New paintings and regular art updates.
The boat is probably about 90 years old? The painting of my hubby is about forty years old. You know you are getting on when things you own start to age with you!
Time passes, faster it seems as you get older. Ten years just flew by. I have so much stuff that I have collected over the years. I wish it was displayed beautifully… But its not.
Visiting my friend in Yorkshire in 2011 just after he moved their. I can’t believe it’s so long ago.
In fact I remember the day we’ll. We went to sit by the river at Salts Mill and called in a riverside pub. We were looking over a cricket pitch and the wooded hills in the background. It was a hot sunny day. I love sketching instead of just taking photos….
Lock at Etruria, steps up to the road and over a bridge at the top. When the snow is thick I actually think its easier to walk in than when it’s like this. Slushy and slippery. But snow doesn’t last that long these days. Last year was as hot as 2016, which was the hottest year on record in the UK.
It would be good to take a long walk along the canal in the summer. Under dappled shade from the trees. Watching canal barges and boats putter past with their gaudily painted castles, and roses painted red, gold and green.
Old hands hold tight, remember smooth skin when we first met. Remember missing you when you went away. Riding a motor scooter forty miles to go home for the summer, and you cycled after me.
Smelling blossom when we walked home to the student flats. A stolen kiss. Our history, together. The cats we’ve owned, the cycle rides. Buying a tandem, selling a tandem because the chain kept falling off.
Camping at minus 7 near Clitheroe. Snowy nights. Two pairs of trousers and three jumpers under canvas. Bike trailers and cycle clubs.
Life keeps going. Work, houses, learning. We keep together, stay together.
I guess we won’t be going anywhere this New Year’s eve. And yet that’s not a bad thing. Usually we visited friends to get away from the noise at the pub across the road. They were always rowdy and played very loud music that had such a loud base beat that it shook the house. Dum dum ddiiddi dummmm.. Each year seemed to get worse. I didn’t complain because that’s what people do.
So what shall we do, we might go for a walk in the afternoon if it’s not too icy. I think it would be nice to find our scrabble set, or a chessboard. I do sound like an old fuddyduddy, but I just want to be cautious. Virus news is that the infection is escalating. I’d rather stay in and be safe….
A rose, red as blood. Thorns or thornless, a joyful thing. Here is life and beauty, scent of musk, blooms that attract bees and insects. I remember the rose bush at home when I was a child. It had bright pink roses climbing up some trellis work. We used to collect the petals and try and make scented water out of them. It didn’t really work, but it was fun trying. The rose bush must have been eight or ten feet high and as wide. In the summer the scent was fantastic. I remember it was next to an old shed and the paint on the door was green and bubbling off because of the sunlight. The contrast between the fresh roses and the shed door was so interesting….
One of my bauble paintings that I did a few years ago. I did quite a few of them and they were only two inches by three. I was trying to paint old fashioned glass baubles. You don’t get them much these days. Sometimes they had a curved hollow in them with a reflective surface so they glittered in the light of fairy lights. It was a memory from forty or fifty years ago. Old fashioned and nice…..
Acrylic on canvas, with ribbon on the back so they can be hung on a Christmas tree.
Thinking about Christmas. Or any other festival. I would usually be getting ready to travel to see my relatives on Christmas day, or for them to come to us. Only a small group of us, between three and four depending if there is another guest. Then Christmas lunch would be turkey with sausage meat and stuffing, roast potatoes and parsnips, peas and sprouts. Plus gravy. Not interested in bread sauce or cranberries. Our lunch then over we open presents and chat, watch some TV. Maybe go for a walk. In the evening the meal is a salad with some cold meat. I guess I should apologise for this. I know vegetarians and vegans and I do feel guilty. It’s our family tradition, but perhaps it’s time to change.
As the Christmas celebration arrives I’m beginning to wonder if it’s worth tidying up and preparing lots of food. There are only two of us this year. Life changes and you have to go with it….funny how describing it for us is all about food and not the religious reason. How strange. I didn’t mention presents either. I’ve got too much stuff. I don’t think I need more!
Trying to draw Frost from my memory. Not easy. I couldn’t get the feathery patterns that it makes. Drawn in ArtRage oils. Working between metallic and non metallic white on a blue background.
I remember going to bed in the cold. The Frost built up inside the windows. Our breath condensing on the glass. I was on the window side of the room (I shared with my sister) and the curtains were thin and yellow. Behind them a wide windowledge, then wooden window frames with curly cast iron handles to open them. I’d look out on freezing nights and see ‘Jack frost’ on the panes. If it was really cold we were allowed to put the one bar electric heater on until we got in bed under eider downs and our school macs to keep warm under. I’d often sleep with my coat over my head. Breathe warm air on my hands and try and stop shivering. We only got double glazing to our n family home after I’d left for college I think….
For as long as I remember I’ve drawn horses. I used to read horsey books. I’ve only ever sat on a donkey when I was a child and I’ve sat on a horse and been led on a walk a couple of times too. Sitting up on a horse gives me vertigo, and I certainly don’t think I’m built for it. But that said, I do love horses.
I used to draw them all the time when I was little. My bedroom wall was covered with either drawings of Asterix the Gaul, Elizabethan men and women wearing ruffs and dappled grey horses. It was always dappled grey. I used to watch show jumping on the TV (horses jumping over fences) and looking at the way they moved. I got so good I even sold one for sixpence when I was at junior school….. I felt really guilty!
Over time I have stopped drawing them as much, but sometimes I just have to draw them…
Mallaband-Brown