a bit of old card I had in my bag, each sketch took a couple of minutes. Apple is the Thai lady that runs the restaurant.

The food was delicious, we had red curry with sticky rice and some pad Thai noodles. Not expensive and good company.

Twigs…

Posted on April 2, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Branches, Collage, Fungi, Life, Moss, Photos, Poem, Poetry, Rain, Trees, Weather, Wind, WorldLeave a comment

Twigs and branches

Boughs and trunks

In the winter shaken loose

March winds

Bend and break

Damaging weather

Lost limbs

Moss grows

Lichen too

Fungi found in boles

Hoots in holes.

Tree life.

Oak or Ash

April brings

Soak or splash.

Jupiter in a spin

Posted on April 2, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Collage, Juno probe, Jupiter, Learning, lost app, new app, not layout, Pattern, South PoleLeave a comment

I’m getting used to a new collage app. Learning all the new plot twists (I mean the tools in it). The main irritation are the in app ads. Get used to it, I won’t upgrade and I won’t buy anything. I am app resistant!

This was a photo of the South Pole of Jupiter that I painted and decided to turn into a symmetrical collage. Matching up the pattern was difficult because it wasn’t similar along the edges, but I did my best.

I’d love a planet to be named after me!

Posted on April 1, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, asteroids, Astronomy, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1893, Knowledge, Planet, Sir Patrick Moore, Spaceweather.com, The sky at night, TV4 Comments

If you could have something named after you, what would it be?

I love astronomy, I don’t know enough about it, but I learn what I can. Red dwarfs, white dwarfs, even brown dwarfs? Supernovae, Nova, planetary nebula. Planets. I probably learnt most of it from a TV programme called the Sky at Night, that used to be presented by Sir Patrick Moore. Since he passed away its been presented by Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Chris Lintott. But it seems to have disappeared off the TV recently with no plans to broadcast it at the moment! What? I’ve been watching it for decades.

You can also do citizen science like things on Zooniverse looking at Mars, or planets round other starts, or even looking for radio signals. I do find the whole thing fascinating. It’s worth looking at https://spaceweather.com for instance to find out about auroras, meteor showers, asteroids and Sunspots.

Hearts

Posted on April 1, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged being an artist, Digital art, Learning, New phone, obsolete, old aged nerd!, problem solving, Sketch, TimeLeave a comment

Well not really! When you load perfectly good apps on your phone you expect them to keep working, or at least that you can reload them if you change your device. Unfortunately this phone is too new to support Layout App. I still have it on my PC I think but I don’t really use it, so another learning curve. My head hurts… Now I will try and understand the new app, and try not to be annoyed by in app ads!

Egg?

Posted on April 1, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Digital art, Digital sketch, Easter egg, egg, Fun, Learning, metallic pens, Tools3 Comments

Egg doodle using a newer version of Artrage that I’ve downloaded onto my new phone. Glad I’ve got this one, but other older apps I can no longer find. I will keep looking. It’s frustrating that the gallery images that I’d saved on those apps have disappeared, but you learn and transfer skills to other apps. This is meant to be an Easter egg. Can you tell? Lots more tools on this version, no opacity tool though so you can’t reduce the strength of the pen with a slider, and the old choice had a dry pen, and three other style of pens that I can’t remember now? But fun none the less.

Delamere

Posted on April 1, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Autumn, Blues, Cheshire, Colour, Delamere forest, Distance, Fine Art, Leaves, Life, Reds2 Comments

Third painting. I used the reference photo less and added leaves on the left hand side that were further towards the centre than was on the original photo. The lady who lent me the photograph told me this was taken at Delamere forest, which I think is in Cheshire.

I tried to emphasise the blues in the background to give it a distant feeling. Then I emphasised the reds and greens to ring them to the fore. The leaf litter was fun to paint trying to shape it and add light shining through the leaves onto the ground. It’s a small acrylic on canvas.