New paintings and regular art updates.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was World. This is an alien world, all colours and patterns, drawn in black fine liner pen then shaded in felt pens. Finally digitally filtered with photodirector to give it texture and make it more alien looking.
A calendar with a kitten, cat hooks for key rings, a bit congested but an interesting photo I think. If you look closer you can see an umbrella leaning there. The calender hangs from a paperclip. Oh the joys of non style! I’m messy, not stylish, I’m not tidy, I’m a pragmatic housekeeper. If it works just leave it! July, it’s a cute month. (apologies for the use of the kitten photo, I don’t know the photographer).
I want the skies to darken, the winds to rise, I want a swirling storm, dancing leaves. Gusts and gales and the patter of heavy raindrops! I thought we were having that earlier but realised it was water pattering down on the kitchen roof from the hose! Instead of watering the plants he was watering the roof! He thought it would cool the air. Its 15°C cooler today than yesterday! We need relief for humans and the countryside. But not just here, worldwide. The trouble is its not just one country suffering.
Thunderstorms were forecast but haven’t happened yet. I’m watching www.http://blitzortung.org to see where the storms are. They seemed to be concentrated around France and Switzerland earlier on…..
Three frozen bottles in front of our fan. It’s not air conditioning, but it’s creating a cooling breeze. It got up to 27°C today so far in our living room. Last night it was 24.7°C. I got up at 5am to open up a indow and the back door to achieve that it had been a degree higher. We have the windows shut and the curtains closed. I know this temperature is nothing compared with other places, but I don’t travel to hot places so it’s a bit of a shock to my system.
In other news it is the hottest day in UK history. It is at 40°C at Heathrow Airport.
We are complaining, but wild fires are burning in France, Spain, Portugal and Greece. If you don’t believe in Global Warming think again.
There’s an old song ‘mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun’. It’s due to cool down tomorrow.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt is hot. dragon is back in my new sketchbook. This one is purple playing ‘hot’ jazz! Ink blotted into the sketchbook then outlined with black fine liner pen and white pencil crayon to add shading.
Red velvet coloured eye. Digital doodle, just playing with monochrome colours using one part of the spectrum, a deep red and it’s associated colours with added black and white. I tried to make it look three dimensional to give it a realistic effect. Not bad for a digital finger painting.
I noticed how light shines through the leaves of this plant. The leaves are spread out so the light gets to most of them. Looking at trees, I can see the leaves do the same thing. They spread out and don’t overlap much. If you look closely at trees and other plants you can see the leaf pattern fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes when you see a bush the leaves are all on the outside, close fitting, and the centre is just branches and twigs. The internal area has been shaded out by the ball of leaves around it. Maximum photosynthesis and maximum food for the plants. Nature is wonderful, and evolution is amazing.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was monochrome. I did a monochrome drawing in black conte crayon of my husband having a nap. When I took a photo it looked brown under my kitchen lights but I used a black and white filter and autocolour to get it looking right. This is the first sketch in a new A5 size sketchbook.
Our back yard is blooming despite my hubby putting icecubes in the hanging baskets! Now I need help cutting back the main garden, I need help. We are not fit enough to do it anymore and what we’re shrubs have turned into trees and huge bushes. I know the neighbours are not pleased but we don’t have the serious finances to tackle it plus we want it to remain a wildlife haven. Goodness knows what we can do about it. Maybe get on one of these TV rescue programmes!
This is a lovely ceramic pestle and mortar I bought at a craft Market a few years ago. I was crushing some garlic for a chilli last night and decided to use this instead of my garlic press which falls apart every time I try and crush more than one clove of garlic.
But thinking about it there are a couple of coincidences linked with it. Last Monday I was wearing a mortar board. Not much of a coincidence, but then after our meal I did a quick crossword clue ‘pounding tool, used with a mortar’? Of course I got the answer
Mallaband-Brown