New paintings and regular art updates.
Night came out and I didn’t notice, busy doing things, running out of time. Moon and stars are up and shifting sideways, sliding like quick silver across the sky. Two minutes to midnight, almost bedtime. Maybe I’ll sleep tonight. Its January but its too warm. Finding it hard to sleep without throwing the bedding off me. When I’m feeling like this I don’t want the heating on.
Still it’s good to rest. Wake up before dawn. Sleep might come. Day is done.
My friend runs something called art lunch, which is basically an excuse for artists and creative to get together and meet up over lunch or tea. She provides the venue and some of the food and drink, but we all bring a little contribution to the lunch. It’s a good place to network and catch up. You find out about things you may never have heard of without going to it. If She’s held them in various venues in Stoke-on-Trent and I’m thinking of offering our garden as a venue in the summer.
There were plenty of artists there and I think everyone had an enjoyable time.
X
Last year the views of my blog went up from 10 thousand in 2018 to around 47 thousand.
I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for your support. My stats might not be as big and impressive as other people, but it means a lot to me.
Thank you.
X
9 of my favourite images from 2019.
From top left to bottom right…
Dramatic mirrored image of a North Wales beach.
Lion I painted for the local lions charity.
Mural in a downstairs cloakroom. I can still climb!
Easter Island clay head I made at Etruria Artists.
My art stall at a craft fair.
The stray cat that we are looking after who needs rehoming.
Falcon works, two images of the pottery I painted last autumn.
Holding my green man painting and with my vase painting during my exhibition at Spode.
Finally, painting of a window with peeling paint, taken from a photo I took at Spode.
Something bloomed into the sky after the meteorite fell. A green mist rose from the sea and started spreading across the land. For a while it lay in the hollows and valleys, but steadily crept higher.
People noticed it and shied away from it. They travelled inland and up hills and mountains. Soon they were isolated, no one would cross the green air.
The small islands of high land topping the green murk gradually were overcome. People breathed their last air as it rose, scrabbling for height, but succumbing to the green gas. They were suffocating and dying.
Asian mountains stayed above the haze for a while longer. But like everywhere else the human population passed away. Eventually the only survivors were left alone, high above Earth, in the space station. There was nothing left for them to do but wait for the end.
But then a miracle (if after all the death that could be said) happened. The gas started to clear. After three weeks it had gone completely. It was then that the astronauts realised that all Earth’s animals had survived. They realised that it was the humans haemoglobin in their blood that had been affected. Other animals had different DNA.
But the problem was how would they descend from the space station? What would become of them?
Soon we may only see Elephants as symbols in pictures or on textiles. They are one of the terribly endangered species in the world that coukd soon be extinct. The problem isn’t just hunting or poaching, but also the threat of climate change. As the land dries up through to drought, or is flooded by seas rising their habitat will be displaced. Only if we really try to do something about the situation do we stand to change things.
Two years! I’m still here, still blogging, still trying to come up with new ideas, poems, short stories, but above all art, including drawings, photos and paintings.
I don’t know what subjects I will choose. I’m in a bit of a void at the moment. I did a lot before Christmas, but now things have calmed down, and some of the paintings people asked for in December have been postponed because of circumstance (not on my part). So if you decide you want a painting doing please get in touch. I might be available to do some commissions..
X
Had to look this up….
“Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon that causes people to see patterns in a random stimulus.”… “This often leads to people assigning human characteristics to objects. Usually this is simplified to people seeing faces in objects where there isn’t one.”
I definitely have this, whether it is a positive or negative thing. I see patterns in most things. I’ve drawn over this picture which I’d mirrored from a photo, so you can see the images I could see in it. I haven’t drawn everything I could see, and I’ve used a bit of artistic licence.
There is plenty to see on a short walk in the area around the Etruria Industrial museum at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent.
There was a very cold wind blowing along the canal towpath so we only had a short walk. We took a look at the cygnets on the canal, they were on their own so presumably their parents have left them now. I wish we had taken some duck food with us. There were plenty of other birds about including ducks and geese, a rook or crow and magpies.
Some of the industrial buildings in the area are more visible now the leaves are off the trees. One of these is the tall chimney that is on the industrial estate behind Jessie Shirley’s flint and bone mill, which is attached to the Etruria Industrial museum.
One of the boats on the canal had smoke rising from its chimney, which made me think of hot tea and toast. We soon got back to our car, and put the car heater on to warm up. Brrr
My first drawing of 2020 on 2.1.2020. It’s red because we were at Etruria Artists in the warehouse by the canal. It was so cold we had the electric heaters on in the roof that glow cherry red. For those who know the person, I’ve got his nose too long. This is because he was moving.
The Etruria Artists are now meeting on a Thursday morning from 10am to 12noon unless we change it. Hopefully this will encourage more people to come along.
Mallaband-Brown