Another in the textured landscapes series I’m creating. After getting the first painting accepted into the three counties open exhibition in Burslem School of art, I now have the opportunity to put some paintings up for sale at the Etruria Industrial Museum cafe. I decided to try and use a similar style to create colourful and striking landscapes. I’m using a different size of pattern, smaller than the Waterfall painting and more intricate. I want to evoke wild flowers in a summer landscape with Westport Lake in the distance.
The wind was blowing as we walked round Trentham lake today. That was fine, the weather was cool and cloudy but dry. We walked past the reopened miniature railway which had a diesel train running on it with happy children and adults riding on it. We did think about taking a ride but decided to head towards the end of the lake to the cafe to get an ice cream. We noticed strong gusts of wind and the clouds darkening but it wasn’t bad and I had a large umbrella that I was using ad a walking stick.
We sat and had an icecream but felt the patter of rain. So we decided to walk back the way we had came. Then we fought a head on blast of wind and rain! The brolly was being buffeted, twisting in the air. Its handle and stem were bending in the strong gusts of wind. Suddenly it turned inside out! We both fought it back into a sort of shape because it was still raining, but a couple of spokes are hanging down and the cover has pulled away and is sagging. Sadly it was disposed of when we came home… Mm
I used to whistle a lot when I first started working, usually because I was happy. Then someone said to me ‘a whistling woman and a crowing hen brings the devil right out of his den!’, they didn’t think whistling was ladylike.
I didn’t whistle much at work after that. But I had a tune that I would whistle to call in our cats and have used it ever since we started keeping them. It’s a short tune, but I think it gives them an idea of where I am. It also is high pitched so that it cuts through the traffic noise instead of shouting which can get jumbled up with other voices.
I kept whistling the tune when one of our cats went missing. I didn’t know if he could hear me but I hoped he knew I was calling him. After eight days he came back, very thin and ill, but I think the whistling helped him know he was wanted.
Certainly most of my cats listen to my whistle and come when called. Only one ignored it. She would come to the back door then ignore me. As if to say, you are not my mistress! I’ve found one of them will jump up on my lap when I whistle and another gives a loud purr-miaow when I whistle at him.
Whistling is a challenge. I like trying to recreate bits of classical music, like the flight of the bumblebee or old hymns. As I just tried that the cat lying down on my right lifted his head, went purr-miaow and went back to sleep again!
Loved tonight’s sky, even though we are on the wrong side of the hill…our house is in shadow about two hours before the sun sets. We get good silhouettes! I grabbed my phone and took a picture. If I’d wanted to get to the sunset I would have had to jump in the car, turn round, drive up and over the hill and find somewhere to park. As it was these colours were fleeting, lasting only a few minutes. I only saw it because the light reflected into our kitchen and made it glow.
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was Stones. I thought of drawing one of the members of the Rolling Stones but decided against it. Since I’m using a new sketchbook and I’ve been painting in acrylics this afternoon I decided to conjure up some stones from my imagination using the colours I’ve been using in the paintings.
I can’t do more. My brush is wearing out trying to add texture and colour (I exaggerate!) But I need to stop, I don’t want to overdo it. I have plans for a few more in this style. I’m enjoying the challenge of working out how it fits together. Too much texture? Not enough? Are there places where your eye can rest or is it too chaotic? I noticed I was using yellow and purple complementary colours. Can you even tell its a waterfall…. I hope so. Dorothy Clive Garden waterfall in Willowbridge, Staffordshire, England.
Do you have to phone your phone to find it? You think you know where it is (in your handbag) but the cover is mostly black (even though you painted one side in gold and green) but after five minutes of fishing about for it you give up and try ringing it with another mobile or a land-line. Then….
It rings, you find it tucked impossibly into the lining of your handbag….
It goes straight to voicemail, and you upend your bag onto the sofa to find it.
It rings on the land-line handset, but not in your bag?! You go out to your car and check in the footwell and retrieve it…
Or
A stranger answers! But it’s a wrong number, you misdialled your number…
Or…
A stranger answers, yes it’s your number. No you can’t have your phone and all its digital information back! Eek!
Is it St Jude you pray to for finding lost objects?
I might do a painting based on this photo that I have added texture to in the Photodirector app. The wildflowers were all in bloom at Westport Lake today. I could not identify many of them but they did make a lovely show. I managed to get a few thousand steps in for a change, I haven’t been doing enough walking recently. It is the season for bees and butterflies. We actually saw a few today.
Insomnia is a nuisance. It’s upset my sleep pattern for years. I still have trouble sleeping but someone told me a way of trying to alleviate the problem. I was told to think of the word ‘the’ to help me sleep. ‘the’ has nothing to latch onto, so while your brain is thinking of the word ‘the’ it’s hard to think of anything else. It actually seems to work for me.
It’s been a few weeks and I’ve actually found that I can get better sleep. My mind is sneaky though and as I’m starting to drift off it seems to insert the worries I’m trying to avoid, then I have to go back to ‘the’ again…. And sometimes again.
Another effect is that I’m having dreams, lots of them, I can’t remember them, but they seem quite interesting at the time. Maybe I should write them down.
Mallaband-Brown 