New paintings and regular art updates.
Sketch of an eclipse on canvas in acrylic paint. I challenged myself to just paint with red, yellow, blue, white and black so I had to mix new colours using the primary colours on the pallette. I added a tiny moon surrounded by the corona of the sun visible against the darkened sky. It might be something I paint properly in future.
What’s the most fun way to exercise?
I’ve cycled for exercise when I was younger and I loved the freedom of it. You could travel for miles, with the ability to see places you could never get to on foot and if you travel in a car or a train the world goes by almost too fast so that you don’t get the connection with the land that you do on a bike.
We cycled for many years and I went from pushing my bike up hills, to slowly slogging up in bottom gear to being able to make good progress up to a summit. I could tell my fitness was improving, my breathing improved and my physical strength improved too. My hubby and I could cycle up to a hundred miles in under eight hours!
The worst thing that happened to me was a bike accident that eventually persuaded me to get a car. I should have continued to cycle.
There’s something fascinating about the old windows at Spode Works. I took this photo this week in my friend Amy’s studio. It looks out over the back of the ceramic halls that front onto Kingsway in Stoke. The dirt and grime is from the clay dust that still covers much of the site. The buildings are freezing in winter and stay cool in the summer, I think because of the thermal mass of the solid factory.
Time is gradually eroding and changing the structure of the buildings. Buddlea bushes have colonised one of the older parts of the factory and I wonder if they will make it crumble. It will feel strange not to go there anymore.
What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching the most?
Watching gymnastics over the years reminds me of Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci with their virtually perfect performances at the Olympics. Oh how I wished I could twist and turn my body like them! My abilities were more along the lines of running and cycling. But I always to watched them on TV and I have continued to follow the gymnastics ever since.
It’s not just the female gymnasts, the men are brilliant too. The competitions are different, with apparatus based on the physiques of the male and female body. Balance, poise, strength and flexibility all are important to these athletes.
Looking forward to Paris 2024.
It’s probably not the right place to post this, but if you are local to me (Staffordshire /Cheshire) you might be interested?
Hi folks, I’m trying to sell hubbys guitar. A friend had a look at it for me. It’s an Oakman basic beginners acoustic guitar. New would be about £70, but second hand, I would be happy to sell it for £40. I’m never going to learn to play it, might make a good gift for someone who wants to learn. Comes with carrying bag and strap and a plectrum.
Now sold.
Catching up with #bandofsketchers prompts. This one was tube. I suppose a tap is a sort of tube? I decided to imagine a tap filling a glass for this prompt. Another Artrage app drawing, instead of looking at a photo I’m stretching my imagination, trying o think where reflections would be.
I had a CT scan today. I’m a bit scared of what they will find. But I was glad to have it done. I only had to wait a few weeks and because it was done on a bank Holiday Monday the hospital was quiet and my friend was able to find parking on the road near to the entrance (about a third of the normal cost).
We complain about the NHS but we don’t have to pay massive bills as you would have to in the USA. I’m not saying our system is the best, but we really appreciate it when it’s working well.
So anyway, I have to wait for the results. More worry and anxiety, but at least I might have an answer soon.
Facebook Memory
Sometimes things just pop up on my status and I don’t remember when I drew them. In this case the memory was from five years ago, but the comment said I drew it in 2004. I think that’s right because I wasn’t doing many pencil drawings a few years ago. I think this was from a monthly drawing group. Friends met up at a pub and we would draw each other or customers. I have the Sketchbook somewhere in the house. One of a miriad of them.
One day things work in a way I understand, then the next day it’s slightly different. Icons and buttons change. It happens here at WordPress, but I think its worse at places like Facebook. It seems like there are more restrictions, changes to what you can see, and more ads.
For instance Facebook reverts to ‘most relevant’ posts even though you want to see all of them. Then if you press like or live to every comment you can get suspended! It happened to me. My hubby had passed away and many people commented about it and because I wanted to thank everyone I got a warning for spam!
Instagram can be a bit confusing too and X. I know the sites want us to have a better experience but sometimes it would be nice to be told.
If you could have something named after you, what would it be?
I’d like to be able to open an art school for anyone that wants to be involved. If I had the money to open it, it would be free to artists and art enthusiasts.
Would I name it after me? Possibly. Or call it the CMB art school. I would like to think that it would encourage creativity in all aspects of art. I have an idea of saving a derelict building for perpetuity and the school would be housed within it.
I would also try and involve local schools to seed the idea of arts and crafts in the children’s minds. It’s a pipe dream. But I like it.
Mallaband-Brown