New paintings and regular art updates.
I said I would post a picture of this finished painting of a blue crab when it had got to its new home. I tried to make it accurate but its quite hard to work out the fine details. I also brightened the blues and toned down the sandy background. I made the area behind the crab softer so that it goes backwards out of focus and added more detail to the foreground. It’s new owner is pleased with it I think.
Blue crab, I’m going to lighten the background of this acrylic on canvas. This was promised a year ago, but I was struggling with the complexity of it. I’ve overpainted some on the legs. It’s hard to work off a photo on my phone which is all I had to go on. And it’s very easy to get bits wrong. I didn’t draw it out or draw a grid, I always go for things freehand. I get bored with drawing out then having to paint out lines!
In and out
Out then in
Turn about
Sink or swim
Splash and shout
Try to float
water wings
Take a boat
Walk the sand
Paddle in water
Tide turns round
As the moon grows brighter.
Shells
Mussels
Remind me
Of the beach
The sea
Washed by waves
Crushed underfoot
One day you will be sand.
Alien rocket.? No just the Rhyl tower from our hotel room window. The colours change over a few minutes. It’s quite amazing seeing this structure as you go to bed!
I always draw seahorses when I go to a sandy beach. This was today’s drawing. I didn’t have anything other than a long flat razor clam shell to draw with.
I don’t know why I like doing this but it’s become a tradition for me. The next tide will wash it away but I know it was there, looking out to sea.
Rhyl is in the North of Wales and is an old favourite of Midlanders in England and people from the North West who want a seaside holiday.
There are holiday flats, caravans, and hotels. Lots of work is being done on the coastal defences. The sea view includes a windfarm of about 200 wind turbines. They are far enough out to be not too visible. You can see them in my drawing but not so much on the photo…
It’s been a long day. We went to the seaside to visit a relative but when we went to the sea it was fenced off! Apparently there is work being done on the sea defences to protect the coast from flooding.
That was really disappointing but we did visit a friendly ‘cat cafe’ which was lovely. The cats and kittens are being well looked after and it was very calming after a long drive.
Sunshine, a stick of rock, sandy beach, bucket and spade to make sandcastles. The cool feeling of wet sand as you wiggle your toes in it…or the hard ridges of sand rippled by shallow water. Memories of collected shells, long thin razor shells, cockle shells, mussels, spirals and smooth. So many types.
All these memories were made on various holidays and day trips to beaches, looking out over the sea, walking through seaweed that littered beaches, sand flies and sand hoppers.
Remembering catching various trains, some of them were steam trains. Watching the countryside fly by, a river running on one side of the train, then the other. The train running past the caravan site we stayed at.
Sunshine, rain, home made cooking in the caravan on a tiny stove. Sleeping on a bed made of boards and cushions where the table had stood. Gas mantles that hissed when mom lit the lights at night.
The tiny crab that escaped from my plastic bucket and spade and hid in my shoe… And it’s pincers snapping on my little toe!
Memories and the wish to make more. Missing the seaside.
Up the hill round the corner, down the other side, urban jungle, walking through terraced houses and past the church. Over into a housing estate… It might be good to go further, but I’m not allowed.
I still want to walk along a beach, water lapping the shore. The sound of water trickling through pebbles, sand and shells.
Buying sticks of rock, fish and chips, a drink of bitter shandy. Seagulls trying to steal your ice-cream.
I can dream!
Mallaband-Brown