New paintings and regular art updates.
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.
X
Quick sketches of figures while I sat on a roundabout in the park yesterday. I added a little dog, sitting next to one of them. And an older female figure stooped over. Our project this week at college was to do various things, including drawing a person walking. I must do a better job, but these were a couple of minutes each, max.
They could be neat and tidy, but you can’t nail people down to make them still when you try and draw them.
X
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.
X
For most of his life he’s not been interested in cooking. He doesn’t like me to explain what to do. When he roasted a chicken once he added a whole big bulb of garlic. He can cook poached egg on toast, he does cook bread, he tries to cook bacon by frying it for a minute then microwaving it.
Today he wanted to make a loaf out of self raising flour. With no yeast. I explained that would be more like pastry, and that you use self raising mainly for making cakes. I told him he could use about eight ounces of flour, four ounces of butter, four ounces of sugar, but as we had none he could use a couple of heaped spoons of sweetener. This is a granular one you can cook with. A couple of eggs, and milk, not water, which he was going to use.
I went upstairs on the computer while he went out to get butter.
I was going to explain. He knew about Crumbling flour and butter together, then I told him to add sweetener, then the eggs and milk, then some de-stoned cherries if he wanted to.
I was upstairs, and it was terribly quiet. A friend rang so I came downstairs. Hubby was just about to put the cake in the oven. I looked around, he’d used about twelve ounces of flour (not weighed it out) three quarters of a tub of margarine. Two eggs a bit of milk and a teaspoon! of sweetener. To this mix he’d added half a bowl of cherries and then kneaded the mix! I tried to explain you need the mix to be more liquid and that you gently stir in the milk to keep the cake light.
Well he tried. The cake is cooking, gas mark 4,initially for 45 minutes in the centre of the oven. I’m worried it will be a bit heavy when it comes out.
X
Now this cat is bright eyed and bushy tailed, she’s my boy cats sister. She isn’t above chasing him round the room, although she likes playing with a ball, knocking it backwards and forwards with her paws.
Cats have spirit, they have character, they are independent and aloof. Is it any wonder that they were venerated by societies like the ancient Egyptians. Even now they seem to have the upper hand when compared with dogs. While dogs have love for humans, cats seem to be more sneaky, they work things out to their own advantage. That look that says ‘you are under my spell’.
Cats.
I can’t live without them.
A few weeks ago, we had so many plants in the boot of the car we had to fit a hanging basket on the back seat. They are all doing well but it’s rained so much since that I haven’t been able to set them up as I would like. I also pulled a shoulder muscle picking them up so I can’t lift my left arm up above my head. It’s frustrating me. It meant my hubby had to reach up to pick the cherry crop while I pulled the branches down. I’m hoping we get some breaks in the weather. Then I can get the stepladders out. Even if I don’t climb them, I can direct where they should go.
The baskets are beautiful, I was told about a farm a few years ago that do baskets for half the price of garden centres. You order in advance and they make up whatever size you want. I chose colourful plants. Sometimes they last into the winter. I even have fushia plants that have over wintered in the yard and are growing again now. And are in full flower! I think our small back yard must have its own microclimate. I have courgette flowers growing there at the moment.
X
With such a large crop,
bowls full to the top,
I tried-
To decide-
what to do with them?
Each cherry on a stem!
Salad with cherries
fills my belly.
Coleslaw with cabbage
with cherries added.
Now I’ll make jelly
with added cherry,
summer fruit,
so much loot.
Birds are merry
They have cheery
Cherries too!
🍒
Youdraw.com where I drew for years before having problems logging into it a few years ago. But unlike other Web pages they have tried to modernise it. In the past it relied on java script, but now they have got rid of some of the glitches. There are still a few problems but I’ve done three drawings recently.
I’ve now counted that I’ve done 13690 drawings there! That’s mad, but true. I love the simplicity of the site. Two blacken, two erasers. Simple.
The blackbirds sing,
The thrushes too
The robins nest,
Their fledglings new.
A magpie there
And pigeons too?
They congregate
And feed on seed.
Blue tits
and house sparrows,
All had their nests.
Feeding them all
Is our happy chore.
Yes eat your fill,
Of cherries ripe.
We’ve had ours now
The rest, enjoy.
Home made coleslaw (cabbage, carrot, red onion) with reduced calorie mayonnaise. A small piece of brown seeded bread with a bit of pate, a couple of chopped up tomatoes, half an avocado pear and some de-stoned red cherries. Also a few cheese and onion potato crisps. On a Portmeirion plate. Why? Because I liked the colours mainly. I watched a programme about still life last night and the interest that images of food created was fascinating. At one stage still life was seen as the lowest form of art, but the innovations of artists gradually made it more accessible and acceptable. Artists like Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso bought new definitions of what still life meant. Art is fascinating. It’s funny the ideas you can get by staring at a plate of food. X
Mallaband-Brown