Painting with Bob Ross

Posted on July 1, 2020July 1, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Bob Ross, Fun, Landscape, Layers, Learning, Not sure if I like it, Tiny painting, TV lesson6 Comments

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I’ve been watching a painting programme late at night with an artist called Bob Ross I think. He does half hour programmes (think they were done in the 1980’s?). He cheerfully shows you how to do landscapes. He does a painting in half an hour. Showing how to paint layers to build up depth and distance. Each layer adds to the image. I’m not keen on his art, its very formulaic, but it’s interesting. I decided to paint along with him last night. It’s a very small canvas but I couldn’t keep up! At least I got a vague result.

Remembering

Posted on May 5, 2020 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Beech, Bovisand Bay, Devon, From life, Landscape, Painting, Plein air, Poem, Poetry, Sea, Seaside, SummerLeave a comment

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Bovisand Bay, painted from life several years ago. Acrylic on canvas. This is what I remember…

The beach at Bovisand.

Warm sand beneath my feet.

Gritty rock, specks sparkle in the sun.

Water laps my feet.

Feet sink into soft sand…

Cove enclosed by cliffs.

Blue sky and tiny clouds.

Close growing plants are sheltered.

Back of the bay, a valley nestles in the hills.

A golden grass snake basks in the heat.

I remember.

I remember the thunder storm.

Lightening strikes in dark night.

Watching flashes over the sea.

Awesome beauty.

Remembered.

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.

Morning glory plants

Posted on March 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blogging, Blue, Flowers, Gardening, Green, Hanging basket, Landscape, Morning glory, Painting, Plants, Summer2 Comments

A few years ago painted this morning glory as it flowered. I’d nurtured the plant on a windowledge, carefully watered it. Put it outside when the summer was warm enough so it would stay alive.

It was in a hanging basket outside in the garden when I decided to paint it in situ. As I painted the flower opened and then at the end of the day closed and wilted (the same thing happened with the following days flowers). Hard to capture but beautiful. I might do a copy or similar painting.

Acrylic on canvas. Small flowers are lobelia, and the cream ones are surfinias.

Shattered

Posted on January 30, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on board, Aladdin, Art, Design, Landscape, Painting, Panto, Pantomime, Scenery2 Comments

I’m only showing you a bit of sky and some rocks I painted today as the scenery for the panto is secret. Basically I painted a desert. I had help with the sky (the black is a short curtain above the scenery). I’m too short to reach the top of the scenery. I am absolutely shattered now. 2.30pm to 6pm!i know I paint fast but that’s ridiculous….. About ten foot tall by 30 to 40 foot wide. I will publish the full image when the pantomime is over. Its thin acrylic paint on flat boards.

Layers of a collage.

Posted on January 28, 2020January 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Collage, Colours, Design, Glue, Landscape, Orme Art group, Paper, Paper cutting, shiny paper, Tissue paperLeave a comment

From two years ago. Turning a drawing into a collage using Christmas wrapping paper, tissue paper and a shiny, metallic party bag.

I layered up the paper using dark urple tissue paper over a pale background to try and give the idea of silhouetted trees. Having stuck the purple colour down I then cut out the metallic paper to simulate the wire mesh fence. When I cut out the tree shape I wanted to give a feeling of the texture of tree bark. Finally I added paper on either side to act as curtains.

This was at an interesting collage workshop with the Orme art group about two years ago. I enjoyed learning a new skill.

Sunset (exposure)

Posted on January 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Exposure, Landscape, Life, Photos, SunsetLeave a comment

Have you tried moving your camera when you take a photo of the sky? When the sun is rising or setting people generally take photos of the landscape in the direction of the setting sun. Much more dramatic than the other direction. But include too much sky and the light entering the camera can be too much causing over exposure. Include more land and less sky and the sunset colours emerge more clearly.

By including more land the cameras automatic exposure changes. The area in silhouette may even reveal more detail than if you aim more at the sky. Also remember, if you have a crop tool on your camera you can remove part of the landscape while leaving the sky.

The only difference in these two photos is that I moved between the first and the second and I included more land in the second one.

Bee tree

Posted on January 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bee, bee tree, Brampton museum and art gallery, Carving, Landscape, Life, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Tree, ViewLeave a comment

At the Brampton museum and art gallery today. This beautiful sculpture was carved out of a tree trunk there. I love the bee which is well detailed. I wish I could have our old Ash tree, that was partly cut down last year, carved into a bee tree too!

Playing

Posted on January 8, 2020January 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Fun, Landscape, Mirrored, Photo, Play, Reflected2 Comments

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You don’t know what you will get when you play with photos. This was the result after playing with this photo. _20200108_143749

And also playing with the brightness and hues in it….

I like it.

Just a photo of a reflection in a window.

Pareidolia

Posted on January 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Landscape, Life, Seeing faces, Sight, Thought, Tree spirits, World6 Comments

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Had to look this up….

“Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon that causes people to see patterns in a random stimulus.”… “This often leads to people assigning human characteristics to objects. Usually this is simplified to people seeing faces in objects where there isn’t one.”

I definitely have this, whether it is a positive or negative thing. I see patterns in most things. I’ve drawn over this picture which I’d mirrored from a photo, so you can see the images I could see in it. I haven’t drawn everything I could see, and I’ve used a bit of artistic licence.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Landscape