An art and book shop

Posted on March 12, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylics, Art, Art supplies, Biography, Books, Canvas, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1872, Drawing, Life, Paints, Sci fi, Science, shopping spree, SketchingLeave a comment

Where would you go on a shopping spree?

Down to the Arts and Book shop. I’d buy lots of acrylic paints, some watercolours, gouache, oil paints, felt pens, pastels, charcoal, conte crayons, pencils. Then I’d get canvases, large and small in white and black. Cartridge paper, watercolour paper, sketch pads. Glitter, metallic paper, ink, lino to cut for printing.

Science and technology books, sci-fi books, novels, biographies, autobiographical books, historic books, books about galleries, about the renaissance, about astronomy.

Then I would donate half of it to a local school or college, because I would not have space for it all, or time to use it.

Reflected snow

Posted on March 11, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Holly bush, Insect, Life, Moth, Photo, Snowy, Symmetry, WinterLeave a comment

A symmetrical photo created by flipping a photo upside down. The main mass of leaves is a holly bush we have grown in the garden. It’s a bit like a parasol as we have cut off a lot of the lower branches. I like how the resulting photo looks like an insect on its side. I have a brain that likes pareidolia (when you see creatures or faces in shapes). If I was to turn the photo through 90° it might look like a moth?

Sleepy and cold

Posted on March 11, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bed, Cold, freezing cold, Life, lucky, on the street, Reading, Sleep, tent, Thinking, Time, TiredLeave a comment

It was very cold last night so I left the central heating on low. The sky had cleared and I think it was down to – 6°C last night. I was reading in bed, propped up under my moon nightlight, but I was sleepy. Suddenly Thud! The book had fallen on the floor and I had woken with a crick in my neck. I was cold and achy. The moon was clear and bright up in the sky, shining in through the window. Apparently last night there was a 20°C difference between the the coldest place in the UK, about – 16°C and the highest 4°C, so we were about a middling temperature.

Then I thought about anybody in an unheated house, or who are stuck outside in a tent or on the streets. What about them? I was in an old bed, in an old house, but I am so much luckier than a lot of people. Why is there such inequality?

Pinned down by my cat!

Posted on March 10, 2023 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Bed, Black and white cat, Cat, Life, Photo, Pinned down, Poem, Poetry, rogue, Sleep, Tired, Tuxedo catLeave a comment

Oh you rascal!

I can’t move..

Pinned down

By my cat!

On my legs

Just out of reach

Inscrutable stare

Always there

When I wake up!

Now I’m stuck

But you’re so cute

I forgive you

You’re neat

And sweet!

#motion

Posted on March 10, 2023March 10, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Devon, Dolphin, Fine Art, Georges, Life, Movement, Painting, Swimming4 Comments

One of the art groups I’m part of put a prompt of #motion on their Facebook page today. I thought of this painting. Acrylic on canvas called Georges from a few years ago. A painting from memory of when I jumped in the sea fully clothed and swam out to a wild dolphin at Challaborough? In Devon. There were people on the beach and people in wetsuits further out. Georges kept swimming past me because I was somewhere in the middle. He’d got lots of scars along his body. I found out from a poster the next day telling people not to swim with him as he was too friendly and had been cut by boat propellers. You can also catch illnesses like pneumonia from breathing the air from their blowhole.

Snowdonia sketch

Posted on March 10, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Beauty, Drawing, Landscape, Life, Memory, Sketching, sky landscape artist, Snowdonia, UK, Wales2 Comments

Drawing from 2021. I was watching Sky Landscape Artist of the year and I decided to do a drawing of Snowdonia in North Wales. This took half an hour. I have relatives that live near to Snowdon so it’s a place I love. The landscape near where I live is more rolling hills, certainly no mountains nearby.

One of the things about the UK is that there are so many variations in the landscape. Flat, hilly, mountainous, green, forested, heathland, waterlogged, dry, arable, coastal. You can see why people fall in love with it.

Putin attacks again.

Posted on March 9, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Death, Fear, Life, missiles, Putin, Russia, Ukraine, violence, War2 Comments

Yet again Putins army has attacked Ukraine. This morning eighty missiles rained down on about ten districts of Ukraine. Hey were mainly in the east of the country but smoke was seen in Kyiv and Oddessa. The attack killed civilians and damaged places like a nuclear power plant at Zaphoriza (not sure of the spelling). The fact Putin thinks this is OK is terrible. It was not that long ago the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, also in the Ukraine? was destroyed in an accident. Radiation spread across the whole of Europe. But Putin doesn’t seem to care. However many civilians, including women and children that he kills and maims he does not want to stop, till he destroys Ukraine.

Silver Sliver?

Posted on March 7, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Cough, Digital manipulation, Drawing, Filters, Flow, Life, mindful, Now, silver, Sketching, Sliver, Sore throat, Time2 Comments

When you sit all day feeling ill with a sore throat and a cough what do you do? I draw wobbly sketches! Play with filters, add colours, use metallic pens. Play with words. I think since I’ve been doing Esther Chilton’s blog challenges (limericks and five word challenges) it’s made me think more about words and how they work. It’s also taking part in #bandofsketchers prompts which gives me the chance to illustrate different ideas. Yes it is just a minor, wobbly, not very clear sketch, and I have put it through digital filters. But it keeps my mind busy and takes it off other thoughts, like feeling too sorry for myself. I think I experience flow, that feeling of time passing without you noticing, and being in the ‘now’? X

Distant

Posted on March 7, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Distance, distant, Drawing, Landscape, Life, Perspective, Sketching, two points of viewLeave a comment

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was distant. I used to like to play with perspective drawings, using either one or two vanishing points. Both show how buildings or streets dwindle into the distance, becoming distant. It’s also fun to make up your own architecture.

Bring back bar charts!

Posted on March 7, 2023March 7, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Anxiety, bar chart, bells and whistles, Display, Feelings, Irritated, Jetpack, Learning, Life, Limerick, Poem, Poetry, preferences, viewing3 Comments

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life