On the table….

Posted on July 12, 2020July 12, 2020 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Blogging, Books, Cat, Colours, Cotman paints, Fun, Paint, Sketching, Sphere, Stoke-on-Trent urban sketchers challenge, Table, WatercoloursLeave a comment

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Today’s Stoke-on-Trent urban sketchers challenge was what was on your table..

Luckily the cat got on the table as I approached it. Otherwise it’s just books and a box and a carved wooden sphere. The n gauge railway layout my hubby has is out of view. Too difficult to paint! Sketching with a Cotman watercolour set I treated myself to for my birthday last month.

I haven’t painted with watercolours for months. I liked the free flowing colours. Less restrictive than acrylics. Although I did let paint bleed into some parts I dabbed it off with a bit of tissue. I found drawing out with the brush instead of a pencil much easier. I hate having drawn lines in pictures. The other thing was leaving areas white. It’s good to leave negative space and not completely cover the paper. This is turning into an interesting sketchbook. The prompts really make me think.

Pattern play.

Posted on July 11, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage oils, Blogging, Colours, Design, Fun, Layout ap, Pattern, Sketcher free, Sketching, SpiralsLeave a comment

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I don’t know when I did this, probably three or four years ago. It’s a combination of three apps, ArtRage oils, sketcher free and layout. I drew the metallic looking pattern first, then added the spirals and finally divided and mirrored the images.

I probably used a photo editor too. I’m not sure.

The feeling I get from making these gives me great pleasure. I can’t explain, but it takes me out of myself.

Patterns

Posted on July 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Colours, Design, Digital apps, Digital drawing, Drawing, Fun, Hue, Inspiration, Pattern4 Comments

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Patterned background, created digitally, with a figure of a seated woman added. I like playing with pattern, seeing what I can find hidden in the depths..

I added dark lines then shading and lightened areas to give the figure a bit of definition. I guess it’s a little more abstract than I normally draw. I changed the hue in it a couple of times to. Making it more green and then more red. I enjoy experimenting with art.

Face mask

Posted on June 24, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 1980's, Art, Colours, Cuneo print, Green mask, Oil on canvas, Painting, Red beret, self portrait, Yellow jumperLeave a comment

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I think I painted this self portrait in the early 1980’s. It’s disconcerting seeing my younger self. I used to like to hide my face away sometimes and the green face mask was fun to paint, although I remember it cracking as I painted! I did two versions as a friend bought one of them from a little exhibition I held. The other one has red and white earrings if I remember.

I know this was painted in oils on a homemade canvas. I think it was probably about 1ft square. The background was the pink wall in our room. The picture behind me was of a train by Cuneo. (not sure of the spelling). It was a print my mother got my hubby as he loves trains. I think I wore the red beret and yellow jumper to create some contrast to the green mask.

Morning glory seeds

Posted on June 22, 2020June 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Annuals, Blogging, Climbers, Colours, Gardening, Horticultural, Morning glory, Need warmth to germinate, Plants2 Comments

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Apologies to the seed company for using the photo. I hope they don’t mind.

Tomorrow, as the weather warms up, I’m going to plant some seeds for these plants. They are trumpet shaped and climb up a long stem. They open in the morning and fade by the evening. I did a painting of one of the plants a few years ago. I only had blue striped ones last time. The coloured ones look like they will be fab. Wish me lunch with them

My own flowers

Posted on June 19, 2020June 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bright, Colours, Flowers, Gardening, Heat, Morning glory, Nasturtium, Poppies, Rain, Summer, susunshine, Torrential thunder storms, Water, Weather2 Comments

Last year, painting of morning glory flowers and some poppies. I haven’t grown much from seeds this year. We do have some lettuce plants, but they have probably been drowned by the amount of torrential rain we’ve been having over the past few days. Some places have had a months rain in a day! That compared with six weeks of sunshine in April and May. As usual our weather is topsy-turvy. Basically because of where the United Kingdom is positioned. We get weather from every direction, the Atlantic, the Arctic, Siberia, even dust dragged up from the Sahara. We are a weather magnet!

I want to go and get some seeds and see if I can grow some nasturtiums for late summer bedding, and the butterfly caterpillars love them. They are a nice, spicy, bitter and peppery orange flavour when added to salads and cold soups.

Flowers

Posted on May 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Colours, Environment, Flowers, Gardening, Geology, Life, Photos, Plants, Random, Spring, WaterLeave a comment

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A few flowers from the garden today. The flowers are starting to develop, the big summer plants are a bit swamped with ivy and scrubby bushes and so we have cut back branches and peeled ivy off trees a bit today. Only what you can do with a pair of secateurs and a small pruning saw.

We need to lay some pathways, and where a spring has erupted in the garden we are going to put a few pebbles to simulate a stream flowing down under the hedge. We live on a hill which is a very old Volcanic plug. The water percolates out further up the hill and we think because that was built on a few years ago it might have got diverted down towards our house. I don’t know….

Mandala.

Posted on May 25, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Colours, Drawing, Life, Mandala, Meditation, Memory, Pattern, Poem, Poetry, Rainbow, Random, ThoughtLeave a comment

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If I could find the centre of the universe,

would it encompass me?

Would this world be flung far out,

or be held by gravity?

Silent rainbows squirt sideways,

clouds billow outwards,

from the singularity.

Held by an umbilical arm,

tight fist entwined.

Give in to sorrow or joy.

Be free.

Kitchen at night

Posted on May 20, 2020May 20, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Colours, Fun, Night, Photo, Plants, Random, Reflections, Windowsill2 Comments

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I am just putting my phone on charge and I looked up and saw the light from the back door porch shining through and reflecting off the walls and the windows. As you can see I’m growing a lot of Christmas cacti and other plants including a baby oak and a sweet pepper plant on the windowsill. There are also glass mobiles hanging up there. Why? Because I got burgled twenty years ago and as well as an alarm I decided to make it as awkward as possible for anyone to try an climb through a window without knocking stuff off.

I think this might eventually turn into a painting. Night all

Day 30 ‘ornament’

Posted on May 18, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Colours, Drawing, Happy drawing, Ornament, Sketches, Stoke-on-Trent Urban sketchersLeave a comment

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I decided to do a more colour drawing for #uskstoke challenge today. I have lots of ornaments, mostly covered in dust I’m afraid.

Today is day 30 out of 38, so it’s just over a week till it finishes. A few people have kept going through the whole series and others have dipped in and out.

See you with more tomorrow…. X

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Colours