Urban sketching

Rooves, around the back of the Etruria Industrial Museum today. Drawn with felt pens. Took about an hour as I was trying to get the red and green moss that was growing on them. The corrugated iron or other metal was hard to capture. I tried hard to get the shading right in the bright sunshine. This was done with Stoke Urban Sketchers who met up for the day at the Industrial Museum site.

Poppy

This acrylic on canvas Poppy painting will be on sale in a shop in Stone, Staffordshire later in the week. I will try and get a few photos of our group display when everyone has hung their work.

Poppies come in lots of colours from large red, magenta, pink and white ones to smaller common poppies with red patals and black splodges in their centres. Also white and pink variations. Then there are the bright oranges of Californian poppies, orange and yellow Welsh poppies and blue, hymalayan poppies. Just gorgeous.

Blurred photo textured

Sometimes even blurred photos work. I used photodirector to add texture to this. Why? Because although it was blurred the colours were really interesting. The contrast of dark reds and greens and pale green and pink seemed to work really well. You can still tell what it is but in an abstract way. In a way its sketching with photography. I think it’s still art.

Poppy painting

Nine years since I painted this poppy with a white centre. I think that makes it look fresh and cool. Poppies have paper thin, crinkled petals. They look so delicate. I have lots of yellow, Welsh poppies in the garden, but not as many red ones that seem to need more sunlight. This was an acrylic on canvas and I think it sold quite quickly? But after almost a decade I still love it.

Heart

How many hearts did I draw? I can’t count them. They took a while to sketch. I’m not sure what I drew them for. I think I’d like to see more love and peace in the world. I would rather draw something like this in the situation the world is in at the moment. I know I can’t change things much, but I can say it. Life is difficult for so many, but the John Lennon song ‘Imagine’ , and also the song ‘Give Peace a Chance’ mean a lot to me. Maybe we should try and do that?

Black and white experiment

Another late night experiment. I added the pink and red this morning, when I could see their colours clearly. Drawing under electric light means colours are not as easily perceived. The yellow cast of the light made it hard to decide what colours were on the felt pens. Pinks and oranges looked very similar. Why hearts? Just because the shapes I had drawn suggested them and I wanted a soft contrast to the strong black and white shapes.

Tile rubbing

Not enough time to draw it, so I did a rubbing with a soft red pencil instead. You can see which areas are raised on it. A different version of mark making but it is interesting to vary how you produce images. This was at the Waiting Room gallery this morning. I think I might play with this image, duplicating it or adding more texture, even changing the hue of it.

Seedpod

I have grown this plant in my bathroom for years, it sometimes has tiny white flowers. I think it’s a maiden hair fern but I’m not sure. Then a month or so ago a small green seed capsule appeared on it. Now its turned from green to red. I wonder if it does contain seeds? I might try and discover what it really is.

I’ve just checked Google and its not a maiden hair fern. Does anyone out there know what it is? I need a plant checker on my phone… Not enough memory!