New paintings and regular art updates.
Sea horse, racing through the surf, galloping over turf.
Sea horse, give it all you have, kick your hooves so hard.
Sea horse, flying through the air, foam round your feet.
Sea horse, don’t stop for breath, racing with the tide.
Sea horse, today is your day, race for your life.
Sea horse, see your life flash by, waves of time wash over you.
Just the ocean, sea and you, in your wake I follow.
You don’t have to take drawing seriously, you can experiment and learn new techniques as you go!
The thing I try and do is to draw something every day. They reckon that you need to do 10,000 hours at anything to become an expert, something like that anyway. At my age I must be well passed that…..
These are more digital drawings, probably done around 2012. They popped up on my Facebook feed as a memory. It’s interesting to look back and see what you were doing years ago. It is like looking at old sketchbooks.
I want to do some more work like this, but it is finding time to do it that is the problem.
Anyway goodnight all!
I have always drawn and painted animals. Horses are a particular favourite. So when I got onto the internet a few years ago I started drawing them on various sites.
Sketchfu was a website with simple drawing tools, but there was a great society there and you could get interesting results.
One thing I noticed when I look at these is that most of them face one way, head to the left , tail to the right. I seem to do the same if I draw a profile, they usually face left. I had a thought the its because I’m right handed? I wonder if left handed people draw right to left?
Horses are wonderful to draw and paint, sometimes they are so full of free spirit. I loved Shadowfax in thd Lord if the Rings. The thought of flying over the land on Pegasus would also be marvellous. Not forgetting unicorns which are a lovely mythical beast. I love the way they can have do many coat patterns. I think my favourites are grey.
So if you think you would like a horse painting get in touch. I might be able to help.
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My brain is getting frazzled!
I joined wordpress a few months ago and am really enjoying the experience. There are lots of interesting blogs on here on all sorts of subjects.
BUT
I can’t keep up. My inbox is full of your wonderful blogs, each morsel should be read with devotion and rapt attention, but I have to admit I can’t do it!
How does anyone else manage! I can skim read a lot but I only have time to look at a few properly. Most I want to click “like” on, to show they have grabbed my eyes and made me stop and think.
BUT
I dont have time! I don’t have the capacity to read it all. The guilt I feel if I miss anything. Then again I have other social media to check. Other emails to read. Stuff off the internet that either interests me, or I have to deal with.
So please forgive me if I can’t like all your posts. I will try….
Orange is sharp, orange is zesty, bright like the sun, full of sweetness.
Orange is clay, terracotta, rusty. Iron oxidized, turned into ochre.
Orange is fire, hot lava pouring, burning with heat, spitting out rocks.
Orange a mixture of red and of yellow, painting the sky in a deep sunset glow.
Orange is warmth and spice in food, saffron in rice, turmeric too.
Let Orange be free, paint with it, see –
It’s colour reminds me to be happy…
Thus us the old Colliery building I was drawing on Saturday. It’s amazing that it is still standing, it reminds me of an old cathedral or castle…..a ruin of the future, which until a few decades ago supplied fuel for our homes and power stations.
Hopefully it will reopen as a museum to the hard work and skills of its former workers.
the old Colliery buildings
It’s been too hectic to post much over the last couple of days, I was getting ready for out makers market at Spode. …I only sold a couple of things, ah well there is always next time.
But yesterday morning I went out with Stoke Urban sketchers to draw the old colliery buildings at Chatterly and Whitfield enterprise zone. A former colliery closed in the 1980’s, I remember visiting when there was a mining museum there. You could walk through some of the old mine workings and he a feeling of what it was like to work underground.
Sadly the museum closed down due to lack of visitors, but I have heard that volunteers are trying to bring something back to the site.
We were outside the perimeter fence, somewhere on the path in the nature reserve that now surrounds the site.
The buildings are very big, there are many stories to them, with arches and windows in the side of the buildings. Huge winding wheels look miniscule where they sit at the top of the building, and guard rails are placed on either side if them. The main building is starting to get covered in foliage, eventually it could end up looking like an ancient relic or monument.
Metal frames and wheels also dotted the horizon, I did a pen drawing, a couple of pencil sketches, and a pastel and ink picture.
Being surrounded by other skilled artists really encouraged me to try and capture the architecture of the landscape. Drawing in a group can help your confidence. Even my partner had a go!
I finished my nebula paint in tonight and I had this black canvas, so I have started a painting of Earth.
I remember seeing the Apollo 11 landing on TV. I was only young and Dad got us up out if bed to see it. Grainy pictures showed Armstrong stepping down the ladder.
I think that inspired my love of science and space. Then seeing the photo of Earth rising above the moon fascinated me. The old TV programmes did not show Earth properly, sci fi had Earth without clouds, just blue oceans and brown land.. Seeing the reality, especially the photo showing the African continent was so special.
So anyway. I like planets, I have painted Jupiter a couple of times and this is the second time I have painted Earth. It is amazing to see the colours and clouds. I wish I was young enough to go into space to see the reality.
Here is the painting again…almost finished…I may add more detail to the clouds, painted under electric light so need to see it in the daytime. .
My dear friend who runs a forge called Sculpted Steel.
Late last year I asked my friend if she could make me a cat for my garden. She took on the commission and I drew a quick sketch of what I wanted.
That was a few months ago. There have been a few hiccups and ups and downs, but I finally collected “Escher” today.
He is finely made. The details are brilliant. He even has green eyes! My friend took on board my request that the whiskers were to be curled roundcat the ends to stop anyone poking themselves in the eye. It has been finished off with green car paint.
Escher is now in a quiet part of the garden. He might even frighten off the neighbours cat, at least can’t pounce on the birds!
I saw Adam from Hulton Art pottery today, which is based at the Spode pottery site. I bought a wall mounted bracket (which is still wrapped in bubble wrap) but along with it he gave me a terracotta tile of what looks like a cheeky little devil..
I can’t help liking his wide smile, the twinkle in his eyes, his spikey, possibly flaming coat, (the tile, not Adam!).
I asked if it was OK to paint this little guy, because he made me chuckle with laughter. It looks like something mediaeval that could have been a gargoyle on an old building. Adam told me it was made in about 1997, soon after he had completed his training in pottery, so it seems really special. I feel privileged to have something that has age and character. This cheeky little devil is probably going to find a home on a window ledge somewhere.
I feel like he is related to the green men I have been painting over the last few years. Maybe they all have a feeling of spirit of the Earth in them. An old hidden life that we have lost as the world becomes ever more urban around us. I like the idea of faeries and little people getting up to mischief.
I remember one if my favourite paintings when I was a teenager was Richard Dadds’ the Faeiry Fellers masterstroke. He was put into a mental asylum because of ‘madness’ but I don’t know his history apart from that. Dadds’ painting has amazing tiny details. If you can try looking it up on the net.
Anyway I might post a follow up picture of the little devil if I ever finish it.
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