New paintings and regular art updates.
Clematis, blousy and purple,
or tiny and pink.
Growing up walls,
Along fences, up high.
Clematis, bell flowers,
Fuzzy seedheads,
Growing round trees
Up to the sky.
Clematis, spring and summer flowering
Now monumental,
Grown with great love.
Makes me sigh.
Clematis, old friend,
Newly open flowers,
Grow bud and petal,
You give me joy
I like creating kaleidoscopic patterns and this one reminded me of a Mandala I saw years ago.
I used to go to yoga sessions and loved relaxing and meditating. All I need now is some beautiful relaxing music.
By looking at something like this or drawing one you can take your mind away from the stresses of the outside world and start to relax. I understand why people like adult colouring books, and there is something I have heard of called zentangle, although I’m not exactly sure how that works.
I used to enjoy trying to draw celtic knots but haven’t done any for years. Perhaps that is the next thing to investigate. I wonder what it is that attracts people to pattern making. I know I love to do it.
I wanted some objects to add to my new bathroom which had been painted in a lovely sky blue. The green and gold bowl is glass made at the nearby Portmerion factory in Stoke. the cats head was from a friend, I dont know its origin. I placed it above the bowl to look like it was lapping. The blue bottles are an old medicine bottle and an old gin bottle. The yellow glass bowl came from a place called Amerton farm, the small pinky bottle with a stopper was from a jumble sale. Finally the brown and turquoise bowl was a raffle prize. The fern is one I grew before we had the bathroom done, it had to come back in. I do like the combinations of colour.
X
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.
Richard just brought a pot of Icelandic poppies in from outside. He said he wanted to enjoy their colours. I understand why. Our garden is not really visible because we have high window ledges so the view is blocked off.
These poppies are nodding their heads because I have the fan on to cool the air in here. Outside it hit 30C again in the yard. It frequently does at the the moment because its very sheltered and south west facing, trees and hedges surround it so as the Sun goes down it gets cooler. That’s when we water the hanging baskets (which keep wilting in the heat).
We are getting green tomatoes but despite the sunshine they are not ripening much. I think I need to trim some of the lower branches.
I will try and get a good photo of the yard soon, if the plants recover a bit. In the meantime enjoy the Icelandic poppies……
Today I had the pleasure of going out with The Orme Art group for our annual trip to a landscape venue at an old house and its grounds in Staffordshire.
The weather was very windy, so I decided to take a small sketch pad and coloured pencils, soft pastels, and fine tipped ink pens. I thought I had my portable chair in the back of the car but it wasn’t there when I opened the boot. Luckily there were chairs in the garden of the large house for us to use.
The other artists there were either painting with watercolours or acrylics, but we were in a reasonably sheltered spot, so they were not affected by the wind. There is something wonderful, sitting in a green space, looking at the landscape, the shapes of the trees and leaves. Noticing where the shadows fall, which direction the light is coming from. Choosing the medium which is most appropriate for the drawing you are doing. I find using black pens are good for quick sketches, and outlining and shading shadowed areas. The pastels bought out the colours on an old tree, where only one section of bark was still attached and so only a few branches were still in leaf. I used the coloured pencils to try and give an impression of the solidity of the house with feathery leaves superimposed on the walls and windows. Finally I drew a quick sketch of one of the other artists as she painted the tree that I had drawn.
Having a small A5 sketch pad that is ring bound is really useful. You can draw across the whole page without it flipping shut on you. Yes the holes and wire can get in the way a bit, but being able to fold the whole book back allows for easier handling. You can use it in portrait or landscape positions, and it is easier to fold shut if you get caught in a sudden rainshower.
I spent about an hour on the drawing of the house, and 20 to 30 minutes on the landscape/tree. The quick sketch of my friend took about 15 minutes.
The one thing I should have worn is sturdy shoes! There were a lot of insects about and I’m lucky I didn’t get bitten!
I did another doodle today, just because I can I guess. I wanted to do something bright and colourful. Something cheerful during this hot spell of weather.
Primary colours with a touch of green and orange to brighten up my day. A tiny bit of black for contrast….curves like a fountain give a flourish to the doodle.
I’ve explained I the past what apps I use, I don’t want to bore you again!
Sometimes I can see animals in these patterns, today I think I see cats or dogs…I used to see patterns in old wallpaper and curtain patterns. There is apparently a name for it but I cannot remember what it is.
All the best and have a good weekend!
My partner is not an artist, but he does enjoy art, so he has started colouring adult art books. The themes in them don’t seem to have progressed much more than in children’s books, but they do allow him to relax by concentrating on a subject.
The art in the books appears to have been drawn with a bit more skill, and if you choose something with a specific theme they appear to be of higher quality. He recently bought himself one based on the Lord of the Rings books.
I dont know how anyone else feels about this? Is colouring in a book an art form? Is the artist the person who draws out the initial image or the person shading in the image?
I guess its like old fashioned painting by numbers….however it is a hobby for those who want to engage in artistic projects.
It would be interesting to see how an artist tackled filling in the pictures. Would they use traditional felt pens, or more interesting methods such as acrylics, oil paints, different types of charcoal or even collage and gold leaf. Turning something which is mundane into a spectacular rainbow of colours.
So maybe that is a challenge. To take one of these books and transform it into a true piece of art….
This was my back garden last summer! 
This was my back garden last summer! Unfortunatley I haven’t concentrated on it yet this year. The weather was cold and wet into spring and even now I have tiny seedlings that are just not doing much. I have also been so busy getting ready for art shows and things…
Hopefully in a few weeks time it will start looking good again,
But in the meantime I’m looking out at Blackberry canes growing across the yard. The bees like them but I’m going to remove the long ones that are trying to take over. I will try and post up to date pictures soon if I get it sorted out!
I still need to plant out the onion sets a friend gave me! Shameful that I forgot them until I wrote this!
I took these photos in a friend’s garden 6 years ago (they came up on my Facebook feed) I am a nut about colour and some of these just zing!
I think I used a little digital camera with no added features to take these. I was just amazed how the reds and oranges stood out in the green.
I wish I could time travel back to those simpler times. But time flies, tempus fugit, and before you know it you are 6 years older and perhaps not wiser!
But in the meantime I’m going to enjoy browsing through these again…
Cheers x
Mallaband-Brown