
What do you call a mixture of Snow and Hail? Sn-ail! I think it was ‘sn-ailing’ this afternoon. We went out to Trentham Gardens in Stoke on Trent and bought a few plants, maybe it’s a bit cold to plant them though.
New paintings and regular art updates.

What do you call a mixture of Snow and Hail? Sn-ail! I think it was ‘sn-ailing’ this afternoon. We went out to Trentham Gardens in Stoke on Trent and bought a few plants, maybe it’s a bit cold to plant them though.

Just by adding one filter I was able to give this sky scape a liquid, oil paint looking vibe. The edges are softened and emphasised. The colours remain the same but are smeared across the photo. I used photodirector again. The style can be altered in various ways, I chose the second option. I find the effects vary depending on what photo I chose to work on.

Walking home, Stoke-on-Trent, about 3.15pm this afternoon. The low sun barred by dark clouds. It didn’t rain but the bright sunshine really shone out behind the clouds. The lamp posts give a sense of scale. You can see the shadow of the cloud on the right cast at an angle so it gives an indication of where the sun is. It never emerged as I walked as the clouds were really slow moving.

It’s very windy outside. I took two photos within a couple of minutes of each other. One had a bit of blue sky in it, the other was much cloudier and more turbulent. The pink developed then faded quickly. I mirrored the two photos so you can compare the colours next to each other. Darkness is gathering. I want to snuggle up and hibernate!

A couple of years ago I painted this picture of Earth. I was trying to get the shading right so the clouds sit above the surface was difficult. This is North America, Canada and part of Mexico and the Caribbean.
I hope the cloud shapes work and you can see the weather patterns. I wonder if anyone would be interested in paintings of worlds. It’s something I’m interested in. I’ve painted pictures of Jupiter and other astronomical images. I don’t use an airbrush for painting so it’s quite hard to get the granularity and softness of space and planets.

And the year turns. I know when we are past the shortest day when there is still light in the sky at after 5pm. It cheers me up.
Daylight
Delights me
Brightens my mood
Makes me smile
Despite the cloud
Banked up
With rain or sleet
Awakens my spirit
Woken from sleep.

We went out for a short walk locally as the sun started to set. The sky was very grey but there was a little patch of light in the south west, so I hoped it would possibly turn into a sunset. As you can see it did! I took lots of photos so I decided to do a sort of abstract compilation of some of them. I might try and line them up better later. So yes, this was the last sunset of 2021 here in my bit of the UK. In some places in the world midnight will have already been and gone. In others it’s probably only the morning. May your new year be good and safe. X

I love doing this, mirroring a sky in layout app so it looks like the sky has been reflected in a calm sea or lake. I should try and draw on it to attempt to make the lower part look like real water. Possibly by adding slight wavelets or sparkling reflections. This was today’s sunset as the hill being our house was silhouetted by the growing dark.

Pareidolia, the ability to see creatures in patterns. Well I call it an ability. Some may feel its more a curse! I’ve always looked at patterns and shapes and seen things in them. Some of my earliest memories were looking up at clouds and seeing birds and animals, things like whales and elephants. The human mind is good at seeing patterns, that’s why Percival Lovell the astronomer seems to have seen canalli, I think he called them? on Mars (not canals).
The human mind recognises things and that visual ability must help our instinct for creativity and science. Concept design is probably aided by it too. I think that’s part of our success as a species…..
So I was looking at this Christmas cactus and noticed the flower buds. Then I decided to play with it and voila! A green crab shape..

When I come out of our art group this afternoon I saw a wonderful dappled sky. This was the aftermath of storm Arwen last night. There were still freezing gusts of wind and snow was lying in small patches (most had melted). I’m in love with cloudscape, I’m a member of the cloud appreciation society although I’m rubbish at identifying clouds! Anyway I decided to mirror the view so it looks like there is a calm icy lake . X