New paintings and regular art updates.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was knitted. So difficult to draw left handed, but my right hand is still swollen and sore. I tried drawing a knitted pattern. The spiky things at the top are meant to be knitting needles. Not much more I can say except it was hard to draw a continuous line left handed and the writing is with my left hand too.
I haven’t been able to draw much today because of my hand. I just tried to draw a Buddha by doing a digital finger painting using artrage oils and a sketching app. I’m not doing well with details, just broad brushstrokes. I don’t want to stop drawing, but I need to rest things a bit. Maybe I’m hoping for a bit of good Karma.
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.
Mallaband-Brown