New paintings and regular art updates.
I decided to do a bonus small painting to go with my bigger close up of a poppy. It’s called red poppy. It’s hard to come up with an original title. Lots of red used in these but I’ve tried to vary them and give that wrinkled feeling that poppies have.
Nasturtiums sprawling in the back yard. They are in our front hedge too. There are flowers six foot up in the air. You can tell its nasturtiums because of the shape of their leaves, sort of like umbrellas. The leaves, as you can see, are sometimes variegated. The colours vary from pale cream to deep red. I’ve never seen a blue or purple one? Maybe they will do some genetic modification to change that? At the end of summer they are something cheerful to look at.
The back yard looks very green now. The flowers are going and there is some wilting, but temperatures have stayed reasonable so there isn’t any frost damage yet. I suppose we will have to compost the plants if it gets really cold, but I’m one of those gardeners that keeps going as long as possible. Successes are the fushias which have woody stems, also the begonia that is in the shelter of the wall. A few lobelia remain and the nasturtiums hubby planted into the old brick wall are trailing everywhere!
Poppies and other flowers, I started painting this a few days ago and am trying to make progress. The flowers and tangle of vegetation is based on a photo I took at Trentham Gardens this summer. I hope it can be a meditative piece for a quiet room at the gallery which I have work in. I’m going to press on with this, it’s keeping my mind off things.
When the ink bleeds through the back of a sketch you can draw contours around the splodges of ink. I think the negative space it creates is quite interesting. You can vaguely tell its a still life (with Christmas cactus and flowers in a fish shaped glass bottle. The original felt pen drawing (sharpies) is about three years old.
Painted this today, only 5×5 inches. I might add more to the background. It’s meant to have droplets of water (like tears) on the petals. I’m also trying to emphasise the flower with a strong red but I don’t know if I should darken the greens. Still I have at least painted again.
Light under trees
Leaves fluttering in breeze
Grey blue above
Green grey below
the colour of doves
Space that is hollow
A cathedral of branches
Light into it lances
Startling nature
Human hands stature
Creating an arched void
Where you can hide.
Our alleyway is blocked off by this pile of rubbish that a builder has moved off his land. I have reported it to my council a few times over the last few weeks. I haven’t chased it up as much as I could because of my sisters death. I hope it will be moved soon as it is preventing my neighbours access to the back of their properties. I think it’s disgusting that someone can just tip this and not face some form of action. Apparently the flats he has been working on are due to be shown on a TV housing auction show! Perhaps if he is paid an appearance fee he can use it to pay to clear up his mess!
I’m trying to design a poppy painting that could also be used on a card. I’ve decided to have a poppy in the rain with drops of water on it. I wanted to signify remembrance and sadness without being too grim. I think I will paint this and see how it looks. X
Memory of a trip to the Southwest of England. We stopped off at a lovely sea cove, and on the cliffs above it there were bright red poppies. These were so cheering, waving in the breeze along with rough stalks of grass. I need to paint a picture of a poppy field, this might be an inspiration to work from.
Mallaband-Brown