New paintings and regular art updates.
I was feeling spiky
A bit annoyed today
Something like a cactus
On a hot summers day.
Then I thought of flowers
The way they emerge
Sometimes out of nowhere
When the cactus has a surge
Of growth when it’s ready
To make a new plant
It made me feel happier
My mood more valiant.
With my sister. We went outside looking for auroras. A lot of people living nearby had taken photos and posted them on Facebook. The sky just looked a bit cloudy to me, but a friend said she thought the sky just looked a bit odd until she took a long exposure. So I set my camera on night with a wide apature and it stacked pictures for 60 seconds. I shake too much so had to try and find a position to hold the camera still, hence the blurry shots. I ended up shoving my right hand against the door jamb and just pushing the button with my left, shaky hand. On the last one I caught greenish streaks. My sister took a couple of these. No real structure but proof you can see aurora even in the city with a long enough exposure! One off the bucket list!
I was out with my friend and wanted to take some photos of the birds in an aviary, but my phone camera was playing up. My friend sent me a few of her pictures. I like this photo she took of a pheasant? Mostly I like the composition, it reminds me of a Mondrian painting and although the bird is not square or oblong shaped the red black and white add a pop of interest in response to the more muted colours in the background.
Taken when we were having tea and scones at the Brampton museum and art gallery in Newcastle under Lyme a couple of weeks ago.
Last years tulips were beautiful. We had seven or eight in the pots outside our house, sadly this year I only had two. I haven’t got on top of gardening because of everything that’s been happening and I will regret not being able to keep up with the seasons. I’m going to try and make more of an effort, a bit at a time, give myself rests in between spells of gardening. It might take a while and I need to try and put the effort in
My friend took this photo for me as the camera on my phone keeps glitching. I’m part way through painting a green woman for someone and I want the background behind her to be trees.
There are silver birches in the grounds of the community centre where I attend our art group so we went out and I chose the trees I wanted pictures of. It helps to see the shapes of their trunks and branches instead of trying to imagine them. The details of the bark are fascinating and I hope to try and reproduce the patterns.
I’ll post a photo of the work in progress later but I want to tidy it up a bit first, it’s a bit like a mediaeval illustration at the moment, I need to make it more subtle.
I think there’s a bit of Pareidolia going on here as I can see a face in the tree bark.
Sitting in the dark watching TV, the cat decided to jump up on the back of the chair. So I put my camera in selfie mode. I don’t look too good but I couldn’t focus in on the cat easily. She looks like she’s a bit unsure about the whole caper!
I’m busy trying to sort out some paperwork today, but I’ll be back later. I should get some photos in the garden of cherry and pear blossom if I get time.
Is it me? Or does this peeling paint image remind you of the scream by Edvard Munch? Or even the screaming face mask from the horror film?
Two eyes with massive eyebrows, a tiny nose and a long deep mouth. I see faces everywhere, another example of Pareidolia, seeing faces or creatures in randomly placed shapes or patterns.
The window panes are solid, but the wood is old and the paint peeling. One of my paintings of Spode, I just had to paint it with the blue and white reflected sky. I put a photo of it onto the peeling paint group online, but they were a bit sniffy because it wasn’t actual peeling paint, but a painting of peeling paint. I was let off with a gentle warning to photograph the real thing, which is strange, because a photo is just another representation, and as we have seen on the news recently photos can be manipulated with filters (I’ll say no more!).
If you look closely you might see my fingers clutching my phone as I took the picture (bottom right hand window pane).
Feeling a bit down in the dumps so decided to post this, it’s a favourite X
A year ago
We had a sprinkling of snow
Like caster sugar
Dusted on cakes
Or a shake of flour
On a rolling pin and board.
Or icing sugar
On tasty mincepies
Just a soupcon or two
Of white, powdery, crystals
Not today
It was just wet
And grey…
Green moss spreads over tree roots, a grass seed must have blown in or washed there. It’s nestled in a small pocket of soil in the hollow of two roots. Good to see green when the world is mainly grey and brown.
We were on a walk on a dry day, but moisture from the previous days rain had enhanced the luminous colour of the moss, it was almost lime green in contrast to the darker grass. A real hint of the coming Spring.
I only took the photo because I joined a moss appreciation group on Facebook. Along with other groups, it makes you look differently and more closely at the world.
Mallaband-Brown