New paintings and regular art updates.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was history. I decided to draw the pool at Bodnant Gardens, a house and gardens run by the National Trust near, Llandudno in North Wales. Its well known for its beautiful laburnum walk and many flowering shrubs and plants. The upper part near the house has lawns and perennial plants while the garden slopes down to a river and has lovely wooded areas.
He couldn’t be more comfortable
Like a bug in a rug
A chick in a nest
A coiled warm snake
A dog in a vest
A bear in its den.
A goldfish in its bowl
A bee in its hive.
He’s happy to have his belly rubbed.
A comfort-cat enjoying life.
Great purrs-onality!
It’s getting colder here and the forecast or Scotland, parts of Wales and the North West is for snow over the next few days. That made me want to draw snowflakes, and that led me to using the sketch app again.
At the moment I’m trying to keep warm and get over the bug I’ve had for a few weeks. The thought of colder weather does not fill me with joy. Just dread!
Still I like my colours that I’ve used on the drawing, a little bit like Wedgwood China.
A digital drawing of a flower, perhaps a chrysanthemum? Drawn in a sketching app on my phone that has a symmetry tool. It means that as you draw a curve it can be mirrored, or made symmetrical on different axises, (not sure if that’s the right word). Doing a finger painting is hard to control. I do have a stylus for my screen but I don’t know where it is. Perhaps I could have done a better job with it. The sketch app is not one I use that often.
5pm sky. Less than a month after the shortest day, and this afternoon I noticed there was still light in the sky after 5pm.
Why does it matter? When I was working and doing a 9 to 5 job I hated starting and finishing the day in the dark, particularly in the evening.
There was an experiment in the 1960’s when the UK kept British Summer time throughout the year. It only lasted for about three years, but it was much better to walk home from school in daylight. The Royal Society for the prevention of accidents? (I think), worked out it was safer for children because in the evening people were tired and there were less accidents when children were more visible when walking home.
For me, when it starts to get lighter in the evening I feel less gloomy, my spirits lift. I’m pretty sure I don’t suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. (SAD). I can’t imagine how bad it must be for people that do.
Now I’m looking forward to Spring despite the rest of the winter to come.
It’s hard to see, but one of our cats sleeps in front of our two oil filled radiators. He’s the biggest of our cats and has thick fur, but I think because he was abandoned and used to live outside, he’s taking advantage of the warmth he can get. It’s no problem to us as the heaters warm the whole room, and when he’s not there he’s usually outside in the cold. He really likes being out and about. One of the other two cats sleeps upstairs on a soft and fluffy bed or on the cat tree by the living room radiator, and the other one either sleeps on my chair, the sofa, or an igloo shaped bed in the living room. So basically they are all snug!
Sunday’s #bandofsketchers prompt was Myth. Oh what to do? I am in love with gryphons, unicorns, winged horses and many other things, but as my most recent study was about dragons, I chose to draw one. I started out with three pens held together to try and create a triple image, but the middle pen had dried out. So I finished off with two. If you look carefully you can see the outline of two other eyes below the ones I have outlined. Then I coloured it in with metallic felt pens. I might do more to it but this is good enough as a sketch.
A lifetime of collection
A wide selection
Stacked in a case
Of wood, a place
To keep your mind
You thoughts find
Sections of thought
Over the years, you bought
But still despite it all
My grammar is still appall
ING!
I must have been tired last night, I didn’t wake up till after two pm this afternoon. I hadn’t slept the night before and it feels like I’m getting no sleep one night and then a decent night the day after. Strategies for trying to sleep, like relaxation, meditation, deep breathing and other techniques don’t seem to work. I think we need a new bed, ours is over twenty five years old and very lumpy. I’ve folded up sheets to stop the springs sticking in me! It’s also a problem with pain. My toes hurt due to gout and having the sheets resting on them is uncomfortable to say the least, so I toss and turn all night and get up too exhausted to stay awake in the day! But I’m going to try and get a new bed maybe…. In any case I must stop moaning about things! I hate insomnia.
Tired, didn’t sleep last night so had several naps this afternoon and evening. I saw the start and end of one film, but nothing in between. My eyes have kept closing, while I’ve been dozing. But I have lots of things to do. I must get better and find the time to get them done. Stupid chest infection.
I digitally manipulated the previous grumpy drawing to try and make it look sad.
Mallaband-Brown