New paintings and regular art updates.
Turn a tree upside down and it might look like it’s walking. Turn it on its side and it could be a running horse. Shapes can look like anything if you have that kind of mind. Simplify the shape and it becomes more like lots of different things. Stars turn into Gods and mythical beasts. Lines that don’t exist can be drawn on a map to create the Bermuda Triangle. Humans make up stories out of words and voices, but also from pictures and shapes, and I love that we do.
I am what they call a night owl. One of those people that stays up too late, can’t sleep and then get up too late. Half the day has gone before I see daylight.
Sometimes I don’t start painting till the afternoon. Then it means that I end up painting under artificial light. That’s OK but it affects he colours that I paint with. The light does make everything look more yellow and you cannot really see blues properly. I will wait till daytime to check the real colour (we live on a planet with blue skies and everything has a blue cast to it, but we don’t see it because our eyesight adjusts to it).
Does she have to?
Looking up
Reaching out
Claws extended
A cat smile on her face
Eyes start to close
Claws in
Pull and stretch away from me
Claws graze my knee
through the cloth
Of my trousers
Tail waving in joy
Then off to seek food!
I don’t know what to paint next, I have so many paintings, maybe too many? If anything ever happens to me will they end up in a charity shop? Should I donate some to my local museum? I’m responsible for a lot of acrylic on canvas! The thing is I love painting and drawing so much. I hope I bring as much enjoyment to other peoples lives as possible. Art makes me feel better, more relaxed, happy, or sometimes sad, contemplative, thoughtful, or just calm.
We’ve got a good crop of raspberries coming on the bushes this year. It’s because hubby cut them right down at the end of last season. We’ve never really followed instructions for growing things. We’re more a ‘bung things in and see’ type of gardeners! This was last week. I need to take some more photos but my hay-fever is making my nose and eyes run so I’m staying inside. I hope we will have enough for a few to have with scones. Our cherry tree has more fruit on than I thought. A lot blew off in strong winds but we should get a decent crop when they ripen.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was North. I decided to draw a design for a weather vane that points North. I thought I’d rather draw this rather than someone standing at the North Pole. Either that or a compass could have been a choice. Felt pen drawing in my sketchbook.
Sneezing, itchy eyes, coughing, I hate hay-fever. And it’s been dry and windy today…. I’m really suffering, I took my tablets and used a spray, but it’s warm tonight and I want a window open.
The forecast is for very high pollen levels because its being broken up by the wind and making it smaller apparently. That means more can be inhaled and can affect sufferers more. The hay-fever season is at its height and the weather has conspired to make things worse with a lot of grass (usually Timothy grass) shedding pollen at the same time.
Sorry for the awful cartoon, I just wanted to express what was happening.
When I was young trains were still pulled by steam engines. That’s right, I’m that old!
Our town station had a circular wooden booking hall and you walked down steps to the platforms. It was eventually demolished and a concrete station was built to replace it. If we wanted to go anywhere we had to go via Birmingham New Street. Apparently our town was almost chosen for the main station in the Midlands but Birmingham got it.
Our trips included travelling to Blackpool and to the Isle of Wight. We didn’t have a car then so any distances would have to be on a train or on a coach (coaches were better in some ways because they came back later than trains). I remember the Blackpool trip because we went up Blackpool Tower (looking a lot like the Eiffel Tower, but on top of a building). When we got to the viewing platform on the top the waves on the sea looked almost stationary. It looked weird. My mom told me she had once taken a plane ride around the tower in a tiny plane! I remember Blackpool pleasure Beach. Its the funfair on the ‘front’, including a ghost train and a big dipper roller coaster at that time I think, it has probably changed a lot now.
Then home on the steam train and a trolley bus (powered by overhead electric cables) home. I don’t remember arriving at home, I must have fallen asleep.
When we went to the canal festival a few weeks ago we both sat and drew. My hubby did a quick sketch of the large chimney at the back of the museum. You can see that although he doesn’t normally draw he’s got the idea of perspective and the regular lines on top of the bricks are the iron bands supporting the chimney all the way up its length. He’s also included a roof and trees and a brick wall.
Art isn’t something he generally does. He will pick up an adult colouring book sometimes but he tends to colour in with lines rather than shading things in fully. I think that is because he has a lot of anxiety and his mind bounces about and he doesn’t settle to one thing. But he is willing to try. I think that’s important. Art should be for everyone. They might not be Raphael or Titian but who knows what might emerge? Art is, I think, very important to humans, for aesthetics or design, communication or lifestyle. Just do it! ❤️
What WAS on the easle. The crab painting is going to a relative who may see it and I don’t want her to see the finished article. It’s boxed up and ready to go. Acrylic paint means I could get it finished today, but I’m too late to catch the post. I always dither about posting things, I try and use boxes I’ve received things in so I use a LOT of parcel tape. Also bubble wrap. I hope it will arrive safely…. I’ll post a picture of the finished work when it has got to its recipient. X
Mallaband-Brown