New paintings and regular art updates.
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was Invisible. I imagine the invisible man would have to be naked if he wants to wander about. Or would have to wear bandages or makeup. There was a series on TV with David McCallum. If he drank you might see the coffee going into his stomach-Etc! Until it was actually absorbed. I got the stomach too high up in this sketch.
I’ve just been to the gallery where II have some of my paintings today. I thought they would be asking me to take some of my paintings away because they have been up too long, but they only wanted me to take one of a poppy field. But I do need to do some new paintings, to swap out with the ones I currently have there. I’m trying to think of spring images, maybe flowers? This is a Vinca. I was also thinking of doing a painting of a Blue himalayan poppy (mecanopsis) or other similar ones like Helibores. Also maybe snowdrops or daffodils. We will see.
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was cuts. This was a head scratcher! I thought of a paper cut and decided to go a bit surreal. Instead of the paper cutting my finger I drew my hand cutting through a page of my sketchbook. Pastle colour felt pens and silver metallic pen.
I saw this canal boat and just wanted to take a photo of the colours and the perspective lines. You don’t always have to take a photo that shows the entire object. Close ups and distant shots can be good. Macro photos can be very interesting. There are bad photos, but then you can crop them to show a different aspect. Be open to different ideas. Be creative, be comfortable with trying something new.
It’s the MOST annoying thing! My fridge freezer has been icing up a lot lately and I’ve defrosted it a couple of times although it’s meant to do it automatically. We found out a couple of years ago it has a very noisy alarm and we ended up calling out a gas engineer because the noise was coming from near the gas boiler. But no it was the fridge. So at about 2.30am it started going off. I’ve turned it off and defrosted it. I cleared the vents at the back of the freezer which were a bit blocked. I unplugged it (but it must have a battery to keep it going). I plugged it back in because I don’t want my frozen food to spoil and the motor is still working. I checked the door seals, they are fine. So I’m left with a loud beeping (swear words) fridge freezer. In a small house, where you can’t get away from the noise, so I did a load of washing. At 3am.
Any ideas? I can’t sleep because of it. I’m watching TV news while I try and rest to take my mind off it. I may buy a new one but Monday is a Bank Holiday. I don’t think I can wait till Tuesday! Help… Plus the cats are fed up!
I’m hoping to get some cards made from my pottery paintings. I need to start selling things, but it’s a balance between what I can afford and what I can sell. The cost of living is making life difficult for everyone. This painting is loosely based on a Burleigh ware design although it’s not an actual copy. It’s totally imagined so I had to decide on where the shadows would fall. The background is meant to look like wooden panels reflected in a desk or table. The minds eye is an interesting concept. I actually can imagine how things look, and by talking my way through things I can generally get a good idea of what I’m doing.
An old drawing I did of the local church one Christmas. It’s coming up to that time if year to decide what paintings to do for Christmas. I don’t want to make them too twee. They have to be something someone would want to hang on a wall. I half want to paint little icon paintings, or maybe images taken from something like the book of Kells. It’s hard to decide, do Robins work? Or are they just things you find on a Christmas card that get brought out once a year? Who knows?
Oh dear! What have I done? I haven’t posted much recently, and since the clocks went back I have got less views. Maybe I’m boring people. It’s hard not to be repetitive and I’ve also expressed some political views that might have put people off or annoyed them. But I can’t help being honest about my opinions. I don’t think I’m extreme in any way, just concerned about what is happening in the world with democracy and climate change. Tell me if there is anything I need to do to change? The Internet is an echo chamber, sometimes you only hear what you want to. I don’t think I can change that much?
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was paper. I realised I’m surrounded by the stuff. Sketchbooks, newspapers, cards, envelopes, etters, books, novels, paperbacks, calendars, magazines, print outs. I’ve tried to represent them in a sketch. The image is imagined, but my house is a mess at the moment so it is littered with paper things.
I painted this a few years ago, it’s based on a poppy with a white centre. Most poppies have dark splodges in the centre. I think this looks more subtle. I’m toying with the idea of painting a mixture of both on a larger canvas? The background would be greens and straw coloured. Got to possibly block out or draw out their positions and then maybe add some forget-me-nots.
Mallaband-Brown