New paintings and regular art updates.
The trees are full of leaves, bulky and heavy laden. They clean the air, drawing in carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. I hate to think of when these trees will be gone. They may become aged and diseased. I think of them 50 years ago, how big were they then? Saplings or bigger? How old are they. What is their life expectancy? I hope they see the next century safely. Their dark green canopies giving continued shelter even as the climate heats up.
Painting from a few years ago. I sometimes come up with ideas I like, but I don’t keep doing the same things over and over again. I’m not sure if I could keep repeating an image with just little changes. Once you start doing that you might as well be creating Christmas or birthday cards.
I like being experimental. I might not always get it right but if I continue I learn with each effort. This acrylic on canvas is quite surreal, but why not?
Why do you blog?
I like to share my art and ideas. I’m quite eclectic, a Jack of all trades. When I was little I was always getting bored, wanting to do interesting things. I was the one who held the snake and the tarantula when they were brought into school to show us what they were like. I used to climb up ropes and hang upside down from the top bar of the swings. I was very competitive and enjoyed running, then eventually cycling. Art was my main interest, and I’ve done many paintings and murals, but I also love science. I guess I should have been a teacher as I’m enthusiastic about explaining things. I guess that’s what my blog is about. Looking into nooks and crannies, finding things out. I’m possibly not as interesting as I think I am! But I hope people enjoy it.
A digital drawing I did 7 years ago from my Facebook memories. It was one of four, earth, wind, water and fire. Each was a face portraying the four ancient elements. I don’t know if I posted all of them on Facebook. Done in Artrage oils.
How are you feeling right now?
I just want to be well
Not feeling low
Tired and fed up
Don’t do this?
Be careful not to…
Avoid salt
Don’t eat cheese
Remember to wrap up warm
Think calm thoughts
Measure your blood pressure
Check your eyes
Don’t eat too much…..
And pray to stay alive each night!
Wifi is back on and I am trying to catch up.
Esther Chilton has another prompt using the word crazy. I wrote about this trip with my hubby….
So many crazy things! Cycling home to my mother in laws house over the pennines springs to mind. It was after an easter camping trip. It snowed heavily as we started home over main roads. It was about 45 miles to cycle. But there was a steep hill to climb at the end. We were heading up about five miles of steep hill. Unfortunately the snow had other ideas. The road had been cleared until we got halfway up. Then we were faced with snow drifts and snowbanks. Even with our combined strength (we were on our tandem with a bike trailer carrying our gear) we realised it was crazy to go on. So a twenty mile detour back down the hill was the only solution.
The place where we stopped? A village called Turn!
What’s your favorite time of day?
I can’t post a picture because my WiFi is not working. But I can describe mid afternoon. On a sunny day, a gentle breeze. A patchwork of blue sky and fluffy white clouds. There may be a scent of rain after a passing shower. Ideally I would be looking out over a valley with a small stone built village at the bottom next to a stream. In my memory I can see large oak trees, ash trees, beech and weeping willows. There are blue or purple hills in the distance.
Birds are singing. Robins, blackbirds, skylarks. Looking for food for their broods of fledglings. Sounds of running water from the stream and ducks quacking as they glide across the local pond.
The UK can be overwhelmingly green in the spring and summer. Autumn isn’t always as colourful as fall in America. But what it lacks in reds and oranges is made up for with fruit ripening on blackberry bushes, raspberries and the mushrooms snf other fungi in the hedgerows. And I love a quiet winters afternoon with white snow.
The hedgehogs will be sleeping on autumn days, waiting for cool and misty evenings. Life can be calm in these dreamy days. It’s not all wonderful but I’m thinking of an idyllic day.
Transport; I wish I could still cycle, but I stopped a few years ago. Driving a car didn’t help, the more I used the car the less I used the bike. That was because I had a accident that damaged my bike so it came apart while I was riding it a year later. It took a year to get it fixed and in the meantime I got the car. I used that for work and to travel further with my hubby. I did keep cycling for a few years, bur as I say I gradually lost my fitness and confidence. I still have the bike, it’s in my house. It’s a classic, I hope one day someone else can use it.
Written for Esther Chiltons prompt “Travel”,
College piece of printing from about 1979? When I was learning to do engraving I think. I remember using a powder to give a texture, and having to paint it with a varnish to resist the acid bath but it would take a refresher course to remember how to do it now.
I found this photo of a tin cat knocking about in my Facebook memories recently. I think you were meant to put a tea light in it? I had it for a few years but I think it eventually rusted through. I guess a bird could nest in it although I never saw any inside it. A cat with a bird in its mouth isn’t a good idea anyway. I love it’s shocked or scared expression.
Mallaband-Brown