New paintings and regular art updates.
Two years ago I painted the mona lisa on zoom for a charity event, I did it over just a few hours. Other people did performances, I did this! Madness! Thank you Facebook for the memory.
It was actually sold off to raise money at the end of the event. It’s acrylic on canvas, and was a real challenge!
A peaceful place.
With singing birds
Aloft in the trees.
A shape of calm
Seated meditation
Floral and fluted
Music in mind
Not reality
Four legs stand firm
Support a bent back
Weeping in memory
Of one who has gone.
I don’t remember painting this but it must be several years old. I don’t know what I was thinking when I did it. I certainly wouldn’t do this now! It’s too blousy, but it’s got my characteristic patterns. Anyway it was discovered when someone was having a clear out of stuff so perhaps they were not that impressed either. I’m not sure if it’s on canvas or board and it could be when I was still painting in oils. I will have to see. I’d call it a sketch not fine art…..
Eight years ago I painted this. I based it on a broken terracotta wall plaque that I’d had on the wall outside but I think the frost split it. It sort of reminds me of the green man theme and I think I actually bought it in a green man shop in Pickering in Yorkshire….. It was an acrylic on canvas and I guess I must have sold it as I haven’t seen it for years? You can get inspiration from all sorts of places if you look.
So much can change when you paint! The initial acrylic sketch, then as I painted I realised the eye on the right was too far over, the nose too long, the mouth too big. Having the paint out the eye and restart was hard. I then realised her pupils were not lined up. I’ve refined the nose and tried to improve the shading. I’ve got to sort out the body and arms (her knee was up and in the way), I want to paint nice neat draping cloth instead of jeans maybe add a floral pattern to her top. Her hair is a 70’s perm, but I will work on that. Need a rest now. Three hours work… Thankfully someone reset my phone so it stays on longer, the screen was fading every minute!
I’m wrapped up in thought
Tied in knots
Fearful and hopeful
Maybe happy?
Trails of thoughts
Run along tracks
I need to slip off
Onto free land
Find my way out
Beyond the gravity
Of memory
Break those bonds
Clear my mind
Float into space….
I found this on my phone and once again remembered. Those thoughts came back again, sadness, guilt, loss. To lose a sister, it’s not right. When it’s a twin it might be worse. I don’t know. But as our birthday approaches, will I be OK? I somehow feel this should be both of us. I want to get to my next birthday, but the idea seems wrong. I will keep going but I’m not sure I will be happy on that day. And it’s not just me, it’s the rest of the family. I guess we will wait and see…. Sorry to post this but I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind.
Dragons on coffee pots, well one pot, but I was playing with pattern. It was my parents, part of a wedding present I think. It was left to one of my sisters and I took photos last year as part of my final major project for college. I’m not sure if it’s beautiful or ugly, it’s certainly interesting. When you play with images like this you have to choose a favourite. I will rotate the images four times to see which is the best aesthetically, but I do like this one.
Describe something you learned in high school.
I did go to Sixth form at school, but it wasn’t a separate high school. I think things have changed in the UK since I was there. I guess different places in the world run their school systems differently and now Sixth form colleges are often stand alone institutions.
We didn’t have computers when I was at school, they were just coming in when I left. So that’s another thing I didn’t learn! There were typing classes (which I didn’t do) and I think the typewriters were pretty old!
So what did I learn? I did A Levels. One of them was Art, and I loved it. I started to learn about subjects like Pop Art and French Impressionism and Surrealism. It was good to actually learn about the history of art as well as finding out about different techniques. I learned about Andy Warhol and Monet, Cezanne and Salvador Dali. I remember pictures of Campbell soup cans, haystacks and melting clocks. I didn’t learn about female artists though, that came later when I went to college. The Art course made me decide I wanted to do an Art degree, and here I am still being an Artist all these years later.
Describe one positive change you have made in your life.
It was a drastic decision, but I don’t regret it. Each time I thought I knew my job inside out the management changed things. In that sort of situation you could be doing the right thing one day and the wrong the next. That’s the problem with hierarchy, the top decides and the bottom has to implement rules even if they don’t make sense. And each time the goalposts move it’s not likely to be in your favour.
So I found myself out of work, but not regretting it. I had enough money to live on for a while so I set myself up as an artist. Of course I had grand ideas of sales and building a clientele, but at that stage I really didn’t know that my health would not be good. With that and the pandemic (no I haven’t had covid as yet) I found I really didn’t have a business. But I don’t care, I’m away from the humdrum, I’m not being made miserable by rules I don’t like and don’t want to follow. I have had more freedom to be myself than I ever had during the rest of my life. I guess I’m what they call semi retired. A hobbyist? I’d rather paint than do anything else.
Would I reverse the change? Never. I’ve only been back and seen my colleagues a couple of times. The past is the past, let it be!
Mallaband-Brown