New paintings and regular art updates.
Three crosses in Stoke Cemetery, seen on my walk today. I’m interested in the celtic patterns on them, some more pronounced than others. This ancient design style is subtle and complex. I want to learn more about them again. I wrote a thesis on pre- Christian celtic art for my degree, but I would love to learn how to draw the patterns. I get lost in the patterns. I need quiet and concentration I think.
Just playing with post it notes and cut out paper. I wanted to make something fun and silly. I don’t think the bear is aggressive and the bee is buzzing and not bothered. The bee hasn’t been swatted. The bear has teeth but is just looking on, probably admiring it’s honey collecting skills. The bear might go and steal its honey though!
Pre covid, my friend at the Wassail for a local apple tree.
Wassail? An ancient celebration to encourage apple trees to be fruitful again this year. In Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent it is celebrated by our local Morris Dancing team.
Morris Dancing? In ancient times Local groups of men (now anyone can join) used to get together and dress up, wearing boots or heavy clogs on their feet. Dancing to ancient tunes. Sometimes there is a person dressed as a hobby horse (with a large skirt and a carved horse head worn as a mask?) I don’t know enough about Morris history. I’m sure there is a lot of information out there.
So why this photo? It’s blurry, but it was taken at a Wassail. The Morris men were dancing, and the apple tree was beaten with sticks to get it to grow. And amidst it was my friend in his plague doctors mask, Cape and tricorn hat. And today I found it again and thought… Why not?
No, a mirrored photo, flipped on its vertical axis. The resulting image looks like a green island on a pond edged with a stone path. In actual fact this was a photo taken as we walked along the Trent and Mersey canal near Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent. Its strange how the eye sees symmetry as beautiful. Even ugly shapes can improve when you make them symmetrical. I also enjoy trying to create images that look like animals. If you follow this blog, or my Instagram page you will already know that.
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Two little drawings of mice for my friend Zoe Ainsworth-Grigg. She commissioned me to do a couple of illustrations of mice for a poem. In the poem the baby mice sing. I’m not writing it out as she holds the copyright to it. She just wanted simple line drawings and she was very happy with this.
Take a dried up, broad nib, calligraphy felt pen. Start drawing, watch as the view changes because the line up of images moves when you have the songsheet with the words displayed. Try and sing and draw at the same time! It’s hard to look down at your sketchbook, up at the words, and across to your fellow choir members. I challenged them to try and recognise themselves from these crude sketches.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was cafe/bar. I haven’t been out to a cafe but I decided to use some mono printed black and white paper to create a table and mug. I added colours to define the objects and create a design on the mug. The circles on the table are meant to be splatters from paint can lids..
Wrinkles?
What are they for?
And going grey
What is the point?
Feeling worn out
Losing my mojo
Growing tired
But I ain’t dead yet
I have knowledge
I see patterns in history.
No not grey
Precious silver
Or platinum.
Not wrinkles
But the map of my life.
Strong like a diamond
Moulded by the pressure
Of living.
I’m playing with different ideas. I held two pens together to try and get parallel lines, and I wanted to do something modern, a bit like graffiti for this. The writing says ‘walk this way to get to the treasure trove don’t get bitten on the way through the winding maze.’
There is a gaping mouth and a big staring eye. Big clawed feet and huge ears. The animals body is covered in flowers….fun..
I keep coming back to this tree as it spreads its branches over the view from Penkhull. I have watched it in leaf, with dying leaves, bare and now in bud. It makes me realise how fast a year can pass. The same with gardening, the seasons and plants come and go. And I’m a year older and no wiser….
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