New paintings and regular art updates.
I must go down to the sea again
Says the old poem.
And I know why
Beauty and violence
Gentle lapping wavelets
And white horses.
Frantic families
Lost sailors
Storms and waves
So high they reach up, up
To the sky.
Birds skim the surface
Grab fish in their beaks
Puffins and Skewers
Cormorants and Choughs
Ever changing
Sometimes boring
I must go there again.
Imagined waves. I still haven’t been anywhere near the beach, but I’m imagining a sea whipped up by a storm. Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt was waves. I’ve been to the seaside during storms, but not big ones. I think this could have done with more foam, but it’s hard to draw with a 6b pencil and black ink pen.
Along the pier
Walk out to Sea
Across the tide
My life to be?
An old man thinks
Of times gone by
Boyhood days
Of gulls and skies.
Of storms and fog
Waves rolling high.
A girl goes skipping
The length of the pier
In the arcades
Candy floss, she cheers.
A woman now
Looks back in time.
Worm eaten memories
Are lost in rhyme.
From young to old
Each person’s regrets
Are tied together
In their own nets.
Sea and sand
Cliffs and rock
All remembered
As the gulls flock.
Just to be awkward.. an Orca I drew at the sketchfu website. Simple tools so its a bit blurry. I’m not sure, but I think Orcas (killer whales) may eat Dolphins?
I know they are very intelligent. Often swim in pods (groups) and use various techniques to catch fish. one of their skills is to collaborate in a group to blow thousands of bubbles, their actions create a “bubble net” that enclose a school of fish and then they grab the fish that have been surrounded.
I also know thwy are Mammals and evolved on land before returning to the water, hence they have blow holes to breathe through the tops of their heads. Their front fins are formed adapted like paddles, but the bone structure is similar to that of a hand. I think I remember that they even have vestigial leg bones attached to their pelvises?
Orcas, Dolphins, and other whales are all part of a family of mammals called Cetaceans. They are some of the most intelligent animals on the planet, and humans have almost driven some of them to extinction or actually hunted some of them to extinction. I still think Whaling should be banned.
Coton in the ElmsThe village that is further from the sea than any other human settlement in the UK is Coton in the Elms, Derbyshire. One kilometre south-east is Church Flatts Farm, which is 113km (70 miles) from the nearest point on the coast, or 72km (45 miles) from the nearest tidal water.
This came up in conversation so I googled it. I’m not sure if anyone’s interested but I thought I would share it.
Dreamt the first two lines of this poem So I decided to go for it and see what emerged….
There’s a sullen red cloud on the horizon,
A ships in dock they say..
Will there be sailors in port today,
Or will it sail away?
Off to chase the Mackrel
Or to fish for Cod
Leaving on the high tide
Into the hands of God?
There’s red upon the horizon
Is it a sailors blood?
Staining the water with it
In a storm greater than the flood.
Will the sailors return again
Back to this quiet bay?
No man of weather can tell me.
But the portents are bad, they say.
Sky outside my door
High flying clouds
Dapple the air.
Blue as a sailors coat
White like foam on the sea.
The tides of air
Stir the skies ocean.
Liquid, fluid, rapid, vapours.
Witches brew
Or Wizards cauldron.
Dust motes,
Sun dogs
Fogs
Sky…..
‘La Ciel est Bleu’
My hubby says…
On the easle, I used a bit of gold paint in the background to give it a bit of sparkle. I hope the recipient will be happy with it. It’s acrylic on canvas, about A4 size. I did the background with very thin paint to start with and lots of water so the paint spread out and looks blotchy. Like a rough stone surface with bits of weed floating with it. I also tried to get the shadow underneath it to make the body stand up away from the ocean bottom.
X
Cold and grey, day
Not got much to say..
Yet,
Grey as it can get?
You bet.
Till tonight’s sunset?
Maybe
We will see
Unless the sun does shine
Fine.
Then happiness will be mine.
So clouds roll away please,
Give us warmth and ease
Some pleasure we can seize
Till we can visit seas
And oceans.
Give us notions
Of calm and peace
Please.
Hard to copy, this is a small acrylic on canvas, based on the Japanese artist Hokusai’s picture of a massive wave seemingly threatening mount Fuji and boats fighting the turmoil of the water.
How does he draw that wave? Finger like curves protrude from the water, white wavelets curve all in one direction. The water becomes a threatening mountain about to collapse. The height of the wave threatens not only the people in the boats, but it even dwarfs Mount Fuji itself.
When did he draw and paint it? He was a famous artist I think for a long time. We’re there other pictures and sea in his career? I think there were.
The image is so well recognised. Type in 🌊 wave on your phone and you get an icon which seems to symbolise Hokusai’s wave and mimics it.
How do you analyse such amazing work. How can you understand it. He makes me wish I could copy his style.
