Next Saturday

Posted on March 26, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Drawing, Painting, Sketching, Fine Art, Acrylic on canvas, Life, Orme Art group, Whitfield centre, spring sale, Artisan saleLeave a comment

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.

Little friend

Posted on March 26, 2023 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Animal, Black and white cat, Cat, Friend, Life, Love, Poem, Poetry, Purr, Sleep, Tuxedo catLeave a comment

Every night she paws in,

Footpads run and jump

Up on the bed

Miaow, purr, headbutted

Poddled by her paws

Seeking love

Then she sits

On my chest.

Miew for a head scratch

Tickle behind the ears

Stroke her back

Give love and receive love.

Little cat, big love.

Bench view

Posted on March 26, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Autumn, Horizon, Leaves, Life, Photo, Sky, Spring, Time, Trees, View, Weather, WindLeave a comment

I wonder how long it will take for the leaves to come on these trees in the park. Then the view of the horizon will be covered for another six months. The hills in the distance will be gone. My hubby, sitting on the bench before me will be in shade during the morning and in light in the afternoon.

The clouds will drop their rain and the leaves of the trees unfold. Every day they will take in sunlight, until the temperature drops and the light levels fall. Then the wind will blow and the leaves, that have now rurned to brown and orange, will fly from the trees and uncover the view again…

Pastel drawing

Posted on March 25, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Drawing, Fine Art, Land, Landscape, Life, mounted drawing, Pastels, Sea, Sketching, Sky2 Comments

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.

Three new?

Posted on March 25, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Autumnal, Fine Art, Life, Painting, reference, Umbrella, Weather4 Comments

Enjoyed starting a few paintings today at the Orme Art Group after turning up with no reference photos, I forget to take my phone and it has some flower photos I was going to use! Thanks to a lady called Steph for letting me borrow her pictures.

These are only daubed in… I will go over them and add details later. I started one little canvas but I didn’t want to muddy the colours so I started another picture, then another. I’m hoping these all have a feeling of atmosphere. I want them to look misty and damp.

So long ago?

Posted on March 25, 2023March 25, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1885, Geography, influential, Life, Memory, School, teacherLeave a comment

Who was your most influential teacher? Why?

My most influential teacher taught Geography. He was very good at explaining the subject, but he was also very humane. He would put information in context, and talk about how the world was changing. I think he talked about the population explosion. How people were being exploited, and how countries were growing cash crops despite their populations needed food for themselves. So as well as learning about oxbow lakes and contours on maps we learnt a lot about the world. I don’t think we would have been taught like that today.

Eye news

Posted on March 24, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Age, Art, cataracts, dazzled, Eyesight, Fuzzy, Life, Light, Opticians, optometry2 Comments

Oh dear! I thought things were getting a bit ‘fuzzy’. I just had my eye test and they are. So far things are not bad, just a blurring round the edge of my lenses, like fogged up glasses when you come in from the rain, or being dazzled by the sun. My central vision is clear. But it’s something to keep an ‘eye’ on literally and metaphorically.

I need to eat healthily and have anti-oxidants in my diet. I will try and do everything I have to. I just don’t want to lose my eyesight, art means so much to me, reading too. I just hope this is a gradual process. I know it can be treated, I hope when I need it, it is.

Painting and drawing

Posted on March 24, 2023March 24, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blocked, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1884, diagnosis, Fine Art, Life, Painting, Prompt2 Comments

What do you wish you could do more every day?

I used to paint and draw a lot more than I do now. I feel though that recently I’m quite blocked, stuck, nervous of creating. Yes I sketch every couple of days, but my easle is resolutely empty. The paints in their boxes, the brushes lying fallow. The trouble is my physical health. My left arm keeps shaking and I have pain in my elbow. I’m still waiting for a full diagnosis. I don’t think it’s anxiety, but not painting makes me anxious….

I just saw a painting/art competition online, but the entry needs to have been created after 1st January 2023. The painting I had in mind, and it was a good one, was from a couple of years ago, so it was not suitable. Also the entry date is tomorrow, I’m not going to have time unless I get my paints out NOW and paint all night..

I have a list of paintings to do for friends and family. I feel oppressed by that. I should feel glad. I need to break the block.

Renewed

Posted on March 24, 2023March 24, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Colours, Fresh, Life, Memory, Poem, Poetry, renewal, renewed, Spring, Thinking, WinterLeave a comment

I was sad to see winter

I want life to be renewed

Green and gold leaves

Pink blossom

Blue sky with fluffy clouds

Pour on a wash of yellow

Daffodils and tulips

Give me Spring!

Now.

Big little kitty

Posted on March 23, 2023March 23, 2023 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Animal, Big, Black and white cat, Cat, Catflap, Fun, Happy, Life, Outside cat, Tuxedo cat, two rescuesLeave a comment

This cat is big! He’s the biggest cat we’ve ever had. And yet he’s gentle and much more loving than he was when we first took him in.

He was known as ‘the outside cat’ at first. But we gave him a name and gradually he touched our hearts. He had been abandoned by his previous owners and was thin and a bit standoffish at first. For a long time he was outside and my other two cats stayed inside, they were rescues and we didn’t want them to stray onto the main road. We were also concerned they might catch something from the new cat.

I can’t believe how long it’s been since we let him in the house, and the other two out. Basically I would lock the cat flap so he could come in to eat but I would have to let him out so the two couldn’t go. But even then he was getting bigger and he would push and push on the cat flap until he broke it! We glued the split cat flap back together with a layer of plastic and sellotape. But eventually I got another flap and cut it down so the door to it would fit into the original mechanism.

Since then, this cat has thrived. He jumps up between us when we ask, he’s gentle with the other two (he eats as much as both of them put together though!). I love them all, but he has a special place in my heart.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life