New paintings and regular art updates.
Last year I used to go to to life drawing class on Wednesday evenings. But the winter weather put me off and now I’ve lost the habit because I have been so busy lately. I would love to go back, but it depends on the rest of my life. I enjoy drawing and was going out with urban sketchers too. I need a big wall planner I think!
Anyway I hope you like this drawing of a musician playing his guitar.
X
I was just sitting in my local Chinese takeaway restaurant and decided to draw one of the fish they have swimming round in a large tank. When I had done it and the food was ready I showed my drawing to the lady behind the counter. I explained that it was a quick sketch as the fish kept swimming. It looks a bit worried but that’s just my drawing.
I asked how to say thank you as the food there is always lovely and the people in the restaurant said xie Xie and wrote it down next to the sketch. They are Mandarin speakers. I had asked if they were Cantonese. But they said no. The words are very similar in both languages but that the writing of Chinese script is the same in both languages (dialects). I think I remember reading that in a friends blog here, that even if the words are pronounced differently the script is the same.
Anyway it was a tasty supper and it’s nice to communicate even if it’s only with a few shared words.
Thinking about it the words I have learnt in other languages like Greek and Thai all tend to be the ones meaning please and thank you. I must have been bought up right!
Gallop, race, run, jump.
The horse runs free.
Soar over hedges and fences,
Fly across the hills.
White horse of chalk
Black horse of earth.
Where are your wings?
You fly so high.
Graceful and beautiful
Full of energy
Vibrant with power.
Fleeing from capture
Running from man
Escape to the hills
Straight as an arrow
Sharp as a beam of light,
Disappear into night.
Then the horse becomes the unicorn…
How many faces are in a crowd?
Do they look at me?
They are so solemn, so quiet, so still.
They could be real, they could be ghosts,
Conjured from the past.
The fist thump, bump of my heart
As I see your eyes, glinting
Back at me,
Deep in my dream, hundreds
Turn to thousands.
Heads multiply like cells
Mitosis and myosis?
I don’t know if you are real
Imagined
Ectoplasm
Ethereal
But you scare me.
I have only ever ridden a horse on two occasions. Once on holiday in the lake district and the first time at a nearby village where we were visiting a friend.
I used to cycle a lot, so the first ride (well sitting on a small horse being led on a halter round a feild) didn’t feel too scary, except when the horse lowered its head to crop the grass. I felt like I would slide down its neck. I still felt safe because it was under supervision.
The second time was a few years ago, before I got creaky and was still able to climb up onto a mounting block. First we had a little amble around a fenced in square of concrete. Then after being showed how to hold the reigns, we went for a short walk on some flat land between the rolling green hills of the south lake district (near Barrow I think).
I tried kicking and clicking my heels to get the horse to walk on, but it would only go when the other horses were moving. We gradually wended our way up an overgrown lane. High on either side with tall grasses and nettles. I regretted wearing ordinary shoes as some of the nettles were tall enough to sting my ankles!
Luckily the horse had thicker skin so as it was in the middle of the bunch it continued its stately waddling walk up the lane.
We finally got to a gate that led onto the main road, but thankfully we turned round and started off again. I realised we were heading slightly down hill and had the familiar vertiginous feeling as the horse dropped its head to nibble at some juicy flowers.
I was glad to dismount, which was a bit of a struggle! I was not used to riding horses and found it quite uncomfortable.
I’ve never been out on a horse again. I doubt I could climb aboard now. I still have much respect for horses, they are beautiful animals, and all the ones I have seen have been friendly. I really respect anyone who can horseride. That must be a wonderful skill. How they can stay on while the horse gallops along underneath them is beyond me.
X
Sad or sadness?
Down turned mouth and soulful eyes,
A flicker of tears moisten the lashes.
A sigh finds its way stifled by closed lips.
What made that face?
A drawing application,
Or my thoughts dragged from finger to screen.
A digital frown of sorrow….
A sigh finally escapes.
No I’m not feeling sad but I just thought I would try and draw emotions. I would like to do a series of simple pictures to express different feelings.
I was watching a programme about Joseph Wright, a famous painter from Derby who used chiarascuro to paint fantastic images, from blacksmiths at work to factories and landscapes. His first painting that was bought for the city of Derby. It was paid for by public donation. It was called the Alchemist. Later in his life he went on a grand tour of Europe. He painted the volcano Vesuvius as an explosion of red lava and dark boiling clouds of smoke and ash.
I tried to do a quick digital sketch of what I saw but it was too complex to represent so I made up my own idea. This was drawn in ArtRage oils and the metallic setting was on about 50%.
I used the drawing tool on 100% for the wider brush strokes and 50% and 25% for the thinner lines. I also had the phone in its side so the image is in landscape format.
I found these a few days ago. I think I did them in an app called sketcher free. Then edited in picsart and Instagram. There are so many ways of manipulating images today that would never have been possible even a few years ago without something like photoshop. But also having these images could stretch my painting skills. Trying to replicate this in paint would be a real challenge.
I’m not sure how I would do it but I think I would need to use a thick impasto of paint, even using something to press into the paint to create texture. You can get modelling media that thickens paint so you can almost sculpt it. Plus use metallic paint and use different shaped brushes.. Fun!
This little I inch square sketch is me trying too quickly draw three of the people at a rehearsal.
I just came in after 4ish hours rehearsing with two Choirs I am in, Clay Chorus and some of Loud Mouth women. We are accompanying a play that is on this week at the New Victoria theatre in Basford, Stoke-on-Trent.. Its called Bright Thing and is the 25th anniversary of its first performance, so no pressure x.
Atishoo .. Funny word
Onomatopoeiaic
Tissue … Chosen for its sound too?
Loud noise, close your eyes.
Watch your nose explode
Don’t worry you will be ok
It’s only a cold,
Not a small ghost!
Mallaband-Brown