
Jupiter above, Venus below. In a dark blue sky. Wobbly photo tonight during a walk. Shaking arm makes photography difficult!
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Jupiter above, Venus below. In a dark blue sky. Wobbly photo tonight during a walk. Shaking arm makes photography difficult!

What a sky today, low sun through clouds and silhouettes of trees. This is the park we sometimes walk up to. We sit on a bench to rest, then walk down and up the slopes in the park and finally out of the gates again. Today we were tired so we walked back down the hill and over to our local supermarket. It was out of fresh tomatoes again, apparently the weather has damaged crops and British farmers who would normally grow them in poly tunnels can’t afford the heating so they have delayed growing them. Anyway that was today’s stroll. And six thousand steps!

How do i know the water is blue? Surely it’s transparent. But look at the sea. As you go deep into it you can see it stays blue until you go deep when it’s black. Then look at water at sunset. It stays blue even when the sky turns red doesn’t it? And in yellow white sunshine its very blue. Not green, not yellow, not red, not purple – Blue.

I just looked at the sky from the other side… I mean I watched the film Gravity and it struck me that it looks much the same from above and below? Maybe the clouds are on a different scale, but they are still white and grey, the blue sea mimics the blue of the sky. We are truly a blue and white marble in the deep ocean of black space. We fall up to space, or down to earth, the thin atmosphere is all that protects us against hard radiation and vacuum.

Red sky this morning
Weather warning?
But the sky turned blue
A lovely hue
The sun shone
No one cried
The wind just dried
The washing
No rain came
Which was the same
As yesterday
Except that was grey
So red sky
Was a weather lie!

Blue, cobalt, ultramarine, pthalo blue, azure, cerulean, indigo, so many names for blue. When you choose colours to paint with you have to select the right one. When you choose you may want a transparent blue, or something stronger with a real depth of colour to it. If you want a colour to paint the sky you need to match what you see to what you can mix on the canvas. Sometimes you just can’t get the right combination of colours. Some blues have hints of red, or purple, or green or even yellow, it’s amazing how many variations of colours the eye can see. Sea, world, ocean, sky, so many blues.

I think this is done. It’s a beach and sea scene viewed from above. I decided to put some rocks in the bottom right corner, but do they look OK? This had Bern sitting on my easle since before Christmas and I have only just felt well enough to try and finish it. I hope the person who commissioned it likes it.

Flipped and duplicated photo of frost seen on the inside of my car windscreen. The reds are from the car colour. The sky was a brilliant pale blue. I’ve boosted the contrast a bit. Making symmetrical patterns really works with images like this.

Group of blocks, duplicated in a symmetrical pattern. I think the blues and oranges of the tiles, which are complementary colours add to the composition, as do the strong diagonals created by a bright shaft of sunlight. This was originally a photo taken in the shop at Middleport pottery, I think taken in the autumn.

Once I start playing with apps I go back and make new patterns. I realised that using the symmetry tool on my sketch app I can offset them so they don’t overlap, and I used various colours from the same part of the spectrum. Then I duplicated and rotated the pattern, creating a lace like design.