Seaside colours

Posted on November 25, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Beach, Childhood, Fun, hovercraft, Life, mackerel, Rain, Sea, Storms, stormy sea, Sun2 Comments

Just drawing in these colours gives me memories of sunny days at the seaside. If the colours were greys and turq, with some white added I would think of wild stormy days.

I remember a seaside holiday in the summer that was very grey and wet. The rain started as we arrived and took a taxi from the station to the chalet we were staying in. I was about eleven and I remember staring out of single glazed windows down a steep hill. I can’t remember a beach? I do remember mom having to put coins in a box on the back of a TV so we could watch it.w

Eventually the weather cleared up m I remember a harbour with lots of sailing boats. I think we went mackerel fishing but all my family got seasick except for me. The fishing lines kept catching fish and I pulled them in. When we got back the fisherman tried to give mom all the old fish but she insisted we got the ones I had caught. I don’t know what happened to them.

I also remember a hovercraft trip on a very choppy sea and eating egg and chips in a rough cafe. Funny what comes back when you see an image..

Can you see a dragon?

Posted on November 24, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Dragon, Fun, Layout app, Life, Mirrored, Pattern, Photodirector, plastic dots, TextureLeave a comment

Messing about with plastic dots glued down, then worked on it in layout app (a mirroring app) and then photodirector to change the texture and twist the perspective. Back to layout to mirror the result. Different colours and patterns seemed to create a horned dragon at the centre. I can see his nose and eyes, although part of his face appears hidden…. Having fun…

World tree

Posted on November 23, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blurred, business card, Commission, Digital drawing, Digital sketch, Life, Oak tree, Rainbow colours, Tree2 Comments

A tree I drew for someone a few years ago that she wanted for her business cards. I wish this wasn’t so blurred but I only got a chance to take a quick photo of the finished printed card and I can’t find the computer file it was saved on.

It was a commission for her and she was really pleased with the result. Its funny how you find images that suddenly spark memories. The rainbow type colouration in the background was hard to get right. I think I used a digital spray can to get the softness…

Spinning Top

Posted on November 23, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, children's toy, Drawing, Fun, Life, Memory, Sketching, Spinning, topLeave a comment

Not feeling on top of the world today so just did a sketch from memory. Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was Top. I tried to remember what a toy top looks like. I did a sketch with a black ink fine line pen. This is from memory. I can see a bright top spinning in my mind. The top had some holes in so as it span it had a rising and then descending musical tone. Edited in Photodirector to give a slightly abstract effect.

My mind

Posted on November 22, 2021November 22, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Analogue, Art, Creativity, Design, Digital, Fun, Life, Mind, Pattern, Poem, Poetry, Rhyme2 Comments

Is full of confusion

Pattern flies round my head

Variations come and go…

Hard and soft, colours glow

Light and shade

What I’ve made

Begins to flow

To and fro

I see my thoughts

As ones and noughts

Digitally built messages

From analogue sketches

Through the catflap

Posted on November 21, 2021 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Cat, Cat flap, Fun, Golden eyes, Life, Photo, Poem, Poetry, View2 Comments

Golden eyes through the catflap.

Staring through a cat window

Looking for warmth

On a cold bright day.

Staying outside

Because another cat

Is staring out

Looking at the sunshine!

Vase painting

Posted on November 20, 2021November 21, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Colours, Design, Fine Art, Gold, imitating cloisonné, Japanese style, Life, Painting, Pattern, Satsuma style4 Comments

My attempt at painting a Japanese style vase. Using gold and lots of flower and leaf patterns I tried to recreate the feeling of a Cloisonné or Satsuma vase. I’m no expert but I just wanted it to have complexity and stature. My love of pattern really helped. This was taken when I had almost completed the work. I placed it on the floor to try and catch the sunlight illuminating it. One of my favourite paintings, it went to a very good home.

Raydon

Posted on November 20, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Fun, Holiday, knitted, Life, Memory, Ray, Teddy bear, Thirlmere, YHA, youth hostel associationLeave a comment

Seeing Pudsey bear 🐻 on children in need last night (a telethon to raise money for childrens charities) reminded me of this teddy bear. We went on holiday to a Youth Hostel in the Lake District of England one year. The hostel was old, small and friendly. It was at Thirlmere near the lake and consisted of a few simple wooden huts. The hostel warden was called Ray and he was really friendly. There were a wide range of old board games in the hostel so on a dark wet night, you were entertained without the need of a TV or radio, (this was before mobile phones). One thing Ray did to raise funds was to sell knitted Teddy bears that his mother made. I fell in love with this one, but Ray said that it had to have Ray in its name… Raymond, Ray-chel, perhaps? I’d heard of the gas Radon so my bear became Raydon, after all in that colour he virtually glows in the dark!

We don’t sell that anymore….

Posted on November 20, 2021November 20, 2021 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Broken, Catflap, Cats, doorman!, Life, Repair, restored, Tuxedo catLeave a comment

For months now our cat flap has been broken. Not the main part of it, but the screen that opens in and out. Basically we had tried to keep the big cat in at night by putting the lock on it, but he forced his way through and broke the flap part into three bits. For a while I glued it together, and taped it up with sellotape, but soon that had been ripped so my next idea was to tie it open with some string. I can’t get down on the floor so I couldn’t swap one catflap for another and I didn’t know if I could get a replacement.

Today my sister came over so we decided to go on a search. The local petshop said it was a staywell catflap and they only stock petsafe ones. So we went to the big petstore. We had managed to take the front and flap mechanism off as it had catches you push in to release it. The store had about seven different sorts but according to the customer assistant out catflap was out of date!

Eventually after much head scratching we found one that was about the right size. We couldn’t take it out of the box so it was a guess but I decided to try it.

When we got home I and looked at it I realised the whole catflap was slightly narrower than the old one so the screw holes were closer together and if I were to use the whole thing we would have to get someone in to re-drill the holes. Plan B was to take the plastic flap out of the new one and put it in the old one? Yes it fitted, but it was too stiff, the diameter of the cylinders that go into the holes in the flap were too big. My sister filed the sides of the cylinders down where there was a flange around them and I used a knife to whittle the inside of the tube shaped bits it fitted in…. Result! The flap now swings freely. There is about a two millimeter gap at the bottom but it hangs in the closed position and opens both in and outward.

Now I’ve just got three confused cats, there isn’t a hole to leap through anymore, but a window out to the garden. Bemused looks! I opened the flap for one of them and opened the door for the other… If they want to come back in they will have to learn to use it!

Statue

Posted on November 18, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged archaeology, Egypt, Egyptian statue, History, Life, Liverpool museum of the world, MuseumLeave a comment

An Egyptian statue at the the Liverpool museum of the World. I saw this on the trip we went on to see the terracotta warriors that had been on tour from China. I took the photo because of the contrast between the two. Terracotta warriors are in uniforms and armour. This figure is lightly clothed in a sort of kilt and with a stylised stance that echos the figures of Egyptians depicted on temple and pyramid walls. Even so the face looks real, staring out after centuries of history. I wish I could remember the story behind it. I think this is carved stone as opposed to the fired clay of the warriors. You can deduce some things from how a depiction of a person looks. This man looks strong and fit, but the head seems slightly too big for the body. Perhaps the body is a generic stylised figure and the head is a portrait? I wonder if they had many stone masons making these images or were they one off commissions. Maybe I should try and find out.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life