New paintings and regular art updates.
Lined up in a row, like geodes waiting to be cut. Ceramic globes and fragments at the British Ceramic biennial exhibition last weekend. How quickly time flies. I wanted to share another photo that I took. There are too many to share but I likes this set of objects, like the cores of planets. I imagine them with hollow centres and amethyst crystals.
What was your favorite subject in school?
Forever and ever, Art.
Art at school. I studied many other subjects but Art had my soul from four or five. I used to hang my drawings on strings across my bedroom because I didn’t have enough wall space. My mom would show off my Art to visitors to the house. School sent one of my paintings to our twin town in Germany where it was exhibited. I was asked to do a portrait of a group of school children when a headmistress was leaving.
Art wasn’t the thing to do in many ways. I needed to support my family as we went though some bad times, but my mother supported my wish to go to college. I felt so lucky to be allowed to leave home and learn more about art.
I found out that my ability helped in other aspects of life and jobs. I notice things others miss. I can look at the world and imagine it as a painting. I am good at colour matching, composition, I love to experiment and being an artist makes me more involved in lots of ideas and thoughts.
Would I recommend studying Art to someone? Definitely, cover other bases too, but it has made me a well rounded person. Career choices could be architect, designer, print maker, painter, technical design, surface pattern, ceramicist, sculptor, editor, illustrator, graphic designer, digital media, computer game design, and many more subjects. Go for it if you can. X
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was fashion. I’m at a loss with this so I just did a digital finger painting of a woman in a dress using my Artrage app. Then I used photodirector app to change the texture and background to make it more graphic.
Watching sky portrait artist of the year. I’ve done a finger painting of an editor called Vanessa Kingori, trouble is you don’t see the sitter for long so it’s a very sketchy drawing. Artrage app.
Photo from the BCB
A giant lies upon it’s back
It’s hop has gone, it’s knocked flat!
A human male looks on
At where nature has gone?
Ceramic frogs don’t jump
They don’t have a heart to pump.
But life has a way of staying
If we from nature aren’t straying.
So give frogs a chance
Put in water plants
Dig a new pond
If of frogs you are fond?
Protect anphibians
Their survival’s in your hands!
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was bang/jump. I really wanted to try and draw an exploding firework so I used an app called sketchbook and drew something using a symmetry tool.
One of the things to do at the British Ceramic biennial was to have fun making clay tiles that will grow in a wildflower meadow next spring. We made unfired tiles made to look a bit like Minton floor tiles. The clays were chosen to be different acidities so that they suited wild flower seeds. The clay was mixed with hay and pushed into moulds, then we had to make holes and push the seeds into them. Finally we pressed a shape into the top of the tile and fill the resultant spaces with different coloured slips.
What are your favorite websites?
My favourite websites are art ones. A lot of them don’t have much in the way of tools. Often the drawing is already there and you just use a fill tool. They are boring. But I found a free app called Artrage oils which I used for several years till I got a new phone. Then I upgraded to Artrage which has a lot more tools, sketchbook app which has different tools and a few other ones that are good for editing, like photodirector. I now use them all in combination. It’s fun!
Today was the last day of the biennial exhibition. We only managed to get to the one venue at All Saints church on Leek Road Stoke-on-Trent. The pottery and ceramics on display were remarkable. From abstract to classical, but all with a modern twist. I wish I’d managed to get round the other venues, but I didn’t feel up to it. Anyway I bumped into a couple of friends. I will probably post a few more photos later.
I added the sprinkles onto this photo of a tree, as if all the leaves were falling off at once. I can’t remember how I did it, but I think I used photodirector. The image is from about four years ago, and the app has changed since then, so some of the different tools have changed and I’m not sure I could do this again. X
Mallaband-Brown