New paintings and regular art updates.
I’m doing a few more tiny canvases for my stall, I’m miles behind with being ill. I’d bought twenty and so far I’m part way through three.
I’ve started another couple of pictures of Christmas baubles. But the third is going to be a Bee. I think we have to really think about stopping using insecticides or we will be in very great trouble.
Ive also outlined a dove of peace and an angel. Better have a rest then do some more.
X
Well, they are a bit random, but I think I’ve done enough to these. Added some highlights and shadows then silver and bronze colours. The first is now called puddle, like a stone dropped into water, the second is simply called autumn leaves. I might do some others like this but it’s knowing what to do and how to use the modelling medium.
First a fall and then a cold, I’ve not really done much blogging over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been resting and sitting and staring. Looking at canvases and thinking what I should do. I’ve got a craft fair coming up and I need to do some basically Christmassy art, but I don’t know what to do. I don’t really do cute and my mind feels befuddled. At least I’ve got more than a week to go to the big one. But will I get some cards printed. I’m going to have to push myself as soon as I feel better. The digital drawing illustrating this piece pretty much sums up how I feel.
X
I found these two canvases tonight, they have modelling medium on them that I turned into rings or ripples on one and autumn leaves on the other. I’m still playing with colours and want to mute some of them and pick up the sculptural elements in them. They are a bit patchy but they are getting there.
This is a tiny painting I did a few years ago, I’ve got twenty tiny canvases to paint over the next couple of weeks so I might do another one of these.
Other subjects will include Holly and Ivy, Christmas tree baubles, some snowy images and frost patterns.
Why? I have to do some art work for two upcoming craft fairs, and I wanted to do something seasonal but not too clichéd or twee. X
These are three of my murals in the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.
The first is a painting of a design by Clarice Cliff called Umbrellas, a painting of a woman who may have been murdered in the back room, and gives rise to the possibility it is haunted, and a portrait of the artist Arthur Berry, together with a painting of his in the background. Arthur was one of my tutors at college.
There are other paintings but I need to take good photos of them. They were painted about 12 years ago.
X
Of course you can have a black and white cat, but have pops if colour around it, as in this photo. The main colours here are blue and orange which are contrasting colours on opposite sides of the colour wheel. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s quite pleasing. Shadows fall below and to the right of the cat caused by the bright but diffused bathroom light.
This was a self portrait from 1981 when I was still at college. If I remember correctly I painted it in the summer holidays on some wooden boards, which were held together with tongue and grooves. I painted it in oil paints, not having come across acrylic paint until a few years later.
This is one of a few slides I have from that time. It’s interesting to see how my style has changed and the methods I use now, compared to in the past. I don’t know what happened to it. It may still be somewhere in the house.
X
I’m not used to my new ArtRage app on my tablet, neither am I used to my new tablet, everything is a bit mixed up. I’m mainly still doing things on my phone, but I’m slowly learning. I just found if I swipe the screen left I can find categories and tags, that’s useful..but when I tried again it wouldn’t do it?
Stuff is in my head. Stuff that I learned at school, or from my parents and family. From books I have read, from things on the TV and radio. From things I have experienced, felt, seen, heard.
The mind is a wonderful thing if it is allowed to learn. An empty vessel waiting for millions of little facts and ideas to inhabit it. General knowledge, science, literature, music, ideas, so much! I know things I didn’t think I know. Except about pop music! That’s what I really don’t know. I don’t claim to be knowledgeable about everything and anything. But I know a bit about quite a lot. But then am I a jack of all trades and master of none. You can see my grammar is not brilliant, I can’t do complex maths or calculus, but I know they exist…
The mind should be kind, I think. To be flexible and fluid. To try and understand other peoples minds and ideas. To care about things around you.
The mind can be beautiful. You have to try and make it that way.
Mallaband-Brown