New paintings and regular art updates.
I was painting a backdrop for the final penkhull mystery play before the pandemic. It’s unlikely the plays will be continued, people get older or move on. The children who used to be involved are growing up. I don’t feel able to do anything like this any more. I can do some things but I shake too much to get delicate work like this done. At least I have memories. Willow pattern design I made up.
I chose yesterday’s #bandofsketchers prompt. I suggested house. Well I decided to go off piste with this and do a digital finger painting in Artrage app. It’s meant to be a summerhouse. With splodgy flowers in front of it. I used different brushes to create the varied shapes.
On what subject(s) are you an authority?
Jack of all trades,
Master of none.
Expert, I’m not
I learn for fun.
I can paint and draw
But I’m not an old master
I can do some stuff
I like to paint faster
Than most people
But an authority?
If put on the spot
I’d hesitate
To state
All the information
That gives my ego
The biggest inflation!
So I’ll dabble and draw
And keep myself modest
You decide if you saw
A glimpse of the oddest
Authority bore!
I just got an email to tell me I didn’t get this in the Three counties open exhibition…. Perhaps I should have gone with a traditional portrait. Oh well, I’m old enough not to be too disappointed. I guess I will try again next year. My work will be on display and up for sale on Acava Spode Open day in a few weeks. I need to check the date. I need to go and sort out my studio and create an exhibition there instead. I’m enjoying painting in a slightly abstracted way, I think it fits in with my style?
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was forest. Catching up with Sundays prompt. We recently visited Trentham Monkey Forest and in the entrance compound there are some sculptures including a mother and baby macaque carved from a tree stump. I’ve done a sketch of it for the prompt.
Lots of photos, thousands! Because I use my phone to edit and experiment with images, I keep ending up with too many photos. I’ve worked out (finally) how to optimise them on this new phone, but it means that images I have been adding here are taking up too much space on WordPress /Jetpack.
Editing the photos as I go along does take time when I am busy with other things. Duplications get missed, or sneak into other folders, I haven’t created the folders, the phone does it on its own! Then Jetpack gets upset with me, my picture content is always hovering around 100% so I have to delete old photos (I have over 1800 images in my folder here!).
I’ve started using free images here, but often they don’t really represent what I want to depict, so the majority of images I add are my own.
What makes a teacher great?
Great teachers make you think. They are enthusiastic, they listen. Great teachers give you an idea you can work with and help you to understand concepts.
I had a great English teacher who once bought a pack of tarot cards into a lesson to explain there were other ideas about mythology than the normal or ordinary histories. I can’t remember much about the class but the artwork on the cards got my imagination working.
We had a great Geography teacher, who really explained clearly about all sorts of concepts, like isotherms, synclines and anticlines, geological fault lines. He made it really interesting.
And I’ve had several great Art teachers, in school and at college. The great ones gave me confidence with the work I was doing. One at school entered my art into a competition and I had a painting exhibited in our twin town in Germany. Another at college said my work had a bit of something about it.
The point is that Great teachers get us to go further and do more than we would otherwise do. Learning is dependent on you making an effort, and by having a great teacher you can be encouraged to try harder. I’m glad I had some.
A few years ago I went to a fused glass workshop. I made glass cabochons that were then surrounded by wire woven to support them. The result were some amazing and bold necklaces.
The artist that ran the workshop was called Angela Ashton. And my friend Deborah Travis did the wire weaving so the results were really a good collaboration. I found this on Facebook memories and I really wish I could do it again, although Angela moved back up to the North East Coast I did find someone else who does workshops, the only problem now is the cost and I’m sure with the price of fuel these days the process won’t be cheap.
Thursdays #bandofsketchers prompt was nature. We have lots of trees in our garden. A lot of cherries have blown off our tree, so I drew some still attached! I took a photo but the colours aren’t quite right because it’s dark in here (trying to save electricity)….
The props for the penkhull mystery plays were made using willow withies tied and glued and then covered in paper and glue and painted white, then volunteers decorated them. I had fun giving a couple of horses a Picasso feel. I don’t remember if it was me or another volunteer that painted this one. There were four horses for an apocalyptic scene! I think we made a monster too but these are the photos from 9 years ago off Facebook memories.
Mallaband-Brown