New paintings and regular art updates.
Something beginning with C.
Car
Cake
Cow
Cup
Crumb?
Cat!
Something beginning with W.
Water
Web
Wheat
Watch
Wire?
Window!
Something beginning with B…
Bowl
Bulb
Beetroot
Bottle
Banana?
Bird!
Cat sees bird through window
Bird is safe from cat
Bird flies away
Cat is disappointed!
A date to remember. Its international women’s day and also one hundred years since the suffragettes’ fought for the vote for women in Britain. The colours of purple white and green were used to signify their struggle.
It should be remembered that when they finally did get the vote it was only for older women who owned property…
International women’s day means freedom to me. The freedom to vote and be part of a democracy. The freedom to control your body and not be forced to do things you don’t want to. The freedom to own your own property and to earn equal pay for work of equal value.
As a woman I have seen years of inequality. I have seen mysogeny and misanthropic behaviour. But not everyone is like that. At the end of the day we need to learn to respect one another. After all women are not another species. Equality is still some distance away, people shouldn’t be judged on the way they look or act. Life can be hard work. With age comes experience. Women don’t need patronising it’s time for equality.
This is a form of Broccoli, the pattern seems fractal, where it repeats in smaller and smaller forms but in the same pattern. Another example is the Mandelbrot set. The now famous pattern that constantly reveals and renews itself the deeper you look into it.
Have you heard of Fibonacci numbers? They relate to the spirals on this Broccoli plant too. There are two spirals if you look closely. One is more curved than the other. It’s based on prime numbers. Like 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, and so on.
Now this is where I have to admit only a slight knowledge, I only know about Fibonacci because of programmes I have seen about him and they were based on art. I have also heard of the golden section, which is based on another spiral, and is said to allow you to place objects in a painting into the most beautiful composition. But I am no mathematician.
If you look up Fractals, Mandelbrot and Golden section, you should find interesting information about them all, and Chaos theory which seems to link them all. They are all fascinating.
There are several books out there about Chaos theory. It’s worth reading around the subject.
The cat lay on the mat,
paws curved under his chin.
Soft black and white fur.
Ready to purr ….
His eyes are sharp
His claws are sharper
A miaow of satisfaction
comes from his mouth
Asleep, but ready for action.
imagine a world with two sun’s. Both about the same size as ours. You are on a planet orbiting both of them, luckily half way between the two so it never gets too close to either of them and far enough out so that it doesn’t get too overheated by twice our suns power.
Instead of winter the North and South poles of the planet get almost continuous sunlight. At the equator two shadows are cast at almost right angles to each other. There is no ice at the poles. In fact there seems to be almost permanent summer there. If the world has water perhaps plants continue to grow all year, like our tropics. The weather would be affected by heating from the suns and any magnetic fields may interact so I imagine a liquid iron core like ours would be an advantage.
I used to read old science fiction stories which imagined all sorts of life forms, crazy plants, strange animals based on different gravities. But I guess because of TV Sci fi we now think that all intelligent life will be bi-pedal with oddly shaped foreheads or ears….
There is an infinite universe out there but we are too parochial.
One of my favourite films is Galaxy Quest. It is a spoof sci-fi film based on the old TV cult classics. I wonder if we will ever move on from those ideas?
This is me in panto costume and makeup. I have not published photos of other cast members as I don’t have their permission. What a brilliant time! Two full shows today. That’s 8 hours in the hall. Trying to look serious , happy, perplexed, confused. Changing from being a villager to a Scottish villager, supporting Robin Hood in a wrestling match, capturing Robin Hood in Scotland. Visiting the court of Prince John and the Sheriff of Penkhull and being in the presence of King Richard. Squabbling with other villagers and getting into fights. All while watching the action as Robin tries to rescue Maid Marian when she is actually quite capable of rescuing herself. Add a mad sketch which shall not be revealed at the start of the second act, and large and small Loch Ness monsters chasing the cast round the hall.
So much more goes into putting on a show than the people acting. There is the stage crew who make and place props as they are required, including a mocked up wrestling ring. There is sound and lighting. There are the amazing people creating the costumes. The make up artists trying to paint the faces of almost 40 members of the cast. The people selling tea and drinks Mostly though it’s down to a local woman who wrote and directed our version of Robin Hood. How she kept all the adult and junior cast going and persuaded us to put it on is beyond me.
So after 4 performances including 2 yesterday, that finished about 4 hours ago … Well all I can say is I’m glad I was in it and congratulations everyone. We’ve had really great feedback from audience members. I want to do it all again!
Funny what you can find in a pub. This skeleton is plastic and sits in the corner of a local pub, next to the fire. I called the drawing the regular, he has been there for a few years. There is also a pretend skeleton of a dog behind him. Also you can see the top of a guitar next to him. That’s because I drew this on music night. The sketch pad is about 4 inches square and I have a drawing from 1995 in it of a place called Winnats pass in Derbyshire. 
I’m tired because I’ve been at the panto all evening so this is a very short blog post and also a short poem
Skeleton
Skull
Pirate
Gull,
Treasure
Gold
Dubloon
Silver
Moon
Ship
Sea
Ocean
Free.
Good to get a good image of this painting I did a year ago. The owner has kindly sent me a HD image of it.
Acrylic on canvas, it is a lake view where the trees are back lit by a setting sun. Approximately 12 x12 inches square.
I wanted to paint a view that was crisp and fresh. The colours contrast nicely and the reflections in the water Shimmer with ultramarine blue.
I’m happy to paint anything you would like to commission. Just contact me to discuss.
Hot coffee with cream, a slice of black forest gateaux. She sat and stirred the cup, hearing the spoon tinkle against it.
Only an hour ago she had been running to catch the bus into town. She’d told Al that she was meeting a friend….
This isn’t a trashy romance story, she told herself. Just a meeting with an old friend. But she couldn’t help feeling excited. He’d sounded just the same on the phone as he had all those years ago at college.
The cake was delicious, but she only tasted it, she was too nervous to eat. Too many butterflies in her stomach, too much anticipation and anxiety.
Oh god, she thought. I’m too old for all this, what will I say? Should I put some more lipstick on? She was also thinking about Al. How could she tell him about this. No it would be her little secret.
It was half an hour later, he was 20 minutes late… He promised he would be there. She remembered a tall young man. Long hair, a leather jacket and jeans. Black doc marten shoes….. Where is he? She thought.
Just then the glass door opened. She saw a once tall man, now stooped over. A bald head, what hair that was left was grey and in a ponytail. A walking stick, a gold medallion.
She decided not to say hello. As he walked into the room she went to the counter to pay her bill. On the way out of the door she felt mixed guilt and grief. Had she done the right thing?
She looked in the window and caught her reflection. Her once slim body was wider now, her hair not just grey, but white. Oh well she thought. At least I have Al.. …
This is a painting from a few years ago. It was based on the idea of nerves in the brain -synapses, electric currents sparking ideas. I honestly dont know where it went. I do know it was a medium sized acrylic on canvas.
My art life has flitted from idea to idea, like this painting I try to generate new thoughts, I love to experiment, come up with different feelings and emotions.
Why should art always stay the same. Why not do different things?
Mallaband-Brown