New paintings and regular art updates.
I’m busy, tired, aching, rushed,
I’m going to rest
I’m going to sleep
I’m going to bed
Early,
Soon,
So I can wake refreshed
Relieved,
Rested
Reinvigorated…
But not yet
Not for a while,
After this programme….
Oh, now its late
Oops.
Just put up a restful photo from up the top of the hill. It may turn into a painting, but not tonight. It’s from a few days ago. I was to tired to post it before now..
I needed a break today from painting, so I went out with Stoke Urban Sketchers for a couple of hours this afternoon. I’m still a bit in and croaky so I couldn’t manage more than that. Thanks to Danny, Andy (hope I’ve got his name right) and Richard from Winkhill Mill for letting us have access to the building. If you wonder what the machine is I think it’s a dust press for making tiles.
I went to the Mill a few weeks ago to see an exhibition there and I drew one of the tiles, the Fox and the Crow.
Stoke has lots of hidden museums. It’s open on a Friday and I think Saturdays?
Imagine, you have been ill for days, you feel awful, you’ve got a meeting to sort out an exhibition…..
Open your front door to go to your car and see a sticky, stripy envelope stuck to your windscreen…
Shock? Horror? What’s this?
My residents parking pass expired last week and I hadn’t realised. What to do? Can’t park there without a valid pass. So took myself up the office in a panic and full of cold and coughs.
Right. I could challenge it, fill a form in. I explained I had not had a renewal letter. The young man behind the desk said there had been a computer error?! Letters were not sent. I should have looked at my windscreen.
(DO YOU LOOK AT YOUR WINDSCREEN EVERY TIME YOU GET IN YOUR CAR?)
Plus I have been really ill so I hadn’t thought about it….
We will see what happens…..
Progress… Just a quick update.
Using various greens, it’s going to be monochromatic, no other colours but white, greens and some paynes grey.
May be finished by the weekend.
X
I feel like I’ve turned into a cat, she said, all I ever do is sleep. Even when I’m awake I feel drowsy.
The doctor checked her pulse, looked in her eyes, checked her throat and temperature. Well I can’t find anything physically wrong he said. I suggest you try drinking coffee? Are there any things affecting your stress levels?
Well, that’s it. She said, I feel totally relaxed. Then I feel sleepy. She yawned hugely, see, she said, it’s getting to me now?
So how much time do you sleep at night? Asked the doctor? A good eight or nine hours solid, she said.
Later when she got home she immediately sat down and kicked off her shoes. I’ll put the shopping away later she thought. She never noticed the trickle of white gas seeping out of a hole in the skirting board. The odourless mist wafted gently upwards. Soon she was fast asleep…
Yes I’m painting my husband as a green man. This is about two hours in. I’m limiting the pallette to only greens white and dark grey. I think I’m getting a reasonable likeness to him although his nose may be a little long and his face is a bit narrow. The cheeky eyes staring out make me want to laugh, so often he’s serious, he’s got a lot on his mind. Also I rarely paint faces on this scale, it’s quite a big canvas so any mistakes are magnified. As you can see I have not sketched this out except initially in a darker green. I’m adjusting positions of his features as I go along. However I’ve stopped for a rest and to charge my phone as it is going flat and I’m holding the phone to work from. Modern day painting eh? And yes his nose needs to be bigger.
X
Walked into the kitchen and saw this through the window so had to take a couple of photos on my phone. Then I wondered how it would look if I turned it into a pattern which is the third one.. See photo below.
It just looks so alien. I think this is called a mackerel sky? Not sure what the cloud type is.
The light shining off the clouds from the sun was very bright but quickly faded. I do love looking at skies and I’m interested in the mechanics of them. You never know I might paint it.
X
Cats are heat seeking, so when I put some of the washing up away, well he jumped up and sat in the warm patch of sunlight!
I’m considering using him as a dish mop or tea towel. I’m surprised he hasn’t jumped into my frying pan.
At one stage he had his head down and started purring loudly. Don’t worry I washed it all again afterwards. The space is now full of draining crockery and I’ve cleared a space for him away from here.
X
A year ago I was outside Chatterley and Whitfield colliery drawing with the Stoke Urban Sketchers.
This year Stoke-on-Trent is hosting the United Kingdom Urban Sketchers annual festival from 7th to 9th June 2019! There may be a lot if sketchers descending on the city.
There is a lot of industrial archaeology and architecture here so I think people will enjoy it. Hopefully I will be able to get involved in it.
There are lots of places in Stoke-on-Trent and in the surrounding countryside which are worth drawing. I would love people to come here and fall in love with this city.
This is a portrait of Cyril I did in 2000. I hadn’t seen it since then.
But then we went to an exhibition by Cyril Tilston a few weeks ago at Centre Space in the Spode heritage visitor centre. Cyril had a photography show and we got chatting.
He took one of my cards and then contacted me over the weekend. He had found this drawing. We had met 19 years ago at another exhibition. We had got discussed art and I had invited him to a drawing group we used to hold in a local pub. So I must have drawn him at the group.
So interesting to look at my drawing style then. I think my eyesight was better then, my hand less shaky. The lines I drew stronger than now. But I’m glad I still draw and paint. Maybe I will have the chance of drawing him again.
Mallaband-Brown