New paintings and regular art updates.
I could not sleep last night. Various things kept me awake so I decided to experiment with linocutting and printing till dawn. I tried different paper, adding felt pen under the ink and even printing onto a layer of post-it notes. Not too bad for a novice, I even managed curves and didn’t cut my hand!
One thing I forgot, the print reverses the image, hence my initials are backwards! Duh!
Ink bleeds through paper. Draw around those patches, lines and dots, and you get a patchwork ‘map’ that looks like roads and boulevards, streets and squares. A change of colour for city blocks. Villages line up on roads between fields. Some streets are tree lined, others are concrete. Does it show your age? Are you industrial or agrarian? Modern or ancient? Fortified? Or do you see veins, arteries and capillaries?
Used a digital app to u the contrast and colours on this drawing, I also made parts of it negative. I think it’s an interesting effect. The reds and greens have been enhanced, they were actually on the other side of the sketchbook page I use. It’s thinker paper than some but the ink can bleed through slightly to the other side of the paper.
How to draw a hurricane… I’m doing a project about a dragon and it has to fly through a hurricane to get home I hope it will be a fun adventure story for children. The final image is black and white and much simpler than this but I wanted to try and create a dynamic swirl of colour. Digital drawing.
A mixture of my cards for sale at Etruria Industrial Museum. Mostly green men and sea women, but with a card based on a painting of Cheddleton Station building near Leek, Staffordshire, England. I painted it in 2000, I think. I still have the original.
I have a lot of paintings that I never sold. I’m not a sales person and I don’t think I ever will be. I’m more interested in the process and result than selling art afterwards. I worry my family will be burdened with my art when I die!
Currently visiting Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent on Trent. A sculpture called the Knife Angel. Its there for the rest of April and its made of over 100,000 knives handed in across the country in a UK wide knife amnesty. It makes you realise how many young people think they need to carry knives to stay safe. Where the USA and other countries have problems with gun crime we have young people, particularly young men and youths, dying and injured by knives. This sculpture is trying to persuade them that the use of knives is dangerous and foolish and the organisers are raising funds to educate people to say no to using knives. I hope they succeed.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was Peace. I decided to draw yellow roses against a blue background. Used felt pens, Hoping for peace in Ukraine. I know its a vain hope but I can wish.
A few paintings and some cards for sale at the cafe at Etruria Industrial Museum today. Its great to have another venue to show my work and as its open to people travelling along the canal I hope they will be seen more. I put in images based on nature but I may have the opportunity to place other works there soon. I’m obliged to my friend who is volunteering at the museum who invited me to take my work there.
View through silver Birches of three chimneys at Etruria Industrial Museum today. I think only the short stumpy one on the right is at the flint Mill, the thin metal one and the tall brick one seem to be to be on the side on another part of the industrial site. The buildings there look derelict with holes in one of the roofs. I hope the large chimney is stable. Sketch done on the balcony at the back of the museum.
Blue poppy painting I did in 2016, from a photograph by my sister. It’s going to a new home next week. I do feel like my paintings are my children. Leaving me, going out into the world. Or maybe cats, I seem to always have more here than get rehomed! Acrylic on canvas, about 8×12 inches.
Mallaband-Brown