Red sky tonight

A drawing of the view

I saw the sky this evening

Turned bloody orange

As if on fire

Light streaming through

Branches and trees

Illuminating a landscape

Still dry from lack of rain.

The hedge behind us

Was split by the light

A shaft of red and gold

For telling bright weather

And clear skies

And stars

For the night ahead…..

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!

Close-up poppy

I think this might be finished but I’m waiting for daylight to check the colours. I might tone down the white and I may add some blue tones to make it feel like the sky is being reflected in it. The poppy was real, but I took this from a painting I did of a photo so I might look at some images of poppies.

Shall I paint another?

I painted this a few years ago, it’s based on a poppy with a white centre. Most poppies have dark splodges in the centre. I think this looks more subtle. I’m toying with the idea of painting a mixture of both on a larger canvas? The background would be greens and straw coloured. Got to possibly block out or draw out their positions and then maybe add some forget-me-nots.

Canal geese

We saw these Canada Geese on the canal today as we went for a walk after handing my painting in for the three counties open. These look like parents and young (some are in full plumage but smaller). I have plans to do a few more in a similar style for the cafe at the Etruria Industrial Museum. They are swapping out the current paintings on display. Apparently my painting of an owl was too expensive, but how can you ever earn anything if people don’t want to pay. BUT I might consider charging less because I just keep having an increasing collection of them and I really, really want them to go to new homes….

Watch out for a few new paintings over the next couple of days /weeks.

Mural in Stoke

Watch out, there’s a Leopard about. Take a walk in the wild side of Stoke, down a side street, off the main road. Strong colours against a black background. Stars shine out from the painting. I want to find out if this is finished or whether there is more to come. What is it painted in? Will it be permanent or will it flake and fade in a few years. It’s painted directly onto the brick so I imagine it will weather and peel.

Dragon bright

Dragon doodle, then flood filled with yellow. ‘dragon burning in the night, why do you burn so bright?’

A question. Why are dragons supposed to breath fire. Why does JRR Tolkeins dragon Smaug live in a mountain full of gold that could almost be a volcano, but when fire comes it is from the dragon itself flying over Laketown in the story of the Hobbit.

They breathe fire in other stories too. And authors come up with elaborate ideas of how they make it. For instance the book ‘Guards, Guards’ by Terry Pratchett.

All art of their mystery.

Red and black with white.

Some sketches from last year. Using various amounts of white along with red and black. I think I added white to make the images easier to see and read. The red is quite a dark tone and it’s hard to see against the black areas. I also think someone who is colour blind might be able to see the images with more white.

More ceramics

One strange thing I saw at the BCB was a large group of ceramic leeches! It was weird seeing them. Black and shiny but very static.. I guess it was something conceptual? Had they sucked the life blood out of someone, or are they a health idea if the National Health Service was to collapse? Whatever the reasoning I found them strangely cute! I don’t know why….