Tag: Blogging

Experimenting.

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I’m experimenting with different ideas. I have gone a bit more abstract. The small green man has already gone to a new home, and I’m trying to make paintings with a slight Celtic influence, like the cat. The horse is taken from an illustration I saw, I think the original had a rider. I just like the strong shapes in it.

Further ideas are more industrial and town landscapes, more celtic/abstract designs, more animals. I might try and do slightly surrealistic pictures, where the perspective is altered. I painted some like that a few years ago. I’m exploring my mind as well as art…

I intend to try and do some ceramics over glass later in the year.

I guess it’s because of doing some mono prints yesterday. I suddenly feel more liberated. I’m not sure if I will ever stick to one style or idea…..

Monoprints

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I had fun today doing some mono printing, which means one print. Basically you rolling onto a clean flat surface, then you can use objects to scratch through it, or add different colours. You can do one print then add a different colour and as long as you line the paper up in the same place you can get different effects.

I chose to draw a cat into the rolled ink. Then you gently lay the paper on top, press down with your hands, not to heavily, then carefully pull the paper off. Of course the image is reversed from what you drew, so if you add text it needs writing in reverse.

The ink we used was really thick, so I actually managed to get 3 or 4 pictures from each ink drawing. I added some black pen drawing I top of a couple of them, I don’t have photos of them as they are not finished yet. Thanks to another member of Etruria Artists for these photos.

Im drinking beer and thinking…

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I’ve not had that much beer, probably a bottle, because I’m sharing with my partner, trying to see which one is best. My favourite is a chocolate flavoured porter. About 6% abv. That’s quite strong but I’ve had less than a quarter of a pint and if I can spell that I’m OK. Just chilling.

So my thoughts are.

I’m lucky to be able to do this, sit and watch TV, have a roof over my head. Be able to paint and draw. Have enough money to feed myself and my partner, run an old car…,

I wish everyone had that chance. Could live in peace. I’m a silly old idealist. But I care about people. ….maybe this is the drink talking? I see people begging in the streets. It wasn’t always like that. We were more of a caring country I think, where did we go wrong!? Austerity is a word used to hide the cruelty of the rich getting richer and the poor, well..poorer.

The working poor is the latest thing. Doctors, nurses and police taking second jobs to earn enough to live on? When did that start? Ordinary people with three or more jobs to pay the rent?

I’m leaving this here…what is happening to the world!

Abstracting Angles

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Take a picture and twist it,

Mix it,

Turn it round and bend it,

Don’t mend it.

Shake it up,

Blend it.

Shape that space,

No disgrace to fix it.

Give it Grace,

Make a place,

New is ace.

Change its face.

There’s no race,

Just keep up your pace.

Spin that pic,

Twin that pic,

Win that pic.

Love that pic.

That pic is sick!

(A possible Rap) x

Skies

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One thing about living in a temperate climate in the Midlands of England is the variations in the sky. We might have just had one of the hottest summer’s on record, but like most people here I am waiting for the rain to come back. The country usually gets enough, but at the moment satellite imagery shows the grass burnt to brown instead of the greens of summers. Trees seem to be fairing better because they have deep roots. But hopefully when the rain comes down from the sky the land will recover.

Skies….

Clouds fly on the breezes and winds,

Blue skies soon turn grey,

Magic sunsets illuminate the sky,

Stars shine out on high.

Shooting stars obscured by clouds,

Planet’s seem so bright.

Moon and Sun in turn appear,

Sometimes Moon hides Sun.

Look up, look up, into the air, not just to the ground,

Above your head the sky astounds,

The world below is gone.

 

Well I do like skies. There is something called the cloud appreciation society which has interesting information about clouds. They suggest blue skies are boring, and watching the different sorts of clouds is the thing to do, from cirrus, cumulo nimbus, asperatus, mammatus, stratus, so many names. New cloud formations identified. ..

Skies are such a barometer (no pun intended) of our atmosphere. I would hate to live in a country where the weather stayed the same for months.

X

Patterns are my friend

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People who read my blog know I love colour and pattern. Digital apps allow you to manipulate images and colours, or create your own patterns.

I have a love of spirals and curves, and repeating patterns. If I’m left alone I will sit and play, changing colours, creating new iterations, rearranging shapes, until I’m satisfied with the result. As I go along I save the doodles. Then I can go back to a previous drawing and go off on another tangent. If I like something I have created in a drawing app I might start something new in the same app, or try and recreate it in another app.

I find using different applications with different properties helps. So  might want to do something that seems to have been painted in oils or drawn in charcoal. But, importantly, I don’t want to spend lots of money, so they are all free apps from galaxy play store. Certain things won’t work on this tablet, even when I maximise my storage space.

One thing I want to do is get some of them printed. I’m trying to get a cable so I can transfer images to a usb stick.., that’s a plan for the near future.

Studio time?

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I have not been in for a while to my studio. I haven’t settled in. I was OK for a while, but I cocoon myself at home. I wish I could relax and fit in better there.

I find myself going out to other places drawing or painting. But I’m not knuckling down to work. I hope I can break the spell and get on with things. I seem to be half enthusiastic and half despondent. It’s maddening.

I have other reasons that I’m struggling with, but I’m not going into details. Just added frustrations that make things difficult.

Does anyone else feel like this!? Or is it just me….. I have ideas but don’t act on them. People must get really fed up with me being so lacadazical.

Then of course there is the attraction of places like this…am I noise in an empty container? Well I will put this down and try and break free…for a while…

 

Cats and boxes

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Apologies for my lack of skill in rhyming…..But here is just something I had to write when I saw these two! I am trying not to use plastic bags, so sometimes get shopping in cardboard boxes.  My tom cat has decided  one is his. So what happens when you bring in a new one? A confusion  of cats….

Maybe cats and cupboards?

A confusion of cats,

Sits in a box,

Shrodinger puzzle….

Which box to choose?

 

Cat on a cupboard ,

Cat sitting up high.

One cat – both boxes,

The other has none.

Share or not share?

 

Cats have ideas,

Sure of their wills,

always delightful,

and bonkers

Still!

Mow Cop

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Mow Cop…..

If you ever drive on the A34 between Stoke-on-Trent and Congleton, look to your left as you are driving North, just past little Moreton Hall. You might catch a glimpse of Mow Cop on top of the hill…

Mow Cop is a folly, built to look like a castle, and it stands above the village of Mow Cop, giving views of the Cheshire plain and Shropshire and the Welsh hills.

We decided to visit today as a group I am in- Stoke USK, (urban sketchers group) is due to visit on Saturday but I can’t make it.

I did some brief sketches of the castle and the view, clouds were quite low over the plain and rain was threatening. I irritated myself because I started the castle drawing too far over the page so had to start again.

While we were there we saw a carved stone with lettering on it. I could just make out the words. “To the Glory of God
A camp meeting near this spot on May 31st 1807 began the Religious Revival led by Hugh Bourne and William Clowes known as Primitive Methodism (unveiled?) By the president of the Methodist Conference 13th May 1948”

I knew that the Methodists had started in the area; Bethesda chapel in Hanley , the city centre of Stoke on Trent, is currently being restored. I imagined people gathering at Mow Cop, listening to the Victorian preachers, in rain, wind and hail. A romantic view I know. But the place is very atmospheric.

We finally tried to walk up to the castle, but the steep steps defeated me so I only got half way up. Richard managed a bit further.

Want to visit?  The castle is a bit difficult to find. Once you are on the hill you can’t see it as well. However there is a good sized car park when you get there. You will see a National Trust notice board and it gives the opening times. Roads approach from the A34 and a road from Tunstall in Stoke-on-Trent.

Hanging baskets

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This was my garden…….in 2017….20170831_153616

This was my back yard last year. Everything was lush and green with lots of colour. This year things are not as good, some plants are wilting in the heat, others have only just survived. I haven’t taken photos of them because its all a bit messy. Still I will persevere. We might be getting some rain on Sunday if we are lucky.

There may be some thunderstorms east of us but nothing due here. It’s so strange, we are a wet country usually. We are normally known for complaining about cold wet summers, and grey dismal winters.

Climate change? I don’t know. But something is going on.

Multiply up all the gardens in the country where the plants are struggling. Then think of all the farms that are having trouble, having to feed hay and winter food stocks to there animals because there is not enough grass for them. It’s not normal. While over in Europe temperatures have risen above 40°C.

But we are lucky in comparison with other parts of the world. Terrible floods, droughts. The world’s temperature has risen since the turn of the millennium.

We are worried by plastic in the oceans, maybe we should really worry about the climate before its too late. Climate scientists have reported that the weather could actually become so hot that we end up in a “hot house Earth” scenario.

If not for our generation, but for future ones we need to stop listening to business people whose interest is short term gain and move to a more balanced, less greedy world. If that means that rich western countries should share technology with the whole world then that’s what we should do. Rant for the day over. ..