
This was a fun challenge, when members of the Orme Art Group collaborated to produce this image. I’m glad I didn’t have the task of fitting it together. I hope we do another one of these again soon.
New paintings and regular art updates.

This was a fun challenge, when members of the Orme Art Group collaborated to produce this image. I’m glad I didn’t have the task of fitting it together. I hope we do another one of these again soon.

Why did my smoke alarm just go off? No smoke, no pans left on, no flames rising from the computer. No fire outside in the garden. There must be a reason. I randomly asked Google the question ‘can spiders set smoke alarms off?’, I got the answer above. We tried blowing and detritus out of it, but when hubby put it back together it did it again. Why? I don’t know, but we will be buying a new smoke alarm tomorrow.

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was mirror. I drew a face reflected in a jug of liquid, sitting on a chequered table cloth. After all anything reflective can be a mirror. I didn’t add the person whose face is reflected. Just being a bit spooky.

Does anyone remember this. It came with pins to hold the circles down that you drew around. You had to use thick card board to pin into otherwise as you used the small circles the paper would slip. Over the years I did hundreds of these patterns, I could almost draw them without the plastic circles and getting pens to fit in the little holes. I liked some patterns more than others. Maybe it explains my obsession with them now?

Moon bright
Bright orb
Orbiting Earth
Earth shine
Shining strong
Strongly believe
Believe me
My Night
Night bright
Bright moon…

Looking out of our house, I can see gardens on the side and rear of the house, but a grey factory building in front. I wish we had a view of the sea or countryside. The road in front of our house is on a steep hill, and quite often cars roar up and down it, ambulances rush by with sirens blaring, or motorbikes speed up, exhausts popping and banging. The hill is one of the steepest in the area and seems sometimes to be a racetrack! Oh to see a yatch in the distance, sails catching the rising or setting sun. That would be magical.

Our alleyway is blocked off by this pile of rubbish that a builder has moved off his land. I have reported it to my council a few times over the last few weeks. I haven’t chased it up as much as I could because of my sisters death. I hope it will be moved soon as it is preventing my neighbours access to the back of their properties. I think it’s disgusting that someone can just tip this and not face some form of action. Apparently the flats he has been working on are due to be shown on a TV housing auction show! Perhaps if he is paid an appearance fee he can use it to pay to clear up his mess!

I’m trying to design a poppy painting that could also be used on a card. I’ve decided to have a poppy in the rain with drops of water on it. I wanted to signify remembrance and sadness without being too grim. I think I will paint this and see how it looks. X

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was animate. I tried to work out how a horse runs and if I could try and draw overlapping images of them. I know there are books you can get that show you how to do animations but I just did this quickly without any reference. I’ve always enjoyed trying to draw horses, I have a basic idea of how they look. X

I’ve always wanted to see the Aurora Borealis and last night and tonight might have been the chance. But two things are against it. I live too far south and its cloudy. The reason why it might have been visible is because there is a large area of sunspots that had come into view around the edge of the Sun. It has strong magnetic North and South currents which increases the chance and strength of Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar flares. These could be directed Earth-wards and spark Aurora in both the North (Aurora Borealis) and South (Aurora Australis).
I’d like to see the nothern lights one day. It’s on my bucket list. More information can be found at Spaceweather.com.