New paintings and regular art updates.
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.
I’m not quite sure what sort of lobster it is? Maybe a blue kneed one? Acrylic on canvas. Will try and finish it tomorrow.
I was talking to someone months ago and discussed painting a lobster. But this is just a small canvas, a bit of fun. Seeing if I can capture a crustacean in acrylics. It belongs to the same family as crabs and scorpions I think?
X
The small bathesphere was lowered over the side of the science vessel ‘Valour’.
Steph sat at the controls, watching the pressure guages and reporting every 100 meters they dropped into the abyss.
At 1 kilometer there was a brief pause to check all the systems again. Carbon Dioxide was at acceptable levels, the filters were working. Air was being pumped down at the right rate from the ship. Up top in the ship the mission room were happy to give her the go ahead to continue.
A few minutes later, and the pressure had increased massively on the hull. But it was built to withstand them. The bulbous glass windows were curved to take the external forces without buckling.
A shadow passed one of the windows, something gold and glittering… It came back, huge, fish shaped. A gaping mouth opening. The images on the bathesphere’s cameras were flickering with the reflections from the metallic looking fins and scales.
Steph shouted out in surprise ‘what the hell is it?’. But the ship didn’t hear her.
The rescue wasn’t successful. As they wound in the cable the scientists on the ship could tell that the weight on it was no longer there. Finally the severed ends of it were hauled over the stern. ‘lost at sea’ was the report that was published…..
Rhyl Air show, the red arrows. A lovely sky in August. Exciting to watch some expert pilots fly amazing planes in death defying aerobatics.
Standing on the beach, watching them swoop overhead, white horses on the sea. Puffing white clouds scudding overhead. Flat landscape, until you reach the inland hills.
Of course these are memories, not necessarily exact, but I remember, I remember……
The trees spread across the world, as man finally withered and died. Killed off in a last great mass extinction caused by humankind’s continuous destruction of the animal population and most of the plant world. Pestilence, fire, flooding and starvation had done their jobs.
All that was left were trees, rivers, marshes, seas and oceans.
The trees kept pumping out oxygen, the world was now habitable for any incomers, but there were none. Aliens may have admired our world, but they exist in civilisations too far away. None of them had things like warp drive. A nice idea, but not really feasible.
Nothing grew, except a soup of bacteria. One day that might evolve into the next great family of animals, insects, worms, critters. If man returned millions of years later he would not recognise the planet or its contents. Maybe the trees would remember….
