Red sky this morning

Posted on January 22, 2023January 22, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Dawn, Dorset, Morning, Red sky, red sky in the morning, Sky, Sunrise, Sunset, View, WeatherLeave a comment

This photo doesn’t do it justice. I don’t have a great view of the horizon because its obscured by trees and buildings, and the window needs clearing of ivy that is growing around it. There was a yellowish gap in the clouds where the sky was visible, then bars of orange/red clouds lay across it, like sand bars in a shallow sea. Have you ever looked up at the sky and thought it was mimicking an ocean view? It was like that. The best time I ever saw that illusion was when we were driving down to Dorset. We were climbing a big hill and the sunset appeared over the peak of the hill. It looked like the sea with land protruding into it. As we reached the summit the real sea became visible and the sky looked as if the sea was reflected in it. All pinks and golds and bars of lavender grey. We had a lovely week away.

Before covid?

Posted on August 25, 2022August 25, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Artists, Colour, Dorset, Fine Art, Holiday, Life, Lulworth cove, Painting, shingles, StonesLeave a comment

You could go to a beach and find someone just painting stones as a job (Lulworth Cove in Dorset). A respectable way of earning some money as an artist. Sitting in the sunshine, working on imaginative designs. We bought one with a blue octopus painted on it. The stones were probably collected off the shingle beach (yes I’m writing about different shingles). I would love to go back there but I doubt this artist would still be plying his trade. Yes the world has changed.

At Lulworth Cove

Posted on May 4, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Artist, Coast, Dorset, Durdle door, Holiday, Lulworth cove, Painting, WeymouthLeave a comment

Seven years ago, the sun was shining, we were on holiday near Weymouth and visited Lulworth Cove on the Dorset coast. We met a brilliant artist called Chris. He was painting shells and stones. We bought a stone with an octopus painted on it. The cove itself is circular with a gap in it that allows the sea in. If you catch a boat ride along the coast to the west you can see Durdle door, an archway of rocky cliff extending out into the sea. We had a lovely day.

Abstract

Posted on November 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Abstract, Acrylic on canvas, Art, Dorset, Glitter, Maiden castle, Non representational, Painting, SparkleLeave a comment

Acrylic on canvas, abstract, hillfort maze.

I don’t know what I called it originally but it reminds me of the maze like paths up to the top of Maiden Castle in Dorset. It’s not actually representative I liked the idea of adding glitter and colour to give it spirit.

When the sun Shines it sparkles.

Sea or Sky?

Posted on July 13, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, artistic, cloudscape, Dorset, Fun, Images, Imagine, Landscape, Looking, Memories, Photo, Picture, Southern EnglandLeave a comment

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I posted this and other photos to my Instagram page and a friend commented that they looked like views out of an airplane window of the sea with islands in it.

I had concentrated on trying to see animals in the image. I can see a snarling bears head at the top left of this one for instance. But it reminded me of a holiday in Dorset one year. Driving up over the hills of the county, just before we dropped down towards Weymouth on the coast, the sky looked like mountainous islands with sea, bays and inlets running through them. I wish I’d been able to take a photo…

The sky had been a pale wash of pastel colours, the sun was setting, but because we were heading due south its glare was catching the sides of the clouds, they were lit up with gold on one side and greys on the other. The ‘sea’ was all pale pinks and blues. If we had not spent all day driving I would have pulled over. The image faded as we headed towards the caravan site, but it was the precursor of a lovely week away. Maybe I can find some old snaps of the places we visited.

I often look at cloudscapes and see landscapes.

Maiden Castle

Posted on April 10, 2020April 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on board, Art, Dorchester, Dorset, Hill Fort, Landscape, Maiden castle, Painting, Southern England, Sue Vincent2 Comments

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I just took this photo of a painting I did of Maiden Castle in the 1990’s. It’s a hill Fort in the countryside near Dorchester in Dorset, England. Sorry for the shine on it, my camera flash reflected off it.

What is Maiden Castle? A series of ramparts of soil, rising and falling until it reaches a plateau in the middlewhere the Fort is situated. It can be reached by a pathway through the maze of hills.

My painting includes a dancing and decaying figure. She is meant to represent the spirit of the place and its history. I was studying radiography at the time, and had found a rabbit skull on one of my walks. I also liked watching the archaeology TV programme, ‘ Time Team’ and this was my attempt to embody the feeling I got as I stood up on that hill.

Sadly I haven’t been back there since. But I just read a post by Sue Vincent and her visit to the place and it reminded me of the place. The Maiden Castle scene was taken from a photo and the dancing woman was imagined.

Old painting, maiden castle

Posted on September 19, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on board, Art, Dancing figure, Dorset, England, Figure in landscape, Landscape, Maiden castle, Painting, Time, UKLeave a comment

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Painted several years ago, my painting of Maiden Castle Hill Fort imagined a woman dancing in the landscape, and also her bones as if they were found in the land.

The idea was inspired by visiting Maiden Castle in the 1990s,thinking about it being a hill Fort and part of the Celtic world.

It is located in Dorset near Dorchester. If I remember correctly it is reached by a small road, then you walk up through the ditches and mounds that lead up to the top of the hill Fort.

I think I got the idea from watching archaeology programmes on TV. I imagined the woman being aware of the changing seasons and how time passes. The little skull below her is a rabbit skull we found on a walk.

It’s a bit weird, but I wanted to include a figure in the dramatic landscape.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Dorset