New paintings and regular art updates.
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And….. The insomnia has kicked in again! Achey arm, scringing toes, too warm, aching back. Thoughts whirl and I can’t rest. Thought of putting the radio on for quiet or white noise, but I can never retune the thing and if I have it on low my instinct is to struggle to hear the news. Plus my sleep aponea mask sometimes hisses in my face. I’ve had a new mask but the hose connecting it to the machine is the wrong size and sometimes disconnects if I turn over in bed. Sorry to moan…
At the end of a sketch out artists do a throw down where we lay out all our drawings for each other to see. There are fourteen sketches here but I think there were more people attending than that.
There are lots of things to sketch at Keele, there is Keele Hall, various interesting buildings and different architectures. There are also a series of small lakes and an observatory which I once visited, but can’t remember where it is. The number of buildings on the campus has really increased in recent years. There is now a full blown science park there. It’s a long way from when it’s campus was the base for an old British comedy called a very peculiar practice. Based in the 1980’s.
I just looked at the sky from the other side… I mean I watched the film Gravity and it struck me that it looks much the same from above and below? Maybe the clouds are on a different scale, but they are still white and grey, the blue sea mimics the blue of the sky. We are truly a blue and white marble in the deep ocean of black space. We fall up to space, or down to earth, the thin atmosphere is all that protects us against hard radiation and vacuum.
Oh you sweet cat
One belly rub required
To make him happy
But beware the claws
That protect his tummy
From your intrusion
Be careful
Or you may lose your hand!
Just to show you what I was trying to draw today. Dark and forbidding on the outside. Great place to hear classical music concerts on the inside. I think it was built in the 1950’s or 60’s. Part of the Keele University campus.
Ten minute pen sketch, my fellow urban sketcher Rita was concentrating on drawing Keele Chapel, she looked chilly in the cold wind!
There was an open day at the University today but they let the urban Sketchers on the carpark. I sat myself down on a bench by the students union and ruffled by the wind that was gusting through the plaza, I sat and drew the Chapel too while watching gazebos rocked by the wind. A whole display of soaps and moisturisers on one craft stall went flying to the ground, it got gloomier and colder. But then about twenty of us gathered to see each others work! What a brisk and breezy morning.
I’ve been out with Stoke urban Sketchers today. It was a breezy cold morning but I need to get back into urban sketching again, I haven’t been along for months. We were at Keele University in Staffordshire. I decided to draw the Chapel, large, brutal architecture, a bit like a castle without the castelations. If that’s what they are called. I tried drawing using a charcoal set I’d bought. It was a bit disappointing, less charcoal, more grey pencil? I used some conte crayon sticks and a few felt pens to add bits of colour. I finished off drawing tiny lines to indicate the walls were made of black bricks. Eventually I went and got a hot drink. Then I came out again and quickly drew one of the other Sketchers. Finally we had a throw down of everyone’s drawings, I might post a photo later.
I saw this canal boat and just wanted to take a photo of the colours and the perspective lines. You don’t always have to take a photo that shows the entire object. Close ups and distant shots can be good. Macro photos can be very interesting. There are bad photos, but then you can crop them to show a different aspect. Be open to different ideas. Be creative, be comfortable with trying something new.
Grey man,
Carved stone
Oak leaves
And acorns
Sculpted from granite
A Robin
Might peck at you
Ivy entwine you
Algae wrap you in green
Lichen inhabit you
Stone you are
Soil you may become
With age and ice
Weather and water
Till ground into a powder
You are amalgamated
And your stone face
Is incorporated
Transformed and metamorphosised
Into a real tree.
A stag and thistles against a Scottish Saltire. The Penkhull Panto is not having scenery this year except for some smaller A2 panels that I painted a few years ago of various scenes from around the world. I offered to paint something representing Scotland and found various images of Scottish jewellery depicting Stags and Thistles in a semi celtic design. This is my interpretation of the idea. The blue and white of the saltire is a good background to the design. I used two A1 boards glued together for strength (£10) and it is painted in acrylics with some silver metallic pen highlights. I hope they like it.
Mallaband-Brown