New paintings and regular art updates.
#bandofsketchers prompt was pink, Following on from my nose drawing, here’s some pink lips x not brilliant, maybe I should have drawn flowers. I’ve tried to be accurate but I think I’ve created a trout pout! Anyway it’s drawn in the Artrage app on my phone.
Self portrait reflected in a stained glass window at Little Moreton Hall in Staffordshire. The idea was to create a ghostly image in keeping with the age of the property. I could have gone all out and added an Elizabethan headdress but I didn’t want to over complicate the idea. The painting is set at sunset when things get a bit more spooky. I do like creating narrative images.
What topics do you like to discuss?
That’s why I like trying to paint astronomical pictures, like this tryptic of Jupiters pole based on the photos by NASAs Juno probe.
I’ve always been interested in both subjects, I wouldn’t say I was an expert, I will always check my facts if I write about science, but I enjoy thinking things through. And having a visual mind helps me imagine how things work.
Art is my first love, I worry that I will find it increasingly difficult to create since my diagnosis with Parkinsons disease. I would be bereft if I could not continue. I hope that better treatment becomes available, another reason for being interested in science
Painting that just popped up on my Facebook memories today from 9 years ago. It’s a picture of a green man sea spirit. The image was based on a terracotta face I had outside my back door. There is a crack through it which was caused by frost I think. I changed the colours to reflect its maritime appearance. It has a similar feeling to the Air painting I just published, a spiritual or mythical feeling. Acrylic on canvas.
#bandofsketchers prompt was island views. I tried to do a drawing of St Michaels Mount. I couldn’t work directly off a photo as its on a website and I couldn’t take a screen shot of it. Then I had to draw sideways to fit in my screen on the Artrage app I drew it in. Finally rotated it, it’s a bit of an impressionist image x
Describe a risk you took that you do not regret.
I gave up work to mainly look after my hubby whose mental health was deteriorating. I could have carried on, but circumstances were also changing in my job. The way we worked was reverting back to old fashioned ways which I felt was detrimental to our clients. I’d fought hard to help them more and it felt like their needs were being forgotten while money was saved. Services were being slashed. I had to go, and I never regretted it, I just felt sorry for my fellow workers who I left behind. Covid and other problems meant that I didn’t make a go of my small business, but at least I tried.
When the Orme Art Group Exhibition finished this weekend the gallery at the Brampton museum asked if they could use my willow pattern painting in their next display of bird paintings and images. I was pleased to leave it up. It’s there till the end of May!
The painting is done in acrylic on canvas. It’s based on a few willow pattern pots, I took different aspects from different images so it is unique.
One of our cats from thirty years ago. Drawing in biro. He lived until he was about 17. He was a lovely quiet cat and I remember him and his sister were sweet. His mum came to us, as a pregnant stray. She was very intelligent and liked riding on my shoulders but her son didn’t do that. But he was still clever and would always come when I called or whistled him. He used to sneak into my neighbours house through their cat flap and he came home once with a huge steak in his mouth, growling when I took it off him. I never dared tell my friends what he had done!
Wire fairy I made 4 years ago and a sketch of it. I enjoyed making it although I would say it’s not as delicate as the ones I’ve seen at Trentham Gardens in Stoke on Trent, England, where there are some lovely examples. In fact looking at it again I’d call it an Imp, not a fairy!
It resides somewhere in my garden, probably overgrown by the laurel bush that is overwhelming the bottom of the garden.
Years ago I could draw well and u think I had good skills but now? The real thing I regret about having Parkinsons disease is that my manual dexterity and hand eye coordination are getting worse. I don’t know what the prognosis is but the Parkinsons nurse I spoke to at my last appointment told me that the tablets I am taking do not necessarily calm down the, shaking and tremors I’m experiencing. I thank the Internet for spellchecker because I don’t know if my writing would be OK without it. I can still draw but it takes time and at least I can digitally erase my mistakes. If I draw normally the shakes on my left side mean the sketchbook I’m using jerks around all over the place. So it’s easier to use an easle. My right hand is a bit more controlled if I concentrate hard. But Art is my whole life, if I can’t do it what will I do? I must learn to adapt, take the treatment I am given and hope. But there are other health problems I’m facing. I just have to have more tests…
Mallaband-Brown