Cards

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I have had some cards and prints done!

The top painting is of a light at Spode. I was pleased with the prints that came out. The tones are good, and the image is clear. I’m glad I used a local fine art printing company.

The second card is of a painting similar to the green man above. It was a second version I had done, without the curves at the bottom of the painting. (I don’t have a photo of it).

The green man is on a gardinere in salts mill, saltaire, Yorkshire. It was an example of Victorian pottery. I took a photo with my phone and used it to work from.

I will be trying to sell them at a few craft fairs over the spring and summer. It’s hard to judge if people will buy them, but you have got to try !

Mandelbrot

If you look closely this is my drawing of the Mandlebrot set..not a photo.FB_IMG_1524272149873

I do love Chaos theory, when I first heard of it I bought a book called Chaos and read about Mandlebrot who came up with the theory.

That was around 30 years ago, so I don’t remember much about it. But I love the idea that coasts can be fractal, and so can clouds. When you zoom in on a real Mandlebrot pattern you always see this distinct pattern no matter how deep into it you go.

The colours change, curves and swirls and spirals appear, but that pattern keeps coming back.

My drawing is not perfect, but at least it gives an idea of the pattern….like a little Buddha on its side… sparking with electricity.

Other fractal patterns include squares within squares, and triangles within triangles.

Go and look at websites with them on….you will be fascinated hopefully.

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Fork candles

the confusion of words, such as The two Ronnies sketch: four candles or fork handles…..a poem.FB_IMG_1524173502338

Can you hear the difference?

Fork….or Four…Candles…or handles….

See the word, unheard, the difference.

Imagine a fork shaped candle?

Or four spade handles…

Words change, morph, but stay the same.

Homophones, it sounds like, confusion, illusion.

Playing games to gain our trust,  learn the difference, yes we must.

So four is not fork and candle is not handle but together they mangle talk (not tourque).

The Same, But Different

Someone looked at the twisted tree photos and said they were lost in the intricate tangle of branches.

So I decided to use a sketch of a tree I did to show how each picture changes depending how it is twisted. …IMG_20180418_124018_988IMG_20180418_124209_725IMG_20180418_124355_473IMG_20180418_124517_484

Twisting each of the 4 images to end up with 4 separate designs…….

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So which would you prefer? A close curved centre, spread out branches, accidental perforation or parallel lines?

Each has its merit. Some of them remind me if my blood vessels at the back if my eye, visible when a strong light shines. Others with the indentations remind me if a postage stamp.

Add colour and we are in a whole new realm.

Art, design, abstraction…it makes your mind work and stretch…

Turning walls into butterflies…

I’m not going into details or explaining this one…

I am just leaving this here so you can see how my mind works…

One thing leads to another

Colour and contrast shade the image,

Tones flow, bricks swirl, wood cracks and peels as the paint falls.

The carapace hardens and is split, butterfly spills out.

Tiny tiles of scales glint through old webs of moss…..

Glossy silver and gold, hold the eye, iridescent, shivering…..

Commission’s welcome

Please feel free to contact me if you would like a picture.

I love painting as you know and I pride myself on detailed work. I am not a photo realist but I think my portraits are pretty accurate and my landscapes are intricate.

So if you feel you would like to invest in something artistic, that is your choice, your vision, let me know.

I am currently working towards exhibiting a few peices at Spode, and an exhibition in June at Etruria in Stoke on Trent. I am happy to consider painting landscapes and portraits and I am also able to paint in various styles, so if you would like an abstract painting perhaps I can help? I also paint animals, so  pet portraits are also available, just ask….

 

 

Misty cows

Standing in the cold, waiting for friends out at Heath House in Staffordshire, I decided to take photos of the view of the mist and cows on my phone….

 

When I was chilled to the bone I decided to take photos of the trees across the road, the board advertising the Heath House, and the drive up to it. These have also been posted to Instagram, so I used a couple of their filters  to change some of the pictures to black and white, and also slightly pink or blue. I think this heightens the misty feel.

Some if the cows in the feild opposite were scratching their heads  against the trunks of the trees . What an itch they must have had. As the mist came down I realised what an ideal location this was for our expedition. …..

We have been extra’s in a local film, and we had gone to The Heath House to be filmed in some exterior shots.

The trailer for the film is at  humanus.uk

I hope the link works!

Big painting!

  • Finally finished,
these pictures run from todays picture of the finished painting, backwards to the original start. Its about A1 in size.IMG_20180219_142219_731More done, including more shadow.
May change the curve at the top, its too much. Needs flattening.IMG_20180218_185303_881And so it continues….
This has had more detail added to the pot, and I have worked on the background more. This is the third picture. The green one was the second and the one with the red background was the first.IMG_20180217_013137_299

Continue reading “Big painting!”

Using Sketcher Free and Layout Apps

I use a few apps and thought I would show you a progression using them. Initially I chose a turquoise background in Sketcher Free, and using the ribbon pen and white then black colours I drew a unicorn but made it into what I called a Zebracorn, (or unizeb!)

I then changed it using a different pen to form wings, but went back to the ribbon pen to finish them off and try and lose the unicorns horn. I suppose you could call it pegazeb?

Another app you can use on Samsung galaxy tablets is Layout. It allows you to duplicate images, rotate them up or down or side to side..left to right etc. There are various options and some if them are shown below. Doubling, quadrupling or even making multiples of them.

Of course then it’s good to display them on line, so I put a lot of drawings on Instagram. That gives you the opportunity to use filters more – which is seen in the final picture, changing from turquoise to green.

So basically you can go from a finger painting to something much more complex using a couple of apps.

One word to describe my Art? “Eclectic”

Some artists have a theme they keep to, they will always paint birds or sculpt bodies, or even unmake beds.

I cannot do that, my mind jumps all over the place.  I usually paint in acrylics, but have also painted scenery, made props for plays, made pottery. I take reasonable photographs.  I recently crocheted blue squares and circles for a friends installation. I have painted murals, drawn in the sand on beaches, done digital art… I am eclectic.

Give me something to make a mark and something sparks in my brain, like a fire, and it won’t easily go out. The more I do the more I feel I can and should do better.

Isn’t it mad how a grey lump of stuff in your head can make you create?  Some people write, others make music. Something in my mind is very visual. I wish I knew more about how the mind works to explain mine. It must be something to do with memory and hand eye co-ordination. I started drawing at about 4 and I haven’t really stopped since.

So I have posted a few more pictures,  not all good, but its hard to search through so many images to find representative work.

If you want to draw, paint or create art, don’t hesitate, do it. The more you do the better you get. Practice helps, you can learn new techniques. Just don’t be afraid to try!