New paintings and regular art updates.
I’ve got a new tablet and I’ve merrily been uploading some of the apps I used to use. This one was called sketcher free. I played with the various pens in the app and tried to create something a bit more abstract to how I normally draw.
I was also trying out different colours, vaguely graffitiish if that’s a word! Its exciting to experiment with art.
They might not look like much yet, but I’ve just blocked in three small painting that I sketched out over the weekend. The middle one is of a cat curled up on an armchair. The chair will be covered in a holly pattern.the cat on the window ledge will have a blue and white vase next to it, and the pottery is an imagined view in the snow,
I’ve got a busy week so I might not be able to get online much. Also I’ve got toothache!
This isn’t the tablet but a drawing of the screen. I installed lots of software today. What a mess! I have different passwords for each app. It confused me! Had to reset some. I wanted to do lots of stuff today but I’ve spent four hours just learning how to use it.
Anyway the photo is for day 21 of the 1″ inch challenge for October.
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I did these sketches tonight because I’m part of urban sketchers. These were drawn at the Mystery play barn dance up at Penkhull village hall. The band laying were called the Shropshire Hero’s and the barn dance caller was Baz Parkes.
It was excellent fun although I was helping behind the bar for part of it. Just watching people dance was great. Some do well, others make mistakes. The worst thing that happened was someone accidentally stood on my foot. But that was because I was drawing, and I think I was a bit in the way, so I wasn’t looking and got stood on. I was more worried because the dancer almost fell over me!
The other problem with drawing dancers? You guessed it.. They don’t stand still!
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Have you heard of Panto? Or better known as Pantomime?
No? It’s something that goes on here in the UK around Christmas time.
Usually seen in a theatre it consists of brightly coloured sets, with brightly clothed people, messing about, telling an adventurous story while telling awful jokes and singing contemporary songs.
We do this in Penkhull, but for the at two years someone from the group has written the panto/pantomime, rather than buying in a script.
We started rehearsing last week. Lots of people who have done it before, greatful to get a couple of lines and be able to play act again. Most modern pantos seem to have commercial sponsorship, but in our case we just mention local shops. We don’t have advertisements in the panto, unless it’s jokey ones in the programme.
This time we are doing Aladdin. Set to open for four performances (too many for’s?) in February 2020, so the cast can take Christmas off!
Oh yes we can!
He’s big and bold,
Not nasty, but determined.
If he wants,
he will take your chair.
He will make fun of you,
Nip your nose
Play with your hair
Chase balloons.
Happy.
That’s what he is….
These are new, about half the size of my original pieces. They are due to have holes drilled in them to allow smaller mounts.
These have bits of dichroic glass fused into them. I’m hoping they will be liked at the craft fair I’m doing soon.
The choirs I’m inlearn mainly by repetition. We usually have the choir leader teaching us a line at a time. Some songs have simple repetitions, others have verses and choruses. We can sing in unison or are split into high, low and middle parts. We are kept in tune either with a melodion or a guitar. I actually find it harder to sing along with a guitar because it can be drowned out by our singing.
A new choir member asked how we can just start singing a song that we have never seen BEFORE. When that happens it’s usually because we have sung it in the past and it’s part of our old repertoire? Our song book is extensive and covers old and new songs and many languages including African songs, European and Indian.
I think joining a choir is one of the best things I have ever done.
Saw this in Burslem today. On the main road from Cobridge up to Burslem.
Arthur Berry was an artist based in Stoke-on-Trent where he produced pictures of everyday figures and landscapes with a style of his own. Charcoal and pastels are used to chisel faces out of blackness, strokes of grey and white float on top of murky reds to bring out the dark shapes of buildings.
Arthur was also a writer and poet. We attended several of his plays when they were performed at the Victoria Theatre in Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent in the 1980’s. We have a copy of a couple of his books. He was a very creative artist.
Day 16…only 15 to go. I’ve enjoyed doing these so far. I’m even drawing them early! Last year I kept adding pictures late.
The glass should be fired in the next couple of days, then I shall have pieces I can turn into smaller necklaces. I loved being able to do it, but the lady who runs the workshops is moving away. I shall have to find someone else who does it, or the pieces I did today will be my last experiment in this craft.
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Mallaband-Brown