New paintings and regular art updates.
For mindfulness day two. I’ve hurt my right hand so I appreciated doing something left handed. It turned from mark making into a tree. My friend alou has a Facebook page where she encourages art with mindfulness as a meditation.
I started withe the blue swirls, which felt earlike, but when I added the gold colour and the dots it felt like a tree in the wind. The dots and the green leaves add to the feeling of a tree blowing in the wind.
I am going to try and keep doing things but over the weekend I have hurt my wrist and thumb somehow. I’m taking painkillers and have it strapped up. I will try and get in the doctors today. I don’t want to stop but I can’t draw well. The sketch was done on my tablet with a stylus and just holding that was a pain. I’m typing by holding my hand still and moving the phone round underneath it. Ouch
Drawing I did a while in Artrage oils. Then duplicated it. I don’t know where these ideas come from or even if they are any good. But I’m constantly creating and learning. I can’t help it and I can’t stop. I just get a buzz out of art and creativity.
What is going on? Begonias and Lobelia in November! I know some gardeners cut everything back and compost things after the summer. But I can’t do it. I love seeing things grow. The baskets will eventually die back. The tops of them are already looking a bit scrappy, but any sleepy and cold bee or hover fly can maybe sneak a sip of nectar. Our back yard is sheltered by the house, large bushes and a fence, I suppose the plants huddle together forming a microclimate. We also live towards the bottom of the hill so we don’t get hit by winds sweeping down from the north. It’s a haven. Looking forward to next summer. X
I didn’t venture out today because its really cold and I’m still a bit unwell. I was scrolling through my photos from the summer and came across this double hanging basket next to the house. It grew and grew and was magnificent in July and August. Now? The frost came last night, a glaze of white on the tiled roof opposite. I think all the baskets will wilt, the delicate annual plants are starting to wither, but the slightly woodier ones like fushias are still there.
Photos of the back to follow, and if I get out into the autumn landscape before all the leaves fall I will post some shots of the trees locally.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt is meditation. I wanted to do pattern to meditate on? I was trying to draw a mandala but it went a bit shaky and sideways. So I embellished it. Using various metallic pens.
Drawing over the top of a green faced man, I used Artrage oils to create this profile of a woman. I had the ‘oils’ set on metallic, it gave the image an old fashioned look. I am glad I can use this app.
Walking round the back of the old house, looking for a way in. The rain was cold and icy, falling hard and freezing on the ground and branches as it touched them….
She needed somewhere warm to dry out. No-one in at home and she had lost her keys? But next door was empty, if she could find shelter she could be OK till the morning?
She pushed on a soggy back door, it gave slightly under the pressure. Then the catch slipped and it flew open into a dusty hallway. Cobwebs hung down from dirty bannisters and old bedsheets covered the victorian furniture. She stepped further in. Moonlight and the sodium coloured streetlights filtered through the grubby windows.
A black cat rushed past her, fleeing out of the open doorway. Somewhere in the distance she heard the distant sound of an old fashioned phone.
Stumbling across the old parquet flooring in the darkness, she started to look for a doorway into a living room or reception room. Anywhere that would be walmer. She gently pushed on a old oak door, it opened a crack, it started to creak so she held her breath and waited. Nothing happened. She pushed again and could see light, orange candlelight. A glow coming from a carved pumpkin, almost out, flickering in the slight breeze from the doorway.
Quickly she stepped in, pushing the door behind her. A covered sofa looked like a good place to hunker down for the night…. She slowly sat down, gently, to make as little noise as possible. She felt something slither across her feet. She looked down, and saw to her horror, a dark gloved hand extending through the floor and reaching up to grab her ankle. A flash, so bright and blue lit the room for an instant. In a second she had disappeared. Gone.
I forgot to put the clocks back last night. No real problem, it just meant I got an extra hour in bed. What does sadden me is that it’s 5.15pm and its already dark. Sometimes in the winter months it feels like you never see the sun. It hides behind the clouds, keeping its light lost in their faces.
As the year turns in the northern hemisphere the sun sinks further south, rising in an arc that tops at an angle, so consequently there is less daylight. In the southern hemisphere the earth is tipped towards the sun bringing more light to that part of the world.
Celestial mechanics is interesting. The fact that the earth is tipped on its axis is the cause. If the earth was upright all parts would have exactly 12 hours of daylight and night, there would be no seasons. But the angle of the earth would wobble more without the moon. It helps stabilise its orbit around the sun. Look things up, find things out, you might be surprised!
Glasgow is about to host the climate change talks between nations to discuss how to prevent the increase in Earth’s temperature going on average higher than 1.5°C above pre industrial times.
Average means across the whole globe. But some area have been experiencing the rise of temperatures more. For instance a high temperature of over 18°C in Antarctica was recorded this year.
In other places people are trying to live at 50°C, halfway to boiling point. Weather systems are getting more fierce, hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, forest fires, the melting of the permafrost. The extinction of insects and other animals and plants as they fail to survive the hotter conditions is increasingly worrying. The years after 2000 have been the hottest on record.
Let us hope that the politicians come together, stop denying climate change and get organised. Otherwise…. I don’t know.
Mallaband-Brown