New paintings and regular art updates.
A leaf on our floor has come in to visit today. I put the photo through photodirector to give more texture to it.
Some of our trees are starting to lose their leaves already. I think the lack of water over the last few months has had an effect. Autumn seems to come later each year, with warmer weather the leaves usually stay on longer. It may start now, but trees hold onto their leaves until well into November. But is this leaf a precursor to an earlier fall?
Sunlight through leaves, making patterns on the kitchen wall. It would be brighter but the wall is painted a pale apple green. When there was a partial eclipse a few years ago the light hitting the wall turned into increasing crescent moon shapes as the Moon passed in front of the Sun. This time of year, before the autumn sets in, there is a lot of shade from the trees in the garden. The pear tree is casting most of the shade on the wall, and a few pears have started to fall as the morning temperature reduces. I can almost feel a chill in the air this morning.
Soon it will be the vernal? Equinox, when the day and night time are in balance in the Northern (and also Southern) Hemispheres of the Earth. That is when both day and night are exactly 12 hours long. Soon the days here will shorten, whilst they grow longer in the south. I hope the nights are not too cold, I would like the leaves to stay on the trees as long as possible. I always feel sad when they become skeletal in the winter and the long wait till spring comes round again drags on. I miss my flowers as they wilt and fade, and I find it harder to motivate myself in the dark days of winter. But that is a while away yet, so I will enjoy what is left of the summer while I can.
This is another of the paintings I will be exhibiting/for sale in Stone. Its the derelict pottery in a nearby street. This is the main factory. To the left of it are two bottle ovens (which were used to fire pottery in the past). The process eventually became gas fired and many of the old kilns were closed and fell into ruins. I think only thirty two of the many hundreds that were in Stoke-on-Trent are now left, and only a few of those have been restored or repaired.
The reason I painted this is that I wanted to include the Falcon plaque on the end of the building. It actually depicts a Goss Hawk and I think the pottery is actually called the Goss Works. Others know the history better than I do.
Actually it was probably September or October when I took this. Now the leaves have withered, just a few cling on to life. But come the spring I hope to transplant some of these plants into pots. I think the fushias will have survived because they have woody stems. Then the hanging baskets will go to the local nursery to have them filled for the next season. It’s always at this time of year that I start to think about spring. That is until we get to the cold blast of January to March. That’s when hubby gets enthusiastic and plants all the seeds we bought and collected in Autumn. Sadly the plants either don’t emerge or die off because they are too cold. Or he puts a whole packet of seed in one small pot! It’s amazing we get anything to grow!
Just tried adjusting the colours on this leaf, then decided to write a poem.
Saturated leaf
Bright and breezy
Fell from a tree
Really was easy
Just one blow
A puff of wind
Made the leaf
Fall, descend.
Before the mud
Washed the colours away
Gave it some highlights
Using filters to play.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was Shift.., I drew a quick sketch of a tree losing its leaves then snow and snowflakes using felt pens on some photography paper. Finally added digital texture with photodirector to give it cohesion.
Now I’ve fallen
you don’t care
I let go and you
didn’t stop me..
Lost my way
Flew away
Into darkness
Falling down
Somehow renewed
Fluttering when you
Lost your grip
Now I’m free
To dance and play
You have no say
Today.
Growling like a wolf
This leaf fell
Onto hard paving
Slabs of grey
Worn and cracked
Struggling to rise again
In a swirling breeze
Like an ice skater
Or a ballet dancer,
Pirouetting
In tight circles
Plummeting suddenly
Down and dead.
One on my knee, one on the arm of the chair. My two boy cats sitting almost nose to nose. They are quite tolerant of each other, and this is the closest they have ever sat together. It asted half an hour, both snug and warm. This is not photoshopped they were about three inches apart. So pleased we got the outside cat to join the household especially at this cold time of year.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt is silence. I thought of drawing the universe (space is a vacuum and there is no sound in a vacuum) but this gentle idea came to mind. An old leaf floating in a puddle. Digital drawein photoshop.
Mallaband-Brown