Remember the kittens?

Posted on August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Abandoned cat, Blogging, Cats, Happy cats, Inoculations, Introduction, Kittens, Life, Looking after cats, Love, Rescue cats, Three years agoLeave a comment

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Three of the four kittens our female rescue cat had. This was three years ago. They went to new homes soon after this. I know they are happy and I’m glad we rehomed them. Six cats would really have been too much for us.

As it is our cats are starting to be introduced to the stray that has been hanging around for a couple of years. I managed to get both of ours down to the vets for their first inoculation. Now I’ve got to get the abandoned cats microchip changed and have him taken to the vets for a health check up and shots. Suddenly things are getting serious. We have decided he’s not spending another winter in the shed if our two will tolerate him. We are going to gradually introduce them to each other. I hope this will work out. X

Cat in a box

Posted on August 2, 2020 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Black and white, Black and white cat, Blogging, Cat, Drawing, Life, Sketching, Urban sketchers Stoke on trentLeave a comment

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Urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent challenge today was to draw an animal. It was easy to choose my cat. He loves sitting in his box in the kitchen. He’s got a few boxes around the house he sleeps in. He likes putting his paws out and was after my pen as I started to draw him. He didn’t stay very still, but I’ve got a good idea of what he looks like.

Boat Band live!

Posted on August 2, 2020August 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Afternoon, Art, Boatband, Books, Careful, Design, Drink, Environment, Fun, Gin and tonic, Life, Music, Pub, Science, Socially distant, SpaceLeave a comment

I went out for a walk today up our steep hill and then called into the local pub to see our friends in the Boatband who were playing outside in the beer garden. We stayed to listen to the music, it was the first time we had been there since March. Everything was socially distanced with a one way system in the pub so you could use the facilities. The music was cajun. You can find them on YouTube. We had an excellent socially distanced afternoon although I drank far to much gin and tonic! (it’s taken me three goes to type something coherent here).

Train set

Posted on August 1, 2020August 1, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Diorama, Fun, History, Life, Steam, Steam train models, Toy trains, Trains4 Comments

It might look a bit of a jumble but this is hubbies train set. There is an oval of track with a spur onto a siding. We worked together to add a canal on one side, a very steep curved bridge ove the railway, some colliery buildings and lots of other bits and bobs. The buildings are either made from card or plastic, or little ornaments of buildings. I guess it’s like a little village. I think I built a tiny greenhouse.

Hubby has some bits of train that have been in their boxes for many years! I hope he liberates more of them.

Idea

Posted on July 30, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Architecture, Art, Blogging, Creativity, Design, Learning, Life, Poem, Poetry, Thinking2 Comments

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How to depict art cuts?

Hear no, see no, speak no art?

Art is the senses.

Art is creativity.

Art is music, words, poetry.

Art IS life.

Take it away

Stultifying, crippling.

Education should educate

Should help create.

Where will our designers be?

Our musicians,

Architects?

Hairdressers?

Anything that adds something.

To bland and boring

Hard working

Reality.

Portfolio

Posted on July 30, 2020July 30, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, course, Design, Drawing, Illustration, Learning, Life, Not right size?, Portfolio, Sketching, WorkLeave a comment

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I’ve been working on my portfolio for college today. I’ve got to upload it soon to show what I’ve been doing. I was halfway through when I found out I should be uploading images at 72dots per inch (dpi?) and I’ve set it at 300. I think I will have to delete all the images and save them all to the lower size limit…. So annoying because it was looking good. But at least I’ve found out in time. I need to go back and read the course instructions.

I think I’ve taken on too much sometimes. Not because I can’t do it but because I’ve got so many other things going on. I like writing here because it acts like a diary and also let’s me get ideas down that aren’t part of the course. Plus with limited contact with people it’s giving me some freedom.

White lily

Posted on July 30, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Environment, Garden, Gardening, Life, Lily, Nature, Plant, Random, Thinking, Walk, Walking, What is it?Leave a comment

Another one has flowered, sitting in among the nettles and the convolvulus. There’s monbretia in there too.. What’s its newer name? Crocosmia I think. Its like when Fushias suddenly became Surfinias and Geraniums started being called Pelagoniums to differentiate them from the perennial ones.

I went on a walk on Tuesday and found myself pointing out the names of garden plants to my hubby. I don’t know why. I saw a couple of plants that I didn’t recognise.

What is this. From a distance I thought it was a fushia?

1980’s self portrait

Posted on July 30, 2020July 30, 2020 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged 1980's, Art, Blending, Fine Art course, Learning, Life, Oil on canvas, Oils versus acrylics, Painting, self portrait, Youth2 Comments

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Oil on canvas

Forty years ago I was at college learning how to paint. I had lots of fun and did some painting too! I used to paint in oils until I discovered how fast and clean acrylics were a decade or so later. I’m a fast painter but acrylics go off very fast so my style changed somewhat. Instead of mixing colours wet in wet on the canvas I ended up trying to get my colours right on the palette. I think I probably ended up with a more splodgy style until I learnt to blend layers on the canvas.

How to depict cuts in arts education?

Posted on July 29, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Drawing, Idea, Illustration, Important, Learning, Life, Picture, Schooling, Sketching, Teaching, Work in progressLeave a comment

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I thought I would try and share my idea about possible cuts in art education. It’s along the lines of the hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil images. In this case the image is of a school child. Maybe with one eye peeping out. Covering his head are the hands of other children, stopping him seeing art equipment, or hearing music or poetry. Stopping him speaking things like lines from plays or novels.

Art and creativity are so important to the world. Maybe you can push a button and get a car design? Maybe not. At the moment it still takes the efforts of designers, artists, illustrators, musicians, and much more to bring out the creativity of the world.

What are we doing if we consider removing Art from the curriculum? If we make it just the perogative of the rich? What happens if normal, ordinary people aren’t taught to have a critical eye, to have the ability to see beauty. I see a world which is almost turning into a 1984 situation. Dumbed down and quiescent?

Walking!

Posted on July 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Aching feet, Exercise, Hill, I need to walk, Life, Miles, Random, Steep, Tired, Trent Valley, Valley, View, WalkingLeave a comment

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A couple of hours and about four miles. Up hill and down dale. My feet hurt. I haven’t been that far for years. By the time I walked down our hill at the end of the walk my legs started wobbling underneath me!

It started as a gentle walk up our steep hill. Left along a slightly flatter road to meet (at a social distance) a couple of friends. Then we walked around the contour of the hill we live on. This photo is looking out over the Trent Valley across the school fields. Then right up the hill and saying goodbye to our friends. Me, my hubby and our friend we usually walk with carried on down a side street. Down hill, then up a pathway between roads, I didn’t take a photo but there is a high wall with a huge crack in it. It felt like it could topple and fall. We came out of the pathway onto another road. Downhill towards the old hospital site, past the local cemetery. We walked through side streets, past terraced houses, slowly wending our way towards home. We stopped off at a corner shop to sit and rest on a brick wall under the canopy of a large street tree. We bought ice creams to cool down and sat for a few minutes. When I got up I was feeling very stiff and my feet hurt. From there we went down a hill with a view over the south if the city, enjoying a cool breeze. We left our friend there and we walked up a side street, then down our hill to the house at the bottom. I had to hold my hubbies arm as my legs had started to wobble!

I feel tired but happy to have done another walk!

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life