New paintings and regular art updates.
Another #bandofsketchers prompt was Shoes. Another digital drawing, I then put it through the collage app on my phone to make it a pair not a single shoe. I liked trying to get some reflections into the drawing.
Now the neighbours hedge has been cut back I can see the sky better. Tonight it was overcast grey but then it glowed orange red. I took a few pictures but they didn’t show the colour I could see so I have adjusted the hue and saturation on the phone to see if I could match them, this is the best I could do.
This morning the last flower on the Gladioli stem had fallen onto the path. I think someone had knocked it off as they walked past. I picked it up and put it on my step because I liked it’s beauty against the old peeling paint. It will soon fade and wither so I’m glad I captured it before it’s gone.
Red and green begonia. The flowers were blooming in the pots at Dorothy Clive garden this weekend. I was amazed at how many had proliferated in numerous containers around the garden. There were other lovely plants but these were the most noticeable.
Painted last year from a photo of an autumn wood. I’m in another group of artists on Facebook that does weekly prompts. This week was #tree, #trees, #forest, #forests. What gripped my attention was the russet, orange and bronze leaves on the forest floor and following the contours of the deeply worn pathway through it. Some paler leaves are still clinging to the trees, and the distant foliage is pale blue to send it backwards (I might have used pale grey but I liked using the complimentary colour to the oranges.
I used to draw at a website called Sketchfu before it closed. It had simple tools to draw with, no complicated applets, and consequently it was open to a large number of people.
Eventually it became a massive site and the owners lost interest in it. I was a moderator and had to deal with a lot of problems over the years I was there. I won’t go into details but it included bullying and inappropriate language and messages. There were a few of us that were allowed to remove inappropriate content but it was hard work. (I also moderated another site but did not disclose my role). When someone draws the same rude or racist image over, and over again for hours, but you are there deleting them as they appear, they eventually get fed up and stop. But if you admit you are a moderator you get a lot of stick, so I kept quiet. At one stage I was working in a full time job and coming home and doing four or five hours moderating!
Anyway I loved creating digital drawings, including portraits. I loved doing challenges. Someone would post a photo and we had to try and copy it. I’ve just found some of my old pieces so I might post a few of them over the next few days.
Photo from a couple of weeks ago, pinky red leaves on this Acer (Japanese Maple) shine out with brightness on a dull day. I saw this in a churchyard and just had to take a picture of it. The green coloured chlorophyll has been absorbed back into the main part of the plant and xanthophyll carotanoids and antoxcyanines remain (spellings might be wrong).
Some countries have more colour changes than in the UK. I guess our species tend towards yellows, oranges and browns as opposed to reds. I’d love to see a really spectacular autumn (fall).
What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?
At 18 I voted blue (Conservative). That was how my family had always voted, we spoke about it, and I was supporting our first woman prime minister. How I regret it now!
After the election I moved out and started to learn more about the world around me, how people struggled and how the new prime minister was making things worse for people not better.
I went through several general and local elections over the decades but I never voted blue again. I had completely changed my mind. Sometimes I don’t like Labours policies, they can seem to be Tory lite, but I’ve never not voted for them. Sometimes they get into power. But for the last thirteen years Conservatives have been in power. They have had five prime ministers, some of which were not elected by the populace but by their fellow MPs. They make promises but they don’t keep them. Cancelling projects which were expensive and that have been massively over hyped. All blue policies…. From privatisation to selling peerages…
So I’m Red through and through. I think I always will be. The biggest change of mind and direction in my life.
What’s happening? She thought. A noise murmured in the night, voices whispering, almost below the level of hearing. Then… A tapping noise, but quietly, hidden.
In the morning, on the little footstool, a small pair of red shoes, deftly tacked together, leather and small nails and stitching. Where had they come from…?
That night she tried to stay awake, ears straining. She let her eyes get used to the dark. She saw, a tiny old man, an elf? sitting on the footstool. There was a shoe last in front of him. He was expertly turning blue leather around the last. In a few minutes a new left shoe was finished. It shone like sky blue. He laid it down and created a second shoe, righthanded, crystal blue as was the first.
The girl sat back, she was entranced, impressed by the skill of the tiny fairie. She fell asleep in wonderment and amazement. In the morning the blue shoes sat proudly on the footstool, a label pinned to them. ‘for Lucy, with love, we shall not visit again’. She never wore the shoes.
We just gathered some cherries off the ground because the rain and wind has knocked a lot off the tree. This is about a third of them that were too bruised, damaged or pecked. The rest have just been washed thoroughly in salty water and I’ve put them in the fridge to eat tomorrow. I will thoroughly rinse them again first.
The plan is to get a broom or a stick to try and pull some more down and collect them in an upturned umbrella. I hope the weather doesn’t intervene in the meantime! Praying the wind doesn’t whip up and blow them off. There’s still plenty left for the birds…
Mallaband-Brown