New paintings and regular art updates.
This morning I saw the sun shining through the petals of my orchid flowers. I have four plants and they flower for ages, but this is the only one in flower at the moment. I decided to mirror it to create a more abstract, alien image, perhaps a real alien! I adjusted the colour to a more blue grey tone. It was very yellow because of the morning sunlight.
The Manifold Way is a cycleway near Waterhouses in Staffordshire, England. It runs along an eight mile stretch of valley and is a path for walking and cycling.
There is a cave up on the hillside, it’s called Thors cave. I walked up once.. Very steep. The valley is wooded and there is a stream running alongside the footpath for some of its length. It has a small tunnel through part of the hillside as it used to be a small narrow gauge railway with only two engines (hubby tells me). It was used for dairy products and passengers. A light railway branch line. We are so lucky to be near to such a beautiful place.
Colours of the moment. Blue and yellow, sorrow and sunshine. Rock and air. Sun and cloud. Buildings in history, broken, and ruined. Life grows in the cracks. A maze, the Minotaur hidden. A ball of string to use to escape? Walls fall, golden stone and sea rushing in. My mind is lost in thought.
Our wonderful Chancellor has today reduced the cost of fuel at the pumps by five pence. That works out at around .33% off the price or one third of one percent! Given that petrol and diesel prices have recently gone up by 50%. This does not seem like an overly generous cut! Given other taxes are going up I wonder what they would like us to think about this? The cost of living and inflation is increasing. Living standards are falling.
Faces drawn in a nice app I used to use a few years ago. But I had to delete it because I don’t have enough memory on my phone. Maybe when I finally upgrade it I will reinstall it. I think it was called sketcher app. I think I still have it on another device but that’s not linked to the Internet very well so I have to mess about trying to link things. Maybe I should get more organised. I quite like this.
Round the back of Westport Lake is a wilder area which is being looked after and tidied regularly so overhanging branches and growth is turned into little layered fences to improve the habitats. I thought it was being done by the local wildlife Trust but it turns out it’s being done by a couple of elderly volunteers, except its now down to one man as his friend has been ill. I had to thank him for all his hard work. It seems he’s not getting much support and that’s a shame. Anyway I thought I would say something.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was Plan.
My plans were scuppered this weekend. The car isn’t outside the house but at the garage. It went in for one thing but something else broke so they are waiting for a part. Meanwhile I can’t go to the places I want to get to.
Photos, film and video of the War in Ukraine show huge plumes of black smoke rising over burning and ruined buildings, theatres and peoples homes. Meanwhile Putin continues to lie to the Russian people that no civilians are being targeted. He is using the same tactics he facilitated in Syria with President Assad. He is trying to encircle Kyiv and raise cities like Mariupol to the ground. He is evil and brutal. His propaganda to his country is that it is a ‘ special project’ not all out bloody murder.
Set yourself a rule. Draw dots, draw round them, turn the paper over and draw round where the ink has bled through the paper. Turn the paper back and add more, back and forth. Decide whether you just want to add lines, or if as I have, change directions. Once you have drawn the lines fill in some of the lines with a different colour. Keep building up layers if you want. Playing with different ideas but using rules can create interesting patterns.
Another pattern drawing, limited-ish pallette, green, blue, orange silver and black, different shades. It’s hard to know what to do and when to stop. I used to decorate our Christmas tree and I had an idea of where to place things and where to end. I think I use that little skill in art. I don’t think I overwork things to much. But I do like a strong pattern.
Mallaband-Brown