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.
Tag: Art
Owls
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
Some of my other murals at the Leopard Hotel…
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.
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Mostly black and white
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.
What to paint on.
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.
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Playing with ArtRage
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?
How do I know what I know?
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.
Angels
Guarding, guiding, helping, supporting.
Angels are (or not) mythical creatures, usually male. They fall into various types, angels and arch angels. Seraphim and cherubim. There are beautiful illustrations of them in icon paintings and renaissance art. I wish I knew more about the art and design of them in various ancient churches. There are fallen angels which are represented in films. I feel attracted to the complex art that is created around them. The photos above play with the idea and I have tried to manipulate them to look like stained glass windows.
Photo glitch
this interesting effect is on my phone. I was trying to take two seperate photos, but my camera on the phone was playing up. I guess this is like a digital double exposure. I haven’t seen anything like it before. It’s quite strange as the first image must have stayed on the image processor or whatever it is and the second image must have added to it. I think the coloured images were the ones I took first?
Would any of you photographers out there know what caused this?
Mug design
Take an abstract doodle and reimagine it as a mug design.
I just sketched the black in quickly but I could see this printed on a mug. It’s brightly coloured, a real pop of pattern.
Somehow I’ve got to start getting my art work printed. I think that would be a way forward with my pictures. I’ve had a few enquiries from people recently.
