Craft fair in June.

Posted on April 16, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Craft fair, June, pasting table, small paintings, Stoke-on trent, summer fair, Table, Time, Trentham, warped1 Comment

I said I would post about this. Apart from trying to do some small paintings (see my previous couple of posts) I need to buy a small table. My pasting table was stored outside in the shed and it’s badly warped! I got it because it was cheap, too cheap unfortunately. Anyway I need something big enough, but not too big if you know what I mean. I can’t really carry anything too heavy because of my left arm and shoulder, but I need to make an effort if I’m going to try and do a few craft fairs in the future… It will be interesting to see what other people’s products are like. If its anything like the one I went to a few weeks ago I’ll end up buying more than I sell!

Reminded

Posted on April 16, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Abstract, Art, Colours, Fine Art, graphic, mini painting, outlines, patten, Small canvas2 Comments

I asked about ideas and my friend sent me this photo of an abstracted idea of Robin Hoods Bay in Yorkshire. It features stone block walls, terracotta tiles, blue sea and sky and a few seagulls. It’s only about 4 inches square on a little canvas. I used bright colours and strong lines to make it more graphic. There are strong outlines so it could almost be a jigsaw. It’s hard to find a balance between abstraction and realism. I stylised the smoke and the sparkles on the sea. The windows seem to float above the surface of the stone, and I’ve used white highlights to hold it together. I think it was a success.

Owlish

Posted on April 16, 2023April 16, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Artists block, Canvases, Craft fairs, Crafts, Fine Art, Life, miniature, Owls, Painting, small, Thinking8 Comments

A small turquoise and blue painting of two owls I painted a few years ago. I want to do a few more like this, semi realistic but with a bit of quirkiness.

I’ve got a small craft table in June and I need to restock my paintings. I’ll post about the craft fair soon.

I’m asking for suggestions for small paintings, ideas for new pictures? These will be matchbox sized or slightly bigger. I need to do some paintings of bees on flowers. I painted giraffes against sunsets. I might add some metallic paint again.

I just want to get going. But I’m a bit blocked mentally at the moment. I look at me easle and think, tomorrow? But that begins tomorrow again…. Life is strange.

Gone

Posted on April 16, 2023April 16, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Environment, Frogs, Gardening, Hedgehog, Landscape, Life, Nature, Outside, Pond, PoolLeave a comment

Snowdrops gone, daffodils fading, tulips opening… Winter is over and Spring has sprung. I hope for warm spring days and new flowers opening. Blossom on the boughs of the cherry and pear trees, open already on the old plum tree and the walnut tree is starting to transform.

There are strong gusts and April Showers. Heavy rain and lightning, but we await the warmth of the sun. Not too hot. But the garden is growing and buds are breaking. I hope the hedgehogs and frogs reappear. It’s an effort to maintain things like the pond which needs a new liner. I must take some photos soon.

Ten years?

Posted on April 15, 2023April 15, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged aliens, coastline, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1907, dinosaurs, Humour, Poem, Poetry, Prompt, ten years14 Comments

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

In ten years, I will be riding in a sky car over a largely flooded coastline. Cars will all be electric. I will have sold every single painting and be a few thousand pounds richer. My house (on a hill) will be above the waterline.

Seriously, I don’t have any plans that far ahead in time. I hope to still be clinging on to life for a little longer, I want to see Halleys comet come back in around 2060?

Ten years from now

I will be older

I will be poorer

I won’t be free

Of gas bills

Aliens arrived

In 2029

And fell in love

With chickens

Who mutated

Into dinosaurs

Using ancient DNA

In a mad max type world

I will be

Glad if I’m free…

Abstract horse sketch

Posted on April 15, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged App, Design, Digital drawing, Drawing, Experiment, Horse, Life, Sketching, Sketching app6 Comments

Playing with my sketching app again. This time I found my drawing stylus so I had more control over the lines in it. Although you can see by my writing that it’s not much more under control!

The pens in the app are very varied, here I used a solid flowing line, a texture and a watercolour effect. This could represent a chess piece, the knight. I like the way it’s turned out.

Bench view?

Posted on April 15, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Age, Bench, bench appreciation, Flowers, Life, Memorial, Memories, Wood, WreathLeave a comment

Flowers in a wreath seen on a bench last year? Was it a memorial to someone who had passed. Remembering a share time together looking at a view…. I wonder.

The bench itself is in good condition, the wood is starting to go green and will need to be replaces one day. I had a bench and the slats rotted. I went out and bought new slats but never found someone to put it back together again. I guess benches and people are similar. If they aren’t looked after they have a tendency to fall apart!

People sketching

Posted on April 15, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Canal, Crane, Drawing, Life, Middleport, Photo, Pottery, Sketching, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

When I was out sketching a few weeks ago there were lots of other people drawing. After I finished I took this photo of my friend drawing the same view I’d done. He was working in charcoal and pencil I remember. The day was overcast with patches of blue sky. The ground is covered in concrete, but the way it is breaking up I think there are probably cobblestones underneath. There is a large area of cobbles around the corner where you enter the Middleport pottery complex. In the backdround you can see a small wooden crane which was used to load and unload barges. Forty years ago my hubby worked at another pottery, he actually used one of these to lift packed pottery ware to load onto a lorry. He said you could lift a big weight easily because of the gearing on it. The one he used was cast iron. It had a band brake and a pawl and ratchet to hold the load in place as it was swung over the lorry.

We are not that far away from the past, history is not that long ago. A lot of the old industry in the area was using old machines and equipment, because they had always done things that way and it probably saved a lot in investment. Even now there are lots of pottery molds to be found in the area. Sadly a lot of them get smashed. Losing our heritage. Do we really want to wipe our history out completely?

Gratitudes

Posted on April 14, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cats, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1906, electric light, everyday things, five things, happiness, toilet, Washing up liquid, Water6 Comments

What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?

Five things that are everyday things?

1. Washing up liquid. Not used to the excess, enough to clean plates and cutlery without polluting the waterways. You can buy ones that are ecologically acceptable. It makes me happy that I can have clean plates.

2. Clean water, to drink, for washing and for bathing. I so lucky to live in a country that mostly has this, although the infrastructure is aging and even here there are some droughts and water shortages.

3. Are Cats everyday objects? I have to say they give me great pleasure and happiness. I’m not saying they are perfect, they can be mad, silly, crafty, cheeky. And they are pretty ubiquitous.

4. Electric light. I wish more people could have this, to be able to see at night without using smoky candles or oil lamps. I hope more communities can get solar power. It’s been shown that school children do better when they can see to do their homework. And maybe more solar power for other necessities.

5. Toilets, it’s a little bit delicate to talk about, but we are again lucky to have them here. They help reduce illnesses and ideally people could be given them. I think you can twin with communities through charity to raise funds to build them in poorer societies. I don’t know the details unfortunately.

Myself

Posted on April 14, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Books, brush, Canvas, Cat, Drawing, I, Illustration, Pencil, Poppies, Pottery, self portrait, Sketching, Willow pattern, xrayLeave a comment

I was looking for this drawing because there was a prompt on one of the Art groups I’m on that asked people to post #thisisme. I looked and looked for this and could not find it, and yet its on my WordPress media gallery! It was originally drawn for a college project ‘I’. As you can see it includes a self portrait, a canvas and pencil and brush, some poppies, an x-ray, books, an old pottery, a cat and finally the willow pattern on a plate. Each thing means something to me. It was drawn in 2020 so I have changed slightly since then. No bits have dropped off but I’m not as well as I was. Life eh? Gets to us all….