Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was vegetables. Just drew some sweet peppers. I like the different colours you can get. Felt pen drawing of them in about twenty minutes. I chose a generic image off the Internet as an example.
Peppers
Tag: Art
Open time
What to do in your open studio? Meet lots of people who want to ask questions. I got nervous seeing so many people so I decided to paint my hubby reading. It’s a vert small studio and as one lot of people left another came in. I tried speaking but it’s hard to know what people think and after avoiding people for a couple of years because of Covid I have become more socially inept. It’s just hard to know what to say. But anyway overall it was a positive feeling. I sold one minature painting and made the princely sum of £4!
Town or City
Town/City full of buildings sketch. There are many historical buildings in Stoke on Trent but a lot of them are derelict and falling down. Where places like Manchester have had investment old buildings are refurbished and turned into apartments or restored to their former glory. Here in Stoke they languish, are bought up by out of town businesses that allow them to fall down, get broken into or in some cases have unexplained fires. Severs properties in the North of our city have had fires over the last few months. Is it wrong to be suspicious about that? I do wonder and worry that one of the most important areas of industrial and vernacular architecture is not being cared for. We could use the better properties even if we only keep the facades. But our local leaders seem hell bent on stripping back the past, losing a heritage that could be supported. You only have to look at Etruria Industrial Museum to see somewhere that has worked. But I despair for so much of our surroundings.
Preparations
I will be at studio 21 at Spode tomorrow for our annual Open Day. Come and see me painting in the studio or visit the makers market where I will have minature paintings for sale. Then during the day I will try to complete a new painting of a bottle oven (a pottery kiln).
It’s been two years since I’ve been there properly. My fear of Covid, then illness and bereavement have kept me out. But everyone was so nice today. I’ve entered some of my minature paintings for the craft Market. I thought people might use them as Christmas stocking fillers. There’s everything from a tiny giraffe with an abstract background to a small Jupiter with great red storm and a moon passing by. Maybe I will sell a few.
Dark
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was dark. I decided to use digital apps for my piece today, artrage oils, sketch app and photodirector in that order. It was fun to create this ‘dark’ horse. Lol, it looks rather strange with added textures and plant silhouettesbut it was fun. X
Bleach!
Two photos, bleached and then painted over.
When you are an artist and your hubby decides to try and clean his trousers (with neat bleach!) No! The brown corduroy turned orange in patches. I have no brown dye, I wouldn’t know how to use it?! What to do? I bunged them in the washing machine to get any residual bleach out. Then while they were still wet I mixed up some brown and black acrylic paint. I have painted it on to see if it covered the bleached areas. It’s still a bit orange so I will give it another layer when it’s dry. I don’t want the cloth to become too stiff. At least it means they aren’t being thrown away and the paint should be colour fast!
Doodle, drawing a line
Draw round anything with a thin pen and you get an interesting effect. It’s something I do occasionally as a meditation. Trying to keep a little distance from coloured splodges or around lines that I have already drawn or doodled. Somehow the lines remind me of the contours on a map, because they seem to join things together. Mostly I look at the back of my pictures and see if the ink has bled through it. I’ve written about this technique here before. It’s a way of creating something a little more abstract.
South America
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was South America, I was looking for something unusual and found out that Passion Flowers are native plants of South America. I have to say I’m amazed how complex they are. This is a twenty minute sketch.
Leaves leave…
Drawing of Etruria Industrial Museum chimney from late last winter. Soon the leaves will be gone again. The museum will hunker down in the rain or possible snow. The industrial archaeology is more visible when the surrounding trees are stripped bare. Life is a cycle, one day its bitterly cold, the next warm and comfortable. I hope to visit the museum again soon. Its run by volunteers who work hard to keep it going.
Upset last night…
My eyes flood with tidal waves of tears.
Storm clouds have darkened my brows.
Salt tears course down my cheeks.
Time has flown, she is gone.
My sister – my twin.
Written and drawn at 4am. Things just got to me again and it seemed a good way of expressing myself.
Mallaband-Brown 