Next Saturday

Orme Art Group is having a Spring Artisan sale. There’s going to be a variety of stalls, from wire weaving, soft furnishing and painting and prints. I hope to be demonstrating minature painting, and selling some of my mini works. I also have a few glass necklaces for sale.

I don’t do craft fairs very often anymore, I went off them when covid was (still is) about and I’ve had to pluck up courage to do it again. I like space around me, not crowds, but this will be with friends so I should be OK.

The Whitfield Centre is a community centre and the people there are very friendly. I hope visitors will be impressed by the variety of work for sale and I hope we get a good attendance.

Thunderbolts and lightning!

What is your favorite type of weather?

No thunderstorms in my sketch, just heavy rain. I have memories of several โ›ˆ thunderstorms though.

Years ago I dreamt of meeting some friends in a thunderstorm, a few days later we cycled over to visit our friends. We suddenly saw them coming towards us, we met up, pleased that we had got together. Then it started raining.. Hard! We ended up sheltering under a bus shelter while it thundered and lightning struck all around us.

Another incident was visiting a friend and a storm started a couple of miles away. We sat and watched it move across the sky while drinking red wine. As it passed over a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky.

Finally during a particularly vicious night time storm I stood on our back doorstep trying to catch an image of lightning on my camera phone. I did, but I can’t find it on my phone to show you so I’ve posted this drawing instead. X

Pastel drawing

Pastel drawing of sea, land and sky. Came up on my Facebook memories from four years ago. Where does the time go? It was one of the drawings I did during a pastel workshop a while ago. It was framed and has a mount over it so any loose pastel dust falls behind the mount and not in front of it. I think I’m going to take it over to a gallery where I have some work so I can try and sell it.

Why?

What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?

I’m not sure I want a tattoo, I’ve managed not to get one so far in my life, but I might be persuaded if someone could give me a good argument to get one?

So what should I get an image of and where should I have it….? Perhaps a discrete one on a hidden part of my anatomy, my upper arm, back or leg? I’ve got no one to hide it from though, and they are much more beautiful than the old fashioned love and hate words on peoples knuckles. I know people with sleeves and huge tattoos on their backs or legs. I’m not afraid of being tattooed but I would rather design something for someone else..

A tattoo for me? My hubby always says I have eyes in the back of my head….

Hot

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was hot. I drew flames and then use photodirector to add texture and pattern. I liked imagining the different colours in flames. I think this has a watercolour feeling to it. The app gives it a more even look, as without it the felt pens I have used look a bit rough because the tips of them are wearing out and getting broken and the ink is drying up.

Waiting for coffee

Hubby yesterday, we had gone over to Middleport pottery so I could draw with the Stoke on Trent Urban Sketchers group. We decided to grab a cup of coffee but the cafe was very crowded and I’ve just got over a cold and didn’t want to catch another or worse. I decided to sit at one of the big round tables outside and so took the opportunity to draw my hubby and the canal and view behind him. The pointy thing about a third of the way in on the right is a church steeple but my ink brush wasn’t thin enough to get a point on it! Anyway I was pleased with the results.

Middleport pottery urban sketch

The felt pens came out today for a drawing of the chimney at Middleport pottery. Stoke-on-Trent Urban Sketchers were out at various places around the factory grounds and across the other side of the Trent and Mersey canal.

It was a warm morning, and there were some brief glimpses of blue sky through the bold grey clouds. I could have drawn Middleports iconic bottle oven, but I wanted to sit down on a bench so I drew the chimney and the roofs instead.

I liked using layers of felt pen, I started with a pale blue pen to outline the buildings but then used black to indicate bricks and worked dark to light, with horizontal and little vertical lines to indicate the brickwork. I even used some silver pan for the sky because my grey pan has dried up. A lovely couple of hours spent in good company.

Happy St Patrick’s day

Here’s a little green abstract to wish you a happy St Patrick’s day.

I once found a four leaf ๐Ÿ€clover, so it feels like a lucky day. St Patrick was supposed to have cast all the snakes out of Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช and to this day there are non there. I guess it could be that Ireland is an Island?

St Patrick’s day is celebrated in Ireland and in the USA where they have been known to colour rivers green. Its not unusual to have parades of marching bands and floats. The predominant colour is green, even green coloured drinks! The symbol is an Irish man with red hair and a beard wearing green clothes and sporting a shamrock โ˜˜ (which I think is similar to clover, but a perennial plant). Much fun and hilarity is enjoyed by the population on St Patrick’s day.

We don’t celebrate St Patrick’s day as much in most of the UK, I think because Ireland is a mainly Catholic country and mark saints days more than we do.

The green abstract was drawn with felt pens then filtered through photodirector to add texture, and an app called layout to add symmetry.